OAK BROOK Ill. McDonald's will hand out free samples of its McCafé Mocha to customers every Monday from July 13 to Aug. 3 as the fast-food chain continues to promote its new line of premium espresso drinks.
Participating McDonald's locations will offer free 7-ounce iced mochas or 8-ounce hot mochas between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on the giveaway days.
“This is one of the largest sampling initiatives we’ve taken on as a company,” said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s USA. “McCafé has already become an essential part of our customers’ everyday routine, and now we are giving even more people an opportunity to enjoy a complimentary, fully customizable McCafé Mocha morning, noon and night.”
McDonald's introduced the McCafé line nationwide May 5 after having tested the coffee drinks in several markets since November 2007. The line includes lattes and mochas, which are available hot or iced, along with cappuccino.
The “McCafé Mocha Mondays” sampling event is intended to be a reintroduction of different options to the chain’s guests, said spokeswoman Heather Oldani.
“This is another way to ... continue the engagement with our McCafé beverages,” Oldani said. “When we launched our national creative for this line May 5, it was multiproduct. We had cappuccinos, lattes and mochas. What we want to do here is to give our guests the opportunity to try the mochas. They may have tried other beverages, but mocha is a very popular flavor.”
Giveaways have been a popular tool among quick-service chains to promote new products. Arby's is showcasing its latest Roastburger sandwich this week with a text message promotion that offers a free Bacon Cheddar Roastburger with the purchase of a drink. Long John Silver's also is promoting a new menu item by letting customers try it for free with a July 14 giveaway of its Baja Fish Taco. The fast-food fish chain's plans follow a highly publicized, though problem-plagued, giveaway offer in May by sister brand KFC for its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken.
McDonald’s had done some sampling in the past few years to introduce new products, such as the Chicken Selects and the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich. The chain will “never say never” when considering giving away other beverages in the McCafé line, Oldani said, though there are no current plans to try sampling promotions with the cappuccinos or lattes.
The chain’s most recently introduced premium product, the Angus Third Pounder burger, is not slated for a national sampling event either, but local operators have been given some guidelines for such a promotion if they want to try it, Oldani added.
The Mocha Monday giveaway was inspired by similar promotions at the local level during the McCafé launch, Oldani said.
“This is a program that our local markets did successfully,” she said. “Chicago had this when they first rolled out McCafé drinks earlier this summer. We looked at the success the local markets had and said that this could probably work on a national level.”
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].
