A burger war is heating up in Japan with McDonald's slashing the price of its hamburgers yesterday as rivals contemplate introducing new products to attract customers.
Japan's version of the US fast food chain lowered the price of its burgers to ?59 (US$0.50) from ?80 to benefit customers hit by the nation's economic woes, but analysts were unsure whether the move would be successful.
"This is part of our ongoing campaign to meet diverse customer demands. Amid the current economic slump, cutting prices was one of a variety of requests made by our customers," said McDonald's Japan spokesman Kenji Kaniya.
"We have been introducing a wide range of new products, including a new salad menu and premium coffee. The price cut is one of many strategies aimed at attracting customers," he said.
The latest campaign is more aggressive than an earlier scheme when regular hamburgers were sold for ?65 on weekdays for two years.
It reflects the cut-throat competitiveness of Japan's ?666.7 billion burger industry, 65-percent dominated by McDonald's, analysts and industry people said.
Competition became tougher after mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) was found last year in some Japanese cattle, discouraging customers from eating beef.
What's the attraction?
"Price cuts alone are not likely seen as a huge attraction among consumers. Continued introduction of new products and new campaigns, coupled with price reductions, will keep their image fresh and attract customers," said Kana Sasaki, food retail analyst at UFJ Tsubasa Research Institute.
"It is difficult to tell how effective the price cut will be in increasing their revenue. There are a lot of uncertainties. We just have to wait and see how things turn out," she said.
An official with the Japanese unit of another major US-based hamburger chain agreed.
"McDonald's once cut prices, but reinstated the regular price, and now they are cutting them again. Exactly what kind of impact the price reduction might bring is difficult to assess," he said, asking to remain anonymous.
"We are not doing anything for now to counter their move," he said.
Kaniya of McDonald's said his company would review its price structure every three months to respond to consumers' needs.
"If our customers support the new hamburger prices, we will keep them. If they do not, we will reconsider our strategies," Kaniya said.
The price of McDonald's cheese-burgers and frankburgers have also been lowered.
A spokesman for First Kitchen, a Japanese fast food chain with 117 burger outlets, said the McDonald's decision reflected the ongoing trend of price competition.
"The price of hamburgers has been falling for sometime now. The price cut [by McDonald's] only adds to the trend," First Kitchen's PR representative Masayuki Suzuki said.
The company was not launching a special campaign to counter the McDonald's move.
"Price competition is important. But what is more important is to differentiate our products from others. Since last year, we have introduced pizza on our menu and different types of french fries," he said
"What we call `menu variation' will be a key to success in this business."
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS