McDonalds Giving Out FREE Food Again
People love “FREE” Staff! Yesterday and today, McDonalds in Vancouver and Toronto have been giving out their new introduced Buttermilk Biscuit Breakfast sandwich for free. Comparing to last time when I was lining up for free coffee, it was way more people this time. Spending about 10 minutes lining up, I tried my first Biscuit sandwich today. In fact, a couple days earlier, they were promoting this as “Buy One Get One for Free”. “No wonder why they give it out for free,” my brother said. I thought about it and, once again, I related it to marketing!
-WHY?
Learning: in general, people are reluctant to change and they do not want to try the unknown. By doing this, people will have a chance to learn the new experience they have with McDonalds. Also, McDonalds is working on the “Law of Average”. At the end of the day, some people will like it and other people will still buy other products. One article mentions, “the strategy is well known to any good crack dealer: give people a free taste and soon they’ll be back.”
Organizational image: by promoting new innovation and free sandwich from different social media, potential consumers will automatically develop strong emotional attachment with McDonalds and their new products. Thus, customers will visit the sites more often in the future.
Overall, McDonalds has done a really decent job with promoting themselves as a great junk food restaurant. Nevertheless their marketing strategies are the essential factor toward their success. I am looking forward for their further creative innovation and cool marketing ideas.