Alumnus Olaf van der Burg wins Dutch Marketing Thesis Award 2019

The award plus a cheque of 500 euros were presented to Olaf on 15 April 2019 by Hans Molenaar, Director of Beeckestijn Business School, on behalf of Platform Innovatie in Marketing (PIM). PIM organises the election in collaboration with Marketing Association Nederland, with the aim to build a bridge between marketing science and commercial practice. During the event ‘The war on (marketing) talent’ the three finalists presented their research results. The practical applicability of Olaf’s study has been an important reason for his thesis to be declared the winning one. ‘He has thoroughly researched how customers deal with qualitatively better experience and what the effect of this is on purchasing behaviour,’ says Hans Molenaar.

‘This subject intrigued me when McDonald’s with its McCafé seemed to be competing with luxury positioned concepts such as Starbucks,’ explains Olaf. ‘I compared two McDonald’s branches in Rotterdam: an ‘ordinary’ McDonald’s and the most luxurious one in the world, 400 metres further on, both located on the Coolsingel. Customers of the luxury store find the burgers tastier, the service better and think that the prices are higher. On average, they stay indoors four and a half minutes longer and spend 90 eurocents more per order. That is a significant difference. Incidentally, not all these effects are favourable. That is why I included recommendations in my thesis to find a better balance between the advantages and disadvantages.’