McDonald's McSpicy: Selling spice in the land of spices

Warc Prize for Asian Strategy

Entrant, 2012

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McDonald's McSpicy: Selling spice in the land of spices

Warc Prize for Asian Strategy
Entrant, 2012

McDonald's McSpicy: Selling spice in the land of spices

Kanika Gupta, Aditi Patwardhan and Gaurav Soni
Campaign details
Brand owner: McDonald's
Brand: McDonald's McSpicy range
Agency: Leo Burnett (Mumbai)
Country: India
Channels used: Outdoor, out-of-home, Point-of-purchase, in-store media, Television
Media budget: 3 - 5 million
Executive summary
McDonald's was launching its iconic international McSpicy range in India. But how could it get its customers to pay Rs. 80 for
this premium product when they could have four of their beloved value burgers (McAloo Tikki) for the same price instead?
Moreover, how could they hope to sell a spicy product when consumers had for ever associated McDonald's with bland
cuisine?
To sell a spicy product in the land of spices, the agency tapped into the insight that spice is subjective, meaning that for any
one spicy proposition there would be a hundred different reactions. Because of the amount of spice Indians typically use in
their cooking, every Indian is a de facto 'spice expert' and each one would have their own perspective of how spicy the
McSpicy really is.
So instead of selling spiciness, how about instead asking, 'How spicy is McSpicy?' TV and outdoor built curiosity, while instore
and retail-tainment drove trial and engagement.
The campaign resulted in 231% achievement of the sales target set and a 12% growth in footfall, adding new consumers to
McDonald's existing base.
Market background and business objectives
Marketing Challenge
When value becomes synonymous with your brand

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McDonald's globally lives by the brand essence of 'for ever young', one that should have resonated strongly in the youngest
country in the world, India. However, in the early part of the 2000s, McDonald's India was facing a massive challenge the
teens that should have gravitated to the like-minded brand shied away because they thought it was international and hence
too 'premium' or 'expensive'. Accordingly, the Happy Price Menu (HPM) was launched in 2004, wherein anyone, even with only
Rs 20 (US$0.40) in their pockets, could come in and enjoy a burger. Consistent communication of this changed teens'
perceptions of McDonald's as far as affordability was concerned, and the brand soon became synonymous with great value.
How do you get people to buy into a premium product?
But the same teens for whom the HPM was launched back in 2004 have now grown up to become young working
professionals, with more money in their pockets than just Rs 20. So when McDonald's decided to launch its iconic international
McSpicy menu an international range of spicy burgers and wraps in chicken and paneer (cottage cheese) variants, starting
at Rs 80 for a single burger up to Rs 160 for a meal, they thought they had a readymade target audience who would snap up
the new offering without a care in the world.
But the flipside of having India's most loved value menu was that there was hardly any real traction when it came to sales or
even the intention to purchase the more premium menu treats. McDonald's was so strongly entrenched on the value premise
that the target young audience could not justify buying one McSpicy burger for the price of the four Chicken McGrill burgers
that they had grown to love.
The answer lay in not 'breaking' value but simply 'elevating' it, upgrading the connotation of value from Rs 20 to Rs 80 for an
entire generation that has grown up on the former.
Objective: Advertising had to drive trial of the new McSpicy range during the month of launch.
Insight and strategic thinking
Target Audience
We defined 22- to 27-year-old YANKs (Young Adults, No Kids) as our core target audience for the McSpicy range. They typify
the 'achiever' mindset that is so often used in conjunction with young India with a 'work hard, party harder' attitude, they
believe in enjoying the spoils of their labour since they feel they have earned it.
In addition to their disposable income and willingness to spend on themselves, they also have a high propensity to eat out, as
a function of both their hectic schedules and the need for a break from them. And unlike the previous generation which is wary
of new cuisines, they love experimenting and are always on the look-out for the next new food. Simply put, they are the ideal
target audience for a premium burger, with a combination of all three key ingredients disposable income, willingness to
spend and the curiosity to try something new.
Strategic Insight
Selling spice in the land of spices
The youngest country, an achiever population, the next big thing waiting to happen, India shiningIndia has been described
with many terms all over the world, recent epithets coined as a result of a dynamic economy and a skilled workforce. But going
back through the sands of time, perhaps one of the oldest associations with India has been that of the 'land of spices'. Spices
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have been and continue to be our gift to the world and there is any amount of proof for the same from the East India
Company to the number of curry shops all around the world to the Naga Bhut Jolokia, the natively grown former hottest chilli in
the world (401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce!) How then does McDonald's, renowned for its typically bland cuisine, go
about selling a McSpicy burger in the land that gave birth to spice?
A single point 'proposition' would not work
There are over 45 cuisines that make up the umbrella term of 'Indian food', with differences in ingredients, methods of
preparation, textures, colours etc. However, the one thing that is common across all these cuisines is the use of spice. We are
a nation that has been brought up on spices all our lives, irrespective of which state or territory we come from, making all of us
de facto 'spice experts' in our own right. Indians would never respond to the same spice proposition uniformly. This
unpredictability stems from different customers having completely different thresholds for spiciness depending on the regional
palate and their normal cuisine. So how could we sell the same spice proposition to a chilli powder-loving Gulti, a chat
masala-slurping Punjabi and a lal mirch-loving Kashmiri?
We hit upon the insight that the taste of 'spicy' is thus unique to every individual; no two individuals would have the same
experience/opinion on spice even if they were sharing a plate! The differing 'spice quotients' of our 'spice experts' meant that
for any one spicy proposition there would be a hundred different reactions. If we told them it was 'hot', someone from Gujarat
might well agree with us whole-heartedly while gulping down water, while someone from Andhra Pradesh would probably scoff
and ask for some Tabasco sauce on the side.
So what if we didn't sell them a proposition but posed a question? Instead of telling them about our new spicy range, how
about we let the hisses on their tongues answer the question for themselves?
Implementation
Creative Strategy
'How spicy is McSpicy?'
This inherent 'spice expertise' of Indians meant there was never any dearth of curiosity or opinion on the subject of spice. But
when asked to qualify the exact spiciness of the McSpicy, the experts just couldn't do it!
Despite tasting the same burger, they gave us a series of completely different but wonderful reactions to the spiciness of the
McSpicy starting from the immediate guttural 'ooh's and 'aah's to the more enjoyable 'mmmm's and 'sshhhh's, to clear but
differing opinions like 'just right', 'too hot' and even 'too cool'. 'How spicy is McSpicy?' became more than a question. It was an
idea to engage spice experts directly to rate the spiciness of the McSpicy their curiosity to find out the spiciness of the
McSpicy would make them try the product, while their inherently different reactions to the spiciness would set up entertaining
but relevant creative work.
Media Strategy
We bet on the fact that spice lovers would become a part of this campaign. So we had to take an uninterested spice expert
from no awareness to full engagement with McSpicy. For this, we created the McSpicy Expert Engagement Cycle.

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ATL: Capture Attention and Build Curiosity

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Television: In an extremely cluttered environment, our TVCs needed to be disruptive and bring our core proposition to
life effectively. This was done with the help of an innovative 'spicy vocal orchestra' the funny and varied facial
expressions and sounds made by our spice experts during tasting sessions created to answer the question 'How spicy
is McSpicy?'

Outdoor: We used outdoors to complement TV by posing the core creative idea as a question, 'How Spicy is McSpicy?',
with three simple options 'too hot', 'too cold' or 'just right'. The possibility of differing reactions to the product built
curiosity.

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Instore: Encouraging Trial and Engagement

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POSM: Customers who entered the store were immediately greeted by close-up shots of the McSpicy burgers, which
build 'appetite appeal' and enticed them to try our new product.

Retail-tainment: Customers trying the McSpicy were asked the question 'How spicy is McSpicy?' and were given the
three options, 'too hot', 'too cold' or 'just right'. We then photographed them with the choices they made and flashed this
feed live across billboard screens directly outside the stores to complete the full engagement cycle.

By the end of the McSpicy Expert Engagement Cycle, our latent spice experts not only heard about, became curious by and
ended up trying the McSpicy, they had also become a part of the whole campaign.
Performance against objectives
The McSpicy range sold significantly more than its sales target in the first month of launch.
Not only did existing consumers upgrade, but the product managed to bring new users into the McDonald's fold!
Lessons learned

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Turning a weakness into a strength

We had realized that different people have different spice thresholds and hence it would be hard for us to come up with a
spice proposition that would appeal to all equally. However, we flipped this problem on its head and made the differences in
opinion the backbone of our marketing campaign and leveraged it as a chance to engage with our target audience.

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