McDonald’s has been introducing some of its international items at its American restaurants over the last calendar year. It started back in May with the introduction of Cheesy Bacon Fries (from Australia), the Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich (Canada), the Grand Extreme Bacon Burger (Spain), and the Stroopwafel McFlurry (Netherlands).
In recent weeks, the chain introduced a handful of new items at its Chicago global headquarters eatery. Sweet potato fries are one of those items.
And based on CivicScience research, America is practically begging the chain to add sweet potato fries to the menu.
At the most basic level, a whopping (Big Mac’ing?) 20% of Americans age 13+ say they would be “very likely” to try sweet potato fries at McDonald’s, and a full 44% are at least “somewhat likely.”
Predictably, nearly half of McDonald’s fans are into the idea of giving sweet potato fries a chance. Incredibly, nearly 40% of Americans who hold an unfavorable view of McDonald’s are at least somewhat likely to swing by to try them. That’s an unprecedented number; again, nearly 4 in 10 people who don’t like McDonald’s would still be more than likely to try the fries.
The desire for these McDonald’s-branded sweet potato fries also cuts across how people feel about the quality of the food in general at the fast food chain. Americans who think the quality of food is better, worse, or the same at McDonald’s over the past year are all more-or-less equal (over 50%) in their desire to try the fries.
But again – and echoing the above chart – 40% of Americans who rarely or never go to McDonald’s say they want to sample the hoped-for sweet potato goodness.
Not only would McDonald’s be wise to get these sweet potato fries to market toot suite, but they’d also be wise to serve them up all day. A remarkable 66% of Americans who are at least a little interested in buying premium coffee products from fast food restaurants say they are at least somewhat likely to go down the sweet potato fry lane.
Generationally speaking, Millennials are the group most likely to say they’d try the fries, Generation X the least likely. Overall there are very similar rates of interest across the ages.
Interestingly, women outpace men by 12% when asked if they’re likely to try the fries.
Clearly, there is massive interest in McDonald’s sweet potato fries. The most shocking numbers come from non-fans of the chain. To have 40% of people who don’t like the company being willing to fork over a few bucks to try the fries is mind-blowing. McDonald’s should be all over this.
