Day 044 - 02 Nov 94 - Page 26
1
2 MR. MORRIS: You have relations, of course, with the Australian
3 branch of McDonald's?
4 A. I have never been to Australia, but I have met
5 with-----
6
7 Q. They attend the international marketing meetings, do they?
8 A. Yes. I have met some of the people from there, yes.
9
10 Q. How many people do you get at these international marketing
11 meetings?
12 A. It depends on the meeting. Usually, we have a
13 conference once a year where we might have 50 to 75 people,
14 and then sometimes on a periodic basis we might have a
15 smaller group of 10 or 15 people.
16
17 Q. So virtually every country would be represented at the
18 actual conference?
19 A. Yes, in most cases the country would be represented at
20 the conference.
21
22 Q. That conference would set the marketing goals of the whole
23 corporation?
24 A. No, not really. The conference really is mostly to
25 exchange ideas and thoughts. Programmes that have worked
26 well in one country are explained, so that that people can
27 take advantage of a good working programme somewhere else.
28 The market strategy for the individual country is set on
29 the country level. We try to have our Marketing department
30 within each country as soon possible, so that they can,
31 essentially, set their own specific direction in that
32 country.
33
34 Q. Under the overall guidance of the Corporation and the----
35 A. Yes; the overall guidance of McDonald's and what our
36 advertising in general looks like. Essentially, the phrase
37 "food, folks and fun", I guess, is a phrase that people
38 have used in the past as a general overview or strategy of
39 how we market.
40
41 Q. So what management functions have these international
42 marketing meetings; what is their specific management role?
43 A. In general, the role is to exchange ideas and exchange
44 programmes that are happening in different parts of the
45 world.
46
47 Q. But if some country was doing some advertising which you
48 did not agree with or which was detrimental to the
49 Corporation, would that be discussed and some kind of
50 decision made about it?
51 A. I do not recall----
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you ever remember that arising?
54 A. I do not remember a case of somebody thinking that the
55 advertising was detrimental to the company. We may not
56 like the production values, for example, of a particular
57 commercial -- production values meaning: were the actors
58 acting in a normal way; did they seem to be representative
59 of the culture that they were in; the diversity of the
60 marketplace; did it communicate well; did it have one
