Many people say that a healthy breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the only problem is in today’s busy lifestyle many people don’t have time for breakfast. So, many people choose the next best thing, a greasy breakfast sandwich. Breakfast sandwiches are the 2nd most popular breakfast item in Canada, next to coffee.
This rather large market has been long dominated by McDonalds and their McMuffin line up. Two recent additions to this competition, Starbucks and more recently Tim Hortons, have greatly cut into McDonalds dominant market share.
With this added pressure McDonalds knew they had to do something, and came up with a new idea. The last addition to the Mcdonalds breakfast menu came in 2003, with the introduction of the McGriddle. In 2011 McDonalds decided to modify their breakfast line up, adding the option of substituting the English muffin “bun” on their McMuffins with a newer biscuit style “bun”.
To promote their new product McDonalds launched a TV commercial (see below) and other web and paper based ads. Another very effective method of promoting the new biscuits utilized by McDonalds, was on February 9 & 10 when select stores gave away free samples of the new product. We have seen McDonalds use this method before in late 2010 when they gave away free coffee.
The sampling method may cost McDonalds a lot up front but it is very beneficial in the long run. For example when McDonalds coffee was offered for free I would go there almost everyday, once the promotion was over I realized that I actually enjoy their coffee and now regularly purchase it. But some customers may not be instantly hooked so I would expect McDonalds to offer discount coupons as their next promotional step in the coming weeks.
