Advertising Journey Of Mcdonalds Marketing Essay

Advertising Journey Of Mcdonalds Marketing Essay It is not too much to say that McDonalds is one of the largest corporations that can even represent the United States of America. It still secures its dominant position that outruns Burgerking overwhelmingly in fast food industry. In 1940, Dick and Mac Mcdonald founded a restaurant called McDonalds Bar-B-Q in California. It was common drive-in restaurant. By 1948, the brothers decided to improve their restaurant to make differentiation from other similar businesses. They have introduced Speedee-Service-System, which is more like automobile assembly system, to make their food faster and cheaper. It was revolutionary shift which led the restaurant more famous. One day, a guy called Ray Kroc visited the Mcdonald brothers and the Kroc was fascinated by the fast food systemic restaurant. In 1954, the Kroc was determined to take over franchising for McDonalds. By 1955, he opened his first franchised McDonalds in Illinois. Since then till now, there are more than 34,000 franchised McDonalds restaurants are running over 119 countries. Advertising campaign of McDonalds is based on their brand identity. McDonalds is not just fast food restaurant where people order the food and have it but the place where people enjoy the time with their friends or families. For the last 50 years, 23 different slogans were presented in the United States of America. There were a few more slogans created in other countries and regions. Regardless of various different slogans and media, Mcdonalds have been maintaining their corporate philosophy in their advertising which is Be the fun, friendly, place for families. C:Documents and SettingsDanbiDesktopw334.jpg In early stage of the brand, the advertising was mainly focused on print advertising. In the 1960s, TV advertising was the most effective media in advertising industry. However, in 1974, there was ground breaking advertising emerged which could be considered as an integrated advertising. That campaign was designed to promote the product called BigMac. At that time, the slogan was Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. In TV commercial, the slogan was used as a jingle that could be sung by people, namely, the jingle was a big idea in the campaign. The jingle was appeared on not only TV commercial but also in newspapers, on T-shirts and the radio. Since it has been created sensation, there was rewarding event for customers. The customers who were able to sing the jingle, they could get a free BigMac. Although the jingle was not an ordinary song, it was the most requested song by the radio audiences. Needless to say, the campaign was successful. Dean Barrett, McDonalds senior vice president of global marketing, said The campaign was the expression of McDonalds in its own time, in terms of the fun attitude. Through this integrated advertising, McDonalds could imprint their brand image to the customers. The brand image was that they concerns about communication with the customers and the happiness of the customers. Also, they are the brand which offers fun and entertainment experience. Since 2003, McDonalds are concentrated on creating youthful images under the global marketing strategy which is the slogan Im lovin it. Hence, they have presented several marketing campaigns that reminds of youthful images by associating with Hip-Hop music, Sports and Musicians. C:Documents and SettingsDanbiDesktopmcd_co_940x3601.pngC:Documents and SettingsDanbiDesktopdissertationimageMcD_Coinoffers_05_Coin_Collect_871x490px.jpg C:Documents and SettingsDanbiDesktopdissertationimageMcD_Coinoffers_06_Coin_Collect_871x490px.jpgC:Documents and SettingsDanbiDesktopMcD_Coinoffers_04_AppStores_871x490px.jpg Problem and Solution In 2011, DDB Copenhagen was asked by McDonalds to create advertising campaign with using new platform media that aims teenager and young adults. The campaign is named Coinoffers. The coin offers a range of products that can be purchased for. However, there was a problem that many voucher and price-saving sites offer some discounting or similar service as coin-offer. Therefore, the company decided to make its own digital currency. This digital currency need to be earned by customers participation. Also, there should be branding device that represents McDonalds. Brief explanation of the campaign The coins were traditional QR codes transformed into pixel codes of a range of products such as hamburgers, fries and so on. McDonalds have distributed one million coins over the country through a wide range of media television, radio, out-door posters, digital screen of buses and trains, facebook ads, games. There are some other unconventional media choices. For example, the paper shit on the tray which has got the code on it. People have to fold the paper to get it. To collect all those coins, consumers needed to download mobile application which can scan those pixel codes as the coins. Also, the mobile app has got sound detecting function which detaches the sound from the radio and converts the sound as a coin. This mobile application was built as the central element in this campaign that is placed in the middle of circulation of earning, paying and owning. Consumers collected the coins with the application whenever they came across the codes. Once they have collected some amount of coins, they can drop by the restaurant and get the products. It is possible because each digital code have got value of one virtual coin. Result The result was fruitful. This campaign reminds people that McDonalds have always been providing fun food at a low cost. As soon as the application had been released, it became the fastest downloaded application in Denmark which has reached number 1 on iTunes app store and Android market within a day. The one million coins were collected in just 26 days that means McDonalds had to put an end to the campaign unexpectedly 2 weeks earlier that they have planned. Conclusion There are two facts that can be inferred about creating integrated campaign. This will be illustrated below. The first one is simple idea is the best in this type of advertising strategy. In this campaign, it shows that how the simple idea can be expanded broadly with various media channels. If it was a story-based idea, it must be difficult to apply that idea on print advertising. In other words, complicated idea have possibility of losing its media choice such as poster an billboard. The second one is entertaining elements can draw peoples attention. This campaign would not be successful without participation of the customers. Therefore, entertaining requisite have played key role to arouse peoples engagement. For example, the idea itself which give money to people, games. It is originally called coin hunting but it is also an up-to-date version of playing hide-and-seek for the customers. To sum up, two conditions needed to be satisfied for the success of creating integrated advertising. Firstly, big idea should come from simple thought in order to broaden media choice. Therefore, it can affect wide range of target audiences. Secondly, interesting activity should be given owing to catching peoples eyes. Regardless of advertising strategy, the intention of advertising itself is making the brand noticeable. Thus, the more people join the campaign the larger the brand become.