Research on Product Marketing Strategies and Cultural Identity Construction of Restaurant Brands in the Context of Digital Marketing: A Case Study of McDonald's “Hash Brown All-Day Availability” and KFC’ s “Old Beijing Chicken Wrap” Marketing Campaigns

Abstract

Under the dual background of digital marketing penetration and the shift in Gen Z’s consumption demands, competition among catering brands has evolved from a contest of taste and price into a battle of cultural construction capabilities. However, existing research rarely explores how specific products become carriers of cultural identity. This study selects two classic product cases. McDonald’s “Hash Brown All-Day Availability” and KFC’s “Old Beijing Chicken Wrap” for a comparative analysis from four dimensions: insight, product, interaction, and fulfillment. The findings reveal that McDonald’s follows an emotion-driven path: capturing customer emotions while co-creating with consumers through fan conventions, elevating the hash brown into a symbol of “office workers” and forming the identity of “McDonald’s devotees.” By contrast, KFC follows a cognition-driven path: capturing demands through a dual-track mechanism, triggering communication via UGC, and solidifying the Old Beijing Chicken Wrap as a cultural symbol, thereby forming the ritual identity of “anticipating Crazy Thursday.” This study uncovers the transformation mechanism from product preference to cultural identity, providing transferable paths for catering brands to build culture in the digital era.