McDonalds Japan Goes No-Brand with Quarter Pounder Shops

I wish I could have frenchfries right now and cheeseburger but mcdonalds cheeseburger is so small here.So it's more filling with burger kings whopper meal and frenchfries but also to small here.
Fast food...junk food is never cheap either as people say...

Some have said the size of McD's burgers is smaller in Japan compared to North America - maybe the sets offered at Quarter Pounder are less (of a deal) than meats (pun intended) the eye? 

I'm not in Japan and hello btw.

well this is the dumbest idea i've ever heard. It's the Dicks strategy...but without the dicks awesomeness. Give me a dicks deluxe anyday. i'll pay 15000 yen for it. Sheeeiiiit

Neither In-N-Out or McDonalds has sh*t on Dick's

you love dicks...

So does "burgers being smaller in Japan" mean it's not a quarter pound (precooked)?
I'm confused here.

Shiiiiiiiiiet dog.

I live in Japan and the burgers are McDonalds are the same size as the ones back home. They are a lot more expensive, though.

Uh, how is a quarter pound burger in Japan smaller than a quarter pound burger anywhere else?

It makes me angry when people write dumb stuff like that.

Works for me. I'll take a Quarter Pounder either way.

Jiff
http://www.anolite.echoz.com

In the standard McD's restaurant, the Quarter Pounder is not an option. You can get the single or double cheeseburger but no QP. On the flip side, you CAN get the Mega Mac (Big Mac +2 extra beef patties).

I haven't seen any of these new Quarter Pounder shops but then again I try to stay away from Omotesando and Shibuya on the weekends.

Isn't this what Chipotle does?

They call it Le *Royale* with Cheese.

Why? Because of the metric system. That's why.

they are both the same size in Japan like here in the u.s.. and taste the same (dont know how they make dogs taste like the meat back home but thats a diffrent story) I've been to McDs in US of A , Mexico, Japan, Germany and Somewhere around the U.K. fairly the same in price slight diffrence but its kinda like going to the McDs at SixFlags or something.. same taste same size..

...wow! how amazing of you to make that pun and how gracious to point it out to imbeciles like us that we can partake in the enjoying of the witty prose proffered by you. You sir, are not a man, You are truly a literary God.

Mc Donalds in Japan isn't about getting a good deal on your meal, it's all about the atmosphere. After spending 6 weeks in Japan as a high school student it was very clear to me that my friends didn't necessarily want to eat Mcdonalds every day of the week, yet forced me to go because it was the place to hang out after school.
A campaign like this will only bolster Mcdonalds already strong standing in Japan because of it's sleek and modern look to it. The "look" and f"eel" is what draws Japanese consumers in. Also it's worth noting that Mcdonalds in Japan is significantly more classy than those found in America. The decor is actually ascetically pleasing in all restaurants
.

I've heard "Dicks" are smaller in Japan too.

Yeah man, those burgers rock *LOL* :--)
I like the advertisement where a couple are gettin it on in te cubicle when Ronald McDonald walks in on them and catches them in the act so to speak.

The shame is there's a hawaiian buger shop named Kua Aina not a block away from there. About 700yen for a burger, but 20 times better. If you're in Shibuya, give them the business instead.

McDonalds is so hot right now they could wrap it in tin foil and sell it to the Queen as earrings.

You must be furious with Ford then, for calling one of their Mustangs the Mach One. Or wondering why The Killers haven't been arrested for murder yet. It's a NAME, that's all. Sheesh.

I saw the shop in Shibuya the other weekend. The line was like half a block long.

Funny to call it no-brand marketing, as the "Quarter Pounder" acts as a brand.
If you look at this defininition for a brand (from http://www.allaboutbranding.com/index.lasso?page=11,54,0):

A unique and identifiable symbol, association, name or trademark which serves to differentiate competing products or services. Both a physical and emotional trigger to create a relationship between consumers and the product/service.

Nope, I do not like it. Need the branding.

Kua Aina is a delicious burger experience. Please for the sake of your happiness, eat there...live there

No brand? Quarter Pounder *is* the brand, and even the trademark is registered. It's typical for large corporations who wish to promote a different "personality" using a different brand.

Last time I was in Japan, the biggest I could get was "big mac" and then the "double big mac." The double is impossible to eat without making a mess of yourself. Sandwiches can only be so tall.

But I fear the quarter pounder will confuse the Japanese who have been on the metric system for a very long time.

It is interesting to read that the quarter pounder in Japan is smaller. Do they have a different definition for a 0.25 Ibs? This sounds so much like the question you get asked when you are a kid: "which is heavier a ton of feathers or a ton of coal?".

Uh, how is a quarter pound burger in Japan smaller than a quarter pound burger anywhere else?

It all depends on the definition of pound. Not every country uses the same definition, which is why civilized countries uses the metric system. So if a Japanese pound is less than an American pound, then their quarter pounder will be smaller as well.

your a moron from the northwest that truly thinks your sh*tty dick's is better just because NO ONE CARES OUTSIDE seattle! Dick's is awful... only for hipster seattle douches

What many of you are forgetting is that Japan is a metric country, so they do everything by the gram. 0.25 pounds is 113.398093 grams, which is both an ugly number and impossible to weigh out per burger.

The burgers are done in metric sizes, and depending on the country, are somewhere between 100 and 110 grams, which is roughly 0.22 to 0.24 pounds, all smaller than a "Quarter Pounder". McDonalds QP burgers in France, the famous "Royale Cheese", are 110 grams.

This is an absolutely ridiculous name to use, Japan has no reference for our silly measurement system, they went metric in the 40s. We should have done the same decades ago. Instead, we're foisting our system on others...

How could they trademark a simple name like that?

What's to stop fake shops popping up all over the place?

The Quarter Pounder stands out because most other burgers in Japan are smaller than 4 ounces.

Hence, a 1/4 pound burger is going to stand out as being larger than most commercially available burgers. This does not mean that the burger is less than 4 ounces, or different from the US weight. It has nothing to do with metric conversion. If they can make 4 ounce patties in every other country on earth, they can make them in or for Japan as well.

What are they gonna do? Rename it the Hundred Grammer? Maybe I need to trademark that.

The US went metric in the 70's, at least officially.

I imagine that nobody wanted to be the bad guy and force road signs to change along with all of the other BS involved. Plus trying to teach everyone metric has got to be a daunting task. They're still trying to teach everyone to read, let alone understand a new system of weights and measures.

This article caught my eye right away. With so many stores and businesses focused on up selling and spontaneous sells. Focusing on one product and perfecting that product I wonder if it will work. I also wonder if it could work for The Great StarBucks ! Hmmm.. Might have something their.

Trigeia Twinz

http://www.TrigeiaBlog.com

What's Your Passion ?

why? this is cause the coffee thing almost ruined mcdonolds.

that nest egg is geting light i bet.

very clever McDonalds! clever indeed - they don't have the stupidest people working in their marketing department...

I wonder what Naomi Klein would say??
http://www.naomiklein.org/no-logo

I see in the theme of the "no branding" you've also taken the watermark off my pictures??!! Cheeky bastards .... guess i should be glad for the small link at the bottom which has driven a total of 16 visitors to a post i'm sure you got truck loads off traffic with.

I find the store kind of creepy.

VINCENT: No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the f*** a Quarter Pounder is.
JULES: What'd they call it?
VINCENT: Royale with Cheese.
JULES: Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a Big Mac?
VINCENT: Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
JULES: What do they call a Whopper?
Answer:___ ?_____ ...

Thanks for letting me know that the "Quarter Pounder" burger shop is a branch of McDonalds. I saw an ad online and was thinking of heading to Omotesando the next time I was in Tokyo. Instead I'll stay where I am and order a double classic cheeseburger from Freshness Burger

As for the name, Japan is a metric country (like 99% of the world), but the name "Quarter Pounder" will be katakana-ised in magazines and day-to-day life so any reference to the imperial weight will be lost. It will just become the phrase that can be heard in in countless movies and TV programs from the West. So for this burger bar, the label "Quarter Pounder" is more likey to mean "a burger from the Quarter Pounder burger bar" than it is to mean "a burger made with a quarter pound of meat."

Should it be "Half Pounder"?

This makes me think of some sort of dystopian society where there is only thing to eat. And if you don't like it you will be shot....=D

No brand? The brand is Quarter Pounder!

fucking weird.

I don't eat McDonald's, but this packaging is definitely more appealing to me. Maybe they will reel in the antis and the already devoted will come anyway?

It still seems so random...and I was just reading about McDonald's on a marketing blog - http://blog.marketingdoctor.tv - where they were praised for being so flexible and adapting to demand but prefaced it with: "The big things about McDonald’s cosmetic image (i.e., colors, designs, clown mascot) have never essentially changed. Neither has the basic serving and restaurant setup."
Guess they are even more flexible than though.. Full post: http://blog.marketingdoctor.tv/2008/11/15/brand-winners-and-losers-mcdon...

more info on the Quarter Pounder Stores from McDonald's Japan:
http://www.foodfacts.info/blog/2008/11/japan-quarter-pounder-store.html

http://www.goveg.com/

beat me to the pulp