Day 043 - 01 Nov 94 - Page 26

     
     1        A.  I think they are certainly more prone to experiment
     2        with all different kinds of tastes, all different kinds of
     3        restaurants.
     4
     5   Q.   Is what one might call "children appeal" amongst the next
     6        age group up, 24 to 35, let us say, is that a factor in
     7        your business -- parents with children?
     8        A.  Yes.  Certainly, when they become a parent, we want
     9        them to understand that McDonald's is a place that is very
    10        friendly to the whole family.  In fact, I think that is
    11        pretty much the context of all our advertising:  that we
    12        are a family restaurant where any child can feel welcome
    13        and not worry about spilling something, as opposed to going
    14        to a fancy restaurant.
    15
    16   Q.   Do you think you are successful in that?
    17        A.  Yes.  I think that families enjoy going to McDonald's,
    18        and our advertising has been successful in telling them
    19        that story.
    20
    Q.   I do apologise if to some extent I ask you same questions
    22        as I asked Mr. Hawkes; it is unavoidable, I am afraid,
    23        Mr. Green.  Is there a balance to be worked out, as it
    24        were, between the benefits of advertising and the benefits
    25        of in-store experience, so far as the customer is
    26        concerned?
    27        A.  Certainly, advertising, I think, plays a very important
    28        role in the overall success of the business of the
    29        company.  But it is obviously the in-store experience which
    30        is much more powerful and is the most important.  For
    31        example, just from an advertising point of view, even the
    32        heaviest users of McDonald's probably only see three or
    33        four minutes of McDonald's advertising on a weekly basis,
    34        and yet they spend well over 40 or 50 minutes in our
    35        restaurants.
    36
    37        So the key is that advertising can certainly invite people
    38        in, it can tell them about things that are going on in the
    39        restaurants and try to positively persuade them.  But you
    40        have to deliver, and the delivery, obviously, is at the
         restaurant.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:   I now want to come to Ronald, if I may.  My Lord,
    44        I do not know whether your Lordship----
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are we going to get to the videos fairly
    47        shortly?  If not, we will have a break now; if we are, we
    48        might go on.
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  I wanted to do a little bit of 
    51        introductory---- 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will have our five-minute break.
    54
    55                       (Short Adjournment)
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Green, I promised I would come to Ronald, and
    58        so I do.  Can you answer this question first:  has Ronald
    59        been a feature of children's advertising by McDonald's in
    60        the United States during all the time that you have worked