Some thought the brand was dead and buried. Not anymore, it seems. Your favorite pop stars are dying, but McDonald's refuses to. Like the villain at the end of an action movie, just when you think it's breathed its last it comes back up, snarly-faced and firing.
一些人認(rèn)為麥當(dāng)勞品牌已日薄西山，表面上好像是這樣。你喜愛(ài)的流行明星們不斷老去離世，但是麥當(dāng)勞拒絕變老。就像很多電影結(jié)尾時(shí)的大惡棍一樣，當(dāng)你以為他快斷氣的時(shí)候卻突然起死回生，猙獰著面目頑強(qiáng)地抵抗。

This time last year, the headlines were dire. McDonald's was dull, tired, unimaginative and downright dowdy. Suddenly, this isn't so. The company has just announced that sales have gone up 5 percent around the world -- in restaurants that have been open at least a year. And 5.7 percent in the U.S.
去年這個(gè)時(shí)候的麥當(dāng)勞頭條報(bào)道令人失望。麥當(dāng)勞變得單調(diào)乏味，缺乏生機(jī)和創(chuàng)造力，很俗氣。然而這一切突然發(fā)生了變化。麥當(dāng)勞公司剛公布消息，全球所有營(yíng)業(yè)時(shí)間超過(guò)一年的門(mén)店?duì)I業(yè)額增長(zhǎng)5%。美國(guó)范圍內(nèi)增長(zhǎng)5.7%。

What could have led to this spectacular rising from the grave? I confess to being slightly shocked the other day when I walked past a McDonald's and there was the promise that its production line would make a burger any way I wanted. This seemed so strange for a brand that I thought of as more of a machine. What? They were sudden wondering whether there were better ways to eat a burger than the limited choices they traditionally offered?
是什么造成了這種起死回生的現(xiàn)象呢？我不得不承認(rèn)前幾天經(jīng)過(guò)麥當(dāng)勞的時(shí)候被其承諾震撼到了，麥當(dāng)勞生產(chǎn)線承諾可以制作出我想要吃的任何漢堡包。在我印象中麥當(dāng)勞是標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化產(chǎn)品生產(chǎn)機(jī)器。什么？現(xiàn)在他們竟然在考慮如何為顧客提供相對(duì)于傳統(tǒng)選擇更好的吃漢堡包方式 ？

Had McDonald's management suddenly started considering that customers might want something, well, different? (Where I live, it's called In-N-Out.) It seems they had. Even more shocking -- and please avert your gaze if you are of a more traditional bent -- McDonald's has been experimenting with kale salads. Just one more example of the hideous Californication of America. Oddly, there's a sense that it's working. There was one more big step. The company began to offer an all-day breakfast. The reaction from some McDonald's franchisees was akin to that of Tom Brady seeing five burly men trying to knock him straight into the side of a mountain.
難道麥當(dāng)勞管理層突然開(kāi)始考慮到顧客的多樣化需求了？貌似是這樣的。如果你是觀念很傳統(tǒng)的人，那么麥當(dāng)勞試著推出Kale沙拉會(huì)令你更加吃驚。這只是可怕的美國(guó)加州作風(fēng)的一個(gè)例子。奇怪的是，這似乎發(fā)揮作用了。麥當(dāng)勞甚至還有一項(xiàng)更大的舉措。公司開(kāi)始全天供應(yīng)早餐服務(wù)。麥當(dāng)勞內(nèi)部各個(gè)門(mén)店的反應(yīng)劇烈，就好比5個(gè)壯男把橄欖球員Tom Brady往山里推，Tom Brady使勁抵抗那樣。

It was causing operational chaos, was the claim. It forced the in-store staff to do too much thinking, which isn't easy when you're still in high school and your favorite meal comes from a bong. Yet here is McDonald's quietly (a joke) celebrating the fact that its all-day breakfast has driven sales skyward. There is, though, one important question that needs to be asked: Why are people eating breakfast at all times of the day?
全天早餐供應(yīng)引發(fā)了麥當(dāng)勞內(nèi)部營(yíng)運(yùn)混亂。這就等于強(qiáng)迫店內(nèi)員工多花心思在工作上，對(duì)于那些自身吃喝還要依賴別人提供的高中生員工來(lái)說(shuō)這可不是件容易事。此時(shí)麥當(dāng)勞卻偷著樂(lè)，慶祝全天早餐帶來(lái)的巨大收益。有個(gè)重要的問(wèn)題不得不提出來(lái)：人們?yōu)槭裁凑於家栽绮停?/div>

Is it because they're working harder, have no time for it in the morning, but cannot live without that glorious Egg McMuffin? Is it because they're not working so hard, so they're getting up later and believe that noon is the new 7am? Never having eaten a McDonald's breakfast at lunchtime, I took a look at the all-day menu. It includes hotcakes and sausage (510 calories), sausage biscuit with egg (520 calories) and a sausage burrito (300 calories).
是因?yàn)樗麄児ぷ鞅纫酝α耍繘](méi)時(shí)間早上吃早餐？但又離不開(kāi)美味的麥當(dāng)勞雞蛋松餅嗎？還是因?yàn)樗麄儾辉俟ぷ髂敲磁Γ凰街形?，使中午成為了新的早餐時(shí)間。我從未在午餐時(shí)候吃過(guò)麥當(dāng)勞早餐，我看了下菜單。上面有熱蛋糕和香腸（510卡路里），香腸雞蛋餅干（520卡路里）和一個(gè)墨西哥香腸玉米煎餅（300卡路里）

I conclude, therefore, that Americans aren't necessarily trying to lose weight. They simply in love with sausage and want to eat it all day. You, though, will also be wondering what lessons you can learn from McDonald's Lazarus act. The first is not to let your brand image go stale. McDonald's let that happen for years, believing that it could coast along with same offerings, underpinned by the naive belief that everyone was just lovin' it. The second lesson, though, is that if you introduce something new and employees complain, it might be a very good thing. The employees might themselves have become stale and lethargic. Perhaps they've been eating too much sausage for breakfast.
我得出的結(jié)論是美國(guó)人并不是在努力減肥。他們喜歡香腸的口味并且想著一天到晚吃。讀到這，你可能在想從麥當(dāng)勞的這次變革中可以學(xué)到些什么呢？首先是別讓你的品牌形象變得老舊。這種情況在麥當(dāng)勞身上發(fā)生好幾年了，他們本以為靠著幾樣一成不變的產(chǎn)品就可以不斷興旺下去，人們也會(huì)一如既往喜愛(ài)麥當(dāng)勞。學(xué)到的第二點(diǎn)就是當(dāng)員工因?yàn)榻M織的變革而開(kāi)始抱怨時(shí)，你要知道這未必是件壞事?？赡軉T工本身已經(jīng)變得思想陳腐和疲憊不堪。早餐吃太多的香腸可能是罪魁禍?zhǔn)住?/div>

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