Filipino-American chef Angela Dimayuga shared how her immigrant father changed the fast food scene with some marketing savvy, in a report by Vice’s food site, Munchies.
She’s now the executive chef at Mission Chinese Food which has branches in New York and San Francisco. Her dad Alan was in the restaurant biz too—he was a manager of a McDonald’s.
Creative and attentive to what people responded to, he conceptualized the extra value meal to win a sales competition.
Before extra value meals became a staple across all fast food chains, customers had to read from different parts of the menu to put a meal together.
Noting that this took time and that a more visual menu would be effective, the older Dimayuga placed photos of Coke with food so that customers would be enticed to order with a drink, thinking that it was the meal you were “supposed to have.”
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Her father also had lightboards made so that the menu was easily visible.
“And he numbered the meals one through six, so customers could order by number instead of piecemeal,” writes Angela.
This initially drew the ire of the chain’s vice president in the Bay Area since the branch didn’t conform with the restaurant’s standard designs.
But Alan had the numbers to back him up. The lightboard menu resulted to more sales since transactions were shortened by eight seconds.
Although executives disagreed with his methods, a national vice president recognized its brilliance. Eventually, the extra value meal was packaged as cheaper, as opposed to food items bought separately.
“He received awards and write-ups, and while he didn’t receive any extra monetary compensation for his idea, he felt empowered and full of joy,” relates Angela in the report.
She shares that she’s taking these learnings to her own experience running a restaurant: “Sometimes when I come up with strategies at work or ideas for efficiency at the restaurant, I think, ‘Maybe that came from my dad.’” Niña V. Guno/JB
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