Quiet Meal

Ian Borden Invites Ukraine to Breakfast

By Scott Lewis

Ian Borden says that he's no marketing guru.  That may be true, but neither is he ignorant of the role that marketing plays in the success of the company he represents, McDonald's Ukraine. 

With the quick-service hamburger chain firmly established as one of the world's best-known brands, and a string of 67 restaurants in 19 cities across Ukraine, one might imagine that Borden's job is easy: Sit back and count the cash… no selling necessary. 
The Canadian expatriate is selling, though.  He knows his messages by rote and he sticks with them.  Right now, he's all about underscoring the company's commitment to quality and to building the breakfast segment of his business - right down to conducting media interviews over McMuffins in the flagship Kyiv outlet. 

Borden feels that the public doesn't realize how important quality is to McDonald's.  "We have a perception issue," he says. "We need to get better, become more persuasive in how we tell our story.  We need to move [the discussion] to quality."
He boasts about the quality of the company's employees, the lengths to which the company goes to ensure the use of clean, fresh eggs, and high-quality products.  He rhapsodizes about the coffee: "It's 100% Arabica, from sustainable crops grown in the rainforest.  The coffee machines cost EUR 10,000 and make a great cup of coffee", which is served in double-walled cups developed by a supplier in Italy.  "They're expensive, but create a more comfortable experience," he says.

Having solidified its position in the informal lunch and dinner market, the restaurant began offering breakfasts here in 2008.  Though the country doesn't have a 'breakfast culture' as such, there are signs that younger, more affluent Ukrainians are seeing value in the meal.  If so, that may be in part due to inducements McDonald's has offered to the sunrise set, from free Wi-Fi service and newspapers to tablecloths and the quieter, more relaxed atmosphere that a mostly empty restaurant permits.

"At lunch and dinner, the restaurant is crowded and noisy; there's high turnover," Borden says, adding that breakfast is "more leisurely.  People come in, relax, use their laptop or read the paper.  We've tried to create a different atmosphere."
Borden said that historically his restaurants did just five percent of their daily volume before 10 a.m.  That has remained true after the introduction of breakfast service, but now the average check is lower (breakfast items are priced lower than burgers), and guest count is up, albeit slightly.

"Of course, this is harder to measure due to the crisis," Borden says, "but before [the recession struck], breakfast was growing faster than the rest of the business."

At a time when most businesses are concerned with their survival in a tough market, McDonald's interest in selling coffee grown from sustainable crops may sound out of touch.  But not to Borden: "We don't want to be behind the curve.  We want to be in front of the curve.   If sustainability isn't an important issue in Ukraine now, it will be."

Another place McDonald's is setting the pace is with free Wi-Fi.  Borden can envision a time in the not-too-distant future when complimentary Internet access is as common as color TV in a hotel room.  "Communication is better when there is greater mobility," he says.  Offering free Wi-Fi isn't a major expense and is a way to recognize that we live in a mobile work environment.  Like other business people, Borden said that "McDonald's people work wirelessly.  They travel often, and need access while on the road." 
The native of Parry Sound, Ontario was a chartered accountant when he signed on with the finance department at McDonald's Canada as a corporate accounting manager.  After McDonald's Canada started the company's Russia operation, Borden was asked to go overseas.  At first, he declined, but eventually accepted an assignment in Moscow.  For the next 11 years, he worked his way through the Russian organization, leaving after becoming chief financial officer of McDonald's Russia.

"For eight or nine of those 11 years in Russia, I served on the senior management team. We spent a lot of time together, and I especially spent time with the marketing team, working on strategic plans," he said.  And while noting that "marketing is not my strength," he noted that he often had "an inverse relationship" to the marketing team. "Here I was, the finance guy, and I fought to keep prices down, while the marketing team wanted higher prices," he says with a grin.

Borden admits that McDonald's has done a great marketing job over the years, but adds an important caveat: Marketing isn't everything.
"No company can have success if it can't deliver.  We have great products, great people, and a great system.  We're relevant to our customers.  Marketing alone can never deliver success."