Day 257 - 06 Jun 96 - Page 49
1 the USA targets heavy users to encourage them to visit more
2 often, through advertising and so on. Is that the same for
3 the UK?
4 A. I am not an expert on the US market, but my
5 understanding is that the US market focuses and
6 concentrates upon what they call superheavy users because
7 they contribute such a large proportion of their business.
8 So, in order to kind of maintain business momentum any
9 activity they pursue has to work against the segment within
10 their user base that contributes the biggest proportion of
11 sales. Therefore, inherently they are targeting superheavy
12 users in order to make their business move along. But,
13 yes, it is our intention to encourage frequency of visit in
14 the UK market.
15
16 Checked to ^^ here.
17
18 Q. Right.
19 A. The word would be 'enable' rather than 'encourage',
20 I think.
21
22 Q. So, the advertising would be geared towards regular
23 customers and encouraging them to make more use of
24 McDonald's?
25 A. The prime role of advertising is, in my understanding,
26 as a reminder to aid to memory, once we find that one of
27 the main enablers of frequency visit is, in fact, more
28 restaurants and restaurant expansion. The combination of
29 advertising is an aid to memory and the ability to use or,
30 yes, use McDonald's, is what facilitates more frequency of
31 visit. It is the two things working together.
32
33 Q. But if you have a McDonald's, I mean, there is nothing
34 there to stop anyone using it, is there? It is not like
35 enabling in the sense of--
36 A. No, that is correct. But the advertising works also in
37 the context, particularly in our US market, of competitive
38 activity as well, and because a large proportion of visits
39 to informal eating out restaurants are impulse visits,
40 people do not plan them very much in advance. It is very
41 important for businesses operating in the sector to
42 maintain what we call "top of mind awareness", because "top
43 of mind awareness" means people might be more inclined to
44 use McDonald's rather than Burger King or, you know,
45 vice-versa. So, if Burger King are on TV more heavily than
46 McDonald's in one month, it may well be that people go to
47 Burger King first over McDonald's or vice-versa if it is
48 equally easy for them to use both outlets.
49
50 Q. Right. It is just this "enabling" phrase.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there any difference between -- you make
53 care to use the phrase "enable", but does it amount to
54 "encourage"?
55 A. I suppose, effectively, the role of advertising could
56 be taken to be that, yes.
57
58 Q. Yes. But when you said it is your intention to encourage
59 and then you said, or rather to enable frequency of visits
60 in the UK, you meant "to encourage", did you?
