Communication Plan For McDonald’s

The scope of the integration plan

Effective communication is relevant for a company, within the organization and outside the organization among different stakeholders. In marketing, communication plays a vital role for which the communication plan will be developed in the report. The report will include a communication plan for McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a fast food company based in America founded by Maurice and Richard McDonalds. The brand positioning and ways to reach out to the audience depends on the company’s communication strategy, which will reflect the company’s image and build perceptions in customers mind regarding the brand. This retail chain is providing food and services in various nations globally.

• Customer retention – The marketing for McDonald has to be done in order to retain the customers because customer loyalty has been decreasing due to an increase in competition.
• Brand purchase intention – Another objective of the marketing campaign would be to neglect the purchase intention for the customers. This means that the customer must not think for a reason to have a meal in McDonald’s, that they must visit it anytime they feel snacking, hungry, or celebrating.

• Brand awareness – The communication objective through marketing campaign must be creating awareness among the customers about the brand and increase brand recognition.
• Brand loyalty – This is to increase brand loyalty and influencing customers to not switch among other brands.

• Increased competition – The competition has been increasing those results into loss of customers to other brands.
• Change in taste and preferences – The customer’s taste and preference can be changed anytime, which is one of the challenges.
• Increase obesity – The customer had started realizing the bad effects of fast foods for their health affecting the sales of McDonald’s.

• Brand name/ recognition
• Competitive price
• Product adaptability strategy

• Franchisee or joint venture management
• Weak product development

• New product development
• Service orientation

• Increase in heal concern customer
• Local competition in various nations
• Saturated industry

The brand requires a new marketing campaign in order to make people remind about the brand and increase the customer database. More than attracting new customers, it has been difficult for the company to retain the existing customers as customer loyalty in this industry could diminish anytime. People may wish to try food from other brands and local ventures in various nations. Moreover, for McDonald’s the market has been saturated and the company is being known for its burger as per the customer perception that needs to be broadened.  

• Children – One of the market segments for this marketing campaign would be children and parents. The reason being it is easy to attract and influence children through additional toys or combos like a happy meal.
• Working men and women – The working and men and women can be targeted through marketing communication so as to influence them to have a break from work and enjoy McDonald’s meal.
• School or college going students – This group will be a target as the company prefers to reflect the fun and spending time at the food chain. For instance, “I’m Loving It” brands tagline. Therefore, it is to influence young students to enjoy with their parents and friends at the chain.
• Middle-income group – The brand is offering budget-friendly fast food products and for this must be reflected through the marketing campaign of the company to attract this customer group.  

Major competitors of McDonald’s are

This is another global fast-food chain with similar products and McDonalds biggest direct competitor. The major difference in the product is a variety that is the company is offering large varieties to the customers and has adapted psychological marketing strategy through keeping the prices at 99.  

Subway is another major competitor of McDonald’s although the products of both companies are quite different. Subway has focused over healthy eating products on the menu, which is one of the issues McDonald’s is facing that is an increase in health-concerned customers.  

• Target Audience – As already discussed the target audience for the marketing campaigns would be children, office going people, and school and college students.
• Customer Experience – The customer perception to be made by the campaign would be love, aspiration, and quality.
• Competitive Context – The context to be communicated would be fun loving and casual place to hang out anytime for any age group.

• Benefits – The brand benefit would be budget friendly and best quality fast food snacks for everybody.
• Personality / Style – The campaign is intended to reflect the consumer interpretation through brand to be competence considering the brand personalities.
• Physical Attributes – This will include the packaging of the product and brand sign that reflect happiness.
• Competencies – The brand competency would be quality goods and affordable options.
• Values – The value proposition would be cleanliness, consistency, quality, and low prices.

• Consumer Insight – The major factor that will be responsible for motivation to the customer to make purchases will be competitive prices and product adaptability as per the local taste and preference in every nation.
• Brand Essence – McDonald brand essence would be quality if expressed in a single term.
• Brand Differentiator – The brand differentiator would be low prices and special offers. 

Primary message – The primary message to the target audience through this marketing campaign would be the best quality food in budget-friendly prices for all age groups. Moreover, the message would also reflect the fun time to spend with friends and family.

Desired response – the company is expecting an optimistic result from the same. Increase in sale of the goods would become of the desired result that the company would be expecting. Moreover, the company is willing to create this brand positioning and change customer perception regarding the brand.

One of the most common and mass media vehicles would be a television advertisement. The use of audio-video ad and regular reminder through could be helpful for the company to attract customers and create brand positioning. One of the disadvantages for the company would be separate ads for different regions worldwide due to different culture and language. However, there are various advantages for the company like reaching out a large group of people at the same time and it could turn into an effective way of advertisement.

Marketing objectives

This way of media included transit and billboards that the company can use to target the local customer in every nation around the world through bus shelters, posters, hoarding, and mobile advertising vans. This is helpful for the company to remind the customer regarding the television advertisement of the brand and new flavours or product added to the brands to offer. This media cost lower to the company than any other mode of media although this is for the limited area.

MEDIA VEHICLE	SPECS	APPROX. RATE
Television
Prime Time A (6–8 pm)	60 sec	$16,000
Prime Time B (5–6 pm / 8–9 pm)	60 sec	$10,000
Daytime (all other times)	60 sec	$2,000
Late night (12 am – 7 am)	60 sec	$1000
Outdoor
	(all prices per month min 3-month contract)
24-sheet billboard	Main road urban	$12,000
Superbus	Overall cover	$9,000
Bus panel	Single panel	$600
Street furniture/bus shelter	$500

Therefore the overall media cost to the company would be approximately $51,100.

The Campaign is sending a consistent message, for which it could be initiated immediately and continue for a long period of time say eight months from now. The timings could be different in some regions for instance festivals can be considered for the campaign like Christmas or thanksgiving in western countries.

• Customer satisfaction – The campaign effectiveness can be evaluated through customer satisfaction that can be analyzed through feedbacks from the customer.
• The frequency of purchase – The repetition of purchase by a customer also reflects that the campaign has been effective and has changed customer perception for the brand.
• Sales or revenue – This is one of the major key areas that need to be affected and the result must be reflected through these criteria. Increase in sales of the brand will reflect customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
• Customer database – Increase in a number of the customer will reflect the effectiveness of the campaign regarding customer awareness.

Conclusion 

From the report, it can be concluded that McDonalds is one of the largest fast food chains around the globe. A communication plan was developed in the report initiated by analyzing the external and internal environment of the organization.  The target audience for the campaign would be Children, Working men and women, School or college going students, and Middle-income group. The major competitors to the company were subway and burger king.  

The primary message to the target audience through this marketing campaign was the best quality food in budget-friendly prices for all age groups. Moreover, the message would also reflect the fun time to spend with friends and family. This message would be sent through two major communication media television and outdoor.

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