McDonald's - Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns - Essay Example

? Public Relations Public Relations The organizational function of public relations is a very important aspect in businesses that aim to achieve success. It is however important to understand that the public relations do not only depend on a business spokesperson who delivers the message to the stakeholders. In fact the public relations work in a specialized manner to help the business in managing and controlling its relations with stakeholders. Large-scale businesses have specialists that work to manage the business relations with the investors, media, government and the internal relations with employees, suppliers etc. In case of any issues arising, the businesses have to ensure that the specialists are using their expert knowledge and skills of communications to deal with the stakeholders to maintain the healthy relationships. Usually the need for specialists arises when businesses go through controversial issues (Travis, 2013). McDonalds is a multinational fast food restaurant and apparently the world’s largest hamburger sellers. McDonalds operate in more than 119 countries and serve up to 68 million customers every day. A survey of their recipes in 2004 in United States showed that they use trans-fat, artificial sweeteners and petro chemicals in their products. This was a controversial issue since it said to harm the lives of the customers. Trans-fat is used to enhance the taste of their meals and make it addicting for the customer so that he spends more money on McDonald meals. The food containing trans-fat can damage DNA, arteries, bad cholesterol and raises the risk of coronary heart diseases. This issue was a major reason why McDonalds sales and market image was affected. Many controversies still exist today and campaigns are done to ban products that include trans-fat. Moreover, the United States governments started many campaigns in 2004 and 2005 demanding the fast food restaurants to reduce the use of trans-fats in their products and stop risking the lives of customers. By the 2007, many of the state governments had signed the regulation for the ban of trans-fats and made it a law to cease the products made in trans-fat oil. This issue had major implications on the organization and the society at large (Sriramesh, 2003). Due to the campaigns about trans-fats, many people in the United States had started knowing about the harms that trans-fat is likely to cause to the health. Thus, having revealed that McDonalds uses trans-fats in their products, the customers were furious and the organization delivered a negative image that they had to control before it hit their sales and profits. Since trans-fats were used in products which were consumed by the customers, they were the stakeholders largely affected by this issue. Because of this many customers stopped eating McDonalds and shifted to other competitive brands. McDonalds would not only lose their customers to their competitors, but also suffer loss in sales revenue and profits (Kincheloe, 2002). The implications of this issue to the other stakeholders would also be great. Since the market value and business image will be affected, many of the investors would refuse to invest in the business which is likely to go into losses because of this controversial issue. Moreover, the suppliers would also focus on other profitable organizations to supply their goods. The employees are an important part of the business and it is wrong to say that they would not be affected by this issue. The employees will be affected in an indirect way. Since this issue involves the government regulations, the employee’s jobs would be threatened and insecure. Working in an organization undergoing an ethical controversy can also have a bad impact on the career of the employee. Most employees would avoid working in such an organization. It is at this time when the business needs its specialized managers and experts to deal with the stakeholders in order to retain their trust in the business. Usually a large scale business such as McDonalds would have different managers to deal with the stakeholders. Research is the basic tool that businesses use to communicate to its stakeholders. These managers need to sort their techniques, surveys, content analysis and focus groups before attempting to communicate with the stakeholders. Public relations professionals usually rely on their research before dealing with the stakeholders. McDonalds’ public relations manager must at first communicate with the customers to retain their trust in the food that they order from McDonalds. It has been found out that the customers who usually eat products from McDonalds are all the ones who have access to social networking websites, electronic media and print media. Thus the business uses these sources to convey their message to their customers about their use of trans-fat and their new healthy products. McDonalds had introduced many healthy salads, smoothies and milkshakes for children to decrease the impact of this controversy (Kincheloe, 2002). The specialist managers who have to deal with the investors also need to use research methods and communication skills to explain their investors about their financial reports and future predictions. The research must include an analysis of the financial reports of the previous years as well as the predicted financial turnouts to satisfy the investors about their money and return. Frequent meetings and conferences should be held in which annual reports are discussed with the shareholders. The public relations manager shall also communicate with the employees to ensure their job security and financial security for the coming years. Employee feedback systems and reporting business news through newsletters and emails should be done (Gregory, 2010). The public relations manager should also communicate and manage the relationship with the media journalists to protect and build the brand name. Maintaining relations with journalists can be helpful as they may provide valuable information before any controversy is spread out in the media. Maintaining government relations is also an important aspect for McDonalds as their issue is related to the government regulations. Not only should they reduce the consumption of trans-fat but also manage their terms with the government to avoid any actions taken against them (Gregory, 2010). Managing public relations through effective communication and expert skills in research is a necessary aspect for every business as can be evident through the case of McDonalds. Using the appropriate techniques to maintain their public relations, they have successfully retained their brand image and stakeholders’ trust. References Gregory A. (2010). Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns: A Strategic Approach. London: Kogan Page Publishers Kincheloe J. (2002). The sign of the burger: McDonald’s and the culture of power. NY: Temple University Press Sriramesh K. (2003). The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research and Practice. NY: Taylor & Francis Travis E. (2013). Definition of Organizational Functions of Public Relations. Texas: Hearst Communications, Inc. Read More