McDonald's Integrated Marketing Campaign This paper is divided into two distinct sections. The first chapter is based on literature reviews of various scholarly works that are related to the topic of integrated marketing campaign that are also relevant to the McDonald marketing campaign that was created to celebrate the inherent democracy of the McDonald's brand. The first chapter is further divided into three parts; the first section mainly focus on advertising in general and then specifically into fast food advertising. The second section in literature review is based on new media as a marketing communication tool and lastly, in the same chapter different aspects of marketing campaign will also be analyzed. The second chapter is a personal reflection on the experience and lessons learnt by the student while preparing the dissertation.

Table of Content

CHAPTER ONE: Literature review

Introduction

Section one:

Advertising

Advertising theories

Types of advertising

1.2.1 Digital advertising

1.2.2 Physical advertising

1.3 Fast food advertising

1.4 Target audience

1.5 Method of advertising

1.6 Regulations and criticisms leveled against fast food advertisements

1.7 Effects of fast foods advertising on eating behavior

1.8 Changing attitude of the consumers

1.9 Good and bad elements of fast food advertisement

Section Two

2.0 New Media

2.1 Theoretical background of new media

2.2 Interactivity and new media

2.3 Segmentation criteria in new media

2.4 Linking new media with McDonald's marketing campaign

2.5 How McDonald will implement their integrated marketing campaign

2.5.1 Apps

2.5.2 Podcast

2.5.3 Ambient media

2.5.4 Co-creation

2.5.5 Public relation

2.5.6 Print Ads

2.5.7 Events

2.5.8 Banner

Section Three

3.0 Response: marketing communication model

3.1 Hierarchy of effects model

3.1 Integrated marketing campaign model

3.2 The marketing environment

3.3 The marketing environment changing

3.4 How McDonald integrated marketing campaign relates to the target audience

CHAPTER TWO

Individual reflective analysis

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Recollection of experiences

2.2 Personal feelings and learning from the experience

2.3 Group dynamics and learning from the experience

2.4 Lessons for future projects

2.5 Conclusion

CHAPTER ONE: LITREATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter is divided into three distinct sections with all relating to the McDonald integrated marketing campaign. The first section can be generally be assumed to be based on the concept of advertising and also specifically on the topic of food advertising. The second section widely talks about marketing communication through new media under different topics. It is in the second topic whereby the dissertation will critically discuss the different advertising mediums that will be used for the McDonald integrated marketing campaign. Lastly, the dissertation has discussed on using the IMC model in the marketing campaign; the marketing environment changing and how McDonald's IMC relates to the chosen target audience.

SECTION ONE

1.0 Advertising

Cook (2001) stated that advertising is a form of communication whereby the sponsor tries to persuade a targeted audience e.g. British consumers in the age group of 16-34 years old, to adopt some actions with regards to its services, ideas or products. Graydon (2003) also described advertising as "a persuasive or informative message transmitted by a non-personal medium and paid for by a distinguished sponsor whose company or product is identified in some way." In the McDonald's campaign, the company aims at creating awareness to their customers who are in the age group of 16 -34 years, about the inherent democracy of the restaurant chain. Through this awareness the restaurant chain believe that customers will be more attracted to their brand and it will be able to boost up their sales levels.

Advertisement as earlier stated are usually costly and are transmitted through traditional media that comprise of mass media such as radio advertisement, television commercials, magazines, newspaper, direct mail or outdoor advertisement; or new media such as text messages and websites. Commercial advertisements such as the one that will be carried out by McDonald's are basically aimed at increasing the consumption of a company's product or services through "branding," which involve continuously showing the company's image or product in the media with an effort of trying to associate it with specific qualities such the inherent democracy of the McDonald's brand.

Johnson, (2008)) in his studies stated that modern advertising commenced in the late 19th and early 20th century same period when mass production also developed, and by the year 2010 the spending on modern advertising had jumped up to USD 500 billion across the globe. It is important to note that the four largest advertising companies include WPP, Publics, Omnicom and Interpublic.

The leverage points theory state that advertisements are created in a manner so as to shift consumer understanding of a product's benefit to linking the aforesaid benefits with personal value. The means-end theory prescribed that messages inscribed in adverts should be able to lead prospective consumers to a desired end state. The hierarchy of effects model clearly state the objective of each and every advertising campaign and in doing so it suggests that there are six steps which a prospective consumer follows through when making a purchase. These steps are; awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase (Wernick, 1991).
In practical terms the McDonald's integrated marketing campaign seems to have applied the integrated model since the objectives of the campaign are clear. Secondly, it has applied the means-end theory since the marketing campaign has a message that leads consumers to a desired end state, which is become loyal to the brand.

1.2 Types of advertising

Commercial or non-commercial advertising can take place in various mediums. However, advertising is distinctively classified into two types that include; physical advertising and digital advertising (Mulvihill, 2001).

1.2.1 Digital advertising

The most popular form of digital advertising is the television advertising and it is also the most expensive type of digital advertisements as well as the most effective mass-market advertising. Most valuable television advertisements usually come up during very popular television programmers and sponsors pay for commercial airtime so that their advert can be aired during the commercial breaks of those popular TV programmes. For example in the UK, McDonald should opt to place their advertisement during football matches since football is a very popular sport their and also part of the British culture thus the advertisements are likely to be seen by a big number of the population (Young, 2005).

It is imperative to note that long-format TV adverts are termed infomercial and usually take up longer time than usual adverts i.e. 5 minutes or even longer. The key objective of infomercial is to generate impulse purchases. The infomercials usually display, describe and demonstrate products and their features, and at times they also include testimonials from consumers who have used the products and product specialists.

Another popular form of digital advertising is radio advertising which only transmits adverts via sound. Sponsors buy airtime in radio station which they can use to air their commercials. In the light that McDonald chooses to use radio to air their adverts it should buy airtime in most popular radio stations and also during most popular radio shows such as the morning breakfast show or evening rush hour show.

Online advertisement is also another form of digital advertising which McDonald can use to spread their marketing campaign. Due to the fact that Britons in the age group of 16-34yrs are all techs savvy and regularly use the internet this can also be an effective medium of advertising for McDonald and its key advantage is that it is cheaper compared to TV or radio advertising.

1.2.2 Physical advertising

The most popular form of physical advertising is in press advertising. This is where sponsors buy spaces in popular local dailies, magazines or journals i.e. anything from media with a wide readership customer base. There are two forms of press adverting and they include classified advertising and display Ad is the most suitable for McDonald's marketing campaign since it is a larger ad which will include even the McDonald brand and usually run in an article section of a magazine, newspaper or journal (McFall, 2004).

The other forms of physical advertising include billboard advertising, in-store advertising, coffee cup advertising, street advertising and mobile advertising celebrity, which generally involve advertising on billboards or digital screens that have been mounted on moving vehicles.

It is important to note that there is a new trend in the form of advertising, which has made traditional mediums of advertisements such as TV, radio and newspapers less common. The new trend is the rise in new media which is largely associated with the development of internet technology. Advertisements now come in the form of pop-under, popup, flash, advert-gaming, banner and e-mail advertisements.

1.3 Fast food advertising

Since this dissertation is based on a marketing campaign of McDonalds, it is imperative to critically analyze fast food advertising with respect to McDonald's integrated campaign that celebrate the inherent democracy of the McDonald brand.

Leake (2005) described fast food advertising as simply the promotion of fast food restaurants and the fast food products through an array of different advertising medium. Noe (2006) further stated that advertisements for food and beverages passes on a message that is powerful enough to trigger consumption of the food advertised and positive emotions linked to food consumption. The message conveyed in the food adverts have the powers to act as real-world primes and lead to corresponding eating behaviors. However, given the…