Packaging innovation at McDonald's

Posted by Heather Holtsberg at 8:37 PM

In the December 3, 2008 issue of Businessweek.com, there is an article about packaging innovation from McDonald's. The article explains that McDonald's is attempting to create personalities for each of their products, and provide consumers with visual cues that remind them that McDonald's products are made from "real food." The full article can be seen here:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/

While I applaud McDonald's for striving to find solutions to make their packaging more environmentally-friendly, it seems as though this re-design is just change for the sake of change. In addition to rolling-out the new packaging to update the McDonald's brand and product line, "McDonald's is also trying to stay ahead of concerns over obesity" (Businessweek.com, 12/03/08). The McDonald's team believes this concept will satiate a global appetite for greater information about food products, though I'm not convinced this is a need-based driven innovation. Certainly, as US consumers are faced with a difficult economic environment, McDonald's might have been better off spending time on innovation in the area of promotions instead of refreshing the look and packaging of their products. Or, perhaps McDonald's could allocate some of its resources to addressing the nutritional composition of its products.

 

6 comments:

  1. Aric Rindfleisch said... December 9, 2008 at 9:17 AM

    It will be interesting to see what effect this initiative has on consumer behavior. Speaking of packaging, has anyone noticed that the package size of many consumer packaged goods has shrunk in recent months? For example, Wrigley's "5" gum seems to be in a much smaller package these days. Research has shown that most consumers are not very good at detecting these types of subtle changes, so this seems like an effective (but somewhat deception) means of passing on a price increase during a time of rising costs.  

  2. Sarah, Dave, Grace & Ellie said... December 9, 2008 at 9:41 AM

    This McDonald's innovation seems more for the critics than for their core consumers. I totally agree it's not a need-based innovation - from the perspective of regular diners. However, it seems similar to their initiative where they launched carrot sticks to supplement french fries. They hardly sell any carrot sticks, but analysts thought it was a good move and it got them plenty of publicity. So to me this is just another example of innovation that you say is targeted at your consumer, but is really meant in a broader sense to change the nodes of a different audience.  

  3. Xiaoyan Sun said... December 9, 2008 at 10:34 AM

    It looks to me that the purpose of McDonald's new packaging is similar to Pepsi's recently released new logo. It's more about brand building other than expecting to drive sales immediately.  

  4. Aric Rindfleisch said... December 10, 2008 at 8:41 AM
    This comment has been removed by the author.
  5. Aric Rindfleisch said... December 10, 2008 at 8:42 AM

    Dave & Susan--You both offer some interesting insights. Another good example of this type brand-building effort to deflect criticism is Wal-Mart's new sunshine logo. My guess is that this is an effort to alter Wal-Mart's doppelganger image as a environmentally-straining behemoth to a softer more sustainable image.  

  6. Elena Taylor said... December 15, 2008 at 12:38 PM

    Interesting comments.
    I agree with Dave that the innovation seems to be directed at McDonald's critics. The company has long been criticized for its products.
    Yet, I do not think this packaging change announcement gained as much publicity as some of McDonald's other stunts.
    It will be interesting to see whether this new packaging sparks any top-line growth for the company.  

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