Willard Scott the first Ronald McDonald wasn’t invented until 1965. He had a cold drink cup for a nose and a serving tray as a hat. He was a pretty scary looking character for being a kid’s mascot. And it wasn't until 1972 when McDonald's introduced “McDonaldland” that the corporation knew that they had a good idea of how best to use Ronald for marketing. And they still weren't sure what to do with the character or whether or not he could sell hamburgers.
Watch the first TV commercial from 1965:
The same was true with the "Happy Meal". McDonald's researchers knew this, that moms were buying the kids fries and a drink or a hamburger and a drink but rarely all three. They came up with the cute cardboard box and tried it out in their St. Louis restaurants, and the rest was history. Many of the McDonald's breakthroughs came from franchise owners. Like a fish sandwich in a mostly Catholic neighborhood of Cincinnati.
When you buy a franchise you buy into the wealth of experience and knowledge of the existing franchise owners and the company. Often called "best practices" by the franchise company, it means they harvest the ideas of their best franchisees, package it up, make up a lesson plan and operational plan and redistribute it back out to the franchise owner base.
In this way franchises becomes stronger body duplicating the success of their best franchisees. One of the many advantages of owning a franchise.
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