Way back in April of 2013, we surveyed U.S. consumers and found that 33% of them would be more likely to eat at McDonald’s if the company served breakfast all day.
Almost two-and-a-half years later (clearly no thanks to us), McDonald’s did in fact unveil all-day breakfast and saw significant increases in sales. Research from the brilliant people at the NPD Group found that, in the weeks following the launch of all-day breakfast, 33% of McDonald’s customers were people who hadn’t visited the restaurant in the month prior to the launch. In other words, it was exactly the same percentage of people who told us thirty months earlier they would be more likely to go.
Fast-forward to May of 2017. McDonald’s made perhaps its highest-profile move since all-day breakfast, introducing three premium sandwich options, backed by an aggressive marketing campaign. Immediately, we put a poll question into the field, originally intended to see which of the three “Signature Crafted” sandwiches would be most popular. Here were the results:
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First, check out the rankings. The Sweet BBQ Bacon sandwich wins by a decent margin, followed by the Maple Bacon Dijon sandwich, which beat out the Pico de Guacamole sandwich by a nose. As an aside, you don’t need to be a data scientist to know that bacon wins. Always.
When we looked at the demographics, the Pico sandwich moved into a tie for the lead among women and parents (which means it should sell well in tandem with Happy Meals for their kids). The Maple Bacon Dijon sandwich rose in the rankings among Gen Xers and people in rural areas.
Okay, maybe that’s interesting. But here’s what I found very interesting: Notice what you get when you add the percentage of each sandwich and the percentage of people who said they would try all three. 33%!
We often forget how big McDonald’s is. It’s estimated that nearly 50% of Americans eat at McDonald’s in a given month, more than double that of the next largest burger chain, Burger King. When a full 1/3 of Americans say they intend to try one or more of the Signature Crafted sandwiches, it’s a big deal. Perhaps they won’t bring in as many new customers as the all-day breakfast push – a lot of these purchases may simply take away from other McDonald’s items. But it’s safe to assume that a large number of people will visit the Golden Arches just to try the new sandwiches.
Don’t be surprised to see a big jump in McDonald’s sales whenever the next official numbers are reported. These Signature Crafted sandwiches have the look (and possibly the taste) of big winners.
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