Getting mocked online does not necessarily mean your marketing campaign was a failure, a University of Guelph marketing professor says.
To announce the launch of The Big Arch, a new burger from fast food giant McDonald’s, the company’s CEO, Chris Kempczinski recently appeared in a short video on social media eating “this product,” as he called it, for lunch.
Comments rolled in, from brands, from consumers, from anyone who came across the post, describing it as inauthentic, joking that the CEO looked like he was being force-fed, that he was not actually enjoying it and he certainly was not selling it.
The whole event conjures up the old adage that all PR is good PR, says Dr. Preetinder Kaur, assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.
“Even a little bit of negative attention can be profitable when it keeps the conversation going,” Kaur says. “I don’t think McDonald’s actually planned for it to go the way it went, but I don’t think it’s going to hurt them either.”
Kaur’s research looks at the franchising industry and digital engagement, particularly how marketing assets sustain competitive advantage.
McDonald’s, an American multinational fast food restaurant chain, has no shortage of competitors. Some, like Wing Stop, Wendy’s and Subway got to work in the comments, while Burger King and A&W – running with the philosophy that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – filmed their own versions with their CEOs.
If no other brands tried to mock them, Kaur says, there might have been more backlash. “But this has had an overall positive effect.”
With the internet ablaze about the post, McDonald’s has succeeded in free publicity for itself, Kaur explains. It has begun a so-called “Burger War” that is now increasing earned media – organic, word-of-mouth publicity – for all burger brands.
At the end of the day, she says no one is going to boycott McDonald’s for this particular marketing campaign. Perhaps most importantly, they will remember which brand kicked off all the chatter.
Dr. Kaur is available for interviews.
Contact:
Dr. Preetinder Kaur
preetind@uoguelph.ca