McBranding

Why has a simple, familiar, five-letter word suddenly taken on such a mysterious aura?

“Brand.” Isn't it just the label on our shirts, the name on the cereal box, the sign over the door? What's the big deal?

This: Brand is more than just the sign over the door. It's the register – both intellectual and emotional – that people feel when they hear, see or read the brand name.

What does Bloomingdale's mean to people? A name on a store? Or browsing with a friend on a Saturday afternoon in Manhattan? A refuge in a rainstorm, a chance to pass an hour of guiltless pleasure finding something by Armani on sale? A real New York experience (even if you're in Chicago or at Mall of America)?

Someone once said that the difference between good and bad branding was the difference between saying “I'm going to Macy's,” and “I'm going to the mall.” Going to the mall means driving around, finding parking and going into whichever anchor store is nearest your car.

On the way home from the mall, however, nobody ever said, “Let's all stop at one of those inexpensive fast-food burger places.” No, for more than 40 years, people have said, “Let's go to McDonald's.” Talk about a powerful brand. Who in nearly every corner of the civilized world doesn't know Mickey D's? Golden arches? The best fries in the Western world?

Well, to know may not necessarily be to love. The guys who put the “fast” in food are stressing. Profits were down 17 percent in 2001. Earnings have been disappointing for six straight quarters. And “hamburger” has taken on an ominous spookiness all over the world. If “hamburger” suggests mad cows and recalled beef (to say nothing of cholesterol and flab), McDonald's, you have a brand problem.

So what has the 139th company on the Fortune 500 list done about it? It hired a “brand-building expert” as global chief marketing officer. Larry Light was president and ceo of his own brand consulting firm; chairman and ceo of Bates Advertising's international division; executive vp of marketing and media services at BBDO Worldwide. Fries-wise, his Madison Avenue C.V. is impeccable.

McDonald's has finished dead last among fast-food restaurants for six years in the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction index. Its overall score was way below Wendy's, which has pretty much the same burgers-and-fries staple menu but also had a lovable, believable spokesman – more lovable, evidently, than a big, red-haired clown with a goofy smile.

The same week as Light's appointment, McDonald's announced a new cooking oil to reduce the amount of trans fatty acids in its fried stuff by 48 percent. Physicians and nutritionists observed that even a little TFA is too much and that a fast-food meal still contains way too many calories. But McDonald's has a hook to hang a new brand image on: The fast-food company that cares about your health.

The brand expert was hired to regain that emotional connection between McDonald's and its once-devoted consumer base. He must figure out – through ads, promotions, public relations, point-of-sale activities and managing the eating environment – how to make consumers hear “McDonald's” and think again of family outings, laughing children and good, affordable, convenient grub.

That's branding. Let someone else deal with the carping nutritionists.