The background of the incident is this. McDonald's sold its US shares to CITIC Carlyle, and the Chinese operating company was renamed Golden Arches. This Golden Arches has no capital relationship with McDonald's. In other words, it cannot be called McDonald's Corporation, a McDonald's restaurant authorized by Golden Arches to operate in China. and use the McDonald's trademark. Of course, behind the name change is still the operation of capital. For the majority of consumers, it has suddenly become a hot topic among many netizens. Generally speaking, everyone is complaining that the new name is old-fashioned and not classy.
For many Chinese people, foreign fast food such as McDonald’s and KFC have very special emotions because they carry the memories of a generation. Behind this name change is a relatively successful operation of domestic capital in foreign markets. Of course, this also reflects the growing strength of China's national power. According to the official explanation, the name change is to better integrate into the Chinese market. To put it more clearly, it is the brand’s localization strategy.
Even if CITIC buys McDonald’s business in China, the name change of such a successful brand will certainly herald other changes. After being acquired by CITIC Group, it has stopped accepting individual franchises. In the future, it is very likely that franchises will no longer be issued. Newly added stores in the future are likely to be directly operated. This also means that profit margins will further increase.
The name is more localized. Will we also launch some Chinese food in the food category in the future? At present, this is very likely. Because KFC is already doing this.
Following this logic, will KFC change its menu? Of course, Burger King will benefit the most from this change. Finally, it’s not the foreign brand with the most tacky name?… Maybe we can see more creative names appear in the future: