麦当劳无往不利的奥秘（下）

麦当劳的购买力

    以快餐卷系列产品为例，当时麦当劳的鸡柳销量刚刚进入平台期，开发快餐卷就已经提上了日程。随后，麦当劳的行政总厨、供应商和特许经销商云集公司总部，商讨如何提高香脆鸡块的销量。新产品的定位和价格需要由厨师、食品科学家、供应商、菜单管理团队和广告公司共同参与，之后，还要获得由150至200位消费者组成的焦点小组的认可。其后，新产品将在少数餐厅进行为期四到六周的试销，来确定是否需要在人员配备和设备方面进行调整。麦当劳是制作“小圆面包”的行家，而针对快餐卷中的玉米薄饼，菜单研发团队却要做大量的工作：采用何种包装？如何保证到顾客手中的面饼温度适中？面饼的软硬程度如何才算最佳？

    历经18个月的研究和测试，快餐卷终于在2006年上线，这是麦当劳上线速度最快的一款产品。麦当劳的营销策略在该产品上得到了最充分的体现：实施不同的价格机制，利用新闻公关策略赢得回头客。 快餐卷的成功让麦当劳意识到，快餐小吃市场潜力无限，而且喜欢餐间小吃的消费者越来越多，能够在正餐时间之外增加客流量。另外，快餐卷还带来一个额外的好处：产品研发团队根据快餐卷的配方，把玉米薄饼的制作方法用于开发早餐产品，最终推出了早餐玉米煎饼（McSkillet Burrito）。这两款产品采用同一种面饼，为厨房省去了不少工序。

    斯金纳和每个人一样喜欢开发新的拳头产品。但他也表示，麦当劳在现阶段不太可能产生“惊世之作”，因为据他判断，现今的增长主要依靠规模化经营与执行。这决定了公司的经营重点在于“抓店面”，并且，终将成为一项长期的策略。斯金纳还要求所有下属，出差期间一定要到当地的麦当劳门店进行实地考察。麦当劳食品供应商北方食品公司（North Side Foods）董事长罗比•霍夫曼和斯金纳是有30年交情的老朋友。他说每次和斯金纳一起出差，他总要把自己拉进附近的麦当劳，喝杯咖啡，聊上半个钟头——当然，他走到哪儿都忘不了带上备用的咖啡杯盖。

    斯金纳深知，餐厅是利润的源泉。总部的想法可以天马行空，但如果厨房的操作因此复杂化，那产品肯定行不通。然而，对于这种想法，财务高管们经常不买他的帐，斯金纳曾经对他们说：“你们要知道，数钱容易赚钱难。”麦当劳曾经计划推出美味三明治，但计划最终流产。原因何在？原来，在55秒至60秒之内，员工无法及时制作出这款三明治。斯金纳说道：“我们讲热情服务，讲与顾客建立友好的关系，但现代社会，速度为王。”光临麦当劳“得来速”餐厅的顾客可不是来和我们聊天的，他们可不想为一个火鸡三明治等上足足两分钟。

McDonald's buying power

    Take the snack wrap, which came about when restaurants started to see a plateau in sales volume of its Chicken Selects. McDonald's executive chef, suppliers, and franchisees got together at headquarters to figure out how to ramp up the turn of the crispy chicken strips. After chefs, food scientists, suppliers, and members of the menu-management team and advertising agency weighed in on how to define the product and pricing, the snack wrap had to pass muster with 150 to 200 consumers in focus groups. It then went into a four- to six-week operational test in a handful of restaurants to determine if changes needed to be made in crew positioning or equipment. McDonald's had mastered the bun, but with the snack wrap, the menu-development team had a lot of work to do operationally around tortillas: What was the right packaging? How do you get them at the right temperature for the customer? What's the right amount of flexibility in the tortilla?

    Snack wraps made it to market in 2006, 18 months after executives began discussing them. One of the fastest launches the company has ever had, it accomplished what McDonald's has increasingly tried to do: hit another price point on the menu and offer some food news that gives customers a reason to go back into its stores. The process also helped McDonald's realize the potential of the snacking market -- the growing segment that wants to nibble between meals -- and the chance to increase traffic between mealtimes. An added bonus: The product team then took the same formula for the snack wrap and applied its tortilla know-how at breakfast to create the McSkillet Burrito. Both products use the same tortilla, so the kitchen isn't further complicated with another ingredient.

    Skinner likes a new hit product as much as the next guy, but, he says, at this point in McDonald's history another breakout blockbuster is unlikely. Growth these days is about scaling and executing. Hence the operational zeal, which has evolved into a strategy that places a relentless focus on the stores. Whenever his people travel on business, he wants them checking out the local McDonald's. Robbie Hofmann, president of McDonald's supplier North Side Foods and a friend of Skinner's for 30 years, says that whenever they travel together, Skinner always coerces him into stopping for coffee at the nearest McDonald's, where he spends the next half hour chatting with the crew -- after he's secured one of his back-up lids for his drink, of course.

    Skinner knows the restaurants are the only place the cash register rings. Headquarters can cook up any idea it wants, but if it overly complicates the kitchen, the product won't fly. This doesn't always endear him to his finance executives, to whom he's been known to say, "I want to remind you that it's a lot harder to make money than it is to count it!" At one time the company floated the idea of putting deli sandwiches on the menu. The deal killer? The crew couldn't get it done in 55 to 60 seconds. "We talk about hospitality, we talk about friendly relationships, but we live in a world of speed today," Skinner says. McDonald's customers at the drive-through don't want to be chatted with, and they don't want to wait two minutes for a turkey sandwich.