In Reply to: From the confidential employees handbook posted by Johnny on August 06, 1996 at 14:38:56:
> > I also have lots of friends working there and I've
> > seen all profitcalculations and I can tell you that
> > McD is making a poor profit if any on the
> > Happy meal.> According to the information in the McDonald's own
> confidential staff handbook, in the section on children
> parties and how to run them... McDonald's make most of
> their profit from the extra purchases made by parents
> (and those extras demanded by their children) rather
> than from the sale of the party 'package' as such.> Perhaps the orginal poster was talking about the tactics
> mentioned in the staff handbook regarding parties...
> ie. use additional suggestive selling to parents in order
> to increase sales and profit, since the profit margin on
> the such promotions are kept low in order to increase
> take up.I work for a Global corp and regularly hear what you're talking about. In jargon it's described by marketing departments as "generating pester power", by recognising that whilst the parents hold the purse strings, the kids are the vulnerable target audience. Many parents will do anything for a quiet life and these organisations know that. This is why their advertising is geared to getting the kids to persuade you to take them there in the first place. Just an observation really.
None.