McDonald's innovation strategy for introducing healthier menu options

Individual Product Innovation Proposal Assume organization, familiar, made a strategic decision innovative. (Mcdonald's product line) Identify unknown problems unmet opportunities develop innovative strategy address .

McDonald's has lately decided to become more innovative by adding a healthier product line that includes fruit, salad and vegetables. It has not only added this new product line, but has consistently encouraged customers to purchase them, including by allowing them to add such products to value meals instead of the traditional fries

This paper aims to use the IBDM five-step roadmap to address the creation of an innovative business product, namely the new product line at McDonalds.

Assessing the situation

During the last years, McDonald's has been under considerable pressure from groups and individuals that argued that the products that the company sells are not healthy and encourage obesity. The arguments these groups used included the nature of the products (meat, fries, sweet products, Coca Cola) and some of the policies McDonald's had, such as the free refill and the large quantities.

This type of pressure created a negative PR for the company, especially during a period of time when obesity was a sensitive topic for the American public. McDonald's was accused of starting dependencies at young ages, of everything from sugars to carbohydrates, dependencies that then affected the individuals as they grew up and continued to consume the same type of products.

2. Identify and define problem/opportunity

The problem, as presented previously, had two dimensions: (1) the problem itself, namely the fact that the menu at McDonald's revolved, generally, around products such as fries or sweet products and (2) the bad press and PR that reflected this situation and that affected the company's image.

Despite the problem itself, this offered an important opportunity for the company. With a change in its menu and a proper PR campaign to publicize this change, McDonald's would appear as an innovator in the field of fast food, appealing to new potential customers, namely those interested in a healthy style of living. McDonald's could thus become representative for healthy living and healthy eating, just as previously, its image was associated with bad eating habits.

3. Creative concept development

There are two essential elements to be discussed here: the structure of the menu and the public relations campaign that would need to complete the entire concept development. The menu would need to include several components, such as vegetables, fruit and salad. The problem is that these new items on the menu should complement rather than replace altogether the existing dishes, which sell very well and, in many ways, have become the trademark for McDonald's.

The solution in this case is to have all of these on the menu, but give the customers the possibility of better choosing. For example, the fact that the value menus used to traditionally include fries and Coca Cola is flawed. Better and more diversified options could mean that the client should be able to choose a salad and a glass of milk or juice with the hamburger in the same value menu.

One of the potential problems in this case is the fact that Coca Cola and fries costs less than salad and juice or milk. As a consequence, McDonald's could either increase the price for such a healthier menu or it could reduce its profit margins. The opinion of this paper is that increasing the price is not a good option: giving the client an option to choose should mean giving him or her this option at the same price as the other one. As such, the conclusion is that, at least initially, McDonald's will need to accept the reduction of its profit margins.

The second part, as mentioned, is the public relations campaign. This should be closely coordinated with other parts of the company's PR strategy to successfully emphasize McDonald's shift towards a healthier menu, encouraging healthier living habits. As such, the launch of the new menu could be correlated with McDonald's support for different sporting activities, particularly those that involve children or young adults. Its commitment can be shown with the company's sponsorship of different sporting events at schools or in communities.

The campaign can combine regular media (both print and video) with a strong social media campaign over Facebook and other social networks. The focus of these campaigns should be on the new products, what these are, what they mean in terms of the company's strategy, what the company is planning to do in the future (namely continue its current approach by including new healthy products on the menu and promoting them to its clientele) etc.

5. Implementation, validation, and refinement

The implementation of the new product line should be done in a manner that is relevant for the PR campaign that has been previously described. This means that the new strategy should be strongly promoted in the company's messages and that events could be held at the different McDonald's locations, where the clients should receive free products from the new line, along with their order.

Future monitoring is important, so as to determine whether this addition of products and innovatory approach is valid. Monitoring can include financial figures, including revenues and the structure of sales, which would help determine whether the new products have a following or not. The potential drawback could be that McDonald's is preferred by people who don't necessarily have good eating habits and that the new products were not able to attract new consumers. The monitoring can be done over a period of 6 to 9 months, with a discussion after that to analyze whether the introduction of a new product line was actually successful for the business.