Friday Nights at McDonald's

‘Meating’ the customer where they are.

Lou Groen had a problem at his McDonald’s franchisee in the 1960s, his neighborhood. 

Most of the year was fine, but during the six or seven Fridays of Lent Lou’s sales vanished. His heavily catholic part of town gave up meat during the forty days before Easter. One slow Friday Lou’s cash registers contained a mere seventy-five dollars. 

What if, Lou wondered, I came up with my own sandwich?

It wasn’t a novel question. McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc was working on something for Lent, too. Kroc had the same problem as Lou only at seven hundred locations. 

To Lou, the solution was obviously fish. His neighbors already ate it so why shouldn’t McDonald’s sell it to them? He bought whitefish, made a batter, and created a tarter sauce. Lou pitched the sandwich to headquarters. 

Kroc was dubious, but open-minded. I’ll tell you what Lou, Kroc proposed, we’ll put your sandwich and my sandwich on the menu Friday night. Whichever one sells better is the one we’ll keep. That sounded good to Lou. 

People loved Lou’s sandwich, the Filet-O-Fish. Kroc’s Hula Burger, a slice of pineapple on a cold bun, never made it to market. Three years later the Filet-O-Fish was rolled out nationwide.

Lou Groen could never change his customer’s minds but he could change what he sold. Constraints seem like a fence, herding our choices. But really they’re sign posts, pointing in the right direction. 

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