Ohio researchers discover McRib's marketing secret

University of Dayton marketing researchers may have determined what makes McDonald's famed McRib sandwich so popular, and it's not the sauce, the Dayton Business Journal reports.

Instead, it could be the mystery that surrounds this occasional menu item's release - fans of the sandwich have no idea when it will be available, and it tends to be released at the same time that competitors attempt to introduce another pork sandwich. The report's authors noted that McDonald's denied the claim that launches were "aimed at suppressing the competition."

Every time the McRib makes an appearance, McDonalds focuses its branding and advertising materials on the short-term offer and its history, spanning back to to 1982 introduction, the source notes.

Rather than the sandwich being written off as a failed product, the company chose to repackage it every few years in a limited number of markets.

"We see a noticeable trend that leads us to believe that McDonald's uses the McRib to exert its dominance in the market when one of its competitors starts offering a pork-based sandwich," wrote Serdar Durmusoglu, assistant marketing professor, and Matthew Larrick, a University of Dayton MBA graduate, in the report.

The authors also comment that the evidence suggests the fast-food giant has a strategy for regularly reviving the McRib and using "captivating promotions" to pull consumers from competitors' drive-throughs and restaurants.