McDonald's (MCD) has actually built its business on conformity. The company wants a customer who has a Big Mac and a large fries to have the same experience whether they dine in Chicago or Miami, London or Beijing.
That has created some challenging logistics for the company as it manages supply chains that supply restaurants all over the world with the ingredients required to offer that unchanging global experience.
For decades, the fast-food giant built its business on that consistency. Since the 1980s, however, McDonald's has also, to varying degrees, embraced the limited-time menu (LTO) offering. That is a selection of items -- some one-offs and some recurring that would entice lapsed fans to visit its restaurants or get regulars to spend more.
One of those Favorites, the Shamrock Shake, has been an annual LTO coming out around the Saint Patrick's Day holiday each year. That's partly due to its green color and partially because it was first promoted in ads by the character Uncle O'Grimacey, who was marketed as Grimace's Irish uncle.
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McDonald's Brings Back Two Favorites
This year, the beloved mint-flavored shake makes its return to U.S. menus Feb. 21.
Shamrock Shake will be joined by the Oreo Shamrock McFlurry, according to McDonald's, and while the former has become a McDonald's institution, the latter is a newer but also well-liked.
The Shamrock Shake has been a Springtime standby since 1970. Made with vanilla soft serve, minty flavoring, and a dollop of whipped topping, the shake was introduced by Connecticut McDonald's Owner and Operator Hal Rosen to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but the drink became so popular it helped fund the creation of the very first Ronald McDonald House, the chain's signature charity initiative.
More than 60 million of the shakes have been sold, in total. And when a product works, a company will always offer more of it. In 1980, it introduced the "Shamrock Sundae" for a limited time, which was a sundae with the signature mint-green Shamrock syrup.
In 2020, saw the creation The Oreo Shamrock McFlurry, which adds Oreo cookie pieces blended throughout the Shamrock Shake.
Why Does McDonald's Use LTOs?
The burger chain has, over the past few decades, embraced the idea of rotating items off and on its menus depending on the time of year, and many children grew up with fond memories of holiday-affiliated dipping sauce for their chicken McNuggets at the end of the year. (Introduced in 1987, the Holiday Chicken McNuggets package came with an apple-cinnamon dip and a cranberry-orange dip.)
But in 2012, the company truly embraced the marketing strategy, adding a variety of limited-time offerings after research showed that variety was of top importance to consumers. The company found that introducing new items, including the blueberry banana oatmeal and the Cherry Berry Chiller drink, would give frequent customers new options, which keeps them coming back and also help bring in new business.
Plus, excited fans would Tweet and post when news broke that their favorite items were coming back on the menu, which is always helpful in the online age.
It's an approach that other companies have started following in recent years, most notably with Starbucks (SBUX) and its signature Pumpkin Spice lattes.
To celebrate "Shamrock SZN" and hopefully get it trending, McDonald's is giving away one if its most closely guarded secrets, #cbf2ac, the hex code for the drinks' signature minty color.
Fans that tweet with the hashtags #cbf2ac and #ShamrockShakeSZN! could possibly get a little something extra, as the company has promised that "starting Feb. 21, our Shamrock green hex code just might unlock another tasty secret. That is if you know where to look. Be one of the first to figure out the mystery and you could get a little something special from us."
