As the richest Indonesian in Forbes list, Michael Hartono has vast range of business area, including at Indonesian branch of McDonald’s. One of his success stories in McDonald’s Indonesia was his effort during National Breakfast Day last year, which made him arrange all 120 outlets of McDonald’s in Indonesia to distribute breakfast menu. Since fast food restaurants in Indonesia are not usually associated with places where people have breakfast, the program was introduced as the way to make breakfast menu more popular.
The strategy was initiated with two goals: to boost sales of the new breakfast menu McMuffin among Indonesians, and to create awareness of the importance of breakfast.
Breakfast Menu Introduction for National Breakfast Day
According to Michael Hartono, the program was intended as a way to make more Indonesians remember about the importance of breakfast. Also, he intended it to promote breakfast menu, which was not as popular as McDonald’s main menu due to the fact that not many Indonesians eat fast food menu as breakfast. By promoting breakfast menu, Michael hoped to aim for middle class customers and busy young professionals who often must find their breakfast on the road.
On March 21st 2013, McDonald’s Indonesia distributed free 120,000 Egg McMuffin to customers in all McDonald’s restaurants and counters who came during breakfast hour. The McMuffin consisted of two English muffins that sandwiched scrambled egg, cheese and chicken, which made really hearty breakfast. This event helped to further introduce McMuffin as breakfast item in McDonalds, especially among Indonesians who usually do not order food from fast food joint for breakfast.
Targets for Further Purchase of Breakfast Item
The popularity of breakfast items at fast food joints made McDonald’s got really big competition, including from KFC that also introduced scrambled egg, coffee, waffle and chicken porridge as breakfast menu in Indonesian joints. Therefore, Michael hoped that similar events will help McDonald’s to increase the selling of breakfast menu, especially McMuffin, which is actually a rather new invention (it was introduced in 1971). The strategy was quite successful; since last year, McMuffin has been a very popular breakfast menu item among customers of McDonald’s Indonesia.
Besides the increase of customer purchase of breakfast item, Michael also has good intention of keeping the tradition of having good breakfast before doing activities. By further promoting hearty breakfast menu including at the drive through in big cities, he hoped to shape good habit of having proper meal before activities.