Whether you're a fan of McDonald's or curse the company for the effect of its food on your waistline, you can't deny that the fast-food haven has improved its image over the years. McDonald's now offers healthier menu options, like fruit and salad, and innovations like its McCafé coffee brand have been a hit with customers. Further, the company has always connected with kids. So when news hit that its Shrek-themed drinking glasses contained potentially dangerous levels of cadmium, a carcinogen that can cause kidney ailments, the results could have been severe. There goes McDonald's again, creating a health hazard. And worse, they could be poisoning the kids who adore Ronald McDonald, Grimace and, by extension, those salty french fries.
So McDonald's issued a swift recall of the offending glasses. And analysts are giving the company high marks for its response to a potential disaster. "The takeaway from all this is that they were very proactive," says Jack Russo, an equity research analyst who covers McDonald's for Edward Jones, an investment banking and advisory firm based in St. Louis, Mo. "You have to be prepared for the worst." Russo was struck by the difference between the competent reaction of one multibillion-dollar corporation, McDonald's, and that of another quite prominent one that's been in the news lately, BP (he noted that the severity of their problems was quite different). "It was pretty brilliant," says Sophie Ann Terrisse, CEO of STC Associates, a brand-management firm, of the McDonald's response. "They came clean right away, and not only did they do what customers expected, they did more."
To wit: for every consumer who returns one of the 7.5 million Shrek glasses the company says it sold, McDonald's is offering a rare premium above the purchase price: a $3 refund for an item that cost $2.49 as a stand-alone purchase, and $1.99 with a purchase of food. "You've got to give them credit for turning the recall into a value proposition," says Terrisse. It helps, of course, that McDonald's can afford such generosity. Sales are strong; the company made $1.09 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Any financial hit from the company's refund will be worth the positive vibe it creates with consumers.
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