As of last Friday, you can now access free WiFi at almost all McDonald’s locations in the US. While much coverage of this has stated that McDonald’s is trying to take their brand more upscale, I believe that this misses the mark on their brand positioning.
The McDonald’s brand means different things to different people, but can be roughly separated into two groups. The first group is children, for whom the brand represents fun. The other group is almost all adults, who see McDonald’s as a convenience. The new WiFi offerings strengthens their brand’s position for both of these groups. Kids can now download the latest games, sometimes exclusive to McDonald’s to their handheld gaming devices.
And for the rest of us, it makes our 15 minute lunch stop at McDonald’s even more convenient. We can check our work email quickly, but locations aren’t taking down their signs stating something to the effect of ‘Please don’t stay longer than 30 minutes.’
This is the key difference between the brands of McDonald’s and Starbucks. Starbucks has long positioned themselves as a relaxing, home away from home. Free WiFi is a part of that positioning as you are encouraged to stay a while and soak in the atmosphere and culture (Starbucks even offers coupons for free music downloads on iTunes). McDonald’s is not moving in that direction.
However, as the only WiFi game in town, Starbucks did get the benefit of attracting customers that didn’t really care for their brand position but wanted the convenience of quickly checking their email. It is these customers that McDonald’s is trying to win back.
What do you think? Is this a bigger threat to Starbucks?
I have been downloading games for my LG but when I go to games the game that I have downloaded is not there. When I go to the files it’s there but beside it there’s a question mark. Could anybody tell me where to get a free LG CU500 or TU500 games (no text) or could anybody help me fix it.
If anybody have a CU500 or a TU500 and they have put new games on there phone, could some one tell me how they put it on there phone
i am so bored with my computer and i want pokemon games that is downloadable,free and legal like D&P,ruby,emerald and sapphire.
Help I’m a mother working on her daughters sweet sixteen party I’m creating her a website for people to go on and read about her, facts and fiction, blogs and a game page. I need to get a game dealing with diamonds to put on the site for people to play (a free download) and how I would do it. Her theme is White diamonds. How do I do this
“When you think of the University of Mississippi, the first thing you think of is the past.” – Former Ole Miss Running Back Deuce McAllister (ESPN.com).
Music and race in this country go hand and hand. Blues, jazz, rock and roll…
On Tuesday, they collided in a fatal crash on Route 6 in Oxford.
From Dixie With Love [download/listen to the audio file here] is a song played by the Ole Miss band before and after football games. It’s been that way since the 1970’s. The song is a blend of Dixie, All My Trials and the Battle Hymn of the Republic written by an assistant band director in the mid-1970s, supposedly as a way to get away from just Dixie, which had become offensive to many people in the post Civil Rights era.
Fast-forward to October and November 2009…
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Ole Miss chancellor Dan Jones announces that From Dixie With Love would no longer be played at games if fans continue to include the traditional chant “The South Will Rise Again” – chanted during the transition between the slow opening and the fast closing.
The Ole Miss student government passes a resolution suggesting the chant be replaced by the phrase, “To hell with LSU.”
The band shortens the song to discourage fans from the traditional chant during part of the tune. But, some continue to recite the chant at the end of the song, despite the change made at the chancellor’s request.
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So the line in the sand was drawn. Dr. Jones announced the fate of the song would be decided by fan reaction during the Old Miss-Northern Arizona game this past Saturday.
The chant continued.
Tuesday, Dr. Jones wrote a one-page letter to the Ole Miss community [view it here] banning the song to be played at all. At least for now. He wrote, “If the chant stops and our elected student leaders ask for the song to return, I will consider their request. But for now, those who continue the chant leave me no choice but to ask the band to stop playing (the song).”
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End of story?
Read the comments to a post from yesterday over at the Ole Miss blog Red Cup Rebellion. It’ll take all of your lunchtime, but if you want all 100 sides of the issue, read it.
If you want a lengthy but extremely worthy read on this issue from the Ole Miss perspective, read what Godfrey has to say in a Nov 4th post over at The Godfrey Show. Godfrey reminds us that the playing of From Dixie With Love is a game-day tradition, but the chanting of TSWRA is not. Godfrey writes that the chant “is not, nor ever has been, a tradition at Ole Miss during football games. I’ve been attending and reporting on almost every home game for the Rebels in the last decade. It’s been going on no more than four years. Don’t argue with me.”
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In the near term, it should be obvious to the most casual observer that Saturday’s game will be attended by a very partisian home crowd with a lot on their mind. Many of the players also will have a lot of pride to play for – Saturday is the return of Ed Orgeron to Oxford, former Ole Miss head coach (“Coach O”) now roaming the sidelines for the Vols as one of Lane Kiffin’s key staffers. Ed recruited many of Ole Miss’ key players during his stint in Oxford.
As Rebel star TB Dexter McCluster said, ”Different guys think different things about him. But everyone’s excited about it. Everyone wants to go out there and win. Him being our former coach – we have a connection with him from the past few years. It’s emotional. Everyone wants to go out there and show him what we’ve become.”
I look forward to Saturday for a lot of reasons.
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I’d like to look back, also.
Colonel Reb, 1975
I see all the things I really want to download on the sims2, but every time I download something, it makes my computer more slower, and my sims 2 game lag. Is there anything I can download to make my comp better, or something so I can download more sims 2 items? Please help me with advice, if you know. Thank you very much!
(and i want to know how to download more sims 2 things without having a slow game!)