atisfying, with just the right blend of fat and sugar, tastes that appealing to people of all ages all around the world. McDonalds has managed, historically, to stay at the head of the fast food competition. They have outrun their competitors consistently, primarily Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Jar's, and Jack-in-the-Box. Their ability to identify and stay ahead of competitors has been stellar (Kotler, 229).
However, in recent years, a large portion of the population has moved away from the consumption of fast food, causing a decline for McDonalds (CEO, 2003, 1). Executives from the food chain giant have developed a new marketing mix to try to retain their stature, and one of the newest concepts is McCafe, an attempt to gain some of the market share of specialty coffees made so popular by Starbucks. McCafe has primarily been developed abroad, as the new CEO, Jim Cantalupo, does not intend to prolong errors committed by the former McDonald's CEO Jack Greenberg (CEO, 2003, 1).
According to Kotler, products prevail in cycles, and the burger and fries concept lasted a very long time (1997, 307). However, Americans have become more health conscious, more diet conscious, and somewhat more sophisticated in their food tastes. Observing that so many people make the Starbucks stop an important part of their elaborate morning ritual, the McCafe idea is an attempt to capture some of those customers (Abuzz, 2001, 58). Starbucks has awakened Americans' taste for better coffee, a trend that has not been touched by recent economic downturns, and in fact, is currently opening more stores per year than McDonalds (Abuzz, 2001, 59).
Hoping to capture some of the gourmet coffee drinking market, the first McCafe in America opened in Chicago on May 2, 2001, a test to determine the concept's viability in the United States (McD, 2002, 25). In 2001 there were 300 McCafes in 17 countries from Australia and Japan to Brazil and Greece, each one sit...