Can MickeyD’s Marketing Approach Translate to Tech?
By Shannon Sullivan

I recently saw a news story about McDonald’s, one of the world’s most recognized brands, and its new approach to marketing to a crucial audience – moms. Essentially, McDonald’s has recruited a select group of moms to serve as “quality correspondents” that help spread the message of the company’s efforts to provide children healthier food alternatives. 

For McDonald’s, moms serve as a large influencer audience, one with $2 trillion in buying power, that generally makes the decision as to where the family eats. The company stands to miss out on a significant amount of revenue if moms decide to eat elsewhere due to McDonald’s lack of healthy fare. Finding a way to get moms to realize that McDonald’s can be a healthy option is imperative for the company, particularly as the rate of childhood obesity in the United States grows.

This general idea – using your target audience as active participants in marketing and allowing them to publicly provide feedback – made me wonder if a similar approach would work for a business-to-business, technology-based company like many of the clients with whom we work. Would incorporating a group of target IT managers and their feedback into R&D help create preference for a particular router or server? Would their influence be strong enough to impact the purchase decision of other IT managers? How much would a group like this need to see and understand in order to make the feedback legitimate and useful? Would public dissemination of their thoughts negatively impact the business?

In the McDonald’s example, the company allows its special group behind-the-scenes access to farms, suppliers, restaurants and product development so that moms can not only comment on the company’s process but also help shape public perception of the company and its efforts by sharing thoughts with other audiences. With technology companies, the idea of “opening the kimono” may be a little more risky. In the technology industry, patent-pending technology often is the competitive advantage or “secret sauce” that can make one company the market leader and another the third-place player. Providing access to that kind of intellectual property could work against a company if it is publicized before the product is launched.

The motivations of the audience may help determine if generating “buzz” for the development process is an effective marketing tool. In the McDonald’s scenario, the moms’ main concern is the health of their families so their intention is to communicate the healthy options a company like McDonald’s offers. Their public feedback can help steer product development and actually helps in the competitive environment. In the business world, the feedback most likely is not as personal or as emotionally driven, so public feedback could undermine the launch process, competitive advantage, partnerships, etc., based on particular loyalties.

Customer research, however, is always invaluable. Understanding what is important to purchasers and influencers is key to ensuring a product or service meets the needs of those audiences. It is crucial to consider that data during development and while creating marketing messages. That way, both the product and the marketing will resonate with the target audience. Many companies utilize focus groups to determine product success and garner feedback. Again, this is a valuable approach but different from what McDonald’s is attempting to do. So, it seems that this very open marketing approach may not be the best bet for business-to-business companies in the tech space whose target audiences have very specific, business-oriented motivations or when success is determined by competitive edge tied to intellectual property.

On the other hand, this approach may be a consideration for technology companies that are more consumer-oriented, such as video game creators or Internet sites where user experience plays a big role in adoption rates for other consumers. Sharing experiences via blogs, etc., and providing feedback could actually encourage people to try the game or visit the site, helping to build additional awareness beyond what traditional marketing could generate. In these scenarios, product improvements are easier to make, so feedback from the target group can be incorporated faster, resulting in a better product.

Ultimately, the decision to incorporate a marketing technique of this nature is really up to each company after a thorough assessment of the risk versus reward. Nonetheless, it is a very interesting approach from a brand leader like McDonald’s. Time will tell if McDonald’s efforts have been effective in capturing the revenue they expect from this critical audience.

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