Fast Food Chains, What's the big deal?

    Whether it be a crispy Crunch Wrap Supreme from Taco Bell or a juicy Big Mac from McDonald's, fast food throughout the United States has been everyone’s guilty pleasure at one time in their lives. As a college student myself, I know these trendy chains are very popular among my peers.  Everyone wants to join in on the late night drive in to McDonald's, Wendy’s or Taco Bell. It’s cheap and fast!  And after a long night of partying, this seems to be the thing to do. What else could a college kid want?
    However, as the world’s growing obesity problem flourishes, how do these chains continue to successfully reach out to the public? It seems to me that places like McDonald’s have been able to keep a perception going on in consumer’s minds for years now.  For example, I personally don’t even like McDonald’s hamburgers, but as anyone else, I’m guilty of eating them. 
    As I was browsing through the internet trying to come up with a focus for this blog, I perused upon a article I found on yahoo.com by consumer reports.  This article, 
http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/428/best-burgers/, asks the same question that has so often come to my mind?  A online survey of 28,000 subscribers rated burgers at 18 fast food restaurants. Ironically McDonald’s was the biggest loser shortly followed by Wendy’s and Burger King.   The number one winner was the In-and-Out burger.  I personally never heard of the In-and-Out burger however, as I've learned, it‘s a West Coast chain.  Still, McDonald's holds more of a sense of brand loyalty among consumers that continues to draw them in.  For example, when you are driving along the highway, the number of McDonald's advertising that you see is almost unbearable.
    If you haven't already caught the drift, my blog will help focus on the different research methods that fast food restaurants such as  McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell use in order to keep their consumer rates high.  I hope to explore these different topics and really get to expose the secrets behind fast food chains.