PSYCHOLOGY & CUSTOMER ATTRACTION
McDonald’sBasic human senses:
McDonald’s design of restaurant interior is aimed to fit the concept of a local community center where young adults meet and hang out. Restaurant interior design is not standardized throughout the world though. Each joint has its own individual design which follows the general concept of the company. Since 2010 all the plastic is replaced with brick and wood to create an atmosphere of naturalness which is supposed to be transferred also on their food. Emblematic through most of brand’s history bright red and yellow colors are today replaced by less aggressive and tiring terra cotta, sage green and olive.
This color scheme is also created to support the general soothing feeling of simplicity and naturalness but at the same time modernity and cleanliness.When you approach the deck you hear the intense noise from the kitchen. Along with overall complicated look of kitchen equipment and people swooping around in hurry it all makes an impression of a place where everybody works very hard to satisfy your needs.Music of a major key and of certain level of loudness is always there. Its purpose is to decrease tour focus of attention so you would become more susceptible to influence of advertisements and restaurant staff and in that way spend more money even though you had no such intention initially.
McDonald’s souvenirs are distributed through special offerings called “Happy Meal” and are oriented on children. These offerings contain one sandwich, one small pack of French fries and a thematic toy of a current season. Usually, the thematic of toys matches the current animation premiere in the cinemas so children easily recognize the characters they already got used to see everywhere at this time. Such move, despite being oriented on children exclusively, attracts much more customers as parents who accompany children to the restaurant always order something for themselves and, in most of cases, the sum of the parents’ order significantly exceeds the price of a “Happy Meal” which was supposed to be a primary reason of visiting a restaurant.
Promotion and/or Special Offers:
McDonald’s has a practice of introducing monthly unique offering of new burgers that are available only for only several weeks and do not become a part of a regular menu. For instance, McDonald’s may announce “The Italian weeks”. For the next 4-5 weeks customers will be offered to taste the limited edition burgers that contain some typically Italian ingredients such as tomatoes, basil and others.
Tricking and playing with your mind:
Offering to order a “McMenu” option instead of just burger or fries. It contains a burger, a middle-sized pack of French fries and middle-sized soda cup with the cost reduced by 20% comparing it to the separate prices of all items.Offering to order a “Supersize” version of a meal, which cost just slightly more than a regular offer.Offering a customer to make an additional purchase to the order. Restaurant worker is obligated by the rules of a company to suggest you to purchase a pie to your coffee, …
