Reporter | Liu Yujing
Edit | Zan Huifang
2019 marks the 40th anniversary of McDonald's Happy Meal. This package, which is mainly for children and comes with free random toys, officially landed in the Chinese market with the opening of the first McDonald's in China in 1990, and has a place in the childhood memories of many Chinese consumers.
Today, McDonald's announced at the fourth "Full Table of McDonald's" that it will officially upgrade the Happy Meal in the Chinese market: from the original three-piece set to a four-piece set, including a staple food (such as a hamburger), a snack (Fries or corn cup), a vegetable and fruit, a drink and a free toy.
This means that the choice and overall proportion of vegetables and fruits in happy children's meals are higher, and the ratio of meals is more balanced.
According to Zhang Jiayin, CEO of McDonald's China, the cost of upgrading the four-piece set has increased, and the pricing is borne by McDonald's and consumers, so the price of the package has been raised by 2 yuan, and the toy is still free.
McDonald's All Seats is an event that McDonald's has been running since 2016, where the brand will design a delicate dish with the same ingredients from McDonald's, invite people including consumers to the banquet, and release some product and strategy upgrades.
For example, the "Cabbage Dance" on this year's menu uses the same purple cabbage and carrots from the McDonald's fresh vegetable cup, while the beef in the main dish "Red and Yellow Bumper" is the same as the McDonald's Angus Beef Fort.
The upgrade of Happy Paradise Meal is closely related to China's local needs. The addition of a children's fish steak in the menu is a local innovation in China; some overseas markets do not have a corn cup option in the Happy Paradise meal, which was also added earlier to take into account the eating habits of Chinese children.
Just as FMCG companies are catering to consumers who are increasingly concerned about health by launching new products that reduce sugar and fat, the menu upgrade based on the dietary health needs of Chinese consumers is also what McDonald's has been doing in recent years.
Right now, you can see options for a 500 kcal set menu in the McDonald's app; more fruits and vegetables for kids' meals; and salt reductions for whole foods — like McDonald's fries that have lost about 20 percent salt over the past 8 years, and switched to healthier sunflower canola oil.
In fact, the upgrade concept of "less salt, better oil, more fruits and vegetables and fruits and grains" was proposed from the wheat and wheat table in 2016. At that time, the brand upgraded the overall menu, adding wheat porridge, vegetable and fruit cups and bagged apple slices, etc.; this year, this upgrade has become a happy children's meal.
In 2018, McDonald's China Happy Meal sold more than 27 million copies, but according to Zhang Jiayin, happy meals accounted for a small proportion of McDonald's overall revenue. "The ultimate goal of selling Happy Paradise meals has not been profit," Zhang Jiayin said, "in China, children under the age of 9 are 7% of the total population, although not a large amount, but it involves the cultivation of future consumer habits." ”
The children's market is McDonald's core market, and the importance of capturing future consumers is self-evident. Zhang Jiayin revealed that in addition to the happy paradise meal, McDonald's is also upgrading the hardware and software of the children's playground area of some restaurants, adding interactive play methods such as digital projection, and the pattern of ceiling projection to the ground allows children to run and play freely.
The logic behind this is that marketing to children can affect their lifetime consumption, and children are extremely sensitive to brands. Research by Allan Kanner, a child psychologist in Berkeley, California, shows that 18-month-old babies know that there are delicious "M" signs in the red and yellow color scheme, and the average 3-year-old American child can recognize 100 brands. In the Chinese market, too, when children consume McDonald's from an early age and gradually develop an emotional connection with it, their growing consumption habits will also have McDonald's.
Also today McDonald's also announced another important collaboration, related to Disney.
McDonald's has signed a 7-year partnership with Disney, and from 2019 to 2025, it will launch a happy meal themed around Disney movies every year. The cooperation was first announced in the U.S. market, the second country to start is China, and it will also land in more markets around the world.
This isn't McDonald's first collaboration with Disney. The two companies had worked together earlier, but have since been interrupted for a while. However, the influence of Disney's various IPs in the minds of different ages can attract more consumers who come for happy meals. McDonald's hasn't revealed more details about its partnership with Disney, but they mentioned the impact of Shanghai Disneyland, and the future cooperation between the two sides may not be limited to Happy Park Itself.