McDonald's Twitter Campaign: Hype vs. Reality Case Analysis

This memorandum analyzes McDonald's Twitter campaign, including problems experienced, advantages and disadvantages of using social media, audiences to address, and strategies for better media relations.

MEMORANDUM
TO: MCDONALD MANAGEMENT TEAM
FROM: RICK WION
DATE: 29TH AUGUST 2018
SUBJECT: MCDONALDS TWITTER CAMPAIGN: HYPE VS. REALITY CASE
ANALYSIS
Technology has advanced tremendously as well as its adoption globally over the past decade
which has contributed to the growth of social media. This growth has attracted many
organizations to diversify their marketing strategies through the major social media channels
such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which has proven to have a far reach and impact that
the traditional marketing and promotion channels such as Tv and Radios (Fuchs 2017). One such
organization is McDonald's which is one of the Largest fast food franchises globally decided to
use Twitter as a marketing and promotion strategy where consumers would be able to know
more about the products they consume. This memorandum will go into detail about the
McDonald twitter campaign with the evaluation and analysis through a crucial and strategic
questions below:
PROBLEMS THAT MCDONALD’S EXPERIENCED WHEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA
#MEETTHEFARMERS CAMPAIGN
The McDonalds brand has for some time been known to offer quality product service delivery
reflecting throughout its is fast foods outlets globally, That changed through the failure of
#meetthefarmers campaign floundered through the twitter for customers airing the terrible
encounters they had where some were identified with restorative discussions . This prompt loses

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in trust in our brand that saw the decrease in sales of in several of branches leading to the loss in
market share as a portion of our consumers switched to our rivals. Besides, it uncovered a
shortcoming that our competitors took advantage of which is lacking in the effective
management of social media campaigns
WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES FOR AN
ORGANIZATION WHEN UTILIZING SOCIETAL MEDIA?
Organizations that opt to use social media ought to be aware of the various advantages and
disadvantages. First and foremost social media main advantage that attracts main organizations is
the ability to reach a much greater audience through the comfort of the smartphone or PC,
moreover this offers a better and far cheaper alternative as compared to the use of television and
radios to markets their products and services in general. Organizations are able to interact with
their consumers accumulating ideas or recommendations which will be useful in providing
quality products and services. Through social media organizations are able to determine the
consumer demographics on their products and even conduct further research and analysis of new
products or new target markets easily and efficiently (Tuten and Solomon 2017).
Unfortunately, social media comes with its perks that would greatly impact the growth and
development of organizations. The social media boom has led to the rise of many platforms
which could tend to be time-consuming and expensive in the context of employing many
employees working on different platforms and keeping track of each information generated
through those platforms (Petrescu,2014). There are limited taming or filters related to ‘fake
news’ where it could destroy an originations reputation easily moreover handling angry or
dissatisfied consumers requires to be handled carefully and strategic as it would also lead to the
downfall of a firm (Austin, and Jin 2018).

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WHO ARE THE DIFFERENT AUDIENCES MCDONALD'S NEEDS TO ADDRESS
WHEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS?
The fast-food franchise generally needs to address current consumers as well as potential
consumers. This simply means the McDonald should concentrate on maintaining their consumers
as well as target new consumers through their marketing and promotion campaign. This can be
achieved by the creation of incentives and rewards that would help in justifying their loyalty
towards the brand which would directly or indirectly introduce new consumers to the company’s
products and services (Jugenheimer et al.2015, p 22). It would be beneficial for McDonald
should also put into considerations their critics when incorporating their social media campaigns.
There is no need for any bias or ignorance in these situations as it will derail the growth and
development of the company. These critics could be a few individuals or even organizations such
as the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA ) who claim that the company uses cruel tactics that
are old and outdated. Nevertheless, there are government organizations and non-governmental
organizations that aim in reducing the intake of fast food franchise products terming them as
unhealthy and could lead to fatality. McDonald should focus on addressing such originations
while putting their criticism into consideration (Salma 2017).
HOW CAN MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT TEAM BETTER DESIGN FUTURE
TWITTER CAMPAIGNS FOR MCDONALD’S?
The famous twitter campaign failure creates awareness of the available negative loopholes that
would sabotage a reputable brand. It has acted as a learning curve for merging and large
companies while embarking on a social media campaign. Wion and his team would have initially
created a Twitter campaign that would identify criticism from its consumers and well as non-
consumers. The #meetthefarmers wasn’t a bad campaign but it was initiated early without

McDonalds twitter campaign 4
identifying and addressing any potential criticism twitter tag such as #MakeMcDonaldbetter
would have been a strategic campaign that would have allowed the company to receive criticism
and recommendations which would have projected a picture where the company values
consumers and non-consumers opinion while making strategic changes that would address the
criticism. This would have actually raised the brand's reputation, reducing criticism and
potentially increasing their number of consumers in the long run (Ashley and Tuten, 2015)
STRATEGY TO ENCOURAGE BETTER MEDIA RELATIONS AND MORE
ACCURATE REPORTING.
1.Timing Plan should be initiated during holidays and weekends
2.Audience World associations on food
Mc Donald royal consumers and prospective consumers
McDonald critics such as Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
3. Sender McDonalds marketing and communications department
4. key objectives Communicate the core values of McDonald
Communicate on the quality of products and service offered at
McDonald
Awareness of new and current McDonald products
5.Desired outcome Increase and maintain a quality brand and stand in the market share
Increase consumers royalty and awareness on McDonalds brand
Open channels from communication
6.Medium Major television stations and newspapers,
Social media ads through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as

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the use of the McDonalds social media platforms
7.Materials Advertisements, online ads and billboards
8.Frequency Major television stations and newspapers- twice every week
Facebook, Instagram and twitter- daily
In conclusion effective management and communication of an organizations is crucial, through
the failed twitter campaign by McDonald its evident that the size and successfulness of an
organizations is irrelevant when they have a defective communication strategy especially when it
comes to social media .McDonald should learn from its mistakes and implements campaigns that
have strategic long term goals that will address the critics and the consumers in general increase
brand quality and awareness. Thank you
Sincerely,
(signature)
Rick Wion

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REFERENCES
Ashley, C., and Tuten, T ,2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-
27.
Austin, L. L., and Jin, Y. . ,2018). Social Media and Crisis Communication. Routledge.
Fuchs, C.,2017. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage. 60(2), pp.219-228.
Jugenheimer, D. W., Sheehan, K., and Kelley, L. D. 2015. Advertising media planning: a brand
management approach. Routledge. 34(2), pp.19-22.
Petrescu, M. ,2014. Viral marketing and social networks. Business Expert Press. 60(2), pp.145-
180.
Salma, A. N. 2017,. Framework of Internet-Based Crisis Communication Planning in Digital
Era: A Theoretical Approach. In Indonesia International Graduate Conference on
Communication (IndoIGCC) Proceeding 2(1), pp. 885-903.
Tuten, T. L., and Solomon, M. R. 2017. Social media marketing. Sage. 23(2), pp.219-228.