Walt Disney and Ray Kroc pioneered marketing strategies that are still important in 2020. Eric Schlosser explains the synergy of the two men and their companies in his book, Fast Food Nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. These men successfully implemented sales strategies that catered to children. They also brought mass production to their industries. Their goal was to create brand loyalty.
Focusing marketing strategies on children after World War II ended made demographic sense. The birthrate was high after the war, so inculcating children with a love of McDonald's and Disney was a brilliant, if unconventional, strategy. This strategy, unheard of at the time, is now commonplace and much broader with the Internet.
Disney and Kroc were both from Illinois, were of similar age, and were both high school dropouts. They founded Hamburger University and Disneyland University as a way to formalize and enhance training at McDonald's and Disney. They also wanted to indoctrinate their leading employees.
Walt Disney was extremely adept at entertaining children, and Kroc learned from him. Disney had Snow White, and Kroc had Ronald McDonald. Disney opened huge amusement parks, and Kroc put small McDonaldlands and Playlands in his restaurants throughout the country. Kroc put simple toys in meals for children—a brilliant idea!
Although Disney and Kroc passed away years ago, their companies and their marketing strategies are still thriving in 2020.
The first section of Fast Food Nation, "The American Way," casts both McDonald's and Disney as early innovators in the business of exploiting the receptivity of children to imagery in an increasingly media-saturated world. Since they first set up shop in the mid-20th century, the two companies have enjoyed particular success in advertising. Schlosser contends that they pack these ads with vivid and emotionally-charged imagery appealing to children's impulses to mimic each other. Mimicry is crucial to early identity formation, and both Kroc and Disney knew that it could be tapped for business purposes.
Schlosser suggests that both businessmen were once highly precocious children, and knew how to manipulate and transcend assumptions and norms to meet their various goals. As teenagers, they both lied about their ages to get jobs as ambulance drivers for the same company. They went on to work in short iterations in a broad range of companies and roles, picking up knowledge and skills, Schlosser suggests, faster than they might have otherwise. Schlosser thus characterizes Kroc and Disney as moral relativists and entrepreneurs at heart, implying also that moral relativism (some might say amorality) is now entrenched in the fast food industry.
This chapter of “Fast Food Nation” makes a number of comparisons between Kroc and Disney, two men who came from similar backgrounds and actually served in the same unit during the first World War.
Schlosser points out that both men were consummate salesmen. Both understood that the key to selling was as much about the feeling a product gave you, as the thing itself. In this sense, they were both masters of branding.
Both men understood the importance of marketing to children.
Both men were fanatics about control and consistency. Disney developed a method to “mass produce” animation, inspired by Henry Ford’s assembly line; Kroc similarly understood that absolute consistency was essential to the McDonald’s brand.
Both men subscribed to a particular vision of America. Both Kroc and Disney understood the nuclear family as the bedrock unit, not only of society, but of marketing. Both men made their fortunes by convincing customers that buying their products could “purchase” happiness.
Schlosser argues that one of the lessons Kroc took from Disney was the importance of synergy in marketing. Disneyland was one of the key influences that led to the development of Ronald McDonald and the McDonaldland concept; these characters could be used in commercials to market to kids, or used as toys in meals sold to kids, or used to promote McDonald’s restaurants as the place where kids could engage imaginative play with these characters, thought the development of “play places.”
In Chapter 2, Schlosser writes about the many comparisons between the founder of McDonald's, Ray Kroc, and the founder of Disney, Walt Disney. They even, in fact, knew each other growing up. Schlosser writes that both men were masterful at sales, and shared a love of conservative politics (though, while Disney criticized government intervention, he relied on federal money to save his studio in the 1940s) and technology.
Ray Kroc incorporated Disney's emphasis on showmanship and marketing into his campaign to promote McDonald's, and the important point that Schlosser is making is that fast food is as much about salesmanship, toys, and entertainment as it is about the food (or maybe even more so). McDonald's has marketed itself directly to children through television commercials and "playlands," as well as cartoons, sweepstakes, and other means. Schlosser presents this information to emphasize that fast food is more than just food; its appeal also comes from the show and the attractions that the restaurants provide to children and their families.
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