McDonald's U.S. Marketing Chief to Leave
April 04 2017 - 8:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Julie Jargon
McDonald's Corp. top marketer in the U.S. is expected to leave
the company as part of another management shake-up aimed at
reviving the burger chain's fortunes, according to people familiar
with the matter.
Deborah Wahl, the chain's U.S. marketing chief for the last
three years, is expected to be replaced by Morgan Flatley, formerly
CMO of Global Nutrition at PepsiCo Inc. In addition, two other top
U.S. executives are expected to leave. Lance Richards, head of U.S.
menu, is expected to be replaced by Linda VanGosen, a former
Starbucks Corp. vice president. Julia Vander Ploeg, head of U.S.
digital, is expected to be replaced by Farhan Siddiqi, who most
recently served as vice president of global digital experience at
McDonald's.
They are the latest management changes being made by Chief
Executive Steve Easterbrook, who has to strengthen the business in
McDonald's biggest market. The chain experienced a sales lift
immediately following the launch of all-day breakfast last year,
but the growth tapered off before falling in the fourth quarter as
it lapped the daylong breakfast anniversary. The company last week
said it plans to switch to fresh beef in its Quarter Pounders next
year. The move was seen as a way for McDonald's to be more
competitive with fast-food rival Wendy's Co., which has always
served fresh beef, as well as with fast-casual burger chains.
McDonald's recently said it plans to embrace its identity as an
affordable fast food company rather than chasing customers who just
won't go to a McDonald's. The chain has been working on improving
its core products, like removing preservatives from its chicken
nuggets, switching to real butter in its Egg McMuffins and coming
out with new Big Mac sizes -- all of which it's been focusing on in
its advertising.
Mr. Easterbrook made a series of management changes last year,
including choosing Kraft Foods Group Inc. executive Chris
Kempczinski to head the U.S. business. Several other top-ranking
executives retired last year, including its chief field officer,
its chief administrative officer and the executive in charge of
customer experience.
Last month, the company tapped Bob Rupczynski, a Mondelez
International Inc. executive, to be its new global vice president
of media and customer relationship management. McDonald's is trying
to better target customers with a better loyalty program and roll
out mobile ordering and payment in its biggest markets.
The company has been trying to showcase the integrity of its
food, with ads showing that it only adds salt and pepper to its
beef and that it actually cracks real eggs in its restaurants.
McDonald's also has been using photos of how the food really
looks, with lettuce out of place, cheese oozing out and sesame
seeds falling off the buns, rather than using shots of
perfect-looking food in an effort to appear more authentic to young
customers in particular, who Ms. Wahl said in a recent interview
are particularly difficult to influence because of their mistrust
of anything staged.
Last year, Ms. Wahl orchestrated a big move to consolidate its
creative agency business with Omnicom Group to create a new "agency
of the future, " ending McDonald's 35-year relationship with
Publicis Groupe 's Leo Burnett agency in the U.S.
--Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article.
Write to Julie Jargon at julie.jargon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 04, 2017 19:48 ET (23:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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