McDonald’s pivoted to value and won. Now it’s taking a big, beefy gamble on the Big Arch The fast food giant’s biggest-ever burger has a premium price tag in a value-driven time. Can it deliver a big bump in sales or will it be a repeat of McDonald’s most famous flop? Thirty years ago, McDonald’s released its most infamous and expensive flop, the Arch Deluxe. Marketed as a burger with a “grown-up” taste, it promised culinary transcendence through premium ingredients, years of research and testing, and the then exotic siren scent of dijonnaise sauce. To the shock of the company brass, American consumers didn’t fall over themselves to pay for something at McDonald’s that was more expensive than a Big Mac. (A $150 million advertising campaign that involved children being grossed out by the adult-themed burger probably didn’t help.) Within a few years, the sandwich unceremoniously disappeared from menu boards. Decades later, former McDonald’s Head Chef Andrew Selvaggio also shared that the Arch Deluxe was an operational nightmare for an industry built on thrift, speed, and uniformity. “It was a new burger that required a new sauce, new buns, new lettuce, seasoning.” The specter of the Arch Deluxe disaster, which has since become legendary material for MBA case studies and corporate cautionary tales, will no doubt serve as nightmare fuel for McDonald’s executives when the company releases the Big Arch on March 3.#mcdonalds #chris_kempczinski #andrew_selvaggio #big_arch #arch_deluxe
