The promotional mix refers to the types of promotional techniques a business can use
to target their intended audience. It is about using the best methods
of communication to increase sales and awareness of the business and its products.
There are 5 key techniques businesses can use as part of their promotional mix.
But what are they and how are they used by McDonald’s?
The first promotional technique used is advertising. This is where companies pay to
advertise their products to audiences they think may have an interest in purchasing from them.
This can be done using traditional methods of advertising such as; TV, newspaper,
radio & billboards or through new outlets such as social media, YouTube and Google search.
Companies are paying to make customers aware of their goods or service.
This is something that McDonalds uses in their promotional mix very obviously,
there is no doubt that you will have seen one of these methods used by McDonalds
as they spent over 600 million dollars on advertising in 2020 utilising campaigns on TV,
Newspaper, Radio and billboards just to name a few. They also have a strong social media presence
and make the most of highly targeted paid ads on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The second promotional method used is sales promotion. Sales promotions are short-term
incentives designed to encourage people to buy a product or service. Techniques used
in sales promotion come in the form of special offers such as buy one get one frees, discounts
and coupons. These offers are often short term promotions that come with a limited time offer
designed to make the customer act quickly before they miss out on this limited time deal. Games and
contests are often used as sales promotions too as it makes a purchase more exciting.
Games are something McDonalds has done particularly well through their monopoly
giveaway. The McDonald’s monopoly promotion is where customers receive stickers with their meal
which gives them the chance of winning free food, discounts at certain retailers
or even cash prizes. Such a limited time promotion has increased sales at McDonalds
as people by more often and larger meals to increase their chances of winning.
It has been a very successful sales promotion for McDonald’s.
The next strategy is a more personal approach to promotion,
and it’s called direct marketing. This method is about targeting customers on an individual basis
through the post, phone calls, text and most commonly today - email. Email
marketing is one of the most modern and widely used forms of direct marketing,
due to its effectiveness and also because it enables you to measure the success of your
campaign via open rates and link clicks. Effective direct marketing can be tailored to an individual
customer based on their preferences and previous purchases, increasing the chance of success.
For this reason McDonalds is not exception and uses direct marketing
through email by targeting their customers with special offers and seasonal menus items
designed to encourage customers to visit one of their stores in turn increasing sales.
Public relation or PR is the communication and relationship a business has with the public.
This image is often built through media outlets talking about the business and what the business
stands for. This is often communicated through press releases and conferences that get picked
up by the media and discussed. This method is mainly free promotion for the business,
however the media narrative may not always be positive about the business.
McDonalds has famously struggled with its PR especially because of its food being linked to
rising obesity rates and health issues. This was famously highlighted in the documentary supersize
me and various lawsuits brought against McDonald’s for its effects on customer health. Despite this
McDonalds tries to manage its PR by putting out press releases displaying
the good work they doing in communities through the Ronald McDonald foundation,
how they are improving the quality of their food and also by sponsoring high profile
sporting events. This PR is designed to show McDonalds in a positive light to the public
and associate them with positive causes and not negative headlines.
The final promotional technique is personal selling. Personal selling is where an employee
has a face to face interaction with a customer with the objective of influencing them to purchase
a product or services. This may traditionally be associated with car sales or door to door sales
where a sales representative speaks directly with customers
trying to get them to purchase a new car or switch their gas and electric supplier.
This technique is less obvious to see at McDonald’s, however
they do still use this on a small scale at the till when you make your order.
They often ask if you would like an item you requested as a meal or if you
would like to go large with your purchase. This is McDonalds way of personal selling.
McDonald’s has taken this upselling to new levels with their self service kiosks. And
although this is not technically personal selling, the kiosks upsell to customers by prompting them
to go large on meals or by recommending extra items for customers to add to their order,
just like an employee would at the till. In fact it’s so effective that research suggest that
customers spend on average 20% more at these self service kiosks than when ordering face to face,
which in turn increases profits for McDonald’s making it a great promotional technique.
All 5 of the key techniques discussed can form part of a business’s promotional mix,
some businesses may choose to use all five, while others will pick and choose what works for them.
One thing is for sure McDonalds promotional mix hasn’t done them any harm.
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