Marketing Communication McDonalds

McDonalds Corporation is the worlds largest fast food chain, selling primarily hamburgers, chicken, french fries and carbonated drinks and more recently salads, fruit and carrot sticks. The ancestry was founded in 1940 with a restaurant opened by siblings Dick and Mac McDonald. It was their introduction of the Speedee Service System in 1948 that established the principles of the fast-food restaurant. However, the company today dates its foundation garment to the opening of CEO Ray Krocs first franchised restaurant, the companys ninth, in 1955. He opened his first McDonalds in Des Plaines, Illinois in April 1955 (Wikipedia).McDonalds is one of the worlds largest brand for a reason. They take marketing communication theory seriously. McDonalds spends billions of dollars with outside publicise and promotional agencies to communicate to its customers. According to Allison Perlik (2005), McDonalds relies highly on targeted advertising and marketing communications and this is a centra l reason it is one of the worlds best-known brands. San Francisco-based researcher Interbrand ranked it 7th among the 100 most herculean brands in the world last year. It values the McDonalds brand at $25 billion, up 1% (and up one notch in the ranking) from 2003 convey to the chains sales rebound (Perlik, 2005).McDonalds has had its deepest impact as a marketer has been through the variety of its messages to consumers. Larry Lights (McDonalds orbicular Marketing Officer) term for the companys marketing system is brand journalism which means telling different stories to several demographic groups through a variety of media, while ensuring that all those communications reinforce a single brand image. For decades, McDonalds has simultaneously addressed kids, teens,Marketing Communication McDonaldsadults, moms, parents, grandparents, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and others with marketing meant to get in touch the brand with concourses lives (Perlik, 2005).The most recent cam paign the fastfood giant deployed is im lovin it. According to Wikepedia, this is an international branding campaign by primarily aimed at people aged 15-24. It was created by Heye & Partner, a longtime McDonalds agency based in Unterhaching, Germany, near Munich, and a member of the DDB Worldwide Communications Group, Inc. It was the companys first global advertising campaign and was launched in Munich, Germany on September 2, 2003, under the German title ich liebe es.The English part of the campaign was launched on September 29, 2003 with the music of Tom Batoy and Franco Tortora (Mona Davis Music) and vocals by Justin Timberlake in which the slogan appears used in many of the introductory spots. The campaign is proving to be successful as it is being popularly used around the globe.Another strategy the company has been carrying out is standardization. This means replicating its wit and look across the world. But the truth is that there always has been a restlessness at McDonalds , leadership it to explore variations in both menu and building style. It started in the 1960s when Ray Kroc began installing outdoor s take in new units, transforming what had been a sleep with concept to a restaurant.Indoor seating, drive-thru windows, play areas for kids and other modifications followed. Limited-menu kiosks under such names as McSnack Spot, McTreat Spot and McStop get to been tested with varying success. In the last 15 old age, changes in consumer eating habits and in the restaurant industry have led McDonalds to test some radical departures from its standard design (Perlik, 2005).Marketing Communication McDonaldsThe couplet of McDonalds target market is very wide. As mentioned above, McDonalds reaches different age brackets through the use of brand journalism. For instance, they had a tagline You need a Break. This is intended for adults who are busy working and are looking for a dexterous time, and McDonalds delivers that. There are a number of reasons wh y people love McDonalds and why they have served millions of burgers to millions of people. It could be that people still want their food fast and instantly, without sacrificing the taste, and at the same time, having fun. For the kids, they love the characters and definitely, the happy meal. This toy inside a meal is one of the most successful promotional strategies of McDonalds.Its competitors like Carls Jr. and Burger King have directed advertising towards a different demographic young teenage and college-age men with trendy, often sexualised, imagery and messages that target mens supposed desire for large, meat-filled burgers and rich, satisfying food. In 2005, for example, Carls Jr. debuted a controversial ad featuring a bikini-clad Paris Hilton writhing sensuously on an expensive Bentley luxury car while enjoying a large burger. The ad evoke outrage from a number of groups, but Carls Jr. sales climbed impressively (Wikipedia).Others may try but no one beats McDonalds in bei ng able to serve both kids and adults. The company, unlike Carls Jr. and Burger King, need not choose which specific market to serve. However, the culture of healthy eating is becoming a threat to fast food chains, even our giant McDonalds. All of a sudden the country has gone into health overdrive. The government produce a White Paper calledChoosing Health, that revealed their plans to invest money into better advertising campaigns promoting healthy eating in children. Unsurprisingly, Z-lists celebrities jumped on the band wagon and have either released a book or a workout video (Goldie, 2006). Goldie adds that as a result of this ongoing obesity debate, McDonalds and the fast-foodMarketing Communication McDonaldsindustry as a whole saw itself on the receiving end of negative publicity and suffered major criticism for providing unhealthy food. 2004 was the first year McDonalds announced a passing game in profits, coinciding with the release of the film documentary Super Size Me i n July. The film follows the journey of Morgan Spurlock, who set out to discover the implications of eating zero but Maccy Ds for a whole month, following three rules he could only eat what was available, no super-sizing unless offered, and he had to eat every item on the menu at least once.Although the healthy eating trend is posing a threat to McDonalds, Ronald and his friends are here to stay. I believe that McDonalds marketing communications spears through this trend and reaches the hearts and palettes of millions of kids and adults worldwide through their campaigns. McDonalds successfully gives us a reason every now and then why we should go there and bring our kids with us. It is not only food that people love in McDonalds but the culture, feeling, and happiness that it has seeded for the past 50 years in millions of kids and kids at heart.BibliographyPerlik, A 2005, Redefining McDonalds, Rimag.com, viewed 12 December 2006, http//www.rimag.com/archives/2005/03a/design.asp.Pe rlik, A 2005, McDonalds 50th Marketing, Rimag.com, viewed 12 December 2006, http//www.rimag.com/archives/2005/03a/marketing.asp.Goldie, C 2004, McDonalds, healthy eating, and the joyful Meal of the future, Public Sphere, 12 December 2006, .McDonalds, Wikipedia, 12 December 2006, .Im lovin it, Wikipedia, 12 December 2006,