Ronald McDonald was the most instantly recognisable mascot of the burger franchise giant McDonald's since his introduction in 1963, although he's been nudged into retirement in recent years. And now it looks as if the fast-food brand is handing the spotlight over to another much lesser-known character, CosMc, a yellow alien mascot first introduced to customers in the 1980s.
At present, not much information is available about what this new restaurant concept might entail, save that it is a"small format concept" and will be launched in a small number of test locations in early 2024. This is in line with McDonald's continued move towards developing more smaller and streamlined locations, such asat the end of 2022.
Post pandemic, many fast food restaurant brands have shifted towards smaller footprint locations as they acknowledge that customer preferences for drive-thru, carry-out and third party delivery options seem to be here to stay. Shrinking the physical size of operations naturally leads to a reduction in operating costs, so helping franchisees to remain as profitable as possible.
And whilst it's widely expected that the CosMc's launch will be in line with this forward thinking strategy and is highly likely to embrace some future-facing technology which would tie in well with the character theming, it's also a nod to nostalgia - something that has worked well for the McDonald's franchise brand in recent times.