Day 257 - 06 Jun 96 - Page 59


     
     1        view on how the customer saw us.
     2
     3   Q.   Then did you do anything as a result of that?
     4        A.  Yes, we did a lot as a result of this.
     5
     6   Q.   But this particular part?
     7        A.  This would not have been news to us in 1992.  I mean,
     8        this is an indication that -----
     9
    10   Q.   It would not have been news to you or use, did you say,
    11        sorry?
    12        A.  News to us.  I mean, it would have been an indication
    13        that we were broadly on strategy in being the UK's, you
    14        know, favourite family eating experience.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But I thought maybe that was part of why
    17        Ms. Steel asked the question she originally did.  Did you
    18        say you wanted to know the extent to which people were
    19        affected by kids pestering so far as McDonald's were
    20        concerned?  Was that one of the topics you wanted the
    21        researchers to look into?
    22        A.  No.  The primary purpose of this research is to assess
    23        McDonald's brand image in the customer's view.  Basically,
    24        what McDonald's means to the customer, where it sits in the
    25        customer's mind.  The research is not -- there is a comment
    26        made on that that is part of a summary of an overall view
    27        of usage.  But it certainly is not the purpose of the
    28        research.
    29
    30   MS. STEEL:   But, anyway, you said that that would not have come
    31        as news to you.  So that has, basically, been the standard
    32        situation for, I do not know, several years before this?
    33        A.  Yes.  I mean, at this point, that is broadly a positive
    34        from our perspective.  It is the kind of thing you just
    35        tick off as you go through.  It is like, "Well, that is OK"
    36        kind of thing.
    37
    38   Q.   Right.  Under "Service Imagery" -- actually, just before we
    39        leave that other section, the one just above the second
    40        pestering reference says, "Heavy users were more likely to
    41        choose McDonald's on occasions when they were especially
    42        hungry or want to eat late or alone".  Is that a general
    43        finding that heavy users, as well as coming in frequently,
    44        actually tend to eat quite a lot?
    45        A.  Yes, because they tend to be under 25 young male, yes.
    46        Back to what we saw in that previous piece of research in
    47        the user and behaviour study about Big Mac, it backs up the
    48        customer profile we see for heavy users and the other two
    49        pieces of research.
    50 
    51   Q.   OK.  If we can go back to "Service Imagery".  In the first 
    52        paragraph the fourth line says, "McDonald's staff were 
    53        described as 'always frantic' by 40 per cent of customers",
    54        and then, "but it was also rated best of all for lack of
    55        slow service and never having to queue."  Did that come as
    56        news to you, or was that something you really knew already
    57        anyway?
    58        A.  It is -- it was the first dawning that fast service can
    59        be a double-edged sword image wise.  But, quite simply, the
    60        way it would have been taken is this is an interpretation

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