How McDonalds is Driving Sales

In the brand's latest strategic move, they’re focusing on personalisation, gamification and building stronger relationships with their customers in their loyalty programme to drive growth.

Speaking at a recent event, chief executive officer Chris Kempczinski told investors:

“With the insights powered by our loyalty members, we will work to deliver the right message at the right time to the right consumer, encouraging those who already love McDonald’s to visit even more".

Using Digital To Create
A Personal Experience

The brand is shifting investment in marketing from the traditional media it has favoured in the past, such as television, billboard and print, to focus more on customers’ digital experience. The goal is to drive more sales for the company by increasing the frequency of visits existing customers make to its restaurants.

As part of the refocus, the customer experience is becoming more personalised. In a reflection of the playful brand image McDonald's has, gamification is also being used to maximise engagement with the brand's digital content.

For example, the Winning Sips campaign involves customers peeling back a tab on their drinks cup to reveal a code that's used in a digital game where they can win cash prizes. It's helped give the company record growth in McDonald's app users over 90 days. What's more, 75% of its loyalty programme members have stayed active on the app.

Sticking with the gamification theme, the team has worked hard to engage the anime community with the creation of a fictional restaurant called WcDonald’s. The WcDoanld's campaign has its own website and includes anime-themed gaming content on the McDonald’s app. It has been phenomenally successful. It got 6 billion social media impressions, 100,00 mentions and saw McNugget sales skyrocket in the regions it runs in.

Kempczinski emphasised the reasons for the company's recent successes:

“Breakthrough campaigns, a great tasting menu and personalised experiences will drive customers to McDonald’s again and again as they come through the physical doors of our restaurant and the digital door of our mobile app"

The Numbers Add Up

It's fair to say, the strategy is working. Compared to the same time last year, sales are up 1.9% for the quarter. That’s 13 months on the trot that McDonald’s has seen positive sales growth compared to previous periods and an impressive 30% growth over the past 4 years.

Kempczinski said:

“This success was built by establishing a strong foundation with a strategic plan based in consumer insights, and focused on creating relevant marketing campaigns with our brand connected to culture".

A Focus On Value

Reflecting the squeeze on its customers’ disposable income, McDonald's is also focusing its messaging on the value it offers and how it's an affordable option for people wanting to eat out.

Kempczinski said:

“We know our customers are looking for reliable, everyday value, now more than ever. Over the past year, we’ve launched everyday value menus across many of our international markets, featuring value bundles at various price points; these new offerings provide smaller, more affordable meals to our customers".

And despite a difficult climate, marketing is a bigger priority than ever.

“We’ve got a marketing and brand engine that’s best in class", he said. “The team continues to deliver great creative execution that’s resonating with customers in culturally relevant ways".

Make It Work In Your Business

Even if you don’t have the budget to create a bespoke app and digital gaming experience for specific audience segments, you can still draw from McDonald’s success and implement it in your business.

At the heart of all of McDonald’s successful plays are a deep understanding of their customer, a clear strategy and a commitment to investing in marketing.

They know who they want to target and they align their marketing activity accordingly. They’re also focused on retaining existing customers rather than always trying to win new business. As we frequently highlight, it’s far cheaper to get someone to buy again than to engage and onboard a new customer.

Understanding Your Customers

Do what you can to get to know your customers as well as you can. If you’ve got a broad church of customers, focus on segments that bring you the most sales.

Speak to them at every opportunity. Ask them what they think of you. Get familiar with the magazines they read and the social media accounts they follow.

Learn what type of content they consume and get familiar with it. Develop an understanding of how they consume their information.

This level of understanding will enable you to start developing marketing activity that aligns with their needs and behaviour. When it comes to creating messaging for them, you won't feel like a duck out of water. Instead, you'll have a solid idea of what will ring true.

Find A Theme That Resonates
With Your Audience

Just like McDonald’s went big on the anime crowd, with cultural references and online gaming, you could get creative and come up with a campaign that will get noticed by your target audience. For example, if a lot of your customers follow football, you could build a creative campaign around the upcoming European Championships.

Meet Your Target Audience Where They’re At

Don’t forget to meet your audience where they’re at. McDonald’s core target audience is young and techsavy. They’d think nothing of having a McDonald’s app on their phones.

Moving to the other end of the spectrum, if your audience are predominantly boomers or post-war, you can expect them to be more cynical about having to download an app. It's not something they've grown up with, and they're less likely to embrace it. This audience might favour a more traditional engagement approach.

McDonald's latest marketing strategy has proved wildly successful. Even though most of us don't have the budgets of a global mega-brand, there is no reason why you can't take the lessons and apply them to your own business.