McDonald's 'McSpicy' Marketing Campaign in India

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"McDonald's India has made the range available and customized to suit the Indian palate. The new campaign 'How spicy is McSpicy' takes the experience of 'I'm lovin' it' a step further."

-Rameet Arora (Arora), Senior Director, Marketing, McDonald's India in April 2011.

McDonald's India launched a new spicy range of products called the 'McSpicy range' in the Indian market in March 2011. The new McSpicy products were the biggest ever product range introduction by McDonald's after it entered the Indian market in 1996. To promote the new menu, McDonald's launched a new advertising campaign called ‘How Spicy is McSpicy?' The campaign's main aim was to project McDonald's as a youthful brand focused on meeting the tastes and preferences of young customers. The company undertook a ten-day prelaunch campaign before the introduction of the new campaign to create a buzz around the new spicy range of products. Customers who visited the McDonald’s stores were given visiting card-sized slips with an image of burger buns with a QR code1 in between them.

The QR code directed the customers to a viral² developed for the campaign called 'The Great Spicy Speculation'. The prelaunch campaign was a success, reaching 250,000 people and getting 10,000 page views on YouTube³. One of the significant differences of the new campaign when compared to the earlier campaigns by McDonald's was that the company used social media like social networking sites and messenger services extensively for it.

After the success of the prelaunch campaign, McDonald's launched the original campaign through a mixture of in store, television, radio, outdoor, and online promotions. McDonald's used several innovations in the field of technology to reach its targeted customer base. Kiosks were set up in the McDonald's stores where the consumers could choose their option from: Too Hot, Too cold, or Just Right? LED⁴ hoardings were used for the campaign as part of the outdoor promotions. With the internet being the medium of choice of youth, virals regarding the campaign were posted on several websites to reach the target base. Though McDonald's claimed that the prelaunch campaign was successful, the response from the customers to the new campaign was mixed. While some customers said that the new menu and the advertising campaign were in tune with the tastes and preferences of the Indian customers, others opined that there was a lot of disconnect between the new McSpciy menu and the core message of the campaign.

Background Note - Next Page >>

1] The QR code refers to the Quick Response code. It is a specific matrix barcode which can be read by dedicated QR barcode readers and mobile phones with a camera.
2] Virals are small, funny videos promoting products or services on the Internet.
3] YouTube si a video sharing website owned by Google.
4] LED stands for light-emitting diode. It is a semiconductor light source and is used as indicator lamps in many devices. It is also used for many other lighting purposes.

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