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Szechuan Sauce

Mr.Brandtastic

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Now I don't know if you've been following the news media today in America.

But there were a bunch of people waiting for McDonald's for a limited one day run of Szechuan sauce. This was because it was mentioned in the popular tv show Rick and Morty and customers demanded McDonald's release it.

They did today. It was a disaster. They massively underestimated the demand for the sauce. Customers were outraged when most stores ran out of sauce in a fairly short amount of time.

Here's an article with more details: 'Rick and Morty' team 'not happy' with McDonalds sauce fiasco

Are there lessons to learn here? Yes, several.

1) If you promise something to customers, you better deliver. And you better deliver big. There are tons of videos online now of people screaming and yelling outside and inside McDonald's for sauce. While amusing, it underpins a lack of communication. As an entrepreneur, if you make big promises, you must make big deliveries.

2) These people are sidewalkers. Literally standing on the sidewalk waiting for...what? Sauce packets? And for what purpose? To emulate their current favorite fictional cartoon tv character. Wow. Drink in the majesty of that. I sincerely hope none of you waited for this today. It reminds me of the free $6 bucket of chicken story in The Millionaire Fastlane , but worse. Sidewalkers think their time is infinite and as such will wait hours and yes, days to get a sauce packet. Yes, not minutes, but days.

3) Piggybacking off of number 2, brand loyalty. People are loyal to Rick and Morty. So much that they will wait hours just to be a little more like them. This is brand power and brand loyalty. If you get your customers ramming down the door, you have power. A great deal of power. Create loyalty. Create power. Shape destiny.
 
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Last edited:

AllenCrawley

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I sincerely hope none of you waited for this today.
Well, I know of one forum member that hired someone to wait in line for $60. Once in line that person was offered $80 by someone else. Guess what he did? :rofl:
 

Argue

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This is crazy. Reminds me of people who wait all day on the phone calling radio stations to win "half a grand" in your hand.

Also I cringe that people waited on line for sauce. Shoutout to rick and morty tho for having sheep fans. That to me is success. :rofl:
 

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Police Called in to Control Rick and Morty Szechuan Sauce Fiasco at La Brea McDonald’s

Rick and Morty McDonald's Szechuan Sauce Official Poster
SOLD
Price: US $1,500.00

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Limited-Edition-Rick-and-Morty-McDonalds-Szechuan-Sauce-Official-Poster-/172912359852?hash=item28426139ac:g:mZ8AAOSwErFZ2TDZ

Szechuan Sauce - McDonald's Szechuan Dipping Sauce (4 packets) Rick and Morty
Ended:
Oct 08, 2017 , 3:29PM
Winning bid:
US $979.00
[ 70 bids ]
Szechuan Sauce - McDonald's Szechuan Dipping Sauce (4 packets) Rick and Morty | eBay
 
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MattR82

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This story is like one of those movies that end up being terrible because there's not a single likeable character anywhere to be seen.
 

MJ DeMarco

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2) These people are sidewalkers. Literally standing on the sidewalk waiting for...what? Sauce packets? And for what purpose? To emulate their current favorite fictional cartoon tv character. Wow. Drink in the majesty of that. I sincerely hope none of you waited for this today. It reminds me of the free $6 bucket of chicken story in The Millionaire Fastlane , but worse. Sidewalkers think their time is infinite and as such will waits hours and yes, days to get a sauce packet. Yes, not minutes, but days.

Welcome to the state of the idiocracy which has now become America.
 

focusedlife

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I'm not even gonna lie....

I ended up doing a search for this after an awesome day of paintballin' with the fam bam.

Here's the backstory (short...I promise):

Girlfriend's brother (apparent fan of Rick and Morty) asked that we stop by a "certain" Micky D's after the event to pick up some limited time Szechuan Sauce at a "participating" store, but, alas, when we got there, there was no sauce to be had.

The girlfriend, always wanting to cater to her lil bro, contemplated looking elsewhere for this stuff.

I wasn't about to join in nor, further, entertain this bullshit search.

The end.

I can't believe how much of a mini moron fiasco this has become.

F*cking smart marketing.
 
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JAJT

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F*cking smart marketing.

Eh...

- It was a stupid running gag joke in a cartoon.
- That gag became a random musing for a very popular internet cook who bases food ideas off tv/movie food items (this guy has become his own brand - so great for him):
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBhhlE92mIQ

- Mcdonald's delivered it as a joke to the co-creators as a random pr stunt: Szechuan Sauce delivered to co-creator of Rick & Morty from McDonald's
- Mcdonald's tried a limited release based on all the talk/demand/etc probably expecting a small fanbase to response, forgot how stupid people really are

I would call this a stupid accident rather than smart marketing.
It's like the Mona Lisa of marketing - it's so popular simply because it's so popular.

It seems like almost zero effort was put towards this marketing stunt and was rather a long series of "heh, let's play along for shits and giggles".

It only became a huge a$$ problem because people get absolutely stupid over small things like this.

If McDonald's had SERIOUSLY attempted to play this properly, they'd have seen how stupid people were going to get over it and do a proper limited time roll-out like the McRib or whatever.
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
Now I don't know if you've been following the news media today in America.

But there were a bunch of people waiting for McDonald's for a limited one day run of Szechuan sauce. This was because it was mentioned in the popular tv show Rick and Morty and customers demanded McDonald's release it.

They did today. It was a disaster. They massively underestimated the demand for the sauce. Customers were outraged when most stores ran out of sauce in a fairly short amount of time.

Here's an article with more details: 'Rick and Morty' team 'not happy' with McDonalds sauce fiasco

Are there lessons to learn here? Yes, several.

1) If you promise something to customers, you better deliver. And you better deliver big. There are tons of videos online now of people screaming and yelling outside and inside McDonald's for sauce. While amusing, it underpins a lack of communication. As an entrepreneur, if you make big promises, you must make big deliveries.

2) These people are sidewalkers. Literally standing on the sidewalk waiting for...what? Sauce packets? And for what purpose? To emulate their current favorite fictional cartoon tv character. Wow. Drink in the majesty of that. I sincerely hope none of you waited for this today. It reminds me of the free $6 bucket of chicken story in The Millionaire Fastlane , but worse. Sidewalkers think their time is infinite and as such will waits hours and yes, days to get a sauce packet. Yes, not minutes, but days.

3) Piggybacking off of number 2, brand loyalty. People are loyal to Rick and Morty. So much that they will wait hours just to be a little more like them. This is brand power and brand loyalty. If you get your customers ramming down the door, you have power. A great deal of power. Create loyalty. Create power. Shape destiny.

As a disturbingly devout Rick & Morty fan, I am proud to say I abstained from waiting for the sauz. For those unfamiliar with the show... this should clarify things.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXIWyYtq85E
 

InspireHD

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I hate to admit this. Anyone remember the Unicorn Frappucino from Starbucks? That blue and purple thing that held about 100g of sugar?

My wife wanted to try it so one day we went out to find one. I wasn't even sure it was real and felt like it was some viral prank Starbucks was pulling to get people into their stores. I was embarrassed to even be standing in line and feeling anxious anticipating the embarrassment when I got to the counter and tried to order one and have them tell me it was a prank. I mean, I only heard about it and never actually saw an advertisement about it. It wasn't even advertised in the store. I stood in line frantically searching on my phone to see if the dang thing was real.

Luckily, someone in front of us tried to order one and I heard they were out of the ingredients. So, we went and found another one. They didn't even serve them! Instead of driving around aimlessly, I called ahead and found one at a nearby mall. We went over and found people ordering 3 or 4 at a time. Like, wtf!

We got one, I tried it. It was sour. I couldn't even imagine dumping that much sugar into my body. After I tried it and the novelty wore off, I hated myself for wasting so much time trying to find it.

Never again...
 

ZF Lee

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Rick and Morty? Szechuan sauce?
What the hell are these things?
Do they make me money? Do they help me give more value? Do they help me make good use of my time?

Are they something that you can find at the bottom of Davvy Jones' locker or under the X at Silver Island?
 
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Dunkafelics

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I avoided this post and then it showed up on a Tapatalk e-mail lol. Read it and had a great laugh, thanks so much! Having worked for McDonald's WAYYYY back in the day, I can only imagine how much of a fiasco it must of been.
 

Ninjakid

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I've honestly never watched an episode of Rick and Morty, I've only seen it in memes
 
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MattR82

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I've honestly never watched an episode of Rick and Morty, I've only seen it in memes
It's actually pretty good. But not line up for sauce good lol.

Rick and Morty, South Park and anything by Louis Theroux is probably the only tv I watch all year. Shark Tank started annoying me for some reason.
 

Ninjakid

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It's actually pretty good. But not line up for sauce good lol.

Rick and Morty, South Park and anything by Louis Theroux is probably the only tv I watch all year. Shark Tank started annoying me for some reason.
South Park is such a classic. I don't really watch TV much these days except for Game of Thrones, UFC, and Formula One, and oh yeah occasionally South Park
 

MattR82

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South Park is such a classic. I don't really watch TV much these days except for Game of Thrones, UFC, and Formula One, and oh yeah occasionally South Park
You know with Liberty Media taking over F1, there could be a cool opportunity for someone with their shit seriously together to take advantage of them opening up their marketing and promotion side of things. But that's a bit off topic.
Ditto for Bellator.
 
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Ninjakid

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You know with Liberty Media taking over F1, there could be a cool opportunity for someone with their shit seriously together to take advantage of them opening up their marketing and promotion side of things. But that's a bit off topic.
Ditto for Bellator.
Yeah that's what they're trying to do. IMO they're doing a good job with promotional events and making every race into a huge event where people can get up close and personal with the drivers and teams which wasn't really done before. Also they've been given one of the most exciting times in F1 history, so they have lots of ammo for generating hype.
 

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Nothing wrong with enjoying whatever entertainment you enjoy.

Letting it get in the way of being a responsible and intelligent adult... well that's a different story.

There's a huge difference between the person who wants to buy the new SNES Classic at their local game store because they enjoy the nostalgia, and the person who waits in line for days, hears the stock never arrived, protests, throws a fit, punches a scalper, gets arrested, ends up on the news, and complains about it online for the next month until the next shiny object glints at them.

(I have no idea if that last part happened but shit like that happens all the damn time)
 

scottmsul

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My wife wanted to try it so one day we went out to find one. I wasn't even sure it was real and felt like it was some viral prank Starbucks was pulling to get people into their stores. I was embarrassed to even be standing in line and feeling anxious anticipating the embarrassment when I got to the counter and tried to order one and have them tell me it was a prank. I mean, I only heard about it and never actually saw an advertisement about it. It wasn't even advertised in the store. I stood in line frantically searching on my phone to see if the dang thing was real.

I remember hearing once about a burrito at Chipotle called the "Quesorito", where they make a quesadilla and use it to wrap a burrito, supposedly on their "secret menu". I tried to order it once, but they guy at the counter was just confused and told me he had never heard of one. I tried ordering another one later and they made it no problem.
 
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