Ever found yourself craving a McDonald's hash brown late at night? If you live in Wollongong in New South Wales or its surrounds then you're in luck, as on July 1 Illawarra became the first region in Australia for Macca's to start serving all-day breakfast. Gold Coast residents will get their taste in August.
Meanwhile, McDonald's in the US has started selling lobster rolls in an effort to revive dwindling sales. It's also increasing its pre-cooked Quarter Pounder patty size by 6 per cent from four to to 4.25 ounces (local Quarter Pounders will continue to weigh four ounces, aka, a quarter of a pound or 113 grams).
The availability of McMuffins at midnight is the latest in a string of marketing manoeuvres from McDonald's Australia to open up its menu and cash in on the consumer love of customisation. Instead of introducing new items and expanding patties, McDonald's Australia seems to prefer making its current menu work harder.
The "Create Your Taste" digital kiosks (and potential staff cost reducers) launched in 2014 allow punters to design their own burger and combine classic McDonald's ingredients, hitherto kept separate. Beetroot and Mac Sauce between the same bun? Egads, man!
In June, McDonald's Australia Facebook page started encouraging customers to "hack" the menu with a series of items including "The Goliath" (a Big Mac with Quarter Pounder patties swapped for regular ones), "The Apple Smash" (an apple pie mixed into a McFlurry), and "The Brekkie Muffin" (not quite sure about this one but it seems to be a Bacon and Egg McMuffin with hash browns in place of the muffin).
Consumers have been customising McDonald's menus for decades without encouragement, ranging from "no gherkins please" to "make mine a pounder". The best thing about the all-day breakfast launch is that McDonald's greatest (in this author's opinion) hack - a cheeseburger made with Sausage McMuffin pattie - is now available outside of the witching-hour cut-off time of 10.30am.
"We are always listening and taking on feedback from our customers and all-day breakfast was one that people are always asking of us," McDonald's Australia chief marketing officer Mark Lollback says.
Is McDonald's Australia trying too hard to be "down with kids" here? Such initiatives feel a bit like a father trying to win his children's approval by letting them eat Barbecue Shapes for dinner. Doing something slightly devious feels cool but once an authority figure approves of that same activity, it loses a bit of spark.
I think it's fair to assume the local Macca's marketing arm knows what it's doing, though. Golden Arches sales figures have copped a small beating globally over the last financial year but performance in Australia remains strong. The US should be looking to Australia for inspiration instead of trialling lobster rolls.
In saying that, lobster roll mania continues to rise in Australia and it's not unreasonable to suggest we'll see imported crustacean on Macca's menus in the not-distant future, is it?
"There's certainly no plan to include lobster on the menu at the moment," a spokesperson for McDonald's Australia says. "But never say never."
