Mcdonald\'s Australia the Characteristics of Multi-Channel Management

McDonald's Australia

The characteristics of multi-channel management strategies are often organized around the most effective aspects of each channel and the potential they have to contribute to the overarching marketing and selling goal (Wilson, Hobbs, Dolder, McDonald, 2004). McDonald's and their multichannel strategy across Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom (UK) are unified from the standpoint of supporting the corporate messaging and branding of McDonald's. Each geography and region requires a different series of strategies and messages however if McDonald's is going to succeed. The intent of analysis is to evaluate how McDonald's structures its multichannel strategy, varying messaging, content and delivery to fit the specific expectations, needs and wants of each region and country.

Analysis of Multichannel Strategies

The case provides interesting insights into how McDonald's uses their websites as branding platforms that extend into delivering memorable, fun and unique experiences for it customers. Making the point that the websites are not merely electronic brochures (Rowley, 2004) interactivity of games and applications are brought out often through McDonald's web strategy (Long, 2006).

McDonald's drives all consumer traffic to their websites in order to track and measure how effective their promotions are as well. This works especially well for unifying the online and offline multichannel strategies through the many regions and nations McDonald's competes in (Vignali, 2001). The focus on tailoring the message to the specific needs of the audience can be seen in how diverse the messaging, color and interactive aspects of each national, regional and local website are as defined in the case (Rowley, 2004). From the soccer-specific and UK-based on content on McDonald's United Kingdom websites to the health-based messages about having breakfast on the Australian sites, McDonald's goal is to use imagery, text, messaging and specific story lines to immediately become relevant to each region they operate in (Vignali, 2001). Only 50% of the Australians have breakfast, and many have marginally good eating habits according to the case. In the UK, the focus is on making sure there are many educational opportunities for students while also creating entertaining content is key (Rowley, 2004). In Hong Kong, the focus is on products and convenience food that the residents trust and see value in. Despite all these major variations in messaging the multichannel strategies McDonald's has bring together each disparate message into a consolidate, highly effective platform.

The primary goal of unifying multichannel strategies is to provide consumers with an opportunity to learn about new products and services how they choose to, through channels most convenient to them (Wilson, Hobbs, Dolder, McDonald, 2004). McDonald's has found that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs that show through stories and examples how they as a corporation are working to be more eco-friendly help the company to gain new customers across cultures more effectively than if they used just price or features to promote themselves (Vignali, 2001). The emphasis on CSR initiatives and the development of localized programs to foster education around eco-friendly and healthy foods has been very effective in the U.S. And throughout westernized nations (Arndorfer, 2005). The focus on learning and education has also significantly assisted the McDonald's brand in gaining global traction and becoming trusted by parents (Smith, 2007).