Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 56
1 say, 9, I think you said, turn away from their previous
2 loyalties, if you like, has the company done research on
3 that?
4 A. We have done -- it comes out in research. When you are
5 talking to young adults, you hear in group discussions that
6 you have with them, just comments coming out such as: "Oh,
7 I don't want to go there because it is a kid's place; that
8 is where I went when I was a kid", because they are (and
9 there is a lot of not McDonald's research but published
10 research on this) very much aspiring to become the
11 teenager. Therefore, they wish to try to go to places that
12 are perceived to be slightly older in profile.
13
14 In fact, the pizza restaurants do well in that kind of
15 category. You often see very young teenagers almost on a
16 date together going out, kind of, for the first time to
17 that kind of a restaurant because they feel it is an adult
18 experience. So, we have not specifically gone into it in
19 depth on research, but it comes out in other stuff that we
20 do.
21
22 Q. So when you say "talking to young adults", there is a whole
23 hazey area of actual ages in the case and which we want to
24 try nail done. We have the 2 to 7 or 2 to 8 year-olds
25 which are clearly kids. We have adults which are above 16.
26 So, the children that are between the ages of 8 and 16, are
27 they are a category which McDonald's, kind of, abandoned
28 and does not gear their television commercials to, and does
29 not do research on? Are they ones that are not taken into
30 consideration?
31 A. First of all, I would like to say that, unfortunately,
32 it is not quite as exact as being able to say who are the
33 young kids. There is a blurring on age group. We have to
34 try to come to some convenient splits in order make it
35 possible to do our jobs really. It is not so far-fetched
36 to say that we have spent less time on that in-between
37 group.
38
39 Q. Which would be, we are talking about 8 to 15, for example?
40 A. Say that. Simply for the same reasons as we have not
41 really spent a lot of time on 65 over, because of that
42 point that I made to you before. You have to, when you
43 have limited resources from a business point of view, put
44 your money where you feel you are going to get the best
45 return. That particular group does have a natural tendency
46 to wish to move on. It is very difficult for anyone to be
47 all things to all people. So, we choose not to spend as
48 much money or time there as in other areas.
49
50 MS. STEEL: Can I clarify? You did mention about talking to
51 young adults. What age were you referring to when you were
52 saying that?
53 A. I think we would be going down -- these are kinds of
54 group discussions that have been done for other things and
55 it just comes out -- we would probably be going down, maybe
56 as far as 16, something like that.
57
58 Q. 16 to what, what would you classify?
59 A. 16 would be the bottom end.
60
