The management of McDonald’s says that they have existed because the app will allow a channel of communication, enhancing customer relations (Love, & Miller, 2019). Through the app, customers shall interact with the customer care department, allowing them to ask questions, launch complaints which shall be attended to in the least time possible and give comments. Also, the customers shall be entitled to rate the delivery service so that the organization can retain quality workers in the transport department. The bonus points allowing the customers to be rewarded for being loyal to the restaurants will be an added advantage to the customers who choose to stick to the organization
The restaurant chain acknowledges that it has to appreciate their customers for being quite loyal to them by showing gratitude through the app. Communication shall be made easy and following up on orders made simple, eliminating the complications of making orders. The corporation has intended to make the apps be in such a way that the customers shall indicate their physical location, for instance, the country where they come from. This is because McDonald’s is a fast-food chain that has branches all over the country and internationally (Love & Miller, 2019). All the changes shall be effected in every fast food restaurant belonging to McDonald’s. All customers shall benefit, but the biggest beneficiaries shall be the young children population and their parents.
Social Media Content
Blog
McDonald’s is looking at aiming to get the loyalty of the young children and their parents, who form the largest group of customers who make most of the orders. The organization had not yet concentrated on this group because it was busy expanding and planning the strategies of expansion. However, this has not escaped unnoticed because of the complaints that the organization has been doing little. The competitors have been taking advantage of beating McDonald’s in their own game. However, this has been discovered at last and will be addressed by the firm. This is through the actions that have been planned, aiming at the target population.
Young children and their parents are given priority by the fast-food retailer because they form an essential part of the society and the client base (Meyers, 2019). They will be rewarded by the company because of staying loyal and being considerate enough to continue being customers of the fast-food corporation all over the world. Other competitors have already taken steps aimed at securing this target population ahead of McDonald’s, but still, the corporation has been receiving overwhelming support from this population. The launch of the app and its effect on the target population is expected to have brought change.
McDonald’s thus aims at giving the young children and their parent’s reasonable offers and establish a connection with them, which would improve the quality of services as well as the food products they purchase from the company. Also, corporate social responsibility awareness shall be spread through the app.
Online Content
McDonald’s intents to use Facebook as the easiest to access the online app to reach the targeted population and also interact with other potential clients. This will allow the customers to feel appreciated because most of them spend their time on Facebook and would thus interact with the customer relations department in an efficient manner. The fact that Facebook has a separate messenger app, the potential customers, shall be able to get direct messages through the Facebook messenger app without necessarily having to log into the Facebook app itself (Coursaris et al., 2018). This will be an added advantage, especially because when a communication is made, the notifications send to the customers’ phones help them to communicate effectively and feel appreciated by the organization. It will also another way of supplementing the McDonald’s app that will be launched as far as addressing queries and customers are department is concerned.
Through the Facebook app, the customers shall be at liberty to make comments about their orders and the experience they have had with the fast-food retailer (Tan, & Kim, 2019). This will help attract other customers, given that the feedback information is positive. The Facebook platform was selected because of the ease of access and also allows one to easily access the past information regarding the posts made, more than any other apps. Children and their parents are expected to like this mode of communication.
Persuasive Content Option
How can one get the new McDonald’s app?
The app is available from the windows store and also on Google play.
When can the app be downloaded, and when can a customer make an order?
The app can be downloaded anytime. Orders can be made at any time of the day or night. However, the app will include an option to indicate when one does want the deliveries made. Nonetheless, online orders and deliveries shall be allowed to be placed and fulfilled anytime, 24 hours, seven days a week.
How shall complaints be handled?
Any complaint made by a customer must be indicated on the app the associated store so that the manager of that particular store shall take over the case and handle it accordingly. This will include the customer care representative of that store. If the customer care representative handles the case in a way that the customer is not satisfied, the manager will take over. If the customer is not satisfied with this, the customer will notify the regional manager, who will see that the case is handled to his/her satisfaction.
How will recommendations be handled?
When a customer or a member of the public makes recommendations, the technical team will see the viability of the proposal, if it can be implemented or not. If it cannot be achieved, it shall be left without any more contact or feedback to the customer or the member of the public who has made the recommendation. This is because suggestions may be many and made by random people. Satisfying the customers is the main idea behind the suggestions and recommendations section.
Shall there be any special considerations for young children and their parents?
All customers shall be given consideration, and none shall be made so special unless it’s a change or an offer that has been introduced publicly and announced to the public. This will be done through newspapers, the McDonald’s app, Facebook, and billboards. However, young children form an essential part of the client base. Therefore, there shall be additional offers for this population to appreciate them as we introduce them to McDonald’s world. More so, there shall be offers from time to time, for all the customers. This will give a chance to the firm to also appreciate the public for supporting them.
What shall be the end of years?
Offers shall be determined by the organization’s top sales and marketing department, which will allow the shops to give suggestions. However, each shop shall have management of their own. Therefore, it can provide offers depending on their operations. This is meant not to limit the different shops in various locations. However, their special offers shall only be availed to their customers, not the online customer base.
Theoretical Critiques
McDonald’s use persuasive communication to create brand awareness campaigns. Persuasion embeds itself in business communication (Dillard & Pfau, 2020). This has been in existence for thousands of years. Belief is interactive communication, which is meant to make the receiver respond by altering their behavior, a point, or a view that is aimed at benefitting or making the sender of the message comfortable. Rhetoric is a crucial development of persuasion. Rhetoric is used in making speeches and written work as useful as possible. The origin of rhetoric is traced to ancient Greece. Tisias and Corax were the individuals who discovered the existence of Rhetoric in communication. Sophists in ancient Greece were more prominent in the public speaking arena and thus invented much of the tools used in speech and communication. Nonetheless, manipulation of arguments leading to the distortion of the messages directed to the identification of rhetorical appeals, pathos, ethos, and logos (Dillard, & Pfau, 2020). This work was done by Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato in the path to help find the truth.
Persuasion theories have been inspired by Rhetoric, particularly the ‘Five canons’ by Cicero. Compelling oratory is the main aim of this theory (Smith, 2018). The five canon theory argues that the five canons, which are delivery, style, arrangement, intervention, and memory, focus on honesty and logic. The targeting of emotions in communication, as put forward by Aristotle, was opposed by Cicero, Plato, and Socrates. Aristotle aimed to target the emotions to achieve persuasion in connection. The audience must be understood as far as their attitudes are concerned. This is in the study of the social philosophy research, which cannot be underestimated if persuading them is needed.
The evaluation of the message by the audience depends on the three categories. This depends on where the source of the word is anchored (Kohn, 2017). The three types include non-commitment, acceptance, and rejection. The anchor points of an audience must be understood to persuade them. This is done per the principles of the social judgment theory (Smith, 2018). The model to be used in this case is the elaboration likelihood model, which helps in evaluating the audience. The audience needs to be persuaded, and therefore, motivation must take place first. More so, the beliefs of the people must be consistent with the message that is being put across. Otherwise, the people will end up being uncomfortable with communication, according to the confusion based and consistency based theories.
Resolving an inconsistency is not easy and requires serious steps such as changing one’s behavior or attitude to resolve the discrepancy (Dillard, & Pfau, 2020). This happens when an individual has to tackle two inconsistent beliefs on a particular topic at hand. According to congruity theory, to persuade the audience, one must evaluate them, just like it is in the judgment theory. Unwelcomed information is avoided by people who tend to be inclined to listening to the beliefs that are consistent with their own. This is according to the cognitive dissonance theory. The concept shows that the information that individuals are willing to take is selective, and attention is only paid to the information that appears to be in line with the attitudes of the people. According to the temperament theory and psychological research, the consideration of the audience should be done when choosing the most effective methods for passing a message (Smith, 2018). Ethos, logos, and pathos are closely related to this process. The food industry has ethical issues arising from advertising. The viewpoints of the critical theories are essential, and therefore they are reviewed when determining how to use the practical tools ethically. According to virtue ethics by Aristotle, the right decisions can only be made by a competent person (Dillard, & Pfau, 2020). The two categories under which Aristotle deemed virtue falls, moral and intellect, assist individuals when they are making the right decision. This is the golden mean and lies in between the two categories, which are extremes.
McDonald’s has encountered several ethical issues, especially in the case of persuasive communications. The theory of duty ethics by Kant defines what is ethical by focusing on the consideration and rationality of others. According to Kant, morality is bred by good intentions, and therefore, the consequence is vital, but decision making is of much weight. Duty ethics require that everyone is viewed as equal and is expected to do the same. However, the theory does not allow the breaking of the commands. It is highly criticized for its strictness. Utilitarianism aims at attaining happiness, and therefore the moral decision is the action that brings about the most joy (Smith, 2018). In the same way as a duty, utilitarianism assumes that everyone is equal.
Ethical egoism does not allow the sacrifice of happiness. The view is that self-interest is prioritized and seen as correct from a moral perspective. The controversy arising from this theory is that it assumes that individuals can only help each other if only they know that they will gain from the deal. Persuasive advertising involves much of ethics. In this, truth and propaganda must be identified and separated from each other. In the advertisement, the beliefs of the hearer are altered by the use of unethical means. The audience is not educated in the process, and propaganda is only aimed at achieving a specific reaction from the audience satisfying a particular plan.
Kant’s commands match the Advertising Standards Authority’s guidelines regarding the use of truth in advertising (Kohn, 2017). Thus, logical appeals are needed more because they are deemed to be more ethical. Persuasion is considered unethical if it is only meant to benefit the brand by exploiting the vulnerabilities and fears of the people. The moral intent of an advertising awareness is addressed in Kant’s theory. Shock tactics are suitable for application by charities but do not work in a situation aimed at creating brand awareness. Sometimes, the truth becomes a subjective factor, especially when brands choose to use exaggeration as a persuasive technique. Accurate information eliminates misinterpretations (Kohn, 2017). Logical appeals are combines with emotional appeals in mind communications. Mind communications are ethical because they do not exploit the vulnerabilities of the audience but use logos and pathos in spreading awareness. Therefore, McDonald’s considers logical appeals in decision making aimed at achieving better results.
References
Coursaris, C. K., Van Osch, W., & Balogh, B. A. (2018). A social media marketing typology: Classifying brand Facebook page messages for strategic consumer engagement.
Dillard, J. P., & Pfau, M. (2020). The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice. Sage.
Kohn, M. (2017). Language, power, and persuasion: Toward a critique of deliberative democracy.
Kroc, R., & Anderson, R. (2017). Grinding it out: The making of McDonald’s. Macmillan.
Love, J. F., & Miller, A. W. (2019). McDonald’s: Behind the arches.
Meyers, R. A. (2019). Persuasive Arguments Theory A Test of Assumptions. Human Communication Research, 15(3), 357-381.
Smith, M. J. (2018). Persuasion and human action: A review and critique of social influence theories. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Tan, W., & Kim, H. (2019). FACEBOOK AS A TOOL FOR MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS AND BRAND BUILDING: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF TOP GLOBAL BRANDS’FACEBOOK PAGES. In the American Academy of Advertising. Conference. Proceedings (Online) (p. 161). American Academy of Advertising.