Plushies in Action

Worst of 2008:

1. A year of playing the stakes high, grabbing the damn bull by its horns, losing the ultimate battle.
2. A year where I truly understood a valuable lesson in life “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.”
3. For what I’ve lost, I’ve gained back much more …

Best of 2008:

1. Embracing social media. It’s now an integral part of my life and career.
2. Learning guitar. Always wanted to but could not find the time previously.
3. Discovering Tokyo’s awesomeness. I’ll be back soon.

Special thanks to Jonathan, Wee King & Larry as my biggest social media influence, Daniel Purnomo my favourite guitar teacher, and family, friends and colleagues who stood by me during difficult times. Rock on people!!!

I was suppose to continue on the topic of Subject Titles for Email Marketing and my thoughts on Michael Netzley’s Digital Comms workshop, but I was missing McDonald’s garlic chilli so much, I needed to talk about it.

It’s been a few months now, and I’m still wondering why McDonald’s took away their garlic chilli sauce. What were they thinking????

Maybe it’s another one of those “rational” cost cutting measures during bad economic times, or perhaps some peculiar survey findings reflected a change in consumer taste. Whatever the reasons, did McDonald’s really do their homework diligently? Did they conduct focus groups, get feedback online prior to this, monitor reactions on forums and blogs? Or maybe McDonald’s simply felt that the cost savings from discontinuing their garlic chillies far outweighs the lost of business from patrons like myself.

How tragic. Many of us grew up with their garlic chilli. I personally eat it with everything- Burgers, fries, nuggets, even with KFC’s crispy chicken. I go to McDonald’s not because they’ve got the best burgers or fries in town. I go to McDonald’s because their garlic chilli taste great with everything. And no other fast food chain serves garlic chilli. So why take away a key differentiator?

I’m not reacting alone. Just Google search for “McDonald’s Singapore no garlic chilli” and see the reactions of like-minded Singaporean on forums. The community has spoken.

NO GARLIC CHILLI = NO MCDONALD’S.

To McDonald’s: If you’re listening, may I propose a possible solution for you?

If producing garlic chilli is severely eroding your bottom line (which I doubt it), consider charging a minimal amount, like $0.05 or $0.10 per packet. No doubt you will inevitably have to deal with some degree of public backlash when you charge for ancillaries, but at least you will be giving your consumers a CHOICE. It’s entirely up to them if they wish to pay for it. I speak for myself, and I will pay $0.05 or $0.10 per packet to fix that craving. I believe many of your hardcore garlic chilli loving fans will too.

So until you bring back garlic chilli, I’m NOT lovin’ it.