Twitter Case Study: Failed Social Media Campaign of McDonald's

This memo discusses the failed social media campaign of McDonald's and suggests a course of action for improvement. It covers social media advantages and disadvantages, target market, Twitter campaign design, and communication plan.

Running head: MEMO
MEMO
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MEMO
Title: Twitter Case Study
To: McDonald's management
From: Rick Wion
Date: 1 September. 2018
Subject: Course of action
Purpose: The primary aim of the given memorandum is to discuss about the failed social media
campaign of Mc Donald`s and the manner in which a course of action for the improvement of the
scenario can take place. The report will be describing the manner in which the social media
campaigns are held and their advantages as well as disadvantages. Moreover, the target market
for the future campaigns will be discussed which will then be followed by the recommendations
which will deal with the manner in which the campaigns can be designed according to the
audience preferences and company objectives. The memorandum will discuss the different
aspects of the Twitter campaign in form of four questions and each of them will be supported by
adequate theories.
Questions
1) Social media advantages and disadvantages
According to Armstrong et al. (2015), Social Media can be utilized as a useful tool for
bringing about various advantages to the business organization as it assists the business in
successfully engaging with the target audience and boosting the website traffic. Although there
are various advantages of the Social media campaigns, they are subject to certain disadvantages
as well. A thorough knowledge of both the advantages as well as the disadvantages will assist in
the understanding of the best approach for the social media which can be used for the business.
Advantages of social media
The advantages of social media are as follows:
Customer interaction: Customer interaction is at its maximum when the social media
channels are used and they tend to respond well to the advertisements laid down by the firm
which improve the feedback mechanism.
Cost effective: The social media advertising is much cheaper than the original advertising
and traditional promotional activities. Moreover, the cost of maintaining the page of the
company on social media platforms is very low (Stephen 2016, p. 17-21). The paid advertising
on social media allows expenses as per the budget of the company. Moreover, the benefits of the
medium are many in number which makes t cost effective.

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Brand awareness: Social media promotes brand awareness which allows the audiences to
grab the focus of the target market. It also goes a long way in assisting the organization to
increase and improve the brand visibility of the firm.
Disadvantages of social media
The disadvantages of social media are as follows:
Resources: A business planning to use social media will be required to have adequate
resources which will allow advertising feedback reporting and new content.
Evaluation: Very often, it becomes increasingly difficult to evaluate the amount which
has been spent on the social media advertisement and whether the company gained the results as
per the amount invested or not (Hollensen & Raman 2014).
Ineffective use: Very often social media is used ineffectively to negatively push the different
customers for sale.
2) Audience / Stakeholders
Stakeholders and Target Market forms as essential aspect of the different marketing
activities which are undertaken in order to design the marketing activities as per the needs and
preferences of the audience. The stakeholders and audience for Mc Donald’s should be as
follows:
Internal:
Management: The interest of the management needs to be taken special care of as they
have a high stake.
Employees: The employees are the key resources of a company
Delivery Staff: They are the link between the customers and the firm.
External:
Customers
1. On the basis of the demographic segmentation, the millennials need to be targeted.
2. On the basis of the Psychographic segmentation, the technological savvy people as well
as the socially active people shall be targeted. Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch 2017, p. 118-
126).
3. On the basis of behavioral segmentation and lifestyle, the corporate professionals can be
targeted.
Suppliers: Those who supply local materials for the products. The company`s success is
linked with them.
Media: The media tends to form the link between the customers and the firm and their
stake holds high value.

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Activists: Those who are considered about to social and health aspects of the meals sold
by the firm.
3) Twitter Campaign Design
The previous Twitter campaign which was undertaken under the leadership of Wion
which was based on the McDStories, was a failure and they received various negative backslash
from the audiences which were based on the poor services which were provided by certain
audiences and the food problems (Iveycases.com. 2018). The target audiences are the
millennials, tech savy individuals and the corporate professionals. They received various
negative feedbacks which spoilt the brand name of the organization. Hence, this time the
following different methods can be used to reach out to the target audience as a part of the
Twitter campaign:
Live competitions: Through the Twitter medium, Mc Donald’s can hold live burger eating
competitions which shall attract large audiences at the outlets as well.
Celebrity public relations: Mc Donald’s can get paid public relations done by using
certain popular celebrities (Ashley & Tuten 2015, p. 15-27). The choice of the celebrities often
has a positive impact on the audience, Moreover, certain celebrities are quite popular on social
media which is another positive aspect.
Heroes of Mc D: Through this the management can share the stories of certain employees
who have been working for a long time and honoring their service.
Social Media Limitations
However, although the design of the campaign can be attractive in nature, there are
certain limitations of the social media which limit an organizations capabilities to perform well:
Negative feedback: Just like the previous campaign of Mc Donald’s, was exposed to
various negative comments where the efforts of the company were not appreciated.
Low market penetration: The market penetration of Twitter is not as wide as that of
Facebook (Chang, Yu & Lu 2015, p.777-782).
Negative word of mouth: Moreover, the negative feedbacks could lead to a negative
brand name of the organization.
4) Communication Plan
The communication plan for Wion has been given as follows. This plan needs to be used
in order to encourage better media relations and accurate reporting.
Communication Plan
1. Timing The timing of the plan should be around 3

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months, which can begin from
October`18.
2. Audience The audience for the different public
relations activities will be as follows:
Millennials
Corporate workers
Tech savvy people
3. Sender The sender of the plan needs to be the
marketing team at the Mc Donald’s.
4. Key message The key message of the campaign needs
to portray that Mc Donald’s cares about
providing the audience with good quality
and affordable fast food.
5. Desired Outcome The desires outcome are as follows:
Large followings on social media
channels
Large footfall at the different outlets
6. Medium Social media channels and digital
platforms like Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, Snapchat and other food blogs
7. Materials Digital posters, videos, photographs,
Blog contents
8. Frequency The advertisements shall be updated once
every 10 days.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis of the case study of the failed Twitter campaign of Mc
Donald`s, it can be stated that the social media has become a popular mode of advertisement for
the organization, however it is exposed to several negative aspects as well. The memo examined
the positive as well as negative aspects of the social media, which is then followed by a revised
campaign design for Mc Donald`s, moreover, the relevant audience has been stated along with a
communication plan. It can be learnt that planning tends to form an essential aspect of the social
media campaigns.

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References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. & Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson
Ashley, C. & Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.
Chang, Y.T., Yu, H. & Lu, H.P., 2015. Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message
diffusion in social media marketing. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp.777-782.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. & Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media marketing:
A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.
Hollensen, S. & Raman, A., 2014. Social Media Marketing. Marketing Canada-Journal.
Iveycases.com. ,2018. Ivey Publishing - Product View. [online] Available at:
https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=60811 [Accessed 1 Sep. 2018].
Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer
behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
Tuten, T.L. & Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.