McDonald's had tremendous loyalty among Hispanics, but it was lagging behind the competition in its Mexican offering. McDonald's wanted to create a unique customer focused event that would be proprietary to its stores, solidify its relationship with Hispanics,and create new reasons for adults to visit McDonald's and expand the taste opportunities for adults Hispanics. A new Fiesta Menu was created to fulfill these goals.

• To drive business by creating a proprietary product event
• To solidify its relations with the Hispanic community and increase appeal among Hispanics
• To expand opportunities for McDonald's to compete in the full price, adult taste segment of the Quick Service Restaurant category.

Hispanic adults aged 18 to 34 and English-speaking adults, aged 18 to 49. McDonald's also wanted to attract adults who were looking for variety to the menu.

McDonald's needed to learn if it could offer a line of non-traditional foods not usually associated with its hamberger menu. Ten tasting groups of 2 1/2 hours each were conducted among Spanish-dominant and bilingual Hispanics, with 2 additional groups conducted in the general market. Response was positive and customers perceived that the added variety would be a benefit.

Pre-Launch Activities: food rallies, consumer tasting groups, Ops Flash Test. Launch research included 225 in-store interviews representing all customer segments. Products were well-liked, pricing was reconfirmed; awareness and ad recall strong. Products that had an 80 percent or above approval rate were chosen.
Post-Launch Activities: launch store intercepts, one-on-one interviews, telephone interviews, tracking store sales. Surveys found satifaction was 8.8 on a scale of 10 among Hispanic customers, for most of the new products.

Breakfast: Chorizo Egg Burrito, Burrito a la Mexicana
Regular Menu: Torta Guacamole Sandwiches - Beef, Crispy Chicken, Grilled Chicken
Add-Ons: Fiesta Salad Shaker, Dulce de Leche McFlurry & Shake, Sauce Packets (Chipotle, Salsa, Mexicana), Wedding Cookies

• To generate immediate product awareness and instigate trial
• Maintain strong advertising levels and a multi-media approach

• Television and cable: :30 second spots for Breakfast & Regular menu. This visually showcased the food appeal and extended brand equity.
• Radio: Reinforced frequency and maintained awareness using :30 second national piggy-back ads after the local promotional window.
• Outdoor: Reached mobile Hispanic consumers near the point of purchase or at home.
• Point-Of-Purchase: Largest POP Kit ever, in-store sampling, public relations, and press releases for local & national coverage.

• Sales continued stronger than projected after 6 weeks.
• English TV spill was greater among teens than adults.
• Customer response (transactional & opinion) very favorable.
• Collaborative project resulted in regional team ethic.
• Expansion was planned to other U.S. markets with high Hispanic populations.