Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 55
1 facts of life are that if -- it is almost a natural
2 growing-up phase, that if you have been to a particular
3 place, in this case McDonald's, avidly when you are growing
4 between the ages of 3, 7, 8 by the time you are 9 and 10
5 you really want to go somewhere which is not a child's
6 place; you are trying to aspire to other things. So, there
7 is a desire to move away. Most times they will come back
8 when they are parents themselves and they remember back to
9 their earlier days.
10
11 Q. So when you use the phrase "brand loyalty" (and it crops up
12 in various McDonald's publications, I think one was looked
13 at this morning) what does that mean over a period of
14 time? Forget the word "hope". What are you aiming to
15 achieve with "brand loyalty"?
16 A. If you were to take, let us say, the 16 to 24 age
17 group, OK, who are -----
18
19 Q. I am thinking more of children at the moment; I am just
20 concentrating on children at the moment.
21 A. The only reason I was going to select them is that it
22 was better to describe it-----
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will let the witness answer, but one knows
25 what "brand loyalty" is. If you merely ascertain whether
26 Mr. Hawkes accepts that they are trying to achieve some
27 brand loyalty, then you can take it that I understand what
28 follows from brand loyalty. Is that right? You have
29 already given an answer to Ms. Steel about getting young
30 children who will not come in, obviously, on their own to
31 persuade their parents to go in, taking them with them. Is
32 there not an element of trying to achieve brand loyalty in
33 this sense, at least, that if they are thinking of a quick
34 meal or a take-away, their first thought and inclination
35 will be to go to McDonald's?
36 A. The child's thought, yes, very much so.
37
38 Q. What about the older people?
39 A. Through adult advertising, yes, too we would wish to
40 reach that point. Our key target is simply as you stated,
41 that when they have decided they want to go out for that
42 meal, their first top of mind restaurant thought is
43 McDonald's.
44
45 Q. That applies to young children if their parents, if it
46 becomes apparent they are going to be eating out,
47 persuading their parents to go there, or suggesting they
48 will go there, children from, let us say, 11 or 12 onwards
49 who, if they are out with friends, may be making their own
50 choice?
51 A. Yes.
52
53 Q. And older people who are obviously making their own choice,
54 whether building up a brand loyalty for the first time or
55 coming back to something they have done when they were
56 younger?
57 A. That is correct, yes.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: Has the company done research on -- when you said
60 before about children often when they reach a certain age,
