Developing a McDonald's Communications Plan

This report discusses the development of a communication plan for McDonald's, including marketing objectives, communication objectives, issues and challenges, situational analysis, target audience, competition, brand analysis, message, communication media, budget, timing, and monitoring and evaluation process.

Running Head: 0 DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
DEVELOPING A
MCDONALDS
COMMUNICATIONS
PLAN
2019
student name
3/28/2019

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The scope of the integration plan.....................................................................................................3
Marketing objectives...................................................................................................................3
Communication objectives..........................................................................................................3
Issues and challenges...................................................................................................................3
Situational Analysis.........................................................................................................................4
SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................4
Strengths..................................................................................................................................4
Weakness.................................................................................................................................4
Opportunities...........................................................................................................................4
Threats.....................................................................................................................................4
Need for a marketing campaign...................................................................................................5
Target Audience...............................................................................................................................5
Competition.....................................................................................................................................6
1. Burger King..........................................................................................................................6
2. Subway.................................................................................................................................6
The Brand........................................................................................................................................7
Brand DNA..................................................................................................................................7
Consumers...............................................................................................................................7
Brand........................................................................................................................................7
Links........................................................................................................................................8
The Message....................................................................................................................................8
Communications media & vehicles.................................................................................................8
Budget..............................................................................................................................................9
Timing............................................................................................................................................10
Monitoring & evaluation process..................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................13

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 2
Introduction
Effective communication is relevant for a company, within the organization and outside the
organization among different stakeholders. In marketing, communication plays a vital role for
which the communication plan will be developed in the report. The report will include a
communication plan for McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a fast food company based in America
founded by Maurice and Richard McDonalds. The brand positioning and ways to reach out to the
audience depends on the company’s communication strategy, which will reflect the company’s
image and build perceptions in customers mind regarding the brand. This retail chain is
providing food and services in various nations globally1.
1 "Mcdonald's: Burgers, Fries & More. Quality Ingredients.", Mcdonalds.Com (Webpage, 2019)
<https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html>.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 3
The scope of the integration plan
Marketing objectives
 Customer retention – The marketing for McDonald has to be done in order to retain the
customers because customer loyalty has been decreasing due to an increase in
competition.
 Brand purchase intention – Another objective of the marketing campaign would be to
neglect the purchase intention for the customers. This means that the customer must not
think for a reason to have a meal in McDonald's, that they must visit it anytime they feel
snacking, hungry, or celebrating.
Communication objectives
 Brand awareness – The communication objective through marketing campaign must be
creating awareness among the customers about the brand and increase brand recognition.
 Brand loyalty – This is to increase brand loyalty and influencing customers to not switch
among other brands2.
Issues and challenges
 Increased competition – The competition has been increasing those results into loss of
customers to other brands.
 Change in taste and preferences – The customer's taste and preference can be changed
anytime, which is one of the challenges.
2 J. Andrew Petersen, Tarun Kushwaha and V. Kumar, "Marketing Communication Strategies And
Consumer Financial Decision Making: The Role Of National Culture" (2015) 79(1) Journal of Marketing.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 4
 Increase obesity – The customer had started realizing the bad effects of fast foods for
their health affecting the sales of McDonald's3.
Situational Analysis
SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Brand name/ recognition
 Competitive price
 Product adaptability strategy
Weakness
 Franchisee or joint venture management
 Weak product development
Opportunities
 New product development
 Service orientation
Threats
 Increase in heal concern customer
 Local competition in various nations
 Saturated industry
3 Nashwan Mohammed Abdullah Saif, "How Does Marketing Strategy Influence Firm Performance?
Implementation Of Marketing Strategy For Firm Success" (2015) 1(3) International Journal Of
Innovation And Economic Development.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 5
Need for a marketing campaign
The brand requires a new marketing campaign in order to make people remind about the brand
and increase the customer database. More than attracting new customers, it has been difficult for
the company to retain the existing customers as customer loyalty in this industry could diminish
anytime. People may wish to try food from other brands and local ventures in various nations.
Moreover, for McDonald's the market has been saturated and the company is being known for its
burger as per the customer perception that needs to be broadened4.
Target Audience
 Children – One of the market segments for this marketing campaign would be children
and parents. The reason being it is easy to attract and influence children through
additional toys or combos like a happy meal.
 Working men and women – The working and men and women can be targeted through
marketing communication so as to influence them to have a break from work and enjoy
McDonald's meal.
 School or college going students – This group will be a target as the company prefers to
reflect the fun and spending time at the food chain. For instance, “I’m Loving It” brands
tagline. Therefore, it is to influence young students to enjoy with their parents and friends
at the chain.
 Middle-income group – The brand is offering budget-friendly fast food products and for
this must be reflected through the marketing campaign of the company to attract this
customer group5.
4 Philip T Kotler, Principles Of Marketing (Pearson Education Limited, 2017).
5 JungKun Park et al, "The Role Of Listening In E-Contact Center Customer Relationship Management"
(2015) 29(1) Journal of Services Marketing.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 6
Competition
Major competitors of McDonald’s are
1. Burger King
This is another global fast-food chain with similar products and McDonalds biggest direct
competitor. The major difference in the product is a variety that is the company is offering large
varieties to the customers and has adapted psychological marketing strategy through keeping the
prices at 99.
2. Subway
Subway is another major competitor of McDonald's although the products of both companies are
quite different. Subway has focused over healthy eating products on the menu, which is one of
the issues McDonald's is facing that is an increase in health-concerned customers6.
The Brand
Brand DNA
Consumers
• Target Audience - As already discussed the target audience for the marketing campaigns
would be children, office going people, and school and college students.
• Customer Experience – The customer perception to be made by the campaign would be love,
aspiration, and quality.
6 Pinaki Mandal, "Understanding Digital Marketing Strategy" [2017] International Journal of Scientific
Research and Management.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 7
• Competitive Context – The context to be communicated would be fun loving and casual
place to hang out anytime for any age group7.
Brand
• Benefits – The brand benefit would be budget friendly and best quality fast food snacks for
everybody.
• Personality / Style – The campaign is intended to reflect the consumer interpretation through
brand to be competence considering the brand personalities.
• Physical Attributes – This will include the packaging of the product and brand sign that
reflect happiness.
• Competencies – The brand competency would be quality goods and affordable options.
• Values – The value proposition would be cleanliness, consistency, quality, and low prices.
Links
• Consumer Insight – The major factor that will be responsible for motivation to the customer
to make purchases will be competitive prices and product adaptability as per the local taste
and preference in every nation.
• Brand Essence – McDonald brand essence would be quality if expressed in a single term.
• Brand Differentiator – The brand differentiator would be low prices and special offers.
7 Åke Finne and Christian Grönroos, "Communication-In-Use: Customer-Integrated Marketing
Communication" (2017) 51(3) European Journal of Marketing.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 8
The Message
Primary message – The primary message to the target audience through this marketing campaign
would be the best quality food in budget-friendly prices for all age groups. Moreover, the
message would also reflect the fun time to spend with friends and family.
Desired response – the company is expecting an optimistic result from the same. Increase in sale
of the goods would become of the desired result that the company would be expecting.
Moreover, the company is willing to create this brand positioning and change customer
perception regarding the brand8.
Communications media & vehicles
Television
One of the most common and mass media vehicles would be a television advertisement. The use
of audio-video ad and regular reminder through could be helpful for the company to attract
customers and create brand positioning. One of the disadvantages for the company would be
separate ads for different regions worldwide due to different culture and language. However,
there are various advantages for the company like reaching out a large group of people at the
same time and it could turn into an effective way of advertisement9.
Outdoor
This way of media included transit and billboards that the company can use to target the local
customer in every nation around the world through bus shelters, posters, hoarding, and mobile
8 Marie Griffiths and Rachel McLean, "Unleashing Corporate Communications Via Social Media: A UK
Study Of Brand Management And Conversations With Customers" (2015) 14(2) Journal of Customer
Behaviour.
9 Marlene S. Neill, "Beyond The C-Suite: Corporate Communications’ Power And Influence" (2015) 19(2)
Journal of Communication Management.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 9
advertising vans. This is helpful for the company to remind the customer regarding the television
advertisement of the brand and new flavours or product added to the brands to offer. This media
cost lower to the company than any other mode of media although this is for the limited area10.
Budget
MEDIA VEHICLE SPECS APPROX. RATE
Television
Prime Time A (6–8 pm) 60 sec $16,000
Prime Time B (5–6 pm / 8–9 pm) 60 sec $10,000
Daytime (all other times) 60 sec $2,000
Late night (12 am – 7 am) 60 sec $1000
Outdoor
(all prices per month
min 3-month contract)
24-sheet billboard
Main road
urban
$12,000
Superbus Overall cover $9,000
Bus panel
Single panel
$600
Street furniture/bus shelter $500
Therefore the overall media cost to the company would be approximately $51,100.
10 J. Andrew Petersen, Tarun Kushwaha and V. Kumar, "Marketing Communication Strategies And
Consumer Financial Decision Making: The Role Of National Culture" (2015) 79(1) Journal of Marketing.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 10
Timing
The Campaign is sending a consistent message, for which it could be initiated immediately and
continue for a long period of time say eight months from now. The timings could be different in
some regions for instance festivals can be considered for the campaign like Christmas or
thanksgiving in western countries11.
Monitoring & evaluation process
 Customer satisfaction – The campaign effectiveness can be evaluated through customer
satisfaction that can be analyzed through feedbacks from the customer.
 The frequency of purchase – The repetition of purchase by a customer also reflects that
the campaign has been effective and has changed customer perception for the brand.
 Sales or revenue – This is one of the major key areas that need to be affected and the
result must be reflected through these criteria. Increase in sales of the brand will reflect
customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
 Customer database – Increase in a number of the customer will reflect the effectiveness
of the campaign regarding customer awareness12.
11 Clare Rigg, "Action Learning – Making A ‘Research Turn’" (2016) 13(1) Action Learning: Research
and Practice.
12 Sandra Luxton, Mike Reid and Felix Mavondo, "Integrated Marketing Communication Capability And
Brand Performance" (2014) 44(1) Journal of Advertising.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 11
Conclusion
From the report, it can be concluded that McDonalds is one of the largest fast food chains around
the globe. A communication plan was developed in the report initiated by analyzing the external
and internal environment of the organization. The target audience for the campaign would be
Children, Working men and women, School or college going students, and Middle-income
group. The major competitors to the company were subway and burger king.
The primary message to the target audience through this marketing campaign was the best
quality food in budget-friendly prices for all age groups. Moreover, the message would also
reflect the fun time to spend with friends and family. This message would be sent through two
major communication media television and outdoor.

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 12
Bibliography
Abdullah Saif, Nashwan Mohammed, "How Does Marketing Strategy Influence Firm
Performance? Implementation Of Marketing Strategy For Firm Success" (2015) 1(3)
International Journal Of Innovation And Economic Development
Finne, Åke and Christian Grönroos, "Communication-In-Use: Customer-Integrated Marketing
Communication" (2017) 51(3) European Journal of Marketing
Griffiths, Marie and Rachel McLean, "Unleashing Corporate Communications Via Social Media:
A UK Study Of Brand Management And Conversations With Customers" (2015) 14(2) Journal
of Customer Behaviour
JungKun Park et al, "The Role Of Listening In E-Contact Center Customer Relationship
Management" (2015) 29(1) Journal of Services Marketing.
Kotler, Philip T, Principles Of Marketing (Pearson Education Limited, 2017)
Mandal, Pinaki, "Understanding Digital Marketing Strategy" [2017] International Journal of
Scientific Research and Management
Luxton, Sandra, Mike Reid and Felix Mavondo, "Integrated Marketing Communication
Capability And Brand Performance" (2014) 44(1) Journal of Advertising
"Mcdonald's: Burgers, Fries & More. Quality Ingredients.", Mcdonalds.Com (Webpage, 2019)
<https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html>
Neill, Marlene S., "Beyond The C-Suite: Corporate Communications’ Power And Influence"
(2015) 19(2) Journal of Communication Management

DEVELOPING A MCDONALDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 13
Petersen, J. Andrew, Tarun Kushwaha and V. Kumar, "Marketing Communication Strategies
And Consumer Financial Decision Making: The Role Of National Culture" (2015) 79(1) Journal
of Marketing
Rigg, Clare, "Action Learning – Making A ‘Research Turn’" (2016) 13(1) Action Learning:
Research and Practice