Why 40% of McDonald's Sales Are Kids' Meals

Did you know that 40% of McDonald's sales are kids' meals?

Wow! That's a big chunk of their sales.

Let's take a look at the cause and effect of this and what we can learn from it.

McDonald's kids' meals are designed with kids in mind. You won't find a Big Mac in a kids' meal. Instead, the menu consists of smaller, kid-sized meals.

Takeaways:

• Make sure your teaching CONTENT is age-appropriate.

• Make sure your teaching METHODS are age-appropriate.

Playground. Kids love to play. Especially on an indoor playground. McDonald's knows this and uses it for leverage and marketing. There are many parents who go to McDonald's for one reason - so their kids can play and burn off some energy. There are many kids who go to McDonald's for one reason - the playground.

Takeaways:

• Create spaces for play. Parents are looking for places where their kids can play while they watch them and sip on a coffee.

• An indoor playground is one of the best investments you can make for your ministry. Here's an example of this. At one of the churches where I was the children's pastor, we put in an indoor playground. In the summer, when it was blazing hot outside, we opened the playground up for children and their parents (parents had to stay and watch their child). We encouraged our church families to invite their neighbors, friends, family, etc. to come and play with them. In the summer heat, parents were looking for air-conditioned play areas where they could take their children. Each week we would have 20-30 guests come and play. Halfway through playground time, we would have the kids sit down and share with them a short Bible lesson. We were able to see families come to Christ.

Kids heavily influence their parent's decisions. Parents often let their children decide where they will eat. Thus they end up at McDonald's instead of Olive Garden or Outback.

Takeaways:

• Families will choose a church based on their children's opinion. on board

• Kids are the key to reaching entire families. Get the kids on-board and the family will follow.

An ever-changing food box. McDonald's regularly changes out the theming on the box that holds the kid's meal. You will find the box is themed with the latest kids' movie, cartoon, sports or superhero. The "food" doesn't change, but the box that contains the food changes to stay relevant.

Takeaways:

• Stay in touch with what is relevant with kids.

• Be willing to change to stay relevant.

Toys. The kids' meal contains a toy and kids love toys. This is another "extra" factor that makes the kids' meal appealing to kids. Often these toys

become the deciding factor about where to eat.

Takeaways:

• What do you give children on their first visit to your church?

• What do you give children if they return for a second visit? Did you know the national average of kids and their families returning for a second visit to a church is about 7%? At one of the churches where I led, we decided to invest some money in seeing kids come back for a second visit. I started giving kids a t-shirt with our logo on it when they came back. I sent a personal, handwritten note to let them know about this. Once we started doing this, our return rate went up to 38%. The money we spent on the t-shirts was a great investment.

I often say that a healthy church will be made up of a minimum of 15-20% kids. This means if you have a 100 people at your church, 15-20 of them will be kids.

What is your current percentage average? Implement some of the steps you've read about in this article and you will see the percentage of kids who attend your church will grow.