September sees the launch of McDonald’s Corp’s sexy advertising campaigns. Racy billboards outside the franchise’s restaurants featured a woman’s lips to “flirt with your senses”, seducing customers to purchase the new Quarter Pounder. In 1995, the company opened its first Mainland restaurant in Shenzhen. It then grows rapidly with China’s economy. Upon its 16^th anniversary, Gary Rosen, McDonald's chief marketing and corporate-affairs officer in China, talks to Amy Cheung of The China Perspective about McDonald’s as a brand, its future direction for development as well as Chinese consumer market.

The China Perspective: What is the brand image McDonald’s is bringing into China?

Gary Rosen: From the brand’s standpoint, we want to present McDonald’s as a window to the West. We want to stay true to our heritage and polish our brand as a truly Western one. We consider the company as a Chinese company operating in China with a well-established Western brand. As one of the biggest employer in the Mainland, we have employed 60000 personnel. 95 percent of materials employed by our supply chain are sourced in China.

TCP: How do you promote your meat products to an Asian diet that is more vegetarian in nature?

GR: It is true that Chinese diet is more vegetarian. We certainly do take this into consideration. While we have launched corn cup and salad as side dishes this year, we are constructively developing more side items with more vegetables. Even our new product, Quarter Pounder, strives to appeal to Chinese taste of having cucumbers instead of pickles. However, there is a changing trend in Chinese diet too. Nutritionists in China, particularly the Ministry of Health, all publicize the need for Chinese to insert more protein in their diet. With China becoming the fastest growing beef consumer in the world, we are actually trying to adjust our strategies according to consumer’s demands.

TCP: Is McDonald’s going to launch innovative products that are inspired by Chinese diet such as the rice burgers launched in Hong Kong?

GR: Undoubtedly, McDonald’s will always add a twist to our products to fit local dining culture. The rice burgers that we launch in Hong Kong are not appealing to Mainland Chinese, proved by prior testing of rice burgers among Mainland Chinese. We constantly conduct large-scaled national market research on food development and branding. To most Mainland Chinese, rice is home food that you cook and eat at home or in a Chinese restaurant. We may launch rice burger as a promotional item but it won’t stay on the long-term menu.

TCP: What is the plan with drive-thru? What do you try to achieve?

GR: We see drive-thru as the future of McDonald’s and our long-term plan to suit consumer needs. With one of the world’s fastest growth rate of vehicles, a large amount of people become mobile and demand for food on the go. We utilize drive-thru to provide convenience to the consumers by providing car-parks, internet area, interactive space for kids and meeting area, thus access of the mobile population to our restaurants. Our strategic partnership with Sinopec allows us to gain access to their national gas stations network. We are currently cultivating the possibilities to establish restaurants along the pipeline. However, we won’t establish restaurants at all their 300000 locations. It is more crucial for us to pick strategic locations.

TCP: Is McDonald’s going to expand to central and western China?

GR: We have already opened restaurants in 119 provinces and cities. We’ll continue to put our focus on eastern seacoast belt from Beijing to Shenzhen. We do not have plans for the west yet since we want to strengthen our position in established areas. In addition, the west lacks the infrastructure for us to maintain our supply chain. Until the infrastructure is there, we’ll continue ti stay in the eastern and central parts of China.

TCP: What do you think about Chinese consumers?

GR: Chinese consumers are actually very advanced. They are open to new ideas and Western brands without preconceptions, which is proved to be very favorable for retailers. They also have strong loyal towards brands that they highly regard—once the brand is appealing with accurate communications, they would consider McDonald’s as part of their diet.