Social Listening----McDonald's

What will show up in your mind, when we talk about McDonald's? French fries, McNuggets, or mildew ice cream machine?

Let see what most people are talking about with this brand in social media. Here is what McDonald's posted, which is just a common advertisement about their new menus. And it seems like McDonald's offered some very cheap deals this time. 

We are all very familiar with McDonald's. The value proposition of McDonald's was created by its founder, Ken Croc, he claims that "McDonald's stands for friendliness, cleanliness, consistency, and convenience." I pass by McDonald's every weekday when I go to school, however, I never plan to go inside and get some foods. Why? I am not the fans of fast food, especially for McDonald's, as there is a lot of negative news about their products. For example, I have been heard about that the hamburger of McDonald's has antibiotics, hormones, antiseptic, etc. I guess many people had heard about the news when an employee of McDonald's want to clean the ice cream machine, so he opened the machine and found that there are many mycete inside it.  Because of this crazy story, I always alert myself to stay away with this store. 

I am interested in people's opinion about McDonald's in the social media, so let see what the public's response on Instagram after the advertisement of McDonald's. Here are some examples of what people are saying about it. 

According to my observation, 85 percent of the comment on Instagram about this advertisement is negative. They against McDonald's for allowing its chicken supply chain to treat their animals extremely cruelty, which these chickens are suffering from unnatural growth (by genetically manipulated), ammonia burns (form their own waste), and debilitating injuries (by their own oversize bodies). Personally, I agree with this group of people. Even though those chickens are poultry, which will become a product in the restaurant someday. When they are alive, they are still should being look like a real life. 

However, there are some people claims that they don't care about what McDonald's did, as they just care about the good tasting of those dishes. There are some reasons why people know the shortcoming of McDonald's, but they still cannot give up consuming it.  Firstly, McDonald's is very cheap, and they do have some delicious foods. They do not just sell meat-product, they also sell some snacks, dessert, vegetable salad, and beverages. Also, they did well on the advertisement. Even a little child will know the logo of McDonald' and what product are they selling.

Besides, the rest of people that comment on Instagram are advocating to become a vegetarian. If there is less demand for meat in the market, there will be less supply, too. They are correct, but we cannot force other people to change their lifestyle, what we can do is trying to influence them by taking action from ourselves.  

McDonald's biggest problem is losing customers because of that negative news, meanwhile, there are many strong competitors show up in the marketing, such as Burger King, Subway, Wendy's. Although some of these competitors had the same issue before, they are taking action for solving the problems. Many companies have produced policies to address these animal cruelty issues, however, McDonald's published a policy that fails to solve the welfare issues. 

To figure out the issue of McDonald's, they really need to listen to the public. If I were the manager of McDonald's, I will introspection the company and the supply chain. What they really need to do is winning back the popularity and trust from customers. Listening to what people are saying in the public and social media. Then, have inner-meeting with employees and come up with an idea to solve the problems of animal cruelty issues first. They need to implement the rule that treats those chickens better, such as providing a clean environment. Lastly, the best way that I can come up with to win back public's preference is showing to people what the truth is. After a series of improvement and changes, McDonald's can have a short video advertisement to show how the changed and the safer environment of the chicken supply chain. I believe if people see the changes, they will be willing to start to accept McDonald's gradually. 

Comments on Instagram is come from:    


https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn9DXGxB2Po/?taken-by=mcdonalds

Market Issues:https://www.businessinsider.com/the-7-biggest-challenges-facing-the-new-mcdonalds-ceo-2015-1