SCAMPER model applied to notorious restaurant chain and fast food overlord, McDonalds.
We can posit that all wildly successful companies have used some variant of the SCAMPER method to streamline their business, up revenue and lower costs but very few have the radical success that the fast food giants McDonalds holds.
*In the history of their franchise and any company that needs to adapt to the times and demands of their customers while reducing costs, McDonalds has Substituted many hitherto common practices to make a dent, to modernize and streamline and increase productivity.
*Most restaurants had waiters, which ultimately served as a middle man between the food and it’s destination. This spawned the birth of the ‘self-serve’ revolution, streamlining their services and ensuring a continuous, escalating rate of fiscal turnover.
COMBINE: It goes without saying that over the years McDonalds has had it’s share of marketing, production and service combinations made to better the overall productivity, image and target demographic of their restaurant.
*As such McDonalds has combined the general labor of a standard kitchen and that of an assembly line, enabling that each process of the chain of production is done as quickly as possible and with the highest degree of competency.
*In addition, McDonalds ensnared the attention of the youth population by offering something other than the average, small childrens’ menu – they combined the specialty meal with an incentive: a toy. To further their relationship and image with their now biggest demographic, children, they employed yet another tactic to ensnare their attention, a mascot for their restaurant and his band of friends, Ronald McDonald.
*McDonald has also combined their image marketing with one of philanthropy, The Ronald McDonald house, whose focus is the welfare of children and their families.
McDonalds, like any other company, must adapt themselves to the times to stay relevant. Whether it be modernization (wifi accessibility), rotating menu changes, of the moment toys and marketing, McDonalds generally is a front-runner.
*More specifically, when concerns over the content of their menus spurred debates about child obesity, trans fats and calorie counts, McDonalds was one of the first fast food chains to offer its customers a Nutritional Information booklet to their customers, which included calories, fats, carbohydrates and all other nutritional information relevant to their products.
*In addition, when the vegetarian population were made aware that McDonalds used beef tallow to fry their french fries, McDonalds changed the recipe to be primarily Vegtable oils. (There is some controversy among Vegans however because the Beef flavoring used in its stead, has milk derivatives).
McDonalds has done alot to magnify or multiply themselves over the years, with over 36, 000 restaurants and a socio-cultural presence like no other. Few companies outside Coca-Cola have been made synonymous with ‘America’ more than McDonalds. The restaurant has marketed itself in the extreme to convey the culture, value systems and work ethos that defines ‘what it is to be american’, whether it is factual or not.
*McDonalds decided to market the capital M of the McDonalds name as ‘The Golden Arches’, denoting a place of respite or something even holy in nature.
*McDonalds has completely modified the rate of service from their initial 15-20 minutes to a goal serving time of under 1 minute.
*McDonalds has tried to modify their menu recently to include more ‘healthy’ options. While this was heralded as a positive step for the company, statistics show that sales have dropped signifigantly and many McDonalds have had to close down, due directly some feel to this change in focus.
McDonalds, as per their marketing, is more than a restaurant. It is a playground (some hub McDonalds have massive child friendly jungle gyms and ballrooms), a charity base for Ronald McDonald House, individual franchises give out scholarships, and others even have their own local sports team.
Would McDonalds continue to have world domination over the fast food industry is they had remained true to their initial business model of their inception, a standard BBQ restaurant? While the McRib is their most popular limited edition burger, I still feel McDonalds attempts to re-invent themselves to maintain relevance, being the ever changing Madonna of the fast food forum, has kept them afloat.
As a rule, McDonalds reversed the nature of the service/customer relationship by, unlike other restaurants during its inception, were expected to pay before one receives the meal. While that has become commonplace today, it still serves as a model for both new and old fast-food restaurants to streamline productivity.
Hopefully as stated above, McDonalds will Reverse their current business model of pseudo-healthy eating and rather focus on their target demographic and their desires as opposed to attempting to be something other than they are. Afterall, McDonalds is the the self appointed holy grail makers of burgers and golden french fries, why would anyone go there for a bloody salad?