A Closer Look at McDonalds

Hello readers, today we are going to take an in depth look into one of the greatest advertising companies of present day.  McDonalds has been around for over 50 years, and is one of the most recognized brands in the world.  This is due to a strong marketing strategy that they have presented in the past.  McDonalds also holds a reputation of being bad food, however they must be doing something right to attribute to their success.

Just like with any other company during the early 60's, McDonalds first started advertising using print before the use of TV commercials became popular.  "In 1961 McDonalds launched its first ad campaign with its new logo, the slogan being, 'Look for the golden arches'" (Timeline).    This is just one example that McDonalds used to advertise their products.  The company has had a few slogans that aid their advertisements, but the most recent one has been around for over a decade.  "I'm lovin' it" is a phrase that can be associated with McDonalds in most countries and is the slogan that has carried the majority of their ads in the past decade or so.  Bellow is the first printed ad that McDonalds used to advertise their restaurants.  

http://www.dailyfork.com/2009/02/10_noteworthy_vintage_fast_foo.php

During the mid 60's McDonalds aired its first commercial, introducing their most famous representative, Ronald McDonald.  He also made his first appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  "Ronald McDonald was an instant hit after his appearance in the Macy's Day Parade in 1966" (History).  What people did not realize back then, is that Ronald McDonald would become the most globally recognized representative of any company in history.  I remember as a younger kid I would love watching McDonalds commercials and guess what?  They would always leave me craving a kids meal.  

"In the mid 90's, McDonalds signs a 10 year promotion deal with Disney that enables McDonalds to advertise with the help of Disney, and the inverse effect" (Timeline).  When the deal was in effect, Disney would promote one of its movies by placing toy characters from Disney movies in the happy meals.  These two powerhouse companies teaming up to both advertise in a way that made both companies happy was probably one of the biggest advertising campaigns that McDonalds has ever had.  

Now McDonalds is coming out with their "Random Act of Lovin' campaign.  This is a strategy that is getting people through the door around the country to get a relatively free meal.  At random, McDonalds will select customers to pay with a random act of kindness as opposed to with cash.  This is definitely something that is catching people's attention.  It could backfire in the end, but as of now it is stimulating consumers to walk through McDonald's front door.  It will be interesting to see where this campaign lands the company, and if it will be a successful strategy.  McDonalds has a long history of successful marketing, and it will come as a little bit of a shock if they don't pull through for this advertisement.

Sources:

"McDonald's Timeline." Advertising Age Special Report McDonalds 50th Anniversary RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. (Timeline). 
http://adage.com/article/special-report-mcdonalds-50th-anniversary/mcdonald-s-timeline/104055/

"History of McDonald's Advertising (with Images, Tweets) · Czakas1." Storify. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. (History). 
https://storify.com/czakas1/history-of-mcdonalds-advertising

A Little Background

Hello readers, in order to get a full grasp of marketing and its methods we must first take a look into the history of this topic and how it affects marketing today.  Marketing has been around since before people really knew what it was.  The very first form could be considered word of mouth.  For example: when your friend says to you, "The car I just bought is so spacious and has awesome features!" This can be an example of word of mouth.  However over the course of time, new marketing techniques have developed and they have since changed the way we do currently.  In this post I will discuss a few of the key "game changing" marketing methods from the last decade and why they were successful during their given time.

The radio was a pivotal way in which people communicated in the 1920's and it opened many doors for marketers.  "During this period sales of radios boomed because it was a completely new way to contact a lot of people at one time" (Hardcastle).  Now because of the radio, there would be shows, and a need for commercials throughout the shows.  The first form of advertisement where you could hear another person talking to the audience, with the exception of live events.  This  really changed the game for this time period as radios were able to get information to consumers a lot quicker and more effectively.

After the radio had been around for some time, the concept of TV advertisement became prominent in the 1950's.  Now that you could make 30 to 60 second commercials filmed on a camera, advertising became viewable from your home for the first time in history.  Here is an example of the first TV commercial to air in Britain in 1955.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKuEwsEiSp8

This concept of advertising on screen is a method of marketing that is still used today with the internet and social media.  Over the past 15 to 20 years marketers have taken advantage of the growth of the internet and social media as a way to advertise products.  Sites such as Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and Youtube are all examples of internet sites that use advertisements on their page.  This is both good for companies selling their product and for internet sites because, while the companies are getting their product recognition online, the websites also make money as they charge a price for advertisement slots on their page.  Below is a specific example:

This is a screenshot taken off the Amazon homepage, where there are specific suggestions based off of my past search history.  This relates to an idea called "deep learning" which is the most effective way of marketing in the modern world.  "Deep learning is a series of algorithms that enable computers and machines to retain, hear, see, read and write information by learning through human interaction" (Howard).  This has changed advertising completely since the beginning of the century.  Every time something is typed into a site such as Amazon, that information is saved and stored, and is used by Amazon to market similar or the same product to you.  This is what you see above.
As you will also notice with this ad, there is an Xbox advertisement in the margin.  This is a very common form of advertising on the internet and Microsoft has to pay Amazon money to have this advertisement up.  

As you can tell, marketing and its methods have come a long way over the past hundred years or so.  It appears as though developments and new techniques of advertising are occurring more frequently than in the past.  Technological development is happening at a very rapid speed and it will be interesting to see where these advancements will take marketing in the next 20 years.




Sources:

http://www.dhahranbritish.com/history/B7_advertising.htm (Hardcastle).

http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_howard_the_wonderful_and_terrifying_implications_of_computers_that_can_learn#t-22088  (Howard).