'McNugget has run out of stock within a week'

With annual sales of 4.8 million packs in over 100 countries, McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is a billion dollar brand. Arvind Singhal, director - marketing (West and South), McDonald’s India, spoke to Sapna Agarwal on the product’s India launch just a fortnight ago. The company introduced the product only after the Indian Premier League (IPL) was over, as the strategy was to create the maximum buzz and use the not-so-expensive air time on general entertainment channels, and below-the-line advertising. Edited excerpts of an interview:

Was the launch of the television commercials on Chicken McNugget in India after IPL a conscious decision?
(Laughs): Post the IPL, we needed something to create a new buzz and we thought this could be done only by Chicken McNugget! Commercial airtime during a cricketing event like IPL is much more expensive. We are also not advertising during the ICC T20 championship. We feel we can maximise our budget spends by looking at other general entertainment channels to air our promotions and also take up below-the-line advertising – on ground activations and internet promotions – for better mileage.

Your last big core product launch was Wraps and Curries four to five years ago. How has the response been to the Chicken McNuggets launch in India? While Wraps is growing at 10 per cent per annum, we have discontinued Curries. Chicken McNugget is a core brand and a global success. We had test marketed the product here and were confident that it would be a success here as well.

The response has been far higher than what we had anticipated. We have run out of a month’s stock – 4000 cartons, with each carton serving 1000 pieces of nuggets – within one week of the launch of the television commercial on May 25. Also, for that one week, our average bill per table was higher by 5 per cent.

What is the new production plan and how much do you expect the brand to contribute to your overall revenues?
It is too early to comment as we are still working on these estimates. Globally, Chicken McNugget contributes to 6-7 per cent of the overall revenues of the company.

When can we expect the product back in the stores? Now that McNugget is out of stock, do you plan to change your communication and advertising strategy in the short term at least?
It will be another week to 10 days before we can resume supply of McNugget. We have put up signages in our stores informing customers that we are out of stock. The TVC though continues to be on air. However, we have postponed the launch of our online campaign by two weeks by which time we hope to resume supplies.