McDonald’s is trying to engage the “mom” demographic with a "Moms’ Quality Correspondents" program that takes five "everyday moms" on behind-the-scenes field trips to explore the quality, safety and nutritional value of McDonald’s menu items, according to Mediapost.com.
The moms share what they learn with other moms and interested parties through online journals, photos, videos and regular Q&A sessions, featured at www.mcdonaldsmoms.com.
The MQC’s 2008 was launched last year. It explores the McDonald’s Innovation Center; visiting farm fields and processing supplier facilities for Chicken McNuggets and French fries; meeting with McDonald’s nutritionists, innovation and operations experts; and learning about the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
This week, the moms visited a potato supplier farm Washington (Lamb Weston) and met with the supplier’s research and development veep to learn about the new 0-gram TFA canola oil blend developed by McDonald’s and its suppliers for cooking fries.
Retailers focusing on moms is a point that Greg Parker, president of The Parker Cos. in Savannah, Ga., makes in a CSD feature story that appears in the upcoming October issue of CSD.
In the article “Driving Traffic With New Products,” CSD contributing editor Julie Crawshaw explores the innovative product sets and mixes today’s retailers – QSRs, c-stores and grocers – are using to attract more consumers. (Check out the entire article in the upcoming October CSD, which will also be available online.)
“We held a branding seminar several years ago and identified working mothers as the consumers we most want to focus on,” Parker told Crawshaw in the CSD article. “If you please the working mother, you please everyone. Women are the game-changers.”
More fittingly, Parker said that c-stores should be adopting some of the consumer and product approaches that competitors are using, since those same competitors are trying to steal c-store customers.
More than 4,000 mothers applied to be among the handful who were ultimately selected for McDonald’s MQC through a third-party national online recruitment process, mediapost.com reported, adding that McDonald’s said more than 12,000 users are currently following the group’s activities online.
