McDonalds New Campaign - Essay Example

Mcdonald's seems to be making a strong come-back based upon its new campaign focused on intelligent and healthy choices as revealed on its website.
McDonald’s current marketing campaign makes constant appeals to the intellect and healthy living. Rather than using the obvious color ploys of yesteryear’s designs, the Mcdonald's website (http://www.mcdonalds.com) offers rich tones of color that introduce sophistication and complication to the simpler red and yellows of the chain’s early years.

However, bright colors are still used on the kids’ pages reserved for very young children, still learning how to use the mouse and keyboard. This is in keeping with psychological and developmental studies that suggest very young children are more attracted to simple, bright color schemes (Ratner, 1989). The site is also very sophisticated in its use of technology, providing combinations of fully integrated streaming media, flash game pages, and easy and accessible XHTML pages. These impressions are backed up by the content of the site in which consumers are made to feel as if everything they want to know is available on the site, education is stressed through the emphasis placed on Hamburger University and children’s activities are geared to teach as well as provide entertainment while still supposedly revealing to children (who likely can’t read yet) that this site is an advertisement.

In addition to these appeals to the consumer’s presumed intellect, and perhaps more importantly to its success, the company is also making tremendous appeals to the public’s need for healthier food choices. Their biggest push is for the McCafe products they’ve lately introduced, which are a line of products offering an alternative to the pricier products of other chains such as Starbucks in combination with a larger menu selection for younger members of the group. However, in introducing the menu items, the website provides what seems a great deal of information about the products used, where they came from, and nutritional information on the menu item.

It is clear from this emphasis in an appeal that the chain is attempting to market to the middle class, middle-income bracket, middle-aged, middle-educated population. They recognize and validate the ‘preppy’ pretensions of the college set through intellectual appeals while they mollify the nutritionists who demand more healthy choices to feed their children when in a rush. At the same time, they continue to appeal to the lower income crowd through the offering of a low-priced menu that now also includes healthier choices and has gained greater appeal, again through the health food and more sophisticated approach, for the older set.

At the same time, though, there are holes in the information given. There is a video presentation for a single farm through which McDonald’s gets its beef. It seems unlikely that the entire series of McDonald’s restaurants, serving as many hamburgers as they do in a single day, get all their beef from this single farm. In addition, the farm featured provides beef products only, no vegetables or fruit, yet no information is given about where these products come from. While the company does a good job of giving an impression of full disclosure, it is expecting its audience not to question it too closely.

In the end, I would say that Mcdonald's is doing a good job of overcoming the problems it faced in the 1990s, but it still has work to do. The company should continue to strive in its efforts to produce healthy food choices for all age groups and particularly in encouraging healthy food and activity to young people. However, if it wishes to retain or gain the respect of the public, it will have to continue to work on developing greater ‘transparency.’ Consumers of the future will begin to demand to know where fruits and vegetables are grown. They’ll want to know if green growing techniques were used without using pesticides or other chemicals that contribute to oceanic dead zones for example. By adopting a much more socially responsible attitude, Mcdonald's can again lead the way into the future of ‘fast food.’ Read More