A recent blog post at the website of McDonald’s in China has confirmed that the chain will be launching a spicy chicken sandwich to complement the Chinese 5 spice flavor. The new sandwich will be part of a larger promotion called “5 Spice Secret Treasure,” which is scheduled to run from August 15th until September 10th.
Taste testers say the new sandwich is “less sweet and greasy than other sandwiches” and that it holds its own against rival fast food chains like KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut.
The Spicy Chicken Sandwich was launched as part of a promotional campaign for NBA basketball, which is currently being held in several Chinese cities. It’s unclear whether this latest menu item is permanent or a limited-time offer, but Beijing resident Zhang Xian said he’ll probably give it a try either way.
“I’m not much of a fast food guy,” Zhang said. “But I saw how popular the other sandwiches were, so I think I’ll probably just get this one too.”
McDonald’s spokesperson Li Xiaoyu said that if sales are strong enough, she could see the Spicy Chicken Sandwich becoming part of the regular menu in the future.
“We’re always happy to bring more options to our customers,” Li said
On December 5, McDonald’s launched its “China-Inspired Spicy Chicken Sandwich” in conjunction with the popular Chinese 5 spice flavor. The company’s first foray into the growing spicy chicken sandwich market, McDonald’s is hoping to capitalize on the new flavor by piggybacking off of this existing trend.
In recent years, the popularity of spicy food has grown in China. In fact, billionaire Jack Ma recently announced that he will be investing $20 million in spicy chicken restaurant chain “Chima.” At the moment, there are already over 1,200 Chima restaurants across 50 Chinese cities and plans to open an additional 300 locations by the end of 2017.
McDonald’s plans to launch a new Spicy Chicken Sandwich at the end of February to coincide with Chinese New Year. The burger is already on sale in Korea and Japan. In China, however, the sandwich will have an additional twist: it will come with a packet of saffron-flavored mayonnaise, which is traditionally used as a dipping sauce for chicken in Chinese cuisine.
A company spokesperson told reporters that the addition of the Chinese 5 Spice flavor was based on customer demand. The addition will make the sandwich more suitable for the Chinese palate, the company said.
The Spicy Chicken Sandwich will be available at all McDonald’s locations across China starting Feb 28th, 2017.
Spicy Chicken Sandwich: http://www.mcdonalds.com.cn/zh_cn/menu/product…
Chinese New Year: http://www.chinadailymail.com/2017/01/17…
According to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal, McDonalds is launching a new chicken sandwich in New York City called the Spicy Chicken sandwich. The spicy chicken sandwich is meant to compete against Chick-fil-A’s spicy chicken sandwich.
When I found out that McDonalds was launching the Spicy Chicken Sandwich I thought it was an interesting topic because there are two ways to create a successful product. The first way is to create a similar product that is slightly different and more appealing than the competitors. The second way is to create a product that is different from all other products on the market and people will start buying it just for the difference.
I personally prefer the second method because even if your product doesn’t sell well, at least you know that you have created something new and different from what everyone else has done before.
What is “Chinese 5 Spice”? It’s a pork sandwich, with some meat and some vegetables, but mainly a lot of mayonnaise. Like this:
The story goes that in China, in the early 1990s McDonald’s restaurants were giving their customers chicken made with beef fat. This was supposed to be cheaper than using pure chicken fat, but it made the chicken taste bad. So someone at McDonald’s decided to make a new sandwich that people would like even if it didn’t taste good. They used pork instead of chicken, cooked the pork until it was very crunchy and browned, then put lots of mayonnaise on it to cover up the weird texture. It worked.
But that was then. Nowadays Chinese customers are demanding higher quality food, and last year McDonald’s announced they were going to sell better food in China. And so yesterday they launched a new product: Spicy Chicken sandwiches with real chicken breast (and still a lot of mayonnaise).
This is an old story for Western companies doing business in China: adapt or die. In this case I think the Chinese customers won’t be too happy when they realize there’s no real meat besides the chicken breast:
What do you think? Did McDonald’s make the right choice
McDonald’s’ China division today announced that it would be launching a second limited edition sandwich, in partnership with KFC. The new sandwich, the Spicy Chicken Filet Sandwich (麻辣鸡翅), will be sold for about $4.50 for a set of two to the public till the end of August.
The spicy chicken sandwich has been developed in cooperation with KFC, which has been selling its own version since July 2011. McDonald’s took this idea and made their own version of the spicy chicken sandwich by adding their own unique touch to it.
This unique McDonald’s product is part of a test to see if they can make their sandwiches more appealing to Chinese consumers who are used to strong flavors of food. It is also part of an attempt by McDonald’s China to change its image into something more modern and trendy. Now that they have added two sandwiches to their menu, it is possible that new customers may be interested in trying out McDonald’s restaurants for a change.*
McDonald’s China has just launched the Spicy Chicken sandwich, which is currently on promotion for 11 RMB. In conjunction with the launch, McDonald’s has also created a new social media campaign to appeal to Chinese netizens.
The spicy chicken sandwich incorporates red and green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and spicy chili sauce into the breaded chicken patty. The accompanying sauce is a spicy mayonnaise based concoction that is reminiscent of Sriracha (not the American version of hot sauce) and tastes quite similar to McSpicy’s Soy Garlic sauce. The first time I tried it, I thought it was quite tasty, but not mind-blowing or particularly spicy. Still, I will probably get it again as it is a nice change from their usual fare.
The social media campaign includes a lottery on Weibo where 10 people can win meals for two at any McDonald’s in China. There are also other games and activities where participants can win prizes through Weibo microblogging comments and sharing on WeChat.
This is the first time that McDonald’s has created an online campaign in conjunction with the launch of a new product. They have also taken care to make sure that their content