Communication Systems: McDonald’s, Starbucks, And Subway

McDonald’s Communication System

Question:

Discuss about the McDonald for Interpersonal and E-Communication.

McDonald is one the leading food chain of the worlds. The company is operating from the year of 1955. It was founded in United Sates and presently it became the leading food chain operating its stores throughout the world. The company is famous for its Ronald McDonald. The clown became a medium for the customers to get attracted towards the brand. People could communicate through the clown. The approach has in both communications as well as in E- communication. The company gets connected through its effective technology and medium (Mcdonalds.com 2016).

The company develops the most effective way through the internal communication that nurtures, develops and place trust to the growth of the employees. The company ensured internal communication in reaching to a wide mass of people for its messages. The company’s multi-channel communication enables to deliver its messages to its staff. It could include print, online and the other forms of the technology such as video conferencing. The company inspires its staff as it produce ample of magazines for them. They induce a wide variety of channels like MDUK telephone hotline, fax, email, post and the text. The company also increased its online communication process. The communication tools are also engaged to motivate and encourage the readers so to become the brand ambassadors through telling them the stories on the local level in making a human face in the company’s national messages (Madar and NeacÅŸu 2013).

McDonald has the internal as well has external communication channel. It helps to connect with all the teams that deal with the communication system. In the external communication system the company has number of advertising campaigns in a whole year so that customers can aware about the products and the services. They also provide wide variety of offers through the campaigns. It also inform about areas such as training and education opportunities. The company has media team who engage in all the enquiry of the press. McDonald uses a wide variety of campaign through the advertising medium in magazines sand newspapers. It communicates with the customers, staff, stakeholders etc through brochures, posters, scientific reports, It organize Public Relation such as organizing events (Koenig et al. 2013).

• Introduction of a new clown- Ronald has became the most known familiar face for its customers throughout the world. The strategy lies in the communication with its customers through the clown. It enables the company to get attracted through the clown. Through the clown customers get aware about various promotional activities along with offers and discounts (Hosany et al. 2013).

Figure 1 Ronald McDonald

Source (Hosany et al. 2013).

• Free Coupon- the company makes a communication through the distribution of free coups. Through the coupons the customers gets aware about various offers that the company is providing. For example they distribute various free sports coupons to its customers.
• Delivery of food- The staff and the customers gets connected through the option of delivery. It enables them to make communication even the staff goes for free delivery. The consumers can take non-electronic method like coming to the store and schedule a time and place where the food will be delivered.

Figure 2. Home delivery

Source (Davenport 2013).

• Research- the company conducts various surveys and research for the benefits of the staffs and the customers. The survey also enables the quality that the suppliers are maintained. The survey helps them to connect with the world throughout.
• Advertising- the company also gives various advertising campaigns in newspaper and the magazines. It enables the customers to gets aware about the products that they introduce. It also helps as they gets aware about various discounts and offers that the company introduces (Davenport 2013).

Figure 3. Advertising in magazines

Source (Davenport 2013).

• Involvement of the stakeholders in Decision making- McDonald also enable the stakeholders to get engaged with the informal meeting in the decision making process. It makes the environment relaxes as they become the representative of the company for the discussion.
• Public Relation- the Company plans various events so to connect with the customers and the employees, suppliers etc. the company involves in an effective communication process through the policy of public relation.

McDonald uses variety of medium to communicate with the staff, customers and stakeholders in the communication method. The communication enables to connect through various mediums. It involves various kinds of technology in communicating the message to the audience. The company uses Mobile Devices, Video Conferencing, and Social Media as the Electronic mail. McDonald has several audiences for the communication. The audience has different age, gender, special needs, and accessibility. McDonalds communicates both internally as well as externally (Rahat et al. 2014).

• Website- the most important that communication does between McDonald and the customers. Through the websites the company enables the customers to get information about the various food and beverages that they provide. It also provides the wide variety of locations through which customers can get knowledge about the locations. The website also gives vivid descriptions about the company background. Different countries have different websites through which the customers can also able to order to food and beverages online.

Figure 4. Website of McDonald

Source (Rahat et al. 2014).

• Intranet- the Company enables the use of intranet for its employees. Through intranet the company enables the customers to get connected with among the employees. Employees can get information and can community with other staffs in a quick and fast way (Nishimura and Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 2015).
• Cloud Communication- THE Company uses cloud communication with their tie up with IBM. It enables the employees to make communication between the employees and also gives productivity and efficiency in terms of service (Raj and Kaur 2012).
• Cell Phone- The use of cell phone has become an important medium for the company to get connected. It also enables the company to promote various services through cellular phone services. McDonalds communicate its message through the campaign in the mobile phones. It also provides messages to their loyal customers for the offers and discounts that they provide.
• Credit Card and online order- the company uses online order as the customers could give the order in online just through some clicks. It also enables the customers to provide various cards options like credit cards and debit cards at the time of order. Even when they are ordering the food offline they can easily pay the bills through their use of electronic card.

Figure 5. Credit Card Machine

Starbucks Communication System

Source (Nishimura and Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 2015).

• Information System- McDonalds use wide variety of information System to enable the communication between the employees. The five types of information system that the company uses are Transaction Processing System, Office Information System, Decision Support System, Managing Information system (Green et al. 2013).
• Social Media- the company various social media sites to enable communication between the company and the customers. The company uses various sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. It enables the customers to give view about the product and service. Through the use of social networking sites the company enables to get connected as they could provide various advertisement and the promotional activities through it.

Figure 6. Facebook Page of McDonald

Source (Green et al. 2013).

• E-news and Emails- The Company provides e-newsletter so the employees, customers and the suppliers get informed about all the changes and the news that McDonald is currently having. It makes them aware about all the information related with the company (Brereton 2013).

Figure 7. SWOT Analysis

Source (Valax 2012)

Strength

• Employee magazine- McDonald introduces employee magazines to the company this enable the company to get connected with the employees in much better way, Employees gets connected and it also helps to motivate as the magazine is totally relates them (Valax 2012)
• Information through articles, journals and research papers- The Company introduces to give all its information through the journals, articles and the research papers. Now, this enables the customers to get all the knowledge about the company. The journals also provides feedback where the customers and give feedback about the article (Valax 2012).
• Food delivery through online and offline- the delivery of food through online as well as offline enables the customers to get engaged with the company. It makes them easy accessibility of the company. This enables to trust the company more and ensures to develop more of loyal customers (Thornton et al. 2016).
• Promotion of the new product- the company ensures various promotions through the promotional methods and the promotional activities that attached with it. The communication with the customers through online as well as offline mode. Customers get aware about the new product. The company does maximum of its promotion through the electronic media.

Weakness

• Super Size Me- the company’s communication process with the customers through their concept of “Super Size Me” enables to have an adverse effect. More and more customers are health conscious. They negatively react and communicate with the company because of the concept.
• Slow Feedback- the company enables to provide various feedbacks from its customers. The feedback they collected is through online as well As offline medium. But the mode of feedback is very slow. This enables the customers to lose the interest to give any feedback through those mediums.
• Linguistic Barrier- the Company also a linguistic barrier. The company has its stores worldwide. But the social networking sites as well as the websites they use the language of English. As the customers can give their feedback only in English. Now, English is not a national language in most of the Asian and Arabian countries. It made the communication very tough (Yates 2014).
• Roles, Status and Power- The role, status and power become an important barrier in McDonalds as in the communication between employees. Some employees do not talk with the other because of the statues. In McDonalds it mainly happens between the communication with the new employee and the staff. Sometimes employees hide the mistakes from the manger because of their personal relationships. This becomes a barrier in the flow of information. In some stores power become a barrier in the motivation and control of the employees.

Opportunities

• Scope through Social Media- the Company has lot of scope through social media. they can create more pages and add their loyal customers into it.
• Implementation of SAP- The Company needs to implement the system of SAP. The organization need to collect, store and arrangement in the in turn. Information can be collected through the information and knowledge that can be collected.
• Installation of new IT software- the company use in most countries the traditional system. The advancement the technology to advance every day. The company needs to adapt with it.
• Electronic System Innovation- they need to make innovation in their policies of the electronic System. They need to make an advance plan for it

Threats

• No new innovations – the first important threats the company goes through is that they does not involve any new innovations in terms of electronic communication. The world is developing with better options in the innovation and the modification process.
• More advanced communication process by new entrants- The new entrants are coming up with different and effective communication system. It enables McDonalds to have a disadvantage over it.
• Security problems in computer communication system- The Company though adopted various security systems in their process of communication. Still hacking and virus entry makes the employees to face in a regular basis. The problems also enable the system to run slow (Fan et al. 2013).
• Errors and Accidents- the company also face a lot of error and accidents in the electronic system. The company faces software error most often. They also face electromechanical problems as the electrical system such as the circuit board does not always work.

The communication process of StarBucks adopts a very unique and innovative way. They do not use the traditional method. The uniqueness makes it to enjoy a competitive advantage in terms of communication. The company offers coffee drinks that could be created by the customers it. It enables to communicate the customers in a much efficient way (Starbucks Coffee Company 2016).

Figure 8. Coffee Drinks created by a customer

Source (Starbucks Coffee Company 2016).

Starbuck provide an efficient way in the development of downward communication. They introduce open-book management and the caching which includes open-book management and the coaching approaches. The Starbucks like McDonald provide the offer in website the offers in 24*7 bases. Though, in terms of Wi-Fi connectivity Starbucks is far more advanced. The employees and the customers can enjoy the internet through get of hotspots for the access of WI-Fi. The company also maintains privacy and security because of the emerging number of e-crimes. The company not only has internet and intranet it also has extranet (Jang and Jung 2013).

Communication Process of Subway

Subway provides an approach of intercultural communication. Subway is expanding throughout the world. Subway is updating the communicating system in the daily basis. They use the most effective communication system in their stores. Though, the communication system is not much comparing to McDonalds. They don’t have any innovations in the communication system. The systems they use are mostly, traditional in mode (www.subway.com 2016).

Figure 9. Van used as communication

Source (www.subway.com 2016).

McDonalds use variety of communication modes for their company. Though the methods they use are mostly traditional. The company needs to introduce some innovative and most advanced ways for their development of the communication. It does not only mean to innovate in ways of introduction through the electronic mode. But in their offline communication they can introduce innovations. They can introduce some activities in the store. For example participate to create a design in the cup. And, the most innovative design would get a prize (Yamin and Forsgren 2015).

They need to install the new software for their accessing of the information and the knowledge of the employees and the suppliers. The strategy would enable to ensure an understanding between the employees and the customers. The reward for the information as well as the knowledge sharing would also provide to encourage the customers and the employees through the medium of knowledge sharing (Grunig 2013).

The effective communication will enable to increase the productivity and will increase the turnover of the employee along with it improve the atmosphere of the office. They can increase the approach of the communications through the social networking sites. The can create a page where the customers can create their own recipes and that recipe will be included in McDonalds Stores in worldwide (Gungor et al. 2013).

Subway Communication System

Conclusion

McDonalds is the leader in the food chain. It produces wide variety of options so that customers or clients, suppliers and stakeholders get connected. It also produces a wide scope for them to get interconnected. The company provides both internal as well as the external communication system. The communication system is effective. It produces wide variety of options for the employer and the customers to get connected in ways of online as well as in online. The company has some innovations in the cloud communication. The company also enables to provide them a variety of medium. The advertisement campaigns in the online medium such as e-news also acts as an effective way for the customers to get connected. The most important approach is Ronald McDonald. Though, the approach has become old. They need to introduce and innovate new ways even in this criteria. The company has some weakness and threats that are attached to it. Those threats can be eliminated through necessary steps. The company needs to introduce some innovations for reaching the mass people. Recommendations are adopted on that basis.

Reference list:

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