Behind the Golden Arches

Dear all

It’s been Biology and Psychology Enrichment Week in school, and to mark the occasion Monday’s assembly combined the two in the shape of one of the most recognisable brands in the world.

If our school community is in any way representative, most readers will have eaten food in or from McDonald’s, probably within the last few months or so. More than 69 million people around the world do so every single day in one of the 38,000 McDonald’s restaurants across 100 countries.

McDonald’s has long been an innovator when it comes to branding and marketing – the Golden Arches logo was used in Arizona as far back as 1953 and was rolled out across all franchises in the early 1960s at the same time as the character Ronald McDonald was created. Their first drive-thru opened – again in Arizona – serving soldiers from a nearby military base, and McDonald’s introduced the now-commonplace clamshell burger container in the 1980s.

However, it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the company – around 10 years ago their sales were stalling, so they turned to psychology to help reverse this trend. Recognising that most customers tend to choose the same items every time, they needed something to try and nudge them away from their value products towards their signature products, which produced greater profit margins. They used attention cues to do so – on digital menus, the images of value items are static but signature products are animated, based on the fact that our peripheral vision specialises in detecting motion. They also used decision anchoring, which means the signature items are always the first ones we see on their menus. Next, they used the fact that our working memory can hold between 5-9 things at any one time to design their menu boards so that they group around 7 items together – always their higher-priced products. That also links with their use of price anchoring – by highlighting the most expensive items, even if a customer doesn’t buy them, it makes the products on the regular menu seem like they’re good value for money. Finally, they redesigned their restaurants to take advantage of experience chunking – by separating the ordering and waiting areas, it created the perception among customers that their waiting time was less than it actually was, which means they are more likely to feel like it was a positive experience.

Every time someone visits a McDonald’s they are being nudged towards more expensive items on the menu; even if they don’t buy them they’re being subtly persuaded that their BigMac is great value for money; and they’re likely to come out thinking they’ve waited less time than they actually have to collect their meal – all branded, of course, with the famous Golden Arches.

That accounts for some of the Psychology behind a visit to McDonald’s, but what about the Biology? The company spends a great deal of time, effort, and money to emphasise their use of natural ingredients; their menus are very clear on how many calories each product contains; and they remind customers of the needs for a balanced diet.

At least some of that came from a documentary film made 20 years ago in 2004 called Super Size Me. A man named Morgan Spurlock, who died earlier this year at the age of just 53, was the director and the star of the film, which was based on the premise that for 30 consecutive days, he would consume only food and drinks from McDonald’s and that if the person serving him asked whether he would like the ‘super size’ option for whatever he was ordering, he had to agree to it.

Spurlock ate at McDonald’s three times every day – he claimed to be consuming 5,000 calories, double the recommended intake for an adult male and the equivalent of 9.26 BigMacs. By the end of the month, he had gained 11.5kg in weight, his body mass index and levels of cholesterol had increased significantly, and he reported mood swings, a loss of energy and generally poorer health.

His aim was to highlight the obesity crisis in America and to start a debate about the role played by fast food in that. Although the film has since come under greater scrutiny and questions have been asked about some of the claims he made, it did raise awareness of the issues it sought to put in the spotlight. McDonalds also scrapped its Super Size option later the same year.

Have a good (and healthy) half-term break

Best wishes

Michael Bond