Marketing in McDonald’s “Welcome to McDonald’s what can I get for you today?” Does that famous saying sound familiar to you? Do you ever wonder why you keep going back to McDonald’s week after week? It’s because of their marketing and advertising. McDonald’s image is more than just food; it’s a place for families. McDonald’s has over 9,500 restaurants in 45 countries. Their marketing budget has never been matched by any other single brand name.
McDonald’s spends more than $800 million dollars every year on marketing and promotion. In 1987 McDonald’s began a major advertising campaign; which aimed “to neutralize the junk food misconceptions about McDonald’s good food.” This marketing idea did not go far because newspapers started to write “McDonald’s doesn’t have nutritious food and people don’t come to McDonald’s for nutrition.” From this McDonald’s soon only offered a nutrition card rather than trying to pass their food off as nutritious. Peter Cox, a former marketing consultant of the Vegetarian Society, quoted from the book, ‘Behind the Arches,’ “the reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skin is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years,” McDonald’s marketing slogan soon became, “If you eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years you will become taller and your skin whiter and you’ll have blonde hair…” this slogan was ruled out. But marketing to children was not ruled out.
Nearly all McDonald’s marketing is aimed at children. Researchers say when a child sees Ronald he or she thinks of hamburgers and french fries. They also say many children want to be like Ronald and since Ronald loves McDonald’s they will too. Children seem to think it doesn’t matter how much fast food they eat because Ronald says it’s good and fun. Also in the 1980’s Ronald’s love went haywire and the main man Geoffrey Guillano, Ronald, quit and apologized for his actions. He believed he brainwashed children into doing wrong, he also said he was sorry to children everywhere for selling out to concerns who make millions by murdering animals.
In the UK McDonald’s also markets young children, ages 2 to 8. Their McDonald’s commercials contain a simple song; which was easy for children to remember. John Hawkes, the McDonald’s UK Chief Marketing Officer, said the song was to reach families through the children. He said the song was stored in the forefront part of the brain of children minds.
Children would then connect hunger with McDonald’s and ask their parents to bring them there. How does McDonald’s target young adults, ages 16-25? McDonald’s take a new approach to target young adults, they use discounts and coupons. McDonald’s offers 29-cent and 39-cent hamburgers and cheeseburgers. McDonald’s doesn’t make money off the price the customer pays but rather from the soda they buy and the fries they buy.
Which then leads to the subconscious marketing, also known as the trade-off effect. For example, when the customer buys goes to buy a small coke they usually wind up buying a large. This is because the small is $1.09, the medium is $1.24, and the large is $1.29.
A customer sees the prices and tries to figure out the best deal for their money. The medium sells for $0.15 cents more then the small (which gives the customer 5 more ounces) but the large sells for $0.05 more cents than the medium and the customer is going to get 11 more ounces for their nickel. The customer then buys their soda, two sizes larger than what they originally planned to buy.
Even though the customer spends $0.20 more then what they planned McDonald’s spends close to nothing. The customer will also do the same process for the french fries. A medium contain of fries is $1.
29, large is $1.59, and a super is $1.79. The large sells for $0.30 more than the medium but the super is only $0.
20 more. The customer thinks if they spend the extra $0.30 to get the large fry they might as well spend $0.20 more cents and get the best value for their dollar in their mind. In conclusion, we are all targeted for something.
Whether it is for McDonald’s or Radio Shack, the majority of us do fall for the gimmick and buy not only what we came for but one another item as well. Marketing is what makes one store better than the other, so the next time you shop somewhere, ask yourself why you chose to go ther Word Count: 751
