Weird title for this post, but a lot of really strong coffee is in me right now, so weird things roll around in my head.
I just read on Fast Company's blog that McDonald's is considering offering their breakfast menu all day. The driving reason is...surprise...Starbucks. McDonald's makes their money selling breakfast and they've spent time and money to upgrade their offerings, and most importantly, their coffee. A friend of mine swears by it, so I tried it one morning and...surprise...it wasn't bad, but it wasn't Starbucks either.
While McDonald's discovery that breakfast is where they have an edge and focusing their resources on making it better is good, offering it all day may actually be a bad thing. Here's what Jim Gilmore says on the FC blog:
Maybe the move to all-the-time breakfast will prove to be some help to McDonald's. Who's to know? I do know this, however: the move to a 24/7 world has a homogenizing effect on the perception of value by consumers. In retail, the very processes by which companies grow their businesses -- establishing more and more outlets with more and more hours open -- are the very same processes that kill brand, as Sameness creeps in.
To be available all the time destroys any sense of being exceptional, turning one's offerings into mere utilities. I truly believe that not being available at every single moment may actually endear oneself to customers. Such accounts, for example, in the real appeal of Chick-fil-A being closed on Sundays. It's authentic in its walking away from eeking out every last nickel from the enterprise.
Sounds like a narrow the focus argument to me! Could it be that by not being "open" 24/7 or seemingly every night of the week that the perceived value and authenticity of a church increases?
I love Mikey D's breakfast so I am down with it!!!
Posted by: Gary Lamb | September 27, 2006 at 11:14 AM