McDonald’s: Overview, Objectives And IMC Strategy

History and Products

Discuss abou the IMC Strategies for McDonald’s.

The McDonald`s is an American fast food company which is a chain of restaurants found in the year 1940. The company was found in the United States. The company started operating on a franchise based model and currently the organization has above 36900 outlets as of 2017. The restaurant is one of the largest restaurant chains with respect to revenue and serves over 70 million customers in more than 100 countries (McDonald’s Australia. ,2018). The primary products sold by the company ranges from cheeseburger products to French-fry and other items like soft drinks, milkshakes, wraps and salads.

However, the company has been receiving backslash from various activist and critiques because it has not been offering a healthy option to the different consumers. After this the company began to redesign its activities and added salads, menu and smoothies into its options.

This led the company becoming quite popular among the different customers and executives alike. A majority of the rent of the company comes from the royalties, rents and the fees it receives from the different employees. Mc. Donald’s is the world’s leading private employer and more than 2 million people work for the given organization.

The company is extremely serious about its corporate social responsibility and aims to engage in various activities which are beneficial for the wider society. It markets its events and ensures that the customers are easily able to identify with the different initiatives of the business. This ensures massive popularity (Rothaermel, 2015).  The given report lays down some objectives with respect to the campaign being conducted by Mc Donald’s to support charity.

The primary objective of the campaign is to help Mc Donald’s in gaining funds for its charity event. It aims to host an application oriented program along with a marathon that shall enable the organization to raise funds for its business purposes.

Smart	The primary purpose of the campaign is to raise funds for the purpose of providing benefits to the beneficiaries of the Ronald Mc Donald Charity.
Measurable	The objectives which have been aimed to be achieved can be done so and be measured easily with respect to the amount of money raised for the funds.
Attainable	The given objective to raise funds is attainable as the various campaigns aim to make the different customers attracted towards the events and pay the funds in form of their fees.
Relevant	The given objective is relevant. This means that it aims to fulfill the objective of higher funds from amount raised through the events.
Time bound	The marathon will be held in one day whereas the gaming application aspect will continue for a few months.

The main target audience of the different campaigns can be determined using the given segmentation approach

• Demographics- The chosen target audience of the campaigns will be segmented on the basis of the age of the target audience. The target audience may be aged above 15 years of age to 50 years of age (Armstrong et al., 2015). The income level of the participants should be sufficient enough to ensure participation and contribution.
• Geographic- The people in the urban areas will be primarily targeted. However, as the given campaign is a mobile based application, all distances can be overcome
• Psychographics- The people who enjoy quality time with their closed ones are the primary target audience (Kotler, 2015). They might be budget conscious and health conscious to participate in a marathon as well.
• Behavioral factors- The audience based on these factors can include individuals who are loyal to the brand.

Target Market identified: Hence, the target audience for the given campaign is kids, teenagers, adults and families who are loyal to the given restaurant and reside in the urban areas (Chernev, 2018).  They are taste conscious and like to invest in McDonalds because of the good taste and reasonable price

Segmentation tool	Details of customer profile
Geographic	Mr. Albert Gonzales, urban areas of Melbourne
Demographic and roles	Mr. Albert Gonzales is a family man who is aged 40. He has a wife and two children. Hence, he is a father and a husband who occasionally takes his children to the restaurant.
Psychographic roles	He belongs to the high income group and is influenced by his children`s taste.
Motivational factor	The primary motivational factor for his visit to the restaurant is his children`s happiness (Keller &  Kotler, 2016).
Self-concept and personality	Mr. Albert is a family man who likes to work hard for the well being of his family.
Loyalty status	Mr. Albert has been visiting the restaurant since he was a child and it is a favorite among his children as well.
emotions	He is a fun loving person who takes life as it is.
Current industry trends	The Mc Donald’s has portrayed itself as a family restaurant which is a fit for all customers and suits the needs of Mr. Albert`s Family as well.

IMC Strategy for App Games on Mobile phones

The mobile application and the games are being presented in order to collect the funds for the charity program. The primary target market for the given product is the children between the ages 9-21. The application will be a restaurant based application which will take the form of a cooking game (Burns, Bush & Sinha, 2014).  The initial levels of the game will be free of cost and then after a certain time, the game will be priced a particular discussed amount. Foe the promotion of the game a time plan of 3 months has been set aside. The marketing Department of the Mc Donald’s will be responsible for it. The advertisement modes which will be used are given as follows:

• Television advertising- The television advertisement forms an essential source of advertisement to market the given application (Ramaswamy & Mosher, 2013). The advertisements can be casted on lifestyle as well as children`s channel which will make small children more attracted to them. Furthermore, the social media networking websites can also be used for the children above the age of 15 till they age 21 (Hollensen, 2015).  The social media advertisement forms and essential part of advertisement and it becomes increasingly important for a business sot ensure that it is engaging in the right site.
• Newspaper advertisement- The normal news magazine along with the children`s magazine can also be used in order to attract the different individuals to download the game. It is suggested that the advertisements are given on weekends to ensure that they attain maximum attention from the whole family.
• Comics- As the given game is concerned with children, it becomes essentially important to advertise in these sources which are mostly read or sued by children (Bresler & Lubbe, 2014). The magazine can half a page of the chosen advertisement method which will then go a long way in helping the organization to attend to the needs of the target audience.
• Billboards- Various advertisements can also be given out on the billboards and the hoardings to attract people in cars and sidewalks (Meffert, 2013).
• Pamphlets in the stores- Various templates can also be distributed to the different consumers who visit any branch of the restaurant.

The second campaign will be held in order to attract various athletes, marathon runners and activists. The marathon will be held on the 15th of May in Melbourne. Various famous athletes will be called in order to participate in the given activity. The participants in the marathon will be allowed to run after paying nominal fees of 10$. Adults as well as children can participate in the given activity. The money raised in lieu of the marathon will be used to fund the Ronald McDonald charity program. The activity will be promoted in the given manner:

• Newspaper- The marathon date, venue, timing and participation details would be easily provided in the newspapers with a relevant details of person to contact,
• Social Media Marketing– A page will be created on various social media websites with relevant detail about the different details (Foxall, 2014). 
• Billboard- Billboard advertisement will be used and the boards around different clubs and sports association will be covered.
• Television (Local) – The local television channels shall be used.
• Radio- The radio will also be used as a medium to advertise about the given program.
• Advertisement in Mc Donald’s outlets- Just like the previous method, advertisement will also be done in the outlets and all details can be taken from there.
• Pamphlet- Pamphlets with adequate details will be distributed in the given places:
  • Schools
  • Universities
  • Sports clubs (Baker & Saren, 2016). 
  • Hospitals

Conclusion

Therefore from the given analysis it can be stated that the Integrated Marketing Strategy plays a key role in deciding the fate f the campaign. For the purpose of the assignment, the campaigns of Mc Donald’s were chosen and the SMART Objectives technique was used to understand the reason behind the main purpose of the campaigning program. The target audience was identified and the IMC Strategy for both the campaigns was stated.

References:

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Baker, M.J. &Saren, M. eds. (2016). Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.

Bresler, M. & Lubbe, I. (2014). Marketing management.

Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. & Sinha, N. (2014). Marketing research (Vol. 7). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson.

Chernev, A. (2018). Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.

Foxall, G. (2014). Strategic Marketing Management (RLE Marketing) (Vol. 3). Routledge

Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education Limited.

Keller, K.L. &  Kotler, P. (2016). Marketing management. Pearson.

Kotler, P. (2015). Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.

McDonald’s Australia. (2018). Mcdonalds.com.au. Retrieved 28 April 2018, from https://mcdonalds.com.au/

Meffert, H. (2013). Marketing-Management: Analyse—Strategie—Implementierung. Springer-Verlag.

Ramaswamy, S.K. & Mosher, G.A. (2013). Marketing Management.

Rothaermel, F.T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.