• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, March 11, 2008

All the meals were happy ones for McDonald's in February--especially in Europe, where sales shot up an astounding 15.4%. Asia was no slouch, pushing sales up 10.9%--and even here at home, consumers flocked to the fast food colossus to drive up sales 8.3%.

How does McDonald's keep besting itself? "By getting the basics right," offer Ron Paul, president of Chicago-based restaurant consultancy Technomic Inc. "They are very focused on keeping their franchisees happy, using their marketing muscle, utilizing new products, keeping more stores open 24 hours. It's a bunch of small things."

The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company credited its breakfast offerings, premium roast coffee and everyday value for fueling the U.S. hike.

The NPD Group's Crest data, which track shares and trends in consumer behavior within commercial restaurants, backs that up. In the QSR category, NPD found that morning-meal daypart sales, up 6% in the first 11 months of 2007, were driving growth in both weekend and weekday occasions along with afternoon snacks, up 4%. And gourmet coffee and tea experienced double-digit growth, while hamburger itself was up 2%. By comparison, pizza sales were down 3%, chicken 4% and Mexican 3%.

Also in McDonald's favor are harsh economic times, when consumers are looking to get more calories for the buck. "They have a tremendous advantage in this environment," says Technomic's Paul. "With the amount of advertising dollars they have, they can target kids, ethnic groups ... . They have a lot of marketing muscle and they are using it appropriately, not overpromising."

According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, McDonald's spent $847 million in advertising in the first 11 months of 2007 and $894 million in 2006.

Dominating the growing foods list, per NPD, are handheld products such as breakfast sandwiches, breaded chicken sandwiches, grilled chicken sandwiches, fruit and burgers.

This spring, which begins in less than a fortnight, McDonald's will launch a Southern-style chicken biscuit on its breakfast menu, while a Southern-style sandwich will follow later this year. A company spokesperson tells Marketing Daily that it is too soon to announce the marketing support for either.