MNG81001 SP3 2018 Case Study: McDonald's Twitter Campaign Analysis

This case study examines McDonald's Twitter campaign, focusing on its challenges and failures in social media marketing. The analysis explores the advantages and disadvantages of social media, emphasizing the importance of relevant content and customer engagement. The case study delves into the issues McDonald's faced, including negative customer feedback and the need for a revised communication plan. It suggests strategies for designing better Twitter campaigns, such as engaging with social projects, associating with celebrities, and creating interactive social landing pages. The assignment highlights the need for an effective communication plan, including identifying target audiences, defining business objectives, and responding promptly to customer queries. The study presents a communication plan framework, including stakeholder analysis and communication frequency, offering insights into how McDonald's could reconstruct its communication strategy and improve its brand reputation. The case study concludes by emphasizing the importance of proactive social media management and crisis communication.

Running Head: CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
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CASE STUDY
Case Study- McDonald’s Twitter
Campaign: Hype versus Reality
To- McDonald's management
From- Rick Wion (Director of social media of McDonald)
Date-
Nowadays, social media has become an inseparable part of human lives. The age is
changing and adopting modern ways to communicate with each other. Organizations are trying
to utilize this progress in technology to enhance their business doing social media marketing.
Social media marketing allows them to connect with global customers and multiplies the power
of their brand name(Ashley and Tuten 2015). Social media campaigns are done by organizations
to assist a particular business goal utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter and many others.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media
There are as many disadvantages as there are advantages.Advantages -Relevant and
attractive content captivates the attention of the customers which increases the brand visibility. A
perfect well reputed profile can be prepared on social media about the company which constructs
a good perspective from the customers, social media marketing is the most cost effective ways to
support the business (Hollensen and Raman 2014).It is cheaper than conventional advertisings

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such as creating giant hoardings or promotional activities. It is the most successful way to reach
the customers instantly and directly. Social media is extremely useful because the direct
interaction with customers via feedbacks increases the will to modify or change the existing
organizational principles. The main task is to find and set the target audience and social media is
the key method for this. LinkdIn and Snapchat are among the best apps.
Disadvantages- There are some downsides too of using social media for business
purposes. A company has to invest a good deal in resources to manage the social presence,
designing new and trendy content and responding at once to the customer queries and feedbacks.
Staffs who are employed for such specific advertising and videos, blogs making are paid by the
company which is an added expense. It is hard to measure the amount of profit or revenues
gained by the help of social media marketing. The most dangerous way by which social media
affects the business is the negative feedbacks(Brooks 2015). Since the contents are open and
visible and open to all, people can comment anything either positive or negative. As positive
feedbacks elevate the company reputation, negative feedbacks draw them down.
Different Audiences McDonalds should address
McDonalds faced failure of Twitter ‘hashtag’ social campaigns, because people who
were less- than- satisfied diners posted abusive comments regarding the customer service and
quality of the food(cbsnews.com 2018). After this incident, McDonalds should focus on
consumer opinions to support the making of new web contents so that the content reverberates
with the choice of the targeted audiences. It will help to eradicate further complaints from the
customers. The company should concentrate upon appealing the millennials on twitter and
Instagram. The millennial minded marketers can quickly pick up suitable platforms. The

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Youngsters should be taken into account more because the kind of product McDonalds serve
attract this generation more.
Ways to design better Twitter campaigns for McDonalds in future
In order to avoid social bullying either by disguised competitors or inappropriate
customers McDonalds needs to design better Twitter campaigns. The company needs to get
engaged with social projects to strengthen their impact on the customers. Associating with
celebrities and showing them on Twitter is a better plan to renovate the Twitter campaigns.
Pictures with suitable captions would impress the audiences and help to remove previous taints
of negativity from the minds of the customers(Liu, Miller and Wang 2014). Another effective
strategy would be by posting positive reviews of the celebrity endorsers. People generally get
driven by what the celebrities say about the products. The company can apply the strategy of
creating a social landing page where conversations, interviews and live conferences are
organized. This strategy can make splash on Twitter.
In support of some national event or special day such as World Refugee Day, Women’s
Day the company can create a specific account supposed to be filled by the customers and
contributed to social charity(Scott 2015). Being sensitive to society in this manner the company
can get the love and support of the customers. Brands should try out different innovative
hashtags and keywords to reach the targeted audience.
Effective Communication Plan for McDonalds
An effective communication plan should be prepared for communicating with the target
audiences. The customers should be informed about the new launching products. A proper
communication plan is like a road map to get the messages delivered to the target audience. First

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of all the company needs to conduct an audit evaluating their current position in the market in
terms of communication(Trainor et al. 2014). In order to create a personal communication plan
the company must brainstorm with the staffs, surveys should be conducted to focus on particular
groups, and all the departments of the company should be consulted. Secondly key audiences
should be identified properly. They can be the members / non-members, clients, related
associates, educators, local government officials and media representatives.
The mission statement should be clearly apparent on the Twitter profile clarifying the
goal the company wants to fulfill. The identification of the business objectives is the next step to
be followed. Every organization possess their own selling proposition. The company must
recognize their own selling proposition to craft effective communication. This proposition must
be different in every way from the competitors(Trainor et al. 2014).All information about the
company’s discounts, new policies or participation in any social activity should pop up on the
Twitter page which would catch the attention of the customers. There is no better option than
replying fast to the queries and feedbacks of the customers and focusing on the frequency of
posts by the organizations(Zhao 2017). Special events such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s
Day, and New Year’s Day should be given special consideration by the company to offer special
products to the customers.
Problems McDonalds faced by Twitter Campaign
McDonalds’ Twitter campaign was an attempt to connect between McDonalds and
wholesome goodness(cbsnews.com 2018). The company has faced bad image by the social
media campaign. It has influences many aspects of the company. The bad image has restricted
the company from raising the price, the competition has increased the struggle for reestablishing

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the reputation has also increased(cbsnews.com 2018). Following the above mentioned strategy
the company can reconstruct new communication plan and cope up with the loss.
STAKHOLDER KEY
INTEREST
OR ISSUES
COMMUNICATION
VEHICLE
FREQUENCY COMMENTS
TARGET
CUSTOMER
To spread
awareness
about new
product
launches et
cetera.
TWITTER DAILY This would be
an aggressive
advertising
strategy that
would
incorporate
celebrity
opinions to
lure in more
audiences.
ALL INVOLVED
STAKEHOLDER
(Customers and
members of the
organization)
To ensure
maximum
exposure
Email newsletters
and tweets
Weekly A weekly
reminder
would be sent
to all
customers and
members
about
upcoming
activities and
campaigns to
help them stay
up to date.
Target customers To answer
queries and
clarify
doubts
Tweets and public
posts
Monthly An interactive
session where
customers can
directly
interact with
the
representatives
of the brand
(Figure: Communication plan)

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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),
pp.15-27.
Brooks, S., 2015. Does personal social media usage affect efficiency and well-
being?. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, pp.26-37.
cbsnews.com 2018. How McDonald's Twitter campaign fell into the fire. [online] Cbsnews.com.
Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-mcdonalds-twitter-campaign-fell-into-the-
fire/ [Accessed 31 Aug. 2018].
Hollensen, S. and Raman, A., 2014. Social Media Marketing. Marketing Canada-Journal.
Liu, C.Y., Miller, J. and Wang, Q., 2014. Ethnic enterprises and community
development. GeoJournal, 79(5), pp.565-576.
Scott, D.M., 2015. The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online video,
mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. John
Wiley & Sons.
Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A. and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology usage
and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social
CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.

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Zhao, H., 2017. The impacts of contextual factors on social media crises: Implications for crisis
communication strategy selection. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 11(1),
pp.42-60.