Day 257 - 06 Jun 96 - Page 61
1
2 Q. What, for the better?
3 A. For the better.
4
5 Q. So, if there is a criticism here in 1992, or something
6 which might be taken to be a criticism, that would probably
7 have been the same in 1990, would it, just speaking in
8 general terms?
9 A. In general terms probably no, and we experienced a
10 fairly significant flattening off of our sales growth
11 between 1989 and 1992 as a result of the recession. But,
12 as we discovered from this research, as a result of less
13 than satisfaction on behalf of our customers there were
14 some aspects of our restaurant operation -----
15
16 Q. I am sorry, I may not have made myself clear. In so far as
17 there was something here discovered in 1992, whether or not
18 it came as news to you, for instance, the possible
19 two-edged effect of McDonald's staff appearing frantic or
20 food thought to be high in calories and not rated well as
21 being healthy and so on, in so far as those might be
22 thought to be adverse findings in 1992 would you have
23 thought that the same things would have been found in 1990
24 if the survey had been done then?
25 A. With these specific issues, yes. I would imagine that
26 in these various areas very little would have changed. But
27 this was not part of the research we acted upon. These are
28 kind of background findings. It is not the main purpose of
29 the research in this particular area. It comes on to that
30 later in the document.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: Just on page 7, the "brand personality", that was
33 what you were talking about which was the main body of this
34 research, was it?
35 A. That is correct, yes.
36
37 Q. About how to put over an image of what the Company was
38 standing for in general, what it symbolised; yes?
39 A. The research summarises the customers' current in 1992
40 understanding of what that personality was, yes.
41
42 Q. Right. It says, "McDonald's is generally described as
43 having a happy, friendly personality". This is,
44 presumably, the purpose of the ronald mcdonald character to
45 give an image to the company?
46 A. Not really. ronald mcdonald does not relate to this.
47 Brand image is much wider than that. The concept of
48 product as brand is that branding works in its wider sense
49 by creating a personality for the business. So, to do
50 brand research you ask your customer to talk about the
51 brand in the terminology of different things.
52
53 So, for instance, a typical way of doing it is to say, "If
54 you could personify McDonald's as one person" and they
55 walked into the room, "Mr. Customer, what kind of person
56 would Mr. McDonald' be?", and they would go through and say
57 the kind of attributes they would have; or they would also
58 say, "If you were present in a McDonald's, how do you
59 feel? How does McDonald's make you feel? How does Burger
60 King make you feel?" The purpose of the research is kind
