商业报道:麦当劳营销手段

Discussion: Eating healthy at McDonald's?

Two experts discuss on CNBC whether the Big Mac is really watching out for customers' waist size, or just making them feel better about fast food

A big night, for CNBC, too, at nine PM Eastern Time, a new documentary¹ called Big Mac inside the McDonald’s empire is gonna make its long anticipated debut². If you remember when Carl was out for a while, we said on assignment, on assignment, on assignment. He was doing this. And it is good, Carl Kintunia, the CNBC team got an unprecedented³, behind-the-scenes look at the golden arches⁴ and you don’t wanna miss it. That’s tonight at 9 pm Eastern time. Mc Donald’s has got a great length to expand beyond burgers and fries, but has this fast food giant answered its critics when it comes to nutrition? Here now to weigh in, Jason Tre, no, Jason West, not Jason Trenner. You are not gonna talk about it /?

No, did Carl gain any weight? He did, he was on assignment. We said weigh in for Jason.

Jason, you are seeing, a restaurant analyst⁵ at Deutsche Bank, North America. And Margo Wootan. She is a nutrition policy director at the Center for Science and Public Interest.

Um, Let me start with you, Jason. Is it nutritional⁶ now or are people going just because they like the taste?

Um, I mean, I think they have increased the nutritional options on the menu, but I think overall what they've really changed is the quality of the food and people, I think more will go on because improvement in the quality and taste. And they have also increased, you know, the overall brand perception⁷. It’s not just about the menu but they have also remodeled a good percentage of the restaurants which makes it a better customer experience overall.

Phil Lebeau, I'm sorry, you are there as well today.

I am. Joe.

You do it all. You do Boeing, you do Mac Donald’s. What’s your take on this?

I think that Mac Donald’s continues to get a bit of a bomb wrap when it comes to nutritional value. Listen, they have added a number of items to the menu that are healthier choices. And whenever they add these, and we have reported on these stories. The first thing I hear either hear from people, or I get an email from somebody is saying, yeah, but they still serve a bunch of junk food. They can’t, they can’t win here. They make more offerings that are nutritionally based or healthier and people beg on them. If they don’t make those offerings, people beg on them. But the bottom line is I do think that Mac Donald’s add offers more healthy choices than they did five, ten years ago.

Alright, Margo, what do you think of what Phil just said?

Well, I think Mac Donald’s is doing a much better job than say Burger King in adding more healthy items to the menu. Some fruits and vegetables. And working to reduce the amount of trans-fat. So they are making some progress. But they still have some work to do. I think one of the biggest problems with Mac Donald’s right now is that they have been fighting efforts at the state and local level to have calories listed right on the menu board so that people can make their own choices. So that people can see that their grilled⁸ chicken breast sandwich actually has as many calories as the quarter pounder, or that the Egg Mock-Muffin sandwich has half the calories of the pancakes. Right now it’s hard to make an informed choice because they mostly put the nutrition information on the tray liner⁹ or on the fast food packages which people don’t get until after they have ordered.

Jason, this is Jason Trenner from Stratikers. I just have a quick question. I mean, you know, we all do respect Margo, you know, as an investor¹⁰ I would say who cares what the nutritional value that Mac Donald’s 's offering is. Are the margins¹¹ better on this stuff, I mean some people might say that Mac Donald’s has too many things on the menu, maybe they should just focus on burgers and chicken sandwiches and shakes, and forget all those other stuff, toys and all the things that have been on the menu for so long.

But it brings people into the restaurant. I know as a mom, I used to hate going to Mac Donald’s with my daughter coz there was nothing for me to order. Now at least there are some things that appeal to people who are more health conscious. And you know, Americans are trying harder to eat better these days.

Jason. Yeah, go ahead Jason.

I think that’s exactly right. I think that’s right. We actually did a consumer survey with Deutsche Bank. Looking at where consumers rank healthy choices when they go out to eat, healthy choices actually rank No.7 out of 12, you know, factors of importance so it ranked fairly low but among women, it actually ranked pretty high, actually much more important for women than men. And I think Mac Donald’s recognized this a long time ago, and they started selling more salads, they started adding more healthy options to the Happy Meals. What they've found is that the Happy Meal average ticket is actually up. They found that women are more likely to go there and so I think they are driving the traffic, they are driving the ticket up which is really what investors¹² want to see. You know, investors are particularly worried about the, you know the nutritional value of the menu, they just want to see ticket traffic moving up.

Alright,uh, thank you Margo, and Jason, I am sorry I said West, I don’t, I am looking at, yes, I didn’t say that anywhere, I just read it wrong, Jason West. Very sorry, of Deutsche Bank North America.

And our own Phil Lebeau, who, uh, I know I listen to you on Boeing, but I also think you probably know a lot about Mac Donald’s too.

Every once a while, a blind squirrel¹³ finds a nut.

Alright. Thanks, thank you.

Notes:

Every once a while, a blind squirrel finds a nut: or (even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while), means everyone has a bit of luck sometimes.

1 documentary   

adj.文献的；n.纪录片

参考例句：

• This case lacked documentary proof.本案缺少书面证据。
• I watched a documentary on the Civil War.我看了一部关于内战的纪录片。

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

3 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

4 Arches   

n.拱( arch的名词复数 )；拱门；拱形物；足弓v.（使）弯成拱形( arch的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Arches are built of wood, stone, brick or any other building material. 拱门是用木料、石块、砖头或其他建筑材料建成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cat arches its back when It'sees the dog. 猫看到狗，便把背拱起。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

7 perception   

n.感知，感觉，觉察(力)；认识，观念，看法

参考例句：

• What's your perception of the matter?你对此事有什么看法？
• He was a man of keen perception.他是一个感觉敏锐的人。

8 grilled   

adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was grilled for two hours before the police let him go. 他被严厉盘查了两个小时后，警察才放他走。
• He was grilled until he confessed. 他被严加拷问，直到他承认为止。

9 liner   

n.班船，定期班机

参考例句：

• They sailed to America in a large liner.他们乘坐一艘大客轮航行到美国。
• The liner flew straight to Nanjing.客机径直飞往南京。

10 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

11 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

12 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

13 squirrel   

n.松鼠，松鼠的毛皮；vt.贮藏以备用

参考例句：

• The squirrel makes a store of nuts for the winter.松鼠贮藏坚果以备过冬。
• A squirrel hoards nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬贮藏坚果。