The case of McDonalds

#TasteOfTime#McHap

py Apurba GhosalN0657311

Overview of the company

• Restaurant first opened in 1940 in California • Food is pocket friendly and delicious • Became a big thing in the US and started expanding in

other continents as well • Quarterly Sales by Company-operated restaurants in

2014 was $ 4,296.7 million. • Digital spend increased by 10% in 2015 and is estimated

to increase further in 2016

(Aboutmcdonalds.com, 2016), (Fame.com, 2014), (Genovese, Sorofman and Virzi, 2015)

Issues with #McDStories

• McDonalds is a fast food restaurant, very easy to humiliate in terms of being unethical and unhealthy

• McDonalds is different in different countries. • Laws have changed and people are becoming more

conscious about their body and health • Ambiguous hashtag lead to people misusing it. Similar

case as #ReasonsForWaitrose• There was no advert to support this campaign converting

the hashtag into a bashtag.

(Cbsnews.com, 2016), (Financial Times, 2016), (Forbes.com, 2016), (Smithers, 2012)

Let SOSTAC help us!

Situation- where are we now?

• Customer Insight: Initially the company was only about burgers and fries. Currently McDonalds sells Wraps, McCafe (healthy beverages like smoothies), Salads and fruits.

• The organization lets policies and laws frame what they do right now and their future goals.

• They exploited the digital media platform in terms of increasing their turnover during the launch of extended night hours, promoting their CSR, launching their smoothie campaign.

(Aboutmcdonalds.com, 2016), (Econsultancy, 2016)

• Competitors: Burger King, Wendy, Starbucks, Subway, Pizza hut and Taco Bell.

• Some examples Burger King introduced reduced calorie French fries. Taco Bell VS McMuffin Starbucks VS McCafe

(Jargon, 2016), (Matthews, 2016), (O'Reilly, 2016)

• Internal Resources and Capabilities • Financial: £1,432,592 thousand was their turnover for the

year 2014 with a profit of £971,609 thousand in the UK.• Human Resources: The percentages of employees in the

company is 65% male and 35% female • Raw Materials: Their poultry and diary products come

from local UK and Irish farmlands.

(Fame.com, 2014), (Mcdonaldsmis.blogspot.co.uk, 2016), (What makes McDonald's, 2016)

Objectives- where do we want to be?

• Long-term objectives: Vision and Mission of McDonalds • Medium and Short term objectives: #TasteOfTime #McHappy campaign

• Main Objectives: Positive responses from people on social media like twitter and

Facebook that can be consistently monitored via Hootsuite. Reach 1 million hits on YouTube within 2 months Doubling the number of people on their main website’s landing page

within 6 months.

The 5S’s

• Sell: growth in sales can be estimated but not guaranteed • Serve: improve in order to maintain their position as the quickest

service providers.• Sizzle: 90’s nostalgia targeted towards children and adults alike to

bring the “wow” factor.• Save: the profit margins can be estimated to increase by 1/4th in the

year 2016. • Speak: The trialog between customer to customer and business

should see an increase

Strategy- How do we get there?

• STP Segmentation: on the basis of regions where Cartoon Network was

widely watched. Target: Young kids, parents and teenagers who dwell into the 90s

nostalgia. Positioning: A brand that was, is and always be with you. • Online Value Proposition: Their OVP is that they try to keep up

with the trends on social media. They are also very engaged and respond to quality feedbacks online.

Tactics- How do we get there? (Social Media)

• Social media Youtube ad: The ad will be themed as 90s Nostalgia. The

animated/real characters of Flinstones (early man) and Jetsons (Futuristic era). (Objective 1 and 2)

Twitter: Hashtag “#TasteOfTime” is pretty much straight forward, most of the tweets will be about 90s Nostalgia.(Objective 1)

Facebook: Promotion of the ad campaign through a 10 question quiz about the persons favorite character i.e Flintones or Jetsons. (Objective 1 and 3)

(Owned and Paid Media)

• Web development Home page of their main website can have a split screen theme. They can also have favorite burgers of both the characters on their online/offline menu. (Objective 3)

• Banner AdThe banner ad will have one burger which is held by Flinstone from left and Jetson from right with their mouths open. With the hashtag above #TasteOfTime and we love to make you #McHappy. (Objective 3)

Actions- Who should do what, when?

• Currently, McDonalds is working with Leo Burnett.• Monitoring of the campaign can be done internally and by the agency

alike.• Marketing team must ensure that the ad gets enough exposure to drive sales• Legal team must attain a contract from the legal team of cartoon network

and Hanna Barbara Productions.• Regional staff must ensure that the burgers are renamed and promoted

appropriately.• Digital marketing staff must keep a track of the positive and negative

tweets with the help of sentiment analysis.• Finance department will have to make sure that expenditures are kept in

control as this campaign can be monetarily overburdening.

Control- How do we monitor performance?

Important KPIs• Web traffic after the campaign is launched with the help of dashboard• Number of unique visitors• Number of returning visitors• Time spent on the website• Number of people joining the mail list• Navigation paths• What traffic sources are driving people to the website i.e. direct, referral or search and

campaign traffic• Measuring cost per mile• Click through rates • Peoples reaction towards the new campaign, positive-negative-neutral with websites such as

sentiment140 for sentiment analysis• Interactivity in terms of how many people are taking the quiz• Number of shares and retweets.

Conclusion and Recommendation

• The aim of this campaign is to convey the message that the brand has always been there for you and will always be there for you and this is the test of time for them.

• The media campaign will help them improve their brand image and the tactics developed are very objective focused.

References

 

• Aboutmcdonalds.com. (2014). Annual Report 2014. [online] Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/content/dam/AboutMcDonalds/Investors/McDonalds2014AnnualReport.PDF [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

• Aboutmcdonalds.com. (2016). Company Overview & Segment Information :: AboutMcDonalds.com. [online] Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/investors/company-overview/company-overview-segment-information.html [Accessed 9 Mar. 2016].

• Aboutmcdonalds.com. (2016). Food Sustainability Choices :: AboutMcDonalds.com. [online] Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/food.html [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

• Aboutmcdonalds.com. (2016). History of McDonald’s :: AboutMcDonalds.com. [online] Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds-history.html [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016].

• BBC News. (2016). Subway overtakes McDonald's as biggest restaurant chain - BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-12673441 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

• Cbsnews.com. (2016). How McDonald's Twitter campaign fell into the fire. [online] Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-mcdonalds-twitter-campaign-fell-into-the-fire/ [Accessed 2 Mar. 2016].

• Cbsnews.com. (2016). Starbucks and McCafe Bring it On with New Ads. [online] Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/starbucks-and-mccafe-bring-it-on-with-new-ads/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016].

• Econsultancy. (2016). 10 brilliant digital marketing campaigns from McDonald's. [online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63032-10-brilliant-digital-marketing-campaigns-from-mcdonald-s/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2016].

• Fame.com. (2014). Mcdonalds Restaurant Limited. [online] Available at: https://fame2.bvdep.com/version-2016229/Report.serv?_CID=65&context=29R0BRCV8DKZVZ7&SeqNr=0 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2016].

• Financial Times. (2016). McDonald’s Twitter campaign hijacked - FT.com. [online] Available at: https://next.ft.com/content/6de5a21e-46b3-11e1-bc5f-00144feabdc0 [Accessed 2 Mar. 2016].

• Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/01/24/mcdstories-when-a-hashtag-becomes-a-bashtag/#301626b5193f [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016].

• Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/companies/mcdonalds/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2016].

• Genovese, Y., Sorofman, J. and Virzi, A. (2015). CMO Spend Survey 2015-2016: Digital Marketing Comes of Age. [online] Gartner.com. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/doc/3154117/cmo-spend-survey--digital [Accessed 8 Mar. 2016].

• Jargon, J. (2016). Burger King Drops Lower-Calorie Fry 'Satisfries'. [online] WSJ. Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/burger-king-drops-lower-calorie-fries-1407964129 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2016].

• Matthews, C. (2016). 3 Reasons Wendy’s Is Eating McDonald’s Lunch | TIME.com. [online] TIME.com. Available at: http://business.time.com/2014/01/23/mcdonalds-and-wendys-battle-in-fast-food-wars/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016].

• mcdonalds.co.uk. (2016). McD Finance. [online] Available at: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/dam/McDonaldsUK/People/Schools-and-students/mcd_finance.pdf [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016].

• Mcdonaldsmis.blogspot.co.uk. (2016). McDonalds Information system: HRMS. [online] Available at: http://mcdonaldsmis.blogspot.co.uk/p/hrms.html [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016].

• O'Reilly, L. (2016). Taco Bell appears to be attacking McDonald's 'meh' breakfasts. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-launches-anti-mcdonalds-breakfast-ads-2015-12?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016].

• Smithers, R. (2012). Waitrose Twitter hashtag invites ridicule. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/sep/19/waitrose-twitter-hashtag [Accessed 8 Mar. 2016].

• What makes McDonald's. (2016). Where does McDonald's food come from?. [online] Available at: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/whatmakesmcdonalds/articles/where-does-mcdonalds-food-come-from.html [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016].

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