McDonalds Public Relations - Case Study Example

? McDonald’s Public Relations McDonald’s Public Relations In the current business world, the primary intention of maximizing profit among organizations seems superseded by the requirement to have customer favor: for both potential and existing customers. Companies that seek to remain at the top of their industries, or even survive, need to have the favor of the customers. One of the viable ways of achieving is by presenting a positive image to the public through market, or alternatively taps the more profound aspects of their targeted market, especially those that relate to principles and morals of the public. This organization need is what has evolved to Corporate Social Responsibility (Bardhan and Weaver, 2011). Corporate Social Responsibility is the attempt by an organization to address some of the emerging issues concerning their role in society. However, there have been debates on some organizations appear to circumvent this responsibility, regardless of corporate social responsibility requirement in social or legal terms (McKee and Lamb, 2009). This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of McDonald’s corporate social responsibility, as well as the organization’s ability to identify public relation opportunities and problems, and their reinvention from bad publicity. The growing public demand and awareness for socially responsibility businesses has prompted business organizations to consider corporate social responsibility. One of the international companies with a corporate social responsibility is McDonalds. McDonalds is the largest food chain in the world, specializing in hamburger. McDonalds considers corporate social responsibility as achieving results, maintaining open communication with customers and other stakeholders, and taking actions. As part of its framework for corporate social responsibility, McDonald’s works in association with its suppliers to ensure that its supply chain promotes socially responsible practices (Eyre & Littleton, 2012). According to its website, the organization has code of conduct purposely for its suppliers, which clearly stipulates how the suppliers should treat its customers (Aidoo, 2005). McDonald’s has had success in supporting suppliers phasing out gestation crates in the supply chain. The organization claims that about 50% of all contracted hog farms of Cargill use the new-generation system that do not incorporate gestation stalls. In 2007 for instance, the food chain giant embarked on sustainability projects with efforts of improving the working conditions for its farm workers in the tomato industry in Florida. The result was an enhanced environmental practice in the agricultural supply chain of the organization and made the farm sustainable. Despite the fact that MacDonald’s buys about 1.5% of the tomatoes in Florida annually, the organization and the suppliers laid down the industry-leading growing standards, improving the working conditions in the farms and making the farm business sustainable (Sriramesh and Vercic, 2009). One of the indicators of MacDonald’s approach and its contribution to the communities is the Flagship Farms Initiative (FAI) in Europe. This particular program involves seven progressive farms that employ innovative farming practices in Europe, carrying out research on the ethical farming practices that incorporate into commercial farming systems. Another prime example is visible in the Sustainable Fisheries program, incorporating the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. The program essentially lays down sustainable standards that stipulate McDonald’s worldwide purchases for wild-caught fish into making Fillet-o-Fish, thus making the relevant fishery business a sustainable business (Royle, 2005). McDonald’s also engages in donating some of its profit portion to corporate philanthropy as part of its corporate social responsibility. The organization donates to the communities through the Ronald McDonald House Charities, a foundation that aims to create, support, and find programs that improve the well being and health of children. According to the officials of the foundation, the charity (especially the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile) seeks to ensure that children in disadvantaged communities receive quality dental and medical treatment to strengthen and improve their health and whole family (McKee and Lamb, 2009). This healthcare programs attempts to change the lives of the children and improve the communities in a holistic manner. McDonald’s uses effective public relations to emerge as the largest food chain and the most profitable in the entire world. The purpose of public relations is to enhance sales volume of the products and services of the organization. McDonald’s employs a two-way asymmetric model as it seeks to create a reputable relation with its customers. The organization achieves this in number of ways. For example, the company uses satisfaction cards to learn how the customer feels about their products and services, strategically presented to the customer at the respective restaurants (Aidoo, 2005). The assumption of the company is that the customers will fill-in the cards honestly as far as their feeling are concerned. The company also has a well-designed website that it uses to display its services and products. In addition, the customers are able to send personal emails to the company through the website, expressing their feelings and issues that they feel the company need to address. Such emails enable the company to consider the views of the customers and design ways to improve its products and services. Similarly, the customers are capable of identifying news and new products about the food giant by logging to the website (Sriramesh and Vercic, 2009). Through the website, the company also receives letters from the customer on a regular basis, enhancing the understanding of the customer’s feeling. McDonald also conducts research on the demographic and lifestyle characteristics of the target customer to improve the ways of serving them. For example, research by the company indicates that the main customers of the company are primarily children between the ages of 5 and 12. In addition, the research indicates that these children persuade their parents to visit the restaurant. This prompted the organization to establish a specific section in the website for the kids. Nonetheless, the customers are at times demanding, making it difficult for the company to fulfill all their diverse demands. In this case, companies consider their employees as one of the constituent strategies as they interact with the external public everyday. (Jeong-Nam, & Yuna, 2011). In addition, the volume of the messages from customers to the company is huge, but the company tries its level best to reply majority (Bardhan and Weaver, 2011). McDonald’s public involves all demographic segments: race, generation, age, income, and family. For example, teenagers are also an important portion of the public for the company apart from parents and kids. High school and college students usually populate the company stores to taste the chips and hamburgers, which are among their favorite foodstuff. This is why the company invests in a young workforce that is best suited to relate with the young customers. The company also has branches in numerous countries, including Sidney, France, and the US. This enables the company to reach its customers in various parts of the world, regardless of their nationality and race. The prices of products and services vary in prices, allowing customers to purchase what they can afford (Aidoo, 2005). McDonald’s success is also a result of the advertisement campaign. The advertisement campaigns are in a way such that they appeal to the old and the youth. The campaigns adopt two ways: a section for children and for adults. The reason why children love trips to McDonald’s is that the experience is an adventure (Bardhan and Weaver, 2011). The company incorporates a playground, toys, fun center, and food. This sort of environment attracts kids. The kids tend to eat their meals quickly in order to play with the cheap toys, forgetting at times the meals that come with the entertainment. People are capable of preparing hamburgers in their homes, but they cannot do this with the toys. Therefore, the experience that the kids get from the company outlets sells to the children. The company enhances this through cartoon features and characters. The children relate the pictures of Ronald on billboards, signs, television sets, and coloring books, as a real persona (Sriramesh and Vercic, 2009). Children admire him even beyond the realms of restaurants, making him an epic figure that reminds people of McDonald’s. In dealing with the older and grownup public, the company heavily relies on cheap and quick nature of food. The company also introduced some other food varieties such as McGill that gives the products of the company as healthy (Bardhan and Weaver, 2011). As earlier mentioned, the adult public is capable of sending emails, fill satisfaction cards, and make calls that promote the communication with the company. McDonald’s employs uses various public relation tools depending on the public it intends to communicate. For example, the company uses its website very efficiently. The website is easy to use and has a section for kids. Additionally, customers are able to view all the information of the company such as services and products on offer or new market releases. They may also post their views and feelings about the company. The company has also initiated a blog spot where the management of the company and customers can chat and share their different views concerning the company. This fosters a good relationship between the customer and the company (Royle, 2005). Other public relation tools employed by the company include audio and visual adverts, special events, and customer care. Similar to other companies, McDonald’s has found itself in crises in the past, but managed to find a way to solve these problems professionally. Despite the criticism of the company, the fact is that the company has significantly improved its image with time. For example, there was a time in the past when the food products of the company were criticized for causing obesity in children. Nonetheless, the company managed to change its menu and is currently offering some of the healthiest food options such as fruits and salad. The company also introduced a new coffee brand, McCafe (McKee and Lamb, 2009). Other problem included claims that the Shrek-themed drinking glasses had high level of cadmium that causes kidney failure. These claims had serious impacts to the company. In response, the company swiftly recalled all the glasses. In order to maintain its good public image, the company came clean and laid out measures beyond the customers’ expectation. The company designed a recall scheme to refund $3 for every customer who brought the Shrek glasses back. This scheme enabled the company to make approximately $1.09 billion in the first quarter of 2010. From these figures, it is evident that the company managed to turn a possibly severe crisis into an opportunity to make profit. Despite the financial status of the company after the incident, the positive vibe created was worth every dollar. Consequently, the company maintained and attracted new customers (Aidoo, 2005). References Aidoo, K. (2005). Public Relations Issues and Crisis Management. Mason, OH: Cengage Leaning. Bardhan, N., and Weaver, K. (2011). Public Relations in Global Cultural Contexts: Multi-Paradigmatic Perspectives. New York: Routledge. Eyre, D. & Littleton, J. (2012). Shaping the zeitgeist: Influencing social processes as the center of gravity for strategic communications in the twenty-first century. Public Relations Preview, 38 (2), 179-187. Jeong-Nam, K. & Yuna, R. (2011). Strategic thinking about employee communication behavior (ECB) in public relations: Testing the models of megaphoning and scouting effects in Korea. Journal of public relations research, 23(3), 243-268. McKee, K., and Lamb, L. (2009). Applied Public Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management. New York. Royle, T. (2005). Working for McDonald’s in Europe: The Unequal Struggle? New York: Routledge. Sriramesh, K., and Vercic, D. (2009). The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge. Read More