Sen Ze’s Business In Your Pajamas! Blog

McDonalds does things the McDonalds way – and gets lots of attention in the process.

See this wonderful and creative method that it used to draw attention to its stores, that appealed to a huge number of its prospects. It looks almost magical – and you can certainly learn a thing or two from it:

McDonalds does things the McDonalds way again, but this time it gets lots of attention for its “competitor”, the very entity it is trying to snuff out. Its “competitor” is McCurry:

McCurry’s owner is Suppiah (see video image above).

He’s one of my first students in my very first Boot Camp on Internet Business and Internet Marketing way back in 1999 (not many people even know about this Boot Camp). Shows you how long I’ve been doing Internet Businesses, which is way before most people – but there’s a more important point coming up.

The short of it all – McDonalds claimed that McCurry had no right to the “Mc” prefix as it’s part of the “McDonalds” trademark. Malaysia’s High Court agreed. McCurry appealed to the Court of Appeal, which reversed that decision. McDonalds appealed to the Federal Court, which upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision.

In short, McCurry took on the might of McDonalds, and won. And in the process, generated what Suppiah himself estimated is about $1 BILLION worth of positive publicity worldwide, for its McCurry brand. People all over the world who have never heard of McCurry, took notice and now know about McCurry.

All the media outlets in the world picked this story up, including CNN and major TV stations:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/08/mcdonalds.mccurry.legal.malaysia/index.html

(I was featured on CNN too, for my Blindfold Drive event – but Suppiah’s event has a bigger impact since a familiar corporate giant is involved.)

Suppiah and I actually discussed his stand against McDonalds about 8 or 9 years ago, when Suppiah started his McCurry restaurant. How do you deal with McDonalds’ might and intention to own the “Mc” prefix – which really isn’t for it to own?

“McCurry” is an actual Scottish surname, although in Suppiah’s case, it’s an abbreviation for “Malaysian Curry Chicken”. If McDonalds were allowed to own the “Mc” name – it means that no other business can use a “Mc” as part of its name.

Is that fair? No, not in our minds. Is that legal? This is for the courts to decide but our guts (you and I) tell us that the courts should decide against McDonalds – although our guts are really different from what the law might be.

Note that some courts in some jurisdictions have ruled in favor of McDonalds when some businesses tried to use “Mc” as part of their business name, even if that’s their actual name – but this isn’t a clear cut case for sure and different jurisdictions will have different judges sitting to decide on the issue.

Also McDonalds wasn’t suing McCurry for “passing off” which is where McCurry was trying to mislead the public into thinking it’s part of the McDonalds chain of restaurants, when McCurry clearly made no attempt to do so as it doesn’t offer any food that remotely resembles McDonalds’, nor did it follow McDonalds’ theme, colors or have a Ronaldo McCurry as its mascot.

And since “McCurry” the name clearly isn’t “McDonalds” the name either, this left McDonalds with just the “Mc” prefix that it tried to claim was part of its trademark which couldn’t be used by other businesses. It didn’t have the strongest case but it either could let things be – or take a chance to strengthen itself even more with a potential victory in the courts.

It chose the latter and lost.

While this loss isn’t going to affect McDonalds’ business much, it has the opposite effect on McCurry – which is the underdog going against an 800 pound gorilla. The media love such stories – and painted the town (or the planet) red with it – because the masses love such stories too.

This is business strategy executed at the highest level – and Suppiah truly deserves his victory for he had nothing to fear since he really didn’t do anything wrong. McDonalds started the “fight”. It was a calculated move on their part that simply backfired on them.

But how many other people would have given in just because a corporate giant threatened them with a lawsuit – even though the corporation may not have a solid case to begin with?

You can be sure there are corporations using lawsuits as a weapon to stifle competition which is in effect pitting the amount of money they have against the poor, small businesses who simply can’t afford to defend themselves in court.

This anti-competitive strategy being practiced by giant corporations isn’t discussed much but it’s happening.

But there’s another 800-pound gorilla story where you get a giant corporation to be on your side which provides BOTH of you with what both of you want.

That 800-pound gorilla is Google.

You want FREE, NEVER-ENDING, FRESH and HIGHLY-TARGETED Leads or Prospects for your businesses, websites or offers. Google wants their users to have the best experience in finding what they’re looking for.

It’s a match made in heaven.

Google will give you all the FREE, FRESH, NEVER-ENDING and HIGHLY-TARGETED leads you want – if you will just give it what it wants.

My Google Magic System shows you EXACTLY how to give Google what Google wants with the LEAST amount of effort on your part. In fact, you don’t have to life a finger to do anything!

I used to dread tackling Google because while the work to do it wasn’t difficult, it was tedious, repetitious and mind-numbing. This is so even if you used software or people to do the work for you because if it’s tedious, repetitious and mind-numbing, the people you hire won’t be able to do the work for long.

I’ve solved the above problems in more ways than one. And I’m proud to be showing it off to you so that you can see for yourself how doable everything really is, right now.

Note that Google can get you THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of free visitors for MONTHS, even YEARS on end, and you’re going to know how this is done in my FREE talk below. Register for it and be blown away by how easy it can be – NOW!

http://SenZe.com/googlemagic

If you’re in Singapore, I’ll be there next Monday, Sept 28th. Click below to register for your free seats in Singapore:

http://SenZe.com/googlemagics

Cheers!
Sen Ze

Here’s why the cool mug with the Cheap Refills offer in my previous posts on Getting Repeat Customers and Loyalty Programs is such a great advertising tactic to implement for your food outlet.

Do note that the very same principles that are behind this tactic can also be adapted to other types of business – online or off:

1. By offering cheap refills, you’re encouraging your Customers to go back to you again and again
You’re making a visit to your outlet a habit for him over time which may outlast his desire for your cheap refills.

2. When he buys a similar drink elsewhere, he’s reminded of your offer because he’s paying so much more for it
You and your offer are now stuck in your Customers’ minds.

3. The mug is highly visible and acts as your mini advertising billboard to your Customers’ friends
People drink among friends – and some are sure to notice the offer themselves. You can be sure some of your Customers will talk about your offer even without being prompted. So you have a viral marketing tool right in your Customers’ hands, which was paid for by your Customers themselves!

4. When you have plenty of Customers coming back to your outlet each time, your outlet appears to be busy
A busy outlet adds to its appeal and will bring more Customers in. New Prospects love to follow the crowd if they haven’t already decided where to go for their food.

5. Every Customer that comes back to buy your cheap refills can be upsold something else
What else can you sell him? A muffin, sandwich, fries, whatever. Just be sure to offer it to them when they’re asking for their refills, or place them where they can’t be missed. For a better closing ratio – offer them at a slightly discounted rate because he came in with his cool mug for the cheap refill.

Point No.5 above is the reason why you can still make money from your Customers even if you’re losing money on your refills. The 40-cent refill offer acts to bring them into your outlet on a regular basis so that you can make more money from them, when without the offer they wouldn’t go into your outlet that regularly, or at all!

You can’t make a regular, sustaining income from people who don’t see you often enough.

Even the big boys like Starbucks don’t get it. Sure, you can buy a cool looking Starbucks mug that advertises Starbucks but has no other incentive for you to keep returning to them.

Can you distill the principles behind this gem of a marketing idea that you may be able to put into play for your own business which may not be a food outlet or restaurant?

Sure you can.

I may even give you an idea or two in my next post on this.

Warm Regards,
Sen Ze

We’ve discussed that a cool mug that your Customers get from your food outlet or restaurant can help you bring them back again and again, in my last post on Loyalty Programs for Food Outlets.

However, I also mentioned that a cool mug alone isn’t good enough.

So what else must you do with the cool mug?

Print a great offer on the front of the mug, that’s what.

Check it out:

It reads:

“Bring It Back. 40-Cent Refills. The Grill”

Now is that an irresistible offer or what!  

Now your Customers are getting GREAT value from you for something they want to consume every single day (think coffee, tea, Coke, whatever) – especially when the same drink elsewhere costs double or more!

You want Repeat Customers?

With this simple marketing tactic, you can’t stop them from coming back to you even if you pelted them with cherry pits at your door!

Now you’re thinking:

If the refills costs so little – how are you actually making any money, after all is said and done?

After all, that 40 cents could be your cost for the drink!

Well – let me tell you something.

You could even lose money on your refills and still make profits you’ve never seen.

Think about it.

My next post will reveal how this is done – and how the principles involved in this very neat idea can apply to any business – online or off!

Stay tuned.

Sen Ze