Keeping Up With Changes To Stay Relevant

To change or to rebrand is the most common business strategy whenever there is a drop in sales due to stiff competition, bad reputation or outdated image.

If this is implemented well, the changes can turn a crisis into an opportunity, a disaster into a success and so forth. In fact, it is one of the key elements for businesses to keep up with the ever changing environment, society and technology.

McDonald’s for example has “started a turnaround plan in order to generate the change needed to reposition McDonald’s as a modern, progressive burger company,” according to Steve Easterbrook, Chief Executive of Golden Arches.

Some of the reasons behind the plunging business of McDonald’s include rising competition as well as bad customer perception of the quality of food ingredients and animal welfare standards.

In order to tackle these issues, McDonald’s has taken a few actions including:

Launching a new product, Buttermilk Crisp Chicken Sandwich, to compete with Chick-Fil-A,
Launching a food transparency campaign called Our Food, Your Questions to respond to consumers’ expectations; and
Last but not least, rebranding!!

After 60 years, McDonald’s has started shifting from cafeteria look to a more grown-up look.  The packaging of the products is also given a total overhaul. Some of the restaurants even installed self-service kiosks in order to reduce the need of customers to interact with the cashiers.  It is proven that the installation of self-service kiosks can actually promotes sales as customers tend to order more as they browse through the menu longer.

Here are some of the new looks of McDonald’s restaurants

         

McDonald’s is not the only big brand that is adopting style changes to compete better. Apparently, KFC is also rolling out a new, fast-casual-inspired design to compete with Chic-Fil-A. Even though KFC does not have as many issues as McDonalds in term of customers’ perception, the brand also feels the need to revamp the chain’s appearance with the mushrooming of fast-casual-chicken food chains and restaurants that includes Nashville Hot Chicken. Here are some of KFC’s new designs:

     

If you think you can remain unchanged in the fast-paced era, think again. If a company doesn’t embrace change and constantly learn new things, it will eventually be eliminated by new competition down the line.

Change to stay relevant.

 

Source: Multiple sources