McDonald’s Now Targeting 3 A.M. Crowd

Many McDonald’s locations throughout the United States are now open 24 hours, yet less than 1% of all fast food traffic occurs between 2am and 5am, a problem McDonald’s hopes to remedy with a program called “Breakfast After Midnight.”

The new program is being tested in 127 Ohio locations with 24 hour service and it expands the McDonald’s breakfast menu to 10 full hours, offering breakfast foods from midnight to 10am. The goal according to the company is to take direct aim at “very early” morning eaters.

McDonald’s won’t offer a full breakfast menu the entire time, instead focusing on its most popular breakfast items including McMuffins, hotcakes, hash browns and oatmeal.

Burger Business calls the move the “last unconquered frontier” in fast food and notes that typical fast food breakfast services start at 5am.

The move follows McDonald’s attempts to capture the late night food category through rapid expansion of its 24-hour locations. By the end of 2011 more than 40% of all McDonald’s locations in the United States were offering ’round-the-clock’ service, typically pushing burgers and fries until 5am breakfast service.

So how exactly will McDonald’s attempt to grab a new “early eater” audience? Business First reports that the fast food giant will use a new advertising campaign in which they call early morning eaters “nocturnivores.”

While I do not see myself getting up at 3am to enjoy a bowl of McDonald’s oatmeal or a McMuffin I can definitely see the appeal for early morning workers and perhaps the occasional insomniac.

Perhaps the company could capture more of the late night fast food market if they brought their McDonald’s Curly Fries over from the Philippines.

Do you think McDonald’s will be able to capture a large chunk of the “very early” morning eaters?

[Image via LouLouPhotos / Shutterstock.com]