Makudo Narudoor better known as McDonald’s
In 1937, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald opened a hot dog stand in Arcadia, California. The first restaurant, called “McDonald’s Bar-BQ”, will be opened in 1940 in San Bernardino, California. In 1971 the first McDonald’s in Europe was inaugurated in Amsterdam and in the same year one was opened in a department store in the Ginza district in Tokyo; was the first McDonald’s in all of Asia, in 28 years, from 1971 to 1999, 3,000 restaurants are opened in Japan, about two openings a week and currently it is the third most popular fast food chain in the country after the United States and the China .
Den Fujita is the founder of McDonald’s Japan. For a time it was the exclusive importer for Dior in Japan and the largest commercial buyer of handbags Dior globally and in 1971 he was chosen by McDonald’s as a partner in Japan thanks to his experience with global consumer brands. Thus he opens the first restaurant in the Ginza district under the name of Nippon McDonald’s Holding.
The Tokyo restaurant immediately achieved great success, so much so that the second restaurant was opened three days later and in a short time it expanded throughout the country. Its peculiarity, and perhaps the very reason for its immediate success, is that they had to have totally Japanese characteristics and had to respect the way of being of Japanese citizens, starting from the names of the foods on the menu. Fujita claims, and obtains, that i English names on the menu to become Japanese to be more easily pronounceable, moreover McDonald’s diventa Makudo Narudo. He also manages to modify the menu proposals by introducing foods that are found only in Japanese fast-food restaurants such as, for example il Full Moon Cheese Tsukimi Burger which contains a march patty and an egg patty to represent the full moon and is only served during the moon festival called Tsukimi.
What really sets Japan apart from other countries is its wide range of sandwich varieties and ingredients.
Japan is famous for making different snacks with diversified and strange flavors to come out of the uniformity, so there are different hamburgers with seasonal flavors, different drinks, teas and other products to be launched in the short term. He is also responsible for inventing various strange snacks such as chocolate chips, avocado burger, bacon potato pie, and a giant combo with 4 layers of burgers. Among these strange inventions can be mentioned
Tatsuta di pollo con wasabi e salsa tartara;
McNuggets with wasabi or prune salsa;
Karaage : Chicken with tomato and basil powder;
Sakura (cherry) flavored seasonal snacks;
Hawaiian Hamburger;
Gracoro Burger: With a creamy croquette with bechamel, prawns and pasta;
Grilled fish burger;
Anko Pies: Cake filled with sweet red beans;
French fries topped with sakura (cherry);
Shakachiki: Crispy breaded chicken with onion-garlic, cheddar or pepper sauces.
McDonald’s in Japan usually introduces different kinds of seasonal cakes in its menu: in winter, bean cake can be found Anko Pie and the chocolate tart, in the summer the strawberry tart. Usually sweets take the name of the ingredients followed by pie in English
To defeat the competition, much importance has been given to the marketing sector. First in the Happy Meal (renamed in Japan Happy Set) gadgets related to the Pokémon by Nintendo and video games by Bandai, such as for example the Bandai cardass (collectible cards containing data in chips, magnetic strips or QR codes) by Dragon Ball Super for boys and Aikatsu! for girls, cardass with which the children can then go and play with specific Bandai cabinets right in the SEGA arcades, near which there is often a McDonald’s restaurant. In addition, he has made various advertisements, references and participations in various films and anime, up to designing an advertising campaign with its own animation
In addition to sponsorships and collaborations for an audience of children who love video games, McDonald’s Japan wanted to promote its restaurants to teenagers and adults and to do so it has combined the respective interests of the two age groups: anime + idol. In this way, in fact, he commissioned an animation studio with a young staff of animators to carry out an advertising campaign for the search for new personnel consisting of printed advertisements, posters to be posted in shops and viral commercials to be disseminated on the web.
By Valeria Turino