The Role of Promotion in Marketing McDonalds Company - Research Paper Example

The Role of Promotion in Marketing McDonalds Company Promotional strategy is a very important part of an organization’s marketing plan. There are a number of things that have to be considered before a company can come up with an effective promotional strategy. One of these considerations is the product’s target market and segment (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). One of the measures of a company’s success is dependent on how well its services and/or products are received in the market. This reception depends on how well the market knows and trusts the products and services that are on offer.

This means that an organization would have to choose its target market wisely if it hopes to make maximum profits. It is this same market that plays a significant role on the type of promotional strategy that the company in question decides to adopt. The promotional strategy has to reflect the needs and wants of the target market and segment (Cornstock, Gulati and Liguori, 2010). A promotional mix is a combination of four important aspects of marketing and promotional strategy: personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity.

Personal selling is by far the largest form of promotion in many companies. This promotion requires relevant contact with buyers and potential buyers. Advertising on the other hand involves paid-for presentation and promotion of goods or services. Advertisements create awareness about a product or service (Rayport, 2008). Public relations relates to the manner in which a company uses different activities to create a positive image towards its policies and products and services. Publicity involves the placement of a favorable piece of information that touches on the services, products and policies of a business in the mainstream media.

Sales promotions are activities, not related to personal selling, public relations, publicity and advertising, which stimulate sales (Christ, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the appropriateness of McDonald’s promotional strategies. The paper also analyses the role of the internet in promoting the company’s products. MacDonald’s uses a lot of sales promotions to increase its product use. By giving premiums, sweepstakes and coupons to keep their loyal customers and at the same time gain new ones.

Every few months, McDonald’s normally sends out coupons in newspapers and select stores which customers can use to get products at discounted prices. Another form of sales promotions that he company uses often is offering an extra meal with every happy meal purchased. Sweepstakes are also common at McDonald’s where customers can collect tokens which are normally offered on specific items on the menu. McDonald’s also uses personal selling as a way of reaching out to as many customers as possible (McDonalds.co.uk, 2011).

For instance, when the food retailer opens a new restaurant, there are normally sales people around the new establishment who interact with local residents convincing them to get food from McDonald’s. McDonald’s uses extensive advertising in television, radio and newspapers to market its products. It also makes use of billboards, signage and sponsoring sporting events as a way of advertising. The current branding campaign the company is running is titled: I’m lovin’ it (Mieth, 2010). This advertising campaign also doubles up as the company’s publicity stunt.

The company’s public relations activities involve presentation of messages which are designed to build its reputation. McDonald’s promotional strategies are dependent on the needs and wants of its target market. The target market in this instance is quite wide ranging from children to teenagers to adults across all ages. Each of the advertisements and public relations messages used by the food retailer is designed to attract the attention of children, teenagers and adults. For instance, its current theme ‘I’m lovin’ it’ is quite popular among young people.

Most of the advertisements that the company carries in television and newspapers are well formulated to create the kind of brand name that anyone would want to be associated with (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2009). However, despite the efforts of the company to build a positive brand name and popularize its products, there is some negative publicity that the company has not yet dealt with in full. For instance, due to the current high rate of childhood obesity in the U.S., the company has had a tough time trying to convince customers that its products are healthy for children (Spurlock, 2005).

The company also has had to grapple with a public relations nightmare that emanated from an internet blog that stated that McDonald’s is making African American’s to pay more than other customers for the same services. Nevertheless, the company’s promotional strategies remain very efficient in getting customers to buy McDonald’s products (McDonalds.co.uk, 2011). Online marketing is a phenomenon that companies all over the world are using in order to gain more customers and push up their sales.

This is a kind of marketing strategy that would be very beneficial to McDonald’s especially if they were to use it to promote the healthy meals that the food retailer had to offer. The use of social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter could go a long way in helping McDonald’s reach a lot of young people who incidentally make up the bulk of the company’s customers (Kotler and Lee, 2007). References Christ, P. (2008). Principles of Marketing. Retrieved 17 August, 2011 from: http://www.knowthis.com/tutorials/principles-of-marketing.

htm Comstock, B., Gulati, R. and Liguori, S. (2010) Unleashing The Power Of Marketing. Harvard Business Review. Vol. 88 (October) pp. 90-98. Kotler, P. and Lee, N. (2007). Marketing Strategy from the Masters. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Lamb, C.W. Hair, J,F. and McDaniel, C. (2009). Essentials of Marketing. New York: Cengage Learning. McDonalds.co.uk. (2011). Marketing at McDonald’s Retrieved 17 August, 2011, from: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/static/pdf/aboutus/education/mcd_marketing.

pdf Mieth, H. (2010). The History of McDonald's. Berlin: GRIN Verlag. Rayport, J.F. (2008). Where Is Advertising Going? Into 'Stitials. Harvard Business Review. Vol. 86 (May) pp. 18-19. Spurlock, M. (2005). The truth about McDonald’s and children. Retrieved 17 August, 2011 from: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0522-20.htm