Marketing for Children
Another part of McDonald’s push toward “balanced, active lifestyles” also includes their interaction with children. Kids are a huge market that McDonald’s caters to and has done so for many years. Parents often take their kids to McDonald’s because it is often the only indoor play area around, and also provides a quick, convenient, and fairly cheap meal. In a country where everyone is busy with work and shuttling kids back and forth to soccer practice, a quick meal is invaluable. The kids are fed and are able to run around and play at the same time.
McDonald’s is finally aware of their hold on kids and how this hold is affecting the health of American kids. Because of this, McDonald’s is now using Ronald McDonald as an advocate for balanced, active lifestyles. The goal is to have him inform both kids and families around the world about the importance of eating healthy and staying active. In the fall McDonald’s plans to release the first two in a series of DVDs featuring Ronald McDonald, these DVDs are meant to show kids “how much fun they can have when they activate their bodies, their minds, and their imaginations”(Press Release, 2/07/06).
The Olympics Partnership
The Olympics have a long lasting reputation for their presence and involvement with sports and collaborations with corporations for sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Because the Olympics have such a profound impact worldwide on individuals, it is not surprising that the marketing element in the Olympic Games is so prevalent. With the Olympics being a globally viewed event (over 2 billion) in over 200 countries, marketing throughout the duration of the games can generate mass publicity leading to greater profits for the sponsors. Sports also play a role in millions of people’s lives around the world. It is one arena of life that the mass media also finds significant; implicating the obvious reason that marketing through the Olympics is a golden opportunity.
Other than being a company who markets their product via commercial or some other media outlet, sponsors of the official Olympic Games contribute a great deal in understanding the entirety of how corporations are involved with the Olympics. Sponsors show their support to the Olympic Games by providing financial and other resources to give their image a positive boost. McDonald’s has latched onto this sponsorship idea, and began sponsoring the Olympics in 1976. It is important to understand how the Olympics affect their sponsors and vise versa, which explains the in depth explanation of the Olympics.
McDonald’s was in its rapid growth stage as America was embracing the experience that McDonalds offered; inexpensive food and quick, friendly service. As McDonald’s was becoming a familiar household name throughout the country, so were the Olympics. When they became an official sponsor, it was most definitely the merging of two huge forces, and became a long lasting relationship. McDonald’s today continues to show the Olympic Games their committed support, and uses their relationship to promote its new “healthy” image. McDonald’s CEO had this thought on their involvement with the Olympics, “Our McDonald’s restaurant teams have always shared many of the same ideals as the Olympic team. They include excellence, teamwork, and being your best. For more than 30 years, we have been a proud sponsor of the Olympic movement, a partnership that directly aligns with our ongoing commitment to help people live more balanced, active lives”. Not only is McDonald’s a devoted and veteran sponsor, they hold the position of being the top sponsor of the entire “Olympic movement”. Although McDonald’s has had a long run as being the top sponsor to the games, it will come to an end when the 2012 London games take place, for their sponsorship will cease. We haven’t found the reason behind the decision which is surprising because it is a significant one. McDonalds’ sponsorship with the Olympics has provided many positive outcomes for both parties. Having a close affiliation with the Olympics altered the way that the public perceives McDonald’s, which was what they were hoping for, especially in the last decade. The question is, has their sponsorship changed the company or how the public perceives it?
The essence of the Olympics is about fitness and bringing together the best of the best, two very important values. As McDonald’s became more and more aware of their customers increasing interests in a more healthy diet, they began to change their strategy fast. McDonald’s also realized that the affiliation with the Olympics alone could help make their transition to a more health conscious restaurant more visible. So, McDonald’s began promoting the sponsorship by adding it to their packaging, voicing it in their commercials, and in other media outlets. By doing so, people started to view McDonald’s in a healthier way, through a small halo effect. The affiliation between the two also intertwined the values of health between both the Olympics and McDonald’s. In other words, some people started to think of McDonald’s as being the best in the fast food industry, and also purchasing the “healthy” items. Although this was only the first step McDonald’s took toward changing their image, it was one that had a lasting impact.
Recently, McDonald’s has become aware of the increasing health conscious public and has tried to adapt accordingly. They have incorporated many different campaigns to capture and promote the essence of healthy living. As stated before, among these include the sponsorship with the Olympics, offering a line of products which are marketed to the health conscious customers, endorsements with super-fit celebrities, collaboration with other health-oriented products such as bottled water, and also the introduction and promotion of the GoActive! Campaign. This campaign is headed by a famous celebrity fitness trainer, Bob Greene, and has been named “The GoActive! American Challenge”.
GoActive! Campaign
The GoActive! Campaign is McDonalds’ most recent attempt to diversify their options on the menu, and convince its customers to become more active. This is aimed more toward the adult rather than the child market, which is a turn from traditional marketing strategies. McDonald’s wants parents to be able to order healthful food while still giving the kids what they really want: The Happy Meal. This change is successful because the options are given to customers, rather than automatically getting fries and a soda with the meal. Instead, customers are given the option of things like fruit salad, apple slices with caramel sauce, cut veggies, juice, and bottled water. By doing this, McDonald’s is taking a proactive, hands-on approach which shows customers they care about and realize the significance of a healthy lifestyle. To promote this program, McDonald’s and celebrity fitness trainer Bob Greene decided to challenge America. Their challenge was called “McDonald’s GoActive! American Challenge” and it encouraged others to live a more balanced life by taking steps to reach a goal. To promote the new campaign, Bob Greene walked and biked across America for a total of 36 days. To include people in this journey, McDonald’s distributed 10,000 to 15,000 step-o-meters along with brochures containing information about fitness and ways to start living a more active life.
It is McDonalds’ hope that customers will see, from this challenge, that McDonald’s is a place where they have a choice to consume either healthy or unhealthy food. Also, the presence of Bob Greene adds advantage to McDonald’s marketing techniques because of his status in the fitness world. If he is associated with the company, then it must not be that unhealthy. It is critical to analyze what perception is and how it plays a part in McDonald’s and their marketing strategy.
What is the Point?
The basic issue for McDonald’s regarding perception is that the entire establishment is based upon how they are perceived by the public. Are they perceived as a family restaurant by families? If so, the family segment will more likely visit the restaurant for family dinners. Is McDonald’s perceived as a fun, inexpensive place for the high school and college segments to eat at? If so, they are also more likely to eat there. Therefore, the perception that consumers have about McDonald’s is the basis of their decision to eat at the restaurant. Now that McDonald’s has tried to saturate the market with the healthy, balanced lifestyles campaigns, they are trying to change the public’s perception of them in terms of the health factor. While McDonald’s is trying so hard to be the new and improved healthy dining experience, the perception of McDonalds in many people’s minds is already set in stone. Trying to change this will cost huge amounts of money and there is not any guarantee that McDonald’s will achieve their goal.
Its clear that McDonald’s is using these “healthy” products and active lifestyle campaigns as a defense mechanism. They are trying to dispel the image they have right now, and also prevent future lawsuits. All the lawsuits that have been brought against them in regards to obesity have been thrown out, but it is still negative publicity. The company had to do some major damage control after movies like Super Size Me! and other negative movements. They are less concerned with changing people’s perceptions of the chain, and more with the fact they need to be seen as trying to help the situation. They have already saturated the market in the United States, and want to stay at the top and expand globally. It is not so much about initially changing the company’s image, though over time it may change in response to this extensive marketing strategy.
Though it may not change their image, we also think that this is a good direction for McDonald’s to focus toward. They are a mature company, and the only way to bend the arrow backward on their product life cycle is to innovate and create new products. This is their attempt to return to the rapid growth stage. As stated before, McDonald’s is widely known for its hamburgers and fries, but it has potential to grow into a new market with healthy options. It also has enough money to fund this type of project, and there is no reason they should not continue on this road. The worst that could happen is that they revert back to the same market and style they have always had, but the positive side could be expansion into an entirely new market and much more revenue for the company.