McDonald's reported slower-than-expected sales growth in its second-quarter earnings released on Tuesday, with company executives attributing the shortfall to execution lapses that undermined its promotional push around value deals aimed at lower-income consumers. The results come as the broader fast-food industry faces mounting pressure to win back diners who have pulled back on eating out after years of menu price increases outpacing general inflation.

CEO Chris Kempczinski stated that weak promotion of value deals and a pullback in digital offers, such as its buy-one-add-one promotions, led to a decline in visits from loyal customers. He noted that this accounted for approximately two-thirds of the customer traffic shortfall for the quarter. McDonald's had introduced a $5 value meal in late June to counter perceptions that it had become too expensive, part of a wider industry wave of aggressive promotional bundles from rivals including Burger King and Wendy's.

Comparable sales in McDonald's largest market, the United States, grew 0.8%, falling below analysts' estimates of a 1.06% increase, according to data compiled by LSEG. For comparison, the fast-food chain's U.S. growth rate stood at 2.5% last year.

"We don't have a strategy problem. We simply didn't execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter," Kempczinski said.

The CEO acknowledged that while McDonald's has "restored our overall value and affordability leadership, our restaurant level results show that execution was inconsistent across the system." He pointed out that the best-performing restaurants successfully executed the affordable price menu plan, adding that they "need the same level of execution in all our restaurants."

Kempczinski revealed that approximately one-third of the McDonald's system's restaurants did not execute against the guidance for the everyday affordable price menu. Because the vast majority of McDonald's U.S. locations are independently operated by franchisees, national promotional programs depend on voluntary operator participation, making consistent rollout a recurring challenge. He said the company will educate franchisees about the importance of complying with that pricing scheme, and that compliance will factor into business reviews.

The CEO also noted that restaurant teams were overwhelmed by the number of deployments McDonald's rolled out during the quarter, which impacted operational efficiency and worsened customer service times. Marketing programs likewise failed to deliver against expectations.

CFO Ian Borden said that in the near term, McDonald's is launching additional national digital flash offers starting next week to "reenergize our high-frequency customers," while also targeting the chain's most loyal customers with more personalized digital offerings.

Borden added that the company is already taking steps to simplify restaurant operations by eliminating several non-customer-facing activities over the remainder of the year.

As part of its push to reinvigorate growth, McDonald's named Skye Anderson to lead its U.S. business, tapping an executive with extensive experience across operations and international markets. Anderson has been with the company for 26 years, including a tenure as U.S. chief operating officer. In her new role, she will oversee approximately 14,000 restaurants in the U.S. and guide McDonald's new turnaround strategy. The leadership change follows McDonald's earlier move to replace its U.S. chief marketing officer, signaling a broader management reshuffle as the chain works to stabilize domestic performance heading into the back half of the year.

Reuters contributed to this report.