I will be researching the different methods of digital marketing and how it affects Mcdonald's status in society, as many of their customers react differently to each product and service. Within the research, I will be focusing on the concept of marketing, methods including social media, famous adverts and the use of cross-collaboration with other entities in the international markets. In addition to this, I will be analyzing the chosen product, which will be the McChicken Sandwich and will be commenting on how the worldwide franchise is marketing this to it's target audience. The social media channels will include Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin, I will explain how each is implied as a part of the marketing campaign and to what to extent it plays an impact on Mcdonald's.
Marketing
Marketing is the concept of when a business tries to identify it's target market to promote and advertise the product or idea. It's a means of gaining customers and establishing some type of brand loyalty amongst national and international competitors. A large amount of research is carried out in the process of marketing so that the business understands the customer's overall perception. This is crucial for any business when it markets it's an idea so that it raises awareness beforehand. Marketing affects a business in many positive manners as it provides a platform to find new customers and increase their overall revenue. Most of the marketing is nowadays completed via the use of social media as it has become widely popular and is cost-effective for most businesses. The 4 P's are always considered to be very important in the subject of marketing, as they are designed to ensure that much growing businesses understand their overall target market. Price, Product, Place and Promotion cover the concept of marketing in a nutshell and are used throughout the marketing campaign of a business, however, at certain times these can change for a business depending on it's circumstances. For example, the price may increase of the product or of the marketing campaign, or the place where the product may be sold could be located elsewhere because of less competition in the current area.
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Another part of marketing is the idea of collaboration between established companies that help and support a business when it's promoting it's ideas to the target market. Many businesses attempt this method and the majority of the time it does bring a positive impact to their marketing strategy, this is due to a team effort by both organizations as they both benefit equally. The target market does not only observe the two marketing campaigns but in fact, it becomes aware of one marketing campaign that includes two businesses. Collaboration amongst businesses automatically increases the awareness and international status, it also provides huge amount of competition in the markets that changes the perception of the current target market and attracts new customer's.
Mcdonald's
A well-established business such as Mcdonald's is known for it's successful marketing campaign for over half a century now and is still maintaining this to keep itself going as it has gained an increase of customers in the last 20 to 25 years. It has utilized many methods, such as providing the best price to it's customers over range of branches around the world. Some branches in many Asian countries have cheap prices compared to the branches of Europe, this is an example of marketing as Mcdonald's is spreading it's business idea to one target market to another that may have various cultural, religious and racial backgrounds. Much of it's advertising campaigns are never-ending as you see them week in and week out, some can even be remembered after very long period of time. Within it's advertisements, it always plays same theme music, the “whistle” tune. This is an example of a positive marketing strategy as people automatically begin to realize that this advertisement belongs to Mcdonald's, even though they are located elsewhere in the world. At the same time it provides it's target market with a short and catchy slogan to remember, “I’m loving it”, which would increase it's status as more and more people would be saying it whilst enjoying their tasty meals.
In addition to this it also is known for collaborating with other organizations to maintain it's rank in the international markets. For an instance, Mcdonald's combined with FIFA to sponsor the Russia World Cup 2018, in return they had an increase of customers buying it's meals whilst enjoying the world cup fixtures. In fact this also boosted the reputation of Mcdonald's as it showed it can participate on the world stage unlike it's competitors, which sent a new positive and strong message to it's customers. Mcdonald's has also introduced a new sports program called Grassroots. Within the program, it sponsors many international tournaments such as the World Cup and has collaborated with the 4 main national football institutions to teach young children football. It also has many big prizes for the 500,000 children aged 5-11 that are participating in the different sessions and events. We can begin to realise that this type of marketing has shown that Mcdonald's is promoting it's franchise in healthy direction rather than being known as a “fatty foods franchise.” This way the target market has understood that the world-leading franchise is beginning to change it's image in society, which is one of the reasons why it's far ahead of it's key franchising rivals. The bonus of doing such a program and sponsor is that Mcdonald's has found a niche market within it's target market, for example, the kids aged 5-11. The majority of the kids in the UK love football therefore this is a great marketing strategy by Mcdonald's as it can change the perception of not only the customers but the rest of the world that Mcdonald's is not a franchise that comprises of fatty, oily and rich foods, but also has a better understanding of sports and exercise.
Another marketing aspect of Mcdonald's is that it implies the latest software to modify it's images as this will attract the majority of it's target market. People's perception will quickly change as they will assume that Mcdonald's has the best food as it's presented in the leaflet. Even within the leaflets Mcdonald's has deployed many persuasive methods to raise awareness about it's brand and ideas. Many of it's customers are captivated of what they analyze from the leaflets, this is due to the large and fancy text that Mcdonald's implies to maintain it's customer loyalty. In regards to the leaflet, Mcdonald's is also known like any other business to modify it's photos before posting them by using software like Photoshop, which is also the other reason why much of it's target audience is keen on it's food as they have a positive feeling from what they observe from the leaflet. For example the recent leaflet of the franchise of it's Classic Burgers has brought a lot of attention by the target market as many of the customers are excited to see what is in store for them. Another concept to consider is that Mcdonald's offers monthly and seasonal offers to it's customers to increase customer loyalty, if the customers are not satisfied by what Mcdonald's offers, then it would have a catoptric effect on the world-leading franchise, as it can lose the majority of it's target market. In the recent trend Mcdonald's has begun to offer extra fries or free delivery service by using codes for a limited amount of time, which has attracted many customers and at the same time has increased the overall sales of Mcdonald's franchise.
Maintaining a positive image and gaining brand loyalty is an important phase of marketing for any business in the international community. Designing a logo gives the business a higher chance of increasing it's awareness of it's target market. Mcdonald's also has been producing and maintaining it's logo over a long period of time since it's establishment. Its first-ever logo consisted the “Speedee” mascot, where McDonald promoted the concept of quickly served meals to it's target market. This instantly gained some attention by those individuals, who wanted to have hot quicked served meals, the franchise was successful in achieving this and this was considered to be one of the very first steps to becoming the world-leading franchise that it is today.
In the present time Mcdonald's uses similar features from it's old logo, the golden arches, but now it is identified in the form of a large “M”, allowing customer's become more aware of who they are buying from. This logo was eventually completed and was launched in 2003. One key part of Mcdonald's marketing scheme is the colour combination that it has included in the design of it's logo. It's two main colours are red and gold as they can attract a large audience. The red color represents the franchise whereas the color gold refers to the golden arches from the previous logos. All around the world, Mcdonald's logo is displayed on all it's products that it sells to the genrel public. Mcdonald's has came a long way in designing it's the famous logo and has gained full recognition of it around the world, giving the target market a more detailed understanding. In addition to this, the current logo has changed the perception of the customers as they see Mcdonald's as a family-friendly and convenient franchise to visit in their spare time. This has rapidly increased the positive outcome of Mcdonald's customer service, which Mcdonald's takes seriously at all costs.
Many decades ago businesses would market their products face to face or deploy traditional methods like using telephone marketing to raise awareness of it's idea. In addition to this employees were hired to send emails to the main target market about seasonal offers rather than now it's completed in the form of a newsletter. Billboards were also regarded as being a primary method of marketing about 20 years ago but they have also decreased as the ordinary customer does not have the time to observe a giant billboard every second of their day. Posting leaflets through letterboxes was another vital method for any established business as it allowed the target market to gain key information about the business whilst being at home. This method is still used today but isn't adopted as much due to new advances in technology. Businesses also used the technique of print marketing, where it published themselves in newspapers on a certain headline. Unfortunately, this method was not effective because many businesses did not acknowledge whether their target audience read newspapers or not. Such traditional methods have all been replaced by the invention of digital marketing that has spread from one country to another.