Faith: the colloid to link customers and enterprises

McDonald's received one million orders of crispy fried chicken in only four months of launching

In the past years, there have been numerous incidents related to the lack of enterprises’ responsibility to their customers, including manufacturing and distributing products with unclear origins and low quality. Besides, numerous enterprises issue ambiguous financial statements while others supply low-quality after-sales services, among others, impacting customers’ faith.

These incidents raised questions about enterprises’ morals as well as brought a strong need for solutions to build and maintain customers’ faith in enterprises.

Faith: important factor to link customers and enterprises

The result of a survey conducted by Golin/Harris in 2003 showed that 39 per cent of interviewed people said that they will either start or return to using the services of an enterprise in which they have faith. Besides, 53 per cent of respondents said that they will not return to an enterprise in which they lose faith. These results show that faith can be extremely beneficial for a company, while losing it can be of catastrophic consequences.

As the consumer goods market is facing a fierce competition between players, “quality” is a key factor to lure in customers, however, in order to make a difference, the company has to build faith with its customers.

McDonald's expects to create a breakthrough with its crispy fried chicken

Localisation to acquire faith of Vietnamese customers

With 60 per cent of the population being under 35 years old and having a high demand for diverse experiences, in collaboration with fast socioeconomic development, Vietnam is a magnet for fast-food companies.

It is important to note that customer categories have different demands. Notably, the 14-19-year-old bracket demands convenience, quick and modern services, while customers from 30 onwards (who are usually married and have children), pay attention to quality and the origin of food products.

With a large population of young people, Vietnam is considered a young market with great potential for fast-food companies to exploit, however, the diversity of local foods at a reasonable price is a challenge for fast-food firms.

Thus, when these foreign firms penetrate the fast-food market in Vietnam, they turn tend to localise the menu to fit the Vietnamese palate while keeping their brands’ hallmark features.

McDonald’s strategy

In July 2018, McDonald's launched its crispy fried chicken with an exclusive formula meeting US standards, expecting that it would set a new standard for fried chicken in the market.

Launched after two years of studies and development, this dish meets the four requirements of customers, including tough meat, crispy skin, fragrant outside, and the spices penetrating the insides of each piece of meat.

Especially, thanks to the formula of the dough mix and marinade, and the use of automatic marinating equipment to ensure the difference for McDonald’s crispy fried chicken. Besides, according to a recent survey, McDonald’s crispy fried chicken has reached a level of spice permeation into the meat that is impossible to find at any other brand on the market.

Nguyen The Nhat Toan, marketing director at McDonald's Vietnam (middle), receiving the Trust and Use Award