New designer uniforms could be the gold charm McDonald's needs to connect their new hip marketing campaign to their fast-food restaurants. This possible gold charm for the fast-food chain has the ability to let the actual fast-food restaurants reflect the image they are portraying in their advertisement campaign. The new “I'm lovin' it” marketing campaign has attracted a youthful audience to the fast-food chain. However, when this trendy younger crowd comes to McDonald's, they do not see the same fashionable place that they saw in the commercial. Instead, they see the same thing that they would see at just about any fast-food restaurant. McDonald's hopes to further entice this target market into their restaurants by updating their restaurants with new employee uniforms.

This gold charm could definitely be the factor that distinguishes McDonald's from other fast food chains. Instead of having their young workers dreading to wear their uniform to work, the goal is to have a uniform that actually appeals to the employees, something that they would wear even if they didn't have to. With over 300,000 workers, this will not be an easy change but almost certainly a change that will be worth it for McDonald's.

For the last five years McDonald's has been struggling to revamp themselves in order to appeal to a younger audience. In quest to become more “cool,” McDonald's introduced the “I'm lovin' it” campaign with pop favorites Justin Timberlake and Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child singing the jingle for the commercials. These superstars help give validity that McDonald's must be a good place to eat if Justin Timberlake and Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child will go there. Along with this, McDonald's has also improved their menu to meet the needs of this younger, en vogue consumer (this includes low-carb options to match the current rage of the Atkins' Diet). This new marketing campaign has proved to be very successful for the fast-food chain, improving sales in their targeted audience.

As new and hip as these commercials, radio ads, and billboards maybe, little change has occurred in the appearance of the restaurant itself since its beginning. While the company has changed its branding strategy away from children and families by no longer using Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar in their commercials and advertisements, they still have not done much to bring their facilities up with the times. These new designer uniforms could possibly be just what they need to begin the improvement of the McDonald's actual restaurant facility.

Yet, what maybe a gold charm for the golden arches, could possibly be a horrible disaster to a clothing line. Something that certain clothing designers need to worry about is whether or not they will look like a “sell out” if they decide to do a fast-food restaurant's uniform. Labels like Abercrombie and Fitch have worked hard to be the top of their line and not something that is worn by fast food employees and covered in grease. This could definitely be a risky move as far as branding goes for some clothing companies.

However, these designers could possibly be motivated if the price was right. It is estimated that these gold charm uniforms can cost up to $80 million for McDonald's. These uniforms are certainly not cheap for McDonald's. While a designer for the new uniforms has no been chosen, the golden arches are looking at designers such as Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and even from Sean P. Diddy Combs. Although these new uniforms may seem like an unnecessary expense it might just be precisely what they need to connect their restaurants to the image they are portraying in their ads.