Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 45

     
     1        shop?  Obviously, you are saying that you are much more
     2        efficient, better quality, cleaner, whatever, do you think
     3        you would have been capable of, if you like, going into
     4        that market?
     5        A.  Well, it is not really a question of capability.  That
     6        is not our business.  As I said before, we wish to stick to
     7        the areas that we have been successful in.  That is where
     8        our expertise is, and so it is fairly natural to start off
     9        where your strengths are.  As you become established, if it
    10        makes some business sense to embrace other market sectors,
    11        then it is worth considering.  Hence, the pizza test.
    12
    13   Q.   If we go back to page 418 of the book; I am on to page
    14        426.  This is "McDonald's Behind the Arches".  I will just
    15        read this paragraph out.   "Fujita had the entrepreneurial
    16        credentials McDonald's was now looking for abroad".  That
    17        is Den Fujita, President of McDonald's in Japan.  "So, in
    18        1971, it agreed to form a Japanese joint venture with
    19        McDonald's controlling 50 percent and Fujita and Daiichiya
    20        Baking Company splitting the other 50 per cent.  Fujita was
         made president and chief executive of McDonald's Japan, and
    22        he soon bought out Daiichiya's interest."
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Keep your voice up and do not speak too
    25        quickly.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  I am just skating through the bits that are not the
    28        most important.
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Try and pick out the bits which are.
    31        (To the witness):  Do you know anything about the Japanese
    32        operation?
    33        A.  No, I do not, no.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  "From the beginning Fujita called the shots in
    36        introducing McDonald's to Japan.  Confident that he could
    37        import a concept as foreign as the hamburger to a culture
    38        whose diet was oriented to fish and rice, he insisted that
    39        there was no need to tailor McDonald's menu to Japanese
    40        tastes in the way McDonald's had attempted - unsuccessfully
          - to localize its menu in Holland".  Is that localizing
    42        its menu?
    43
    44        This book discusses various countries which we can talk to
    45        Mr. Green about, if we want to, but does advertising play a
    46        part when you are promoting products that people are not
    47        initially used to, or what kind of part does advertising
    48        play?
    49        A.  At that point advertising plays at its most basic level
    50        a role which is to inform people that it exists and, if it 
    51        is good advertising, it could induce them to try that 
    52        product. 
    53
    54   Q.   Would you have to use quite a lot of advertising if it is
    55        something that people are not used to?
    56        A.  Well, it varies on the actual product itself.  You
    57        would have to -- again, it depends on the creative use, the
    58        message you are actually communicating.  But it, obviously,
    59        takes more to get people to try something alien to
    60        something that they are totally used to.  But that is