McDonald’s is not a mickey-mouse corporation.  Not only that, they are publicly listed and traded, so they have corporate governance to deal with, in addition to shareholders demanding a return on equity, and return on investment.  If you were small potatoes, like Nando’s Canada, you would do well, to simply copy what McDonald’s does, carte-blanche, and tweak it a bit around the sides.

For some reason, Nando’s Canada, trying to show everyone how smart they are, appears to enjoy doing everything the exact opposite of McDonald’s.   Not very smart.

For example, check out McDonald’s corporate press-page, where anyone wanting to get information, past, present, and future, goes directly to McDonald’s, and where they control the corporate branding and message that gets out.

LINK to McDonald’s Canada corporate and press centre

Even better, at the bottom of that page, all the people employed in the media relations department as listed by name:   FIRST AND LAST.  That create personal accountability on the part of everyone involved in that department.

Go to Nando’s Canada website?   No pictures of food.  No listing of who is in charge, who is responsible.  No controlled message.  Franchisee dissent over bone-headed decisions such as demanding that all locations take down their TVs.  Franchisees posting **anonymously** on Youtube.  Dedicated customers such as myself, who can’t understand the logic backing these dumb corporate decisions that are costing everyone money, resort to setting up blogs like this to articulate our displeasure with Nando’s Canada HQ.

too many ASSumptions about the reader knowing what Nando’s is, and what their history is.  Who cares about your god-forsaken secret language?  People just want to know what kind of food you have to offer.  Tell them what you sell, and show them what you sell.  Marketing is mostly a visual business.  Sex and porn is a visual business.  Why?  Because the human being has stereoscopic vision, is a visual-being, and imaging SELLS.  Give them a deal, an incentive to try you out.  Upon their first visit, sell them on the flavour and the experience, and tell them what price points you are at.  GET THEM IN THE DOORS OF YOUR LOCATIONS.  Prospective customers simply dont’ know what “a Nandos” is.  Even your existing customers likely can’t describe, or identify what your other offerings are, that they have not yet tried.

This is a visual business.  Show the food to BOTH your existing and prospective customers to expand your demographic, and to encourage experimentation with the less-common menu items.

Your marketing department has been a sorry joke.  But not that i use the pass-tense.  Anything can be changed on a dime if an active effort is made. 

ATTENTION: Nando’s Canada.  You are wasting a lot of resources hiring marketing firms (as if they know what they are doing), going after “Facebook likes” that have no long-term metrics to support the campaigns.  you are frittering away precious corporate dollars, instead of taking action on specific meaningful actions which can be measured to add dollars to your bottom-line.

Heads should roll in the corporate offices.  You could hire the top 5% in any highschool grad class, to simply copy the “best-practices” of McDonald’s, and implement every single one of those policies on an expedited basis.  And your sales results will improve 25% year-over-year, overnight.