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Giving Your Company a Marketing Edge posted by Peter J. Patsula

Where is the Money?

The question is . . . do you truly love it? Has McDonald's new advertising campaign successfully seeped into your subconscious to the point that you can't help but hear squeaky Ronald McDonald whispering . . .

i'm lovin' it! i'm lovin' it!
McDonald's public relations personnel say:

Our 13,500 U.S. restaurants are uniting behind this new brand message and energy. We are focused on bringing the i'm lovin' it theme to life not only in our advertising but also for every customer who visits our restaurants. This world-class marketing strategy is the latest element of our overall plan to continue revitalizing McDonald's for our customers through compelling food choices, great service and restaurant operations, motivating value and exciting new restaurant decors.
They add:

i'm lovin' it is a key part of McDonald's business strategy to connect with customers in highly relevant, culturally significant ways around the world.
Well I don't get it. To me the "i'm lovin' it" campaign has created a powerful negative image in my psyche, a little devil that strongly objects to blatant manipulation. I remember reading a paper in Kuala Lumpur and seeing on every second page in yellow print with a black background:

Every second page.

I was really hatin' it!

I still eat at McDonald's but I try not to look at the "exciting new decor" which in many franchises amounts to a couple of gaudy signs here and there. And those black and yellow letter shirts the Mcemployees wear are perhaps the most unsightly Mcfashions ever.

Like I said, I'm really hatin' it!

The irony is Ray Kroc, the legendary founder of McDonald's, had a much keener insight into people than the current Mccorporate marketers who are trying to befuddle us into Pavlovian zombies, inflicting us with Psychology 101 color manipulation and Skinnerian repetitive colloquialisms. Ray's philosophy was simple and customer driven. His mission:

To offer the fast food customer food prepared in the same high-quality manner world-wide, tasty and reasonably priced, delivered in a consistent, low-key, and friendly atmosphere.
Like Ray Kroc, entrepreneur greats Sam Walton and Conrad Hilton, had tremendous empathy for people. Walton was one of the first employers to establish profit-sharing plans with employees. Hilton donated nearly all of his $300 million estate to establish the Conrad Hilton Foundation whose mission is to help reduce human suffering worldwide. Hilton says:

There is a natural law, a Divine law, that obliges you and me to relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute.
There is one surefire way to gain a long-lasting marketing edge. It's a simple strategy. It benefits mankind. It benefits your customers. And in the end, it will benefit you:

Marketer Peter Francese says (author of Marketing Insights to Help Your Business Grow):

The most effective marketing plans are the ones where the customer's needs are thought about first, where the author periodically rereads the plan to update it and measure the effectiveness of the overall marketing program, and where everyone involved has the patience to allow enough time for the advertising part of the plan to work.
So in the end, where is the money? Or maybe, more to the point ... where is the love? Well, to give your company a marketing edge and help build long-term profits, and at the risk of sounding somewhat cliché, you must do what the bible says:

Love your customer as you love yourself.

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