MacDonald’s : Use Social Media Mr Peters 2011-2012 Simon Bridel : 2053414 – Marie-Emmanuelle Berdah : 2053328

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RATIONALE

McDonald's was ranked 32nd in the top 100 brands mentioned on the social web

in 20081. McDonald’s is the largest chain of fast food international suppliers. The annual

income of the company amounted to 18,167,452 million Euro in 20102. The company

operates with over 33,000 restaurants worldwide and more than 118 countries all

around the world3. McDonalds had been implanted in France in 1979. In 2010,

McDonalds France was the second largest contributor to the group results4. An

effective awareness and a good use of social media are the keys to solidify the current

position of McDonalds. Consequently, we will be focus on how McDonalds uses social

media in France.

The basis of social media is Web 2.0. The term Web 2.0 is associated with web

applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-

centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web5. At the origin, the users

started with blogs and websites. Currently, these methods of communication are

increasing at a large scale. Social Media are now the main pillars of Web 2.0. Social

Media is a type of online media that accelerates conversation as opposed to traditional

media, which delivers content but does not allow readers/viewers/listeners to

participate in the creation or development of the content6. Finally, incorporate a new

social media structure in a company is definitely necessary in a developed organization.

It is a new way to trade.

The company will automatically benefit from the social media because the firm

could use the customer’s behavior to understand their different expectations via

internet. The purpose of the company is to increase the visibility and the proximity with

their clients. McDonalds does not really deal with social media in France. They could use

this tool to attract the customers on their website. Moreover, appeal to the consumer on

the internet will become a priority for their web strategies.

That is the reason we are going to study the different steps the company could

use to improve their social media communication.

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SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

To define what a social media communication can bring to this company, it is

important to understand some points.

Social Media cannot directly give us figures about sales or efficiency because the

meaning point is to create exchange between a company and its customers. It is kind a

question of relationship between them and make the customer feel as a partner of the

company. For example, if a customer creates content in a website about a company, the

possible consequence will be that many users will read it and they might share it on

their personal pages or websites. This is a viral aspect. Moreover, this is a credibility

bonus for the company you definitely can gain the customers confidence if you can

connect to them on both personal and professional level7.

Social media are becoming essential in order to understand the web users. It is

therefore necessary to attract their attention. It lets a company improve branding, and

boost the impact of his direct marketing, by for instance increase web traffic8.

Furthermore, this is a cheaper way to communicate. It can affect lot of people and

make them talk about your company. Currently, many web users are giving their point of

view for any subjects. By make them talk in a good way of your company; you are

increasing your chances to get a good ranking in some web research program (Google,

YouTube, specific websites etc).

In France, McDonalds has been using social media but they need to redefine it in

order to make a coherent and attractive work. For example, Twitter’s page of McDonalds

in France is still «in building» (See Appendix 1). This is a very important point to

improve it because web users who are giving their opinion about everything and they

also can follow a company or a person compose Twitter. McDonalds France does not

solicit enough their consumers on the net. This is has had a lack of content, presence and

activity on the various social media.

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Figures speak for themselves. In France, more than 3/4 of web users have

consulted a blog or a social network in December 2010. More precisely, 32, 5 million per

month and 11,7 million per day did it. In terms of hours, it is like five hours by

consulting websites or a social network per month. (Médiamétrie NetRatings)

In addition, we can see that competitors, for example QUICK restaurant are now

having a good using of social media where they let the consumer see the different offers

and let them contribute to their choice of sandwiches offer with games and vote. The

numbers of fans is eighty percent higher than McDonalds fans (Facebook). Their use of

social media is actually base on the principle of direct interaction with the consumer.

Thus, they promote a simple and constructive exchange to improve their offers and their

relationship with the customers as well. They are our first competitor.

Another competitor of McDonalds in France is Speed Burger. This company

delivers good hamburgers homemade and they are still considering as a fast food maker.

They are present on Facebook and on Twitter as well. Their Twitter page is well

designed (Background, pictures etc), they are also posting every new promotional offers,

advantages for the consumer and about new opening restaurants. In fact, they are doing

a great job by making the consumer aware about what they are doing. Nevertheless, this

company is not well known but they are working on it with a social media

communication. As we can see on their Facebook page, they are growing about twenty

percent per year concerning the fans. Twitter’s figures are about fifty percent.

Dominos Pizza is a fast food competitor as well. They deliver sandwiches and

pizzas. There are 193 restaurants in France (Domino’s website). Their Facebook page is

strongly structured and the customers can find directly the information that they need.

Through their Twitter’s page, their clients can access to all promotional offers. They

have much more fans than McDonalds on Facebook, which make them the second one

after Quick. They are considering their consumers as partners who can improve their

visibility on social network.

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Courtepaille restaurant is another restaurant in France that is a competitor of

McDonalds. Nevertheless, Courtepaille is not really a fast food company. They offer full

meals that are affordable. That could be considered as an alternative for eating.

However, their presence on social media is very weak. After some researches, we saw

that they have a low impact on internet.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Turnover Numbers

of stores Quick 219,331 2 52 185,000,000 € 265 Domino’s Pizza

161,765 1,328 20 89,700,000€ 142

McDonalds 158,000 65 0 3,000,000,000€ 1,134

Speed Burger 1,942 143 0 28,000,000€ 44 Courtepaille 41 1 32 245,000,000€ 216 NB: all these information are about French market only.9 10 11 1213 In conclusion, to this situational analysis, there is a huge opportunity for Macdonald’s France to use social media and there is no doubt that they need to focus on simple aspect of this type of communication. It will increase its visibility and give them more credibility in social media.

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THEORICAL BACKGROUND

What is a social media?

According to “merriam website”14, it could be define as a forms of electronic

communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which

users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and

other content.

This brief definition let us go to one point; web users have made this type of

communication and it may contribute a lot concerning the visibility and awareness for

an organization or a company.

Social media is the human conection between media. The rainbow theory deals

with the interaction between a company and its consumers; listen, learn, share, join,

engage. According to this theory, people want to talk about you product or brand. In

average, there are almost 25 millions conversation about brands per week15. This theory

also states that there are three lever wich are listen and learn, participate and engage

and finally leads loyalty.

As discussed in the analysis situational, we have seen that MacDonald’s is present

on the social media’s market. Nevertheless, their lack of knowledge about social media is

clearly identified. This company use social media but not in the good way. McDonalds

has to secure the loyalty of their clients.

According to “Techterms website”16 Facebook is a social networking website

media created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg for the student of Harvard University. This is

the biggest social media now on. The definition of LinkedIn is as follow : LinkedIn is

a social networking website geared towards companies and industry professionals

looking to make new business contacts or keep in touch with previous co-workers,

affiliates, and clients (According to Hudson Horizon’s website17).

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Twitter is the second largest social media18. We can define it as follow; Twitter is

an online social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send

and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets"19. This

social network gives a real chance to have a discussion with the customers and also

provide a strong relationship. McDonalds France has to just take care about wha t

followers are posting and instantly answer to their questions. That way the interaction

will be done and the visibility will surely increase.

McDonalds France has created their Facebook page in January 2011. At the

beginning, the page did not offer a good service for their consumers. Firstly, they did not

grant enough attention on consumer’s discussion. Secondly, they did not take care about

their page’s quality. Their logo is just product billboard and everyone can post on the

wall. This is one of the main problems because clients cannot find information that they

need. For example, we can see an advertise between two consumer’s questions which

show us that they need to rebuild their Facebook page including a huge change of the

settings.

Social media works via a single space and at the same time, attractive. The

consumer is seeking information, clear, free and complete. It should not be embarrassed

by organizational problems and gaps. Social media is defined in three main areas;

visibility, credibility and contact.

The first one is the visibility. Thus, the content posted by users, pro

or individual, has a real impact on the visibility. Companies must create quality

content, encourage contributions and regularly update their news. Secondly, the

exchange of expertise and support premium networks and social media is definitely

needed. By positioning itself as an expert in a specific area, the company

could participate in the exchange by providing real answers and relevant qualitative

information. Thirdly, the media and social networks are using a strategy of identifying

and attracting new customers. These social networks allow easy access to recent

information. Often, users do not hesitate to disclose their personal details on social

networks and their point of view as well.

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McDonalds is using the “Walk Before Running”20 theory. Indeed, it is better to

learn the first reactions (walk) before to activate the strategies that are helping the

company to growth the community (run) of the internet users. There are over 800

million active users on Facebook21 and more than 50% of the users log on the website

every day. After some research, we have figurate out that McDonalds is still in a “walk”

position. They need to start running and growing their community to be present on

social media world.

To conclude, we have decided to revolutionize the way of thinking of the

company by using simple techniques of social media and finally to get the success back

of the reputation of McDonalds on the internet.

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CONCEPTUAL MODEL

How McDonalds could generate more traffic on their social networks pages? As

maintained by the theoretical background, McDonalds has three opportunities to solve

their problems. The first one is increase the visibility. The second one is to improve their

relationship in term of contact quality. The last one is the credibility question.

The three hypotheses to focus on are now defined: Is visibility the main

solution of McDonalds’s problem? Is credibility a good way to increase their traffic? Is

contact the best solution to improve their social media?

How to generate traffic on their social network?

As we have seen on the situational analysis, Quick has perfectly understood how

the visibility can work. They have a clean, complete and well design Facebook page. That

way, the consumers can find whatever they are looking for. Quick organize some contest

with their products to offer coupons for their customers. There is another interesting

example; McDonalds US. In fact, their use of social media is completely different

compared to McDonalds France. Their social media methods has been become a strongly

tool and indispensable one. It is very well organized and it let them navigate easily

between the different parts of the page. Indeed, they created a “Local” tab on their

Facebook page, which can allow them finding the nearest McDonalds wherever they are.

Consequently, commercial action will solidify the loyalty of their web users. F inally, they

feel concerned about these actions and it will lead to a better relationship between them

and the brand. There is a world of a difference between online existence and online

presence.

Visibility

CredibilityContact

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Concerning the credibility hypothesis, there is two ways to increase it. The first

one is to make sure that people are convinced that you know your stuff. This is about a

lack of knowledge, having a poorly written web site or social media space can spell

disaster, even if you are giving solid tips22. By combining solid tips and a structured

page, a company has a coherent impact of what they decided about their social media

strategies in order to satisfy their consumers. For instance, McDonalds US Facebook

page gives a clearly and simple information.

Their credibility is strengthened by a constant and a qualitative discussion with

the consumers. The second one is give people what they want. It is important to focus on

your consumer’s wishes. Indeed, McDonalds US has created a “survey” tab to be

constantly aware about the consumer’s point of view.

For the last hypothesis, which is about the contact, it is simply to improve the

interaction with web users navigated in your pages. We can considerate it as the main

social aspect in order to make the consumer feel more and more solicited. That way they

would like to visit the company’s page and come back frequently. The perfect example

would be Domino’s Pizza strategy on Twitter. They are answering to their client’s tweets

personally. This helps them to keep their followers by maintaining a qualitative and

constructed dialogue. That is what contact talks about.

After some research, we have discovered that visibility is the first step that

McDonalds should use in their social media communication. To discuss this choice we

think that McDonalds should inform their consumers about their social networks pages.

The credibility and contact point will come after because they need a strong structure

before which is visibility. The following step will be to show how McDonalds can simply

improve it.

Our final hypothesis is: Visibility generates more traffic. Will it improve their

social media marketing?

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RESEARCH DESIGN

QUESTIONNAIRE

We are two students in Avans Business School and we are studying on how McDonalds

could improve their use social media. This questionnaire will help us to know the point of view

of the customers and the consumers. We would like to focus on French people between fifteen

and thirty years old. We have chosen this segment because they are part of the web 2.0

generation. They know how to use it, and how it works. Social media is a young type of

communication and this segment understand perfectly what influence it has on our current life.

We would like to administrate this questionnaire on internet and on the street. This will help us

to have a global idea about the consumer’s feedback. We would like to thank you for the time

you just accorded to us.

INTERNET & SOCIAL MEDIA

1. Do you have a Facebook account? Yes No

3. Do you have a website or blog?

Yes No

5. How much time do you spend on social website?

1 hour per day Between 2 and 3 hour per day 4 and more Never

FAST FOOD

6. Which fast food brand comes to your mind in first?

8. Which fast food company do you prefer?

Courtepaille McDonalds Speed Burger Domino’s Pizza Quick

2. Do you have a Twitter account?

Yes No

4. How much time do you spend on internet?

1-2 hour per day Between 4 and 6 hour per day 6 or more Never

7. How often do you go to a fast food?

Once per month Between two and four per month Twice per week More :

9. Do you go to McDonalds?

Yes No

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SOCIAL MEDIA & FAST FOOD

10. Do you follow a fast food company on Facebook?

Yes No

12. If Yes, Why are you following this company on internet?

Promotional offer Information New Product To find the closet McDonalds in a city

13. Have you ever seen any advertise about McDonald’s social network (Facebook, Twitter) in their restaurant?

Yes No

14. Would you be interested by seeing any promotional offers or information of McDonalds in a social network?

Yes No

PERSONAL INFORMATION

15. How old are you?

Between 15 and 20 years old Between 20 and 25 years old Between 25 and 30 years old

17. Sex?

Male Female

According to our hypothesis and the question thirteen and fourteen, we have

figurate out that McDonalds should give more efforts on their promotio nal offer and

more information in their social network. The visibility point validates our theory.

11. Do you follow a fast food company on Twitter?

Yes No

16. What is your social professional group?

High professional society Student Employee Employer No activity

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CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

To conclude, we have seen that McDonalds can improve their use of social media

by increase their visibility on the different social networks. In order to help them, the

following paragraphs will precise how they can do it.

As seen in the analysis, the consumers of the company who are making post on

the Facebook page do not have answer to their questions. That is why the firm need to

create a “Question/Answers” tab, this will help McDonalds to answer to their questions

and this will create a real link between the company and the consumers. Moreover, they

need to propose to their consumers special offers in order to make them “like” their

Facebook page. We would propose to the brand to create also a “Video” tab where every

client could watch the different adverts. They need to create an interesting content for

their customers. In fact, they could share it and participate to the visibility of McDonalds.

These operations have to be done on the Facebook page and on the Twitter page at the

same time. McDonalds has to be the only one available to post on the Facebook wall in

order to have a qualitative page.

The consumers perceive McDonalds as a work “degrading” because for them this

job only consist as making fries and hamburgers. As we can see in an ad23, this work can

also consist in managing the workers. People who are working as a manager receive

training enabling them to learn to manage a team. We could purpose to the brand to

persuade their workers to create a LinkedIn page where they can show to the world

what they are truly doing. It can improve the working reputation of McDonalds but let

the employees talk about their responsibilities in order to show that you can graduating

in your professional ambitious.

The Twitter page of McDonalds is still not working on the internet in France.

McDonalds France will have to build their tweeter page with the same model of

McDonalds US. It is a simple operation, which can bring many advantages. They also

need to be available to answer immediately to the clients with a clear and a simple

solution.

Finally, the only way to validate the visibility hypothesis is that the company

must take this project seriously and create a new social media department. That would

support their position on social media.

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX: “THIS IS A TEST” (FRENCH TWITTER PAGE)

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REFERENCES

1 Report from private organization, available on organization’s website (2009, December 1st). La stratégie de McDonald’s sur les médias sociaux . Article posted to http://www.athomedia.com/blog/2009/12/01/strategie-mcdonalds-medias-sociaux/ 2 Online document, no author identified, no date McDonalds Company’s Turnover. Retrieved September 30th, 2011, from http://www.zonebourse.com/MCDONALD-S-CORPORATION-4833/fondamentaux-chiffres/ 3 Report from private organization, available on organization’s website Getting to know us... Retrieved September 30th, 2011, from McDonald’s website http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company.html 4 Online newspaper’s article Galliona A.S. (2009, January 28). La France, deuxième meilleur marché de McDonald's. Article posted to http://www.20minutes.fr/article/554595/Economie-La-France-deuxi-egrave-me-meilleur-marche-de-McDonald-s.php 5 Online dictionary’s article Web 2.0. (n.d.). The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. Retrieved November 30th, 2011, from Dictionary.com website http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/web 2.0 6 Online dictionary’s article

Social Media (n.d). Retrieved November 30th, 2011, from Sbinfocanada website http://

sbinfocanada.about.com/od/socialmedia/g/socialmedia.htm

7 Online document, no author identified, no date The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking. Retrieved November 1st 2011, from Everyday Wisdom website http://www.everyday-wisdom.com/social-networking.html 8Report from private organization, available on organization’s website About Us. Retrieved November 30th, 2001, from Shift Communication website http://www.shiftcomm.com/social_media_benefits.html

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9 Report from private organization, available on organization’s website (2010, October 18). Speed Burger description. Retrieved November 30th 2011, from Les Echos de la Franchise website http://www.lesechosdelafranchise.com/franchise-speed-burger/ 10 Report from private organization, available on organization’s website Notre histoire. Retrieved October 25th,2011 from Domino’s Pizza online http://www.dominos.fr/marque_histoire.php 11 Report from private organization, available on organization’s website Le Groupe. Retrieved October 25th, 2011 from Quick website http://groupe.quick.fr/fr/le-groupe 12 Online newspaper’s article Galliona A.S. (2009, January 28). La France, deuxième meilleur marché de McDonald's. Article posted to http://www.20minutes.fr/article/554595/Economie-La-France-deuxi-egrave-me-meilleur-marche-de-McDonald-s.php 13 Report from private organization, available on organization’s website Qui sommes nous? Retrieved November 30th, 2011 from Courtepaille Website http://www.courtepaille.com/qui-sommes-nous/communiques-presse-restaurant-grillades.php 14 Online dictionary’s article Social Media (n.d.). Retrieved November 30th, 2011, from Merriam Webster website http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media 15 Online presentation Nick Decrock (2010, November 21st). Social Media: The Rainbow Theory. Posted to http://www.slideshare.net/ndecrock/social-media-the-rainbow-theory 16Online dictionary’s article Facebook (n.d.). Retrieved October 18th, 2011, from Techterms website http://www.techterms.com/definition/facebook

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17 Online dictionary’s article LinkedIn (n.d.). Retrieved October 18th, 2011, from Hudson Horizons website http://www.hudsonhorizons.com/Our-Company/Internet-Glossary/LinkedIn.htm 18 Online newspaper’s article Bounoua M. (2010, April 16). Les 10 sites de réseaux sociaux qu'il faut connaître Article posted to http://www.20minutes.fr/article/398400/A-la-Une-Les-10-sites-de-reseaux-sociaux-qu-il-faut-connaitre.php 19 Online document, no author identified, no date Twitter (n.d.). Retrieved November 30th, 2011, from Tweeternet website http://tweeternet.com/#explained 20Report from private organization, available on organization’s website (2009, December 1st). La stratégie de McDonald’s sur les médias sociaux . Article posted to http://www.athomedia.com/blog/2009/12/01/strategie-mcdonalds-medias-sociaux/ 21 Online brochure, no author identified, no data Retrieved November 30th,2011 from Facebook website https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet

22 Online article, no author identified, no data How To Build Credibility With Social Media Marketing. Retrieved November 30 th, 2011 from http://www.lewishowes.com/social-media/how-to-build-credibility-with-social-media-marketing/

23 Online Video McDonalds advertise recruitment. Mac Donald's Publicité recrutement. Video posted 2008, May from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxpOBeaeJlw