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>somewhat unsurprisingly, will be called "McPlant." Is it just me that didn't find the name obvious, and perhaps not a good one? Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I think Impossible Foods was right in marketing their products for meateaters rather than vegans.
Let's see if they take beef flavor out of their fries.
Will people forever speculate that they have real meat in them?
The best way for companies to alleviate that concern is to make your Vegan products clearly different from the meat ones.
McDonalds offers "Veggie Dippers" in the UK, and as they have a vegetable texture, they are easy to tell apart from other products:
https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/product/veggie-dippers-4-...
I think that this particular product is aimed at Vegans/Vegetarians, while products like the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger are aimed at "flexitarians".
So, when making a "meaty" product, the simplest thing to do is make it a different shape than your other products.
In several countries in Europe, McDonald's has served plant-based alternatives for years. In Sweden they serve the McVegan, for example: https://www.mcdonalds.com/se/sv-se/product/mcvegan.html
We have the McVeggie over here (Portugal) which are meh, but I recently discovered Linda McCartney's veggie burgers and I have fooled a couple of people thinking it was meat. They are very very good IMHO.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vegans will be concerned about shared grill space, I know that was a big issue for friends for mine with Burger King's Impossible implentation
Some vegans. If you care about the environment at all you’re not going to be demanding every restaurant buy additional grills, expand footprint, or alternatively not serve vegans at all. Demanding separate grills doesn’t have any impact on animal suffering either. The only vegans I could see caring about that are the purity test vegans or the vegans who are convinced meat is physically dangerous to human health, and…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vegans will be concerned about shared grill space, I know that was a big issue for friends for mine with Burger King's Impossible implentation
Some vegans. If you care about the environment at all you’re not going to be demanding every restaurant buy additional grills, expand footprint, or alternatively not serve vegans at all. Demanding separate grills doesn’t have any impact on animal suffering either. The only vegans I could see caring about that are the purity test vegans or the vegans who are convinced meat is physically dangerous to human health, and…
Disclaimer: This is pure, third-hand speculation. I am not in a position to know if developing an animal products intolerance is possible.
>somewhat unsurprisingly, will be called "McPlant." Is it just me that didn't find the name obvious, and perhaps not a good one? Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I think Impossible Foods was right in marketing their products for meateaters rather than vegans.
Mc something it had to be. The question is what is the something. McVeggie doesn't work, because veggie burgers became synonymous with the last generation of plant based burgers. McPlant does sound awkward right now but with the full backing of mcdonalds marketing / their resturant footprint it will roll of the tongue within a few months of launch.
I would have gone with "McMiracle Burger" (as a riff on "Impossible Burger").
>somewhat unsurprisingly, will be called "McPlant." Is it just me that didn't find the name obvious, and perhaps not a good one? Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I think Impossible Foods was right in marketing their products for meateaters rather than vegans.
What's interesting is that McDonald's has tried something like this this before and, it has been argued, effed it up due to naming. For an interesting account of their first failed attempt, 30 years ago, I highly recommend this New Yorker article, The Trouble with Fries (2001): https://web.archive.org/web/20081218211703/http://www.gladwe... It's Malcolm Gladwell so take it with a packet of salt I suppose. I think it'…
As long as the burger tastes good, and isn't gross or labour-neglected or similar (like their salads and wraps occasionally were), then I suspect the Plant-based Burger to do reasonably well.
Anecdotally, I'm at McDonalds about once a week, and I'd try it at least once.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm the same way. If a menu has "Eggs Benny" on it, I'll order "Eggs Benedict" because I can't bring myself to say cutesy things. I know it's my hangup. I'll change orders before I say something like that, most of the time.
I similarly refuse to use Starbucks' cute-isms for cup sizes (Venti, etc.) but I won't have any trouble ordering a McPlant - it might even provide me another reason to visit a McD beyond the wireless-for-the-price-of-a-coffee reason.
Most people misunderstand Starbucks size names. They think they're all smart assuming that Starbucks calls a small drink "tall" because of marketing or whatever. But it's actually the too-cool-for-school crowd that is wrong.
"Short" is in the shortest cup. It's the small size.
"Tall" is the taller cup. It's the regular size.
"Grande" is the large size. "Grande" means "large."
"Venti" is extra-large. "Venti" means "twenty," and is used because the drink is twenty ounces.
Because Starbucks doesn't list the "short" size on the menu, angry people assume Starbucks is trying to hide something. But it's not. Just ask for a short. I've never been to a Starbucks that didn't have the short size.
When I order a "short," about 90% of the time the response is, "Don't you want a 'tall,' instead? It's the same price." My response is, "It's not about money. It's about portion control." And everyone goes about their business.
>somewhat unsurprisingly, will be called "McPlant." Is it just me that didn't find the name obvious, and perhaps not a good one? Many people have an aversion to something if it's called plant, healthy or natural. I think Impossible Foods was right in marketing their products for meateaters rather than vegans.
What's interesting is that McDonald's has tried something like this this before and, it has been argued, effed it up due to naming. For an interesting account of their first failed attempt, 30 years ago, I highly recommend this New Yorker article, The Trouble with Fries (2001): https://web.archive.org/web/20081218211703/http://www.gladwe... It's Malcolm Gladwell so take it with a packet of salt I suppose. I think it'…
Exept how do you reach your target audience now? Vegans wont be checking the remotest corner of the mcdonalds website every sunday. Worst of all, you'll probaly piss off meat eaters who might feel deceived, your main customer.