Learn from 'Failed in McDstories Campaign' - McDonald Case

Blog 4

Learn from McDonald - McDstories & Meet The Farmers:

About McDstories Campaign:  

The promotional hashtag #McDstories, launched as part of a campaign for paid-for tweets to appear at the top of search results, spectacularly backfired as users used it to document their alleged horror stories of the Golden Arches(McDonald).

Opponents accused McDonalds of making customers vomit, serving pig meat from gestation crates and serving burgers containing a fingernail. 

More and more unsatisfied customers leave the negative comments below the campaign. McDonald turn off this campaign when they saw about 2,000 mostly negative comments in about two hours. 

In terms of that, McDonald's attempted good-natured social media campaigns which simply took an unexpected returns. After that McDonald's admitted that 'McDstories did not go as planned.'

In spite of why customers leave negative comments, as a marketer in the future we should learn something from this reputation crisis/failed campaign. 

Four things should Always do: 

1. Define the Crisis before you go into panic mode. Understand what this crisis to your company, and who needs to be involved to change this situation. 

2. Choose the right person or group of people to represent the company at hand to resonate with the audiences. CEO is not always a good choice to do the communication.

3. Understand what audiences want to hear from your company, understand your company from another aspect.

4. Acknowledge that you are not perfect: tell your audiences that you are willing to listen and do the improvement.

Four things should Never do:  

1. Be a slacker: Social media moves quickly, company have responsibility to get back to people and understand the issue through listening. 

2. Inflate the situation before you've figured it out: which means do the solution first before you figure out the reason, which meanwhile the issue might go expanded and penetrated. 

3. Learn from the crisis: a crisis can be an opportunity to set the record straight. Thus do the self-eduacating after the crisis.

4. Fail to recognise C.A.V.E. people: a Citizen Aginst Virtually Everything. Know that your company is not perfect to everyone. Do the plan appropriately and involve as much consideration as possible.