The Business Challenge
As with most fast food stores, growth is the ultimate goal. To this end, Williams’ franchise benefits from McDonald’s national advertising programs. Since a big part of McDonald’s advertising strategy is in-store advertising, Williams gets to select from a range of paper ad boards generated by McDonald’s ad agency for store operators. However, franchise owners and operators are free to develop additional, or alternative, promotional campaigns to boost sales. In the spring of 2016, McDonald’s launched a nationwide campaign to promote small-size McCafé drinks; the objective was to draw attention to the quality of McCafés. This special offer and brand awareness campaign was widely promoted through McDonald’s advertising channels, including its in-store paper-based window ad boards. Although Williams liked the concept of promoting McCafé, he believed buyers prefer larger drinks. Also, he felt limited by the paper ad boards because they present the following challenges: must be switched out regularly to remain up-to-date are labor intensive to hang and switch out block daytime sunlight are invisible at nighttime.