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Excellent article on how McDonalds have benefited from online marketing

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Excellent article on how McDonalds have benefited from online marketing

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Yes, Of course McDonald's make a Good use of Digital marketing:-

Marketing strategy plays a vital role for Developing any kind of Business. As McDonald's is one of the best known brands worldwide. The main objectives of your marketing strategy must ensure that the product must fulfill the customers demand as well as maintain a long relationship with those clients.
McDonald's aims to continuity build its brand by listening to its customers.
The foremost main objective of the market strategy must be to recognize whether target clients are pleased with the service and products provided by the company.
Marketing communication methods, such as advertising and promotions, are used to create the colors, designs and images which give the brand its recognizable face..
After analyzing the market condition, finding the main factor, target segment as well as understanding the demand of the market, every company requires coming up with an offers or such kind of plan which speed up the development of the business.
Through marketing, McDonald's establishes a prominent position in the minds of customers. This is known as branding.
The company constantly improves its product and service in accordance to the fast changing desires and tastes of its consumers. One of the good examples is the launching of Chicken Maharaja Mac and the Chicken McNuggets.
In concern with Digital marketing, Ad targeted to catch the interest of the people it reaches to massive number of customer at a time. Ad plays an important role for product promotion such TV advertisement, billboard and posters which also used by some ground breaking business including Apple Company.
Two major social media platforms that McDonald's used were Twitter and Facebook.
McDonald's restaurant constantly does Internal Marketing as this strategy becomes effective it will lead automatically to the success of external marketing.
Since 2008, McDonald's had been active on the social media and was able to connect with digital savvy consumers and build customer loyalty.
It used these websites to communicate with customers, keep them engaged with the happenings in the company, and indulge in interesting conversations with them.
McDonald's has been using social sites, apart from promoting its products, for activities of social cause, To understand how the customers' responses on social sites are different when the marketers 'talk with' the customers and respond to their doubts and queries.
The role of social sites in McDonald's marketing strategy and the benefits accruing to the company in terms of increasing sales and customer reach.
Though,apart from all McDonald's can build a much more strong marketing by using other strategies of Digital marketing. For more Info Visit Digital Marketing Course in Chandigarh
9878375376
webtechlearning@gmail.com

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Does McDonald's make good use of Digital Marketing?

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Answer (1 of 2): Yes, Of course McDonald's make a Good use of Digital marketing:- Marketing strategy plays a vital role for Developing any kind of Business. As McDonald's is one of the best known brands worldwide. The main objectives of your marketing strategy must ensure that the product must ...

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Retailers who promote product quality, transparency, & sustainability will flourish.

These days, you can find pretty much any information you want online - and because that's the case, shoppers are no longer content not knowing everything about the products they're purchasing.

The proliferation in recent years of transparent, sustainably conscious companies such as Warby Parker and Everlane has initiated a radical shift in the retail industry - one we can expect to gain greater traction in 2017.

Consumers are becoming more interested and invested in where their money's going rather than simply what it's buying, which means it's not enough anymore to sell high-quality products with no information on their backstories.

Instead, shoppers have begun gravitating toward retailers who reveal all the inner workings of their operations. Everlane, for example, details the entire production costs of their products: materials, labor, duties, and markup. They also include information on the factories in which products are made, complete with pictures and videos of the employees and factories themselves. This way, Everlane's customers know exactly what's gone into creating the product they're thinking of buying, and they can feel better about the ethics and background involved in their purchases.

There are a number of factors at play in this trend: a worldwide shift toward sustainability, consumer desire to be more ethically conscious in purchase decisions, and a keen interest in supporting brands with a " strong sense of identity."

Here's an example: Vend customer the Bread and Butter Letter, a vintage clothing and homeware boutique based in New Zealand that sells only New Zealand-made goods, told us recently that "we've noticed our customers increasingly ask the important questions: where the goods come from, who made them, what they're made from. We've also noticed that people increasingly reject our paper bags and bring their own!"

Stores providing unique in-store experiences will thrive.

Retailers who can provide unique in-store experiences will be king in 2017. After all, the only way to justify a customer making the trip to your store rather than shopping online is to give him an experience he can't get anywhere else.

When we hear "in-store experience" with relation to retail, most of us think big: Urban Outfitters buying the fast-casual Pizzeria Vetri to incorporate into its stores, smart dressing rooms in Rebecca Minkoff locations.

But that's only one aspect of the two-pronged experience trend. The other? Finding ways to match and exceed the seamlessness of online shopping.

Most retailers are attempting to do this by creating omnichannel shopping experiences - in other words, by bringing the amenities of the online world into brick and mortar stores.

Let's take Crate + Barrel, for example. The homeware retailer recently tested a program called "Mobile Tote" in which shoppers browse the shelves using store-provided tablets. Customers can use the tablets to scan barcodes and learn additional information about products, to add items to wishlists, and to enlist the help of sales associates in gathering those wishlist items.

As in-store experiences become increasingly important to consumers, we can expect to see more retailers invest in similar initiatives.

Retailers across the board will adopt mobile payment solutions.

Mobile payments are the way of the (immediate) future. In 2017, we'll see retailers who haven't already adopted them make efforts to do so.

At the end of 2016, projections say there will be 447.9 million mobile payment users worldwide. TechCrunch estimates that 70 percent of all mobile users in the United States will make a mobile payment in 2017, mobile payments in general next year are expected to total $60 billion, and if you take Business Insider 's word for it, by 2020 mobile payments will account for $503 billion in sales.

It's pretty clear where the retail industry is headed in terms of payments - at least for now.

Retailers who don't soon implement mobile payment solutions will fall behind and risk losing out on sales. And if the predictions are any indication, missing out on those sales could mean missing out on a lot of money.

We're betting that retailers across the board will get on the mobile payments train by adopting whichever type works best for them, such as mobile POS systems, custom mobile payment apps (like Kohl's Pay), and third-party options like Apple Pay.

Smaller stores are in; larger stores are out.

Evolving consumer preferences will push even more "big box" retailers to focus their attentions on smaller-format stores.

When it comes to store size, less will be more in 2017. We've already seen a shift here, with retail giants such as Target, Best Buy, and Ikea investing in smaller-format stores to accommodate consumer desire for more curated selections.

To further understand why shoppers seem to be moving away from larger stores, we need to look at another big trend in the retail industry: the importance of convenience and accessibility. When people can shop online and have items delivered to their homes in a matter of hours, it takes the promise of a quick, easy experience to entice them to make the trip to an actual physical location.

Consumers don't want to waste precious time wandering around the endless aisles of enormous stores anymore. Instead, they want ease and efficiency in the form of smaller stores with specialized selections.

There are other benefits to smaller stores as well. They cost less money to open and operate, and they take up less space in urban environments, allowing retailers to capitalize on the potential of large population centers.

Personalization will become increasingly important to consumers.

According to an Accenture Interactive study, "56% of consumers are more likely to shop at a retailer in store or online that recognizes them by name."

Personalization in retail has been around for years now. Unfortunately, the tactics retailers once used to speak directly to customers (such as using first names in an email) have become outdated and transparent in the eyes of those very customers.

At the same time, though, consumers are searching more and more for personalized shopping experiences they can really connect with, so 2017 should see retailers testing new ways to appeal to this desire.

One retailer at the forefront of this trend? Nike. The athleticwear brand has always been innovative when it comes to personalization (allowing shoppers to customize their sneakers, etc.), but they've stepped up their game even further with the (mostly free) fitness videos on their Nike+ app and boundary-pushing products such as the custom-lacing HyperAdapt sneakers.

Of course, Nike is massive and financially successful, so they have the resources to push personalization to its limits. But smaller retailers can take advantage of this trend, too. Some ideas? Targeting users (through things like purchase histories) with content tailored to their preferences, and using location-based technology such as beacons to push personalized offers to customers' mobile devices.There are other benefits to smaller stores as well. They cost less money to open and operate, and they take up less space in urban environments, allowing retailers to capitalize on the potential of large population centers.

Same-day shipping will become more prominent.

Free shipping is no longer an option; it's a requirement in today's world. The name of the new game? Speed.

Consumers might not want to actually make the trip to physical locations, but they still want the instant gratification of taking their purchases home immediately.

The best way to accommodate this? Same-day shipping.

A recent study by Temando found that "80% of shoppers surveyed want same-day shipping, while 61% want their packages even faster - within 1-3 hours of placing an order."

Implementing sameay shipping isn't always the most practical option for retailers, as there a number of factors to consider (Does demand merit the logistical effort? Is fulfillment feasible based on the location(s) of the retailer?), but it's obvious that shoppers' demand for lightning-fast delivery is here to stay.

And as a result, retailers will have to find ways to meet that demand.

Retailers will continue to invest in omnichannel.

Omnichannel is now the standard. Retailers who continue to invest in their omnichannel strategies will succeed; those that don't will fail.

In 2017, we can expect retailers worldwide to push their omnichannel strategies further than ever before in the pursuit of truly seamless shopping experiences.

The retail world is rife with examples of this. Two big ones? Domino's has recently introduced ordering via Facebook Messenger, and Starbucks' mobile app allows customers to order and pay before picking up in-store.

Retailers use Instagram to sell goods, and they're increasingly taking advantage of apps like Snapchat to give customers behind-the-scenes looks at their operations and to build loyal followings.

Moving forward, these omnichannel efforts will be the difference between the retailers who succeed and the ones who fail.

Retailtainment will pervade the industry.

The other aspect of that "in-store experience" trend? Retailtainment.

Retailtainment, as the name suggests, is the fusion of retail and entertainment - an effort on the part of retailers to provide customers with fun, unique experiences that elevate shopping above anything it's previously been.

Retailtainment assumes that people are more likely to engage with retailers who incorporate lifestyle elements into their stores, such as boutique coffee shops or virtual reality experiences.

Take iPic Theaters, for example. The company's website greets browsers with the headline "Your Ultimate Night Out" - and they mean it. iPic combines the classic experience of moviegoing with luxurious seating, a "farm-to-glass" cocktail program, and state-of-the-art restaurants serving gourmet cuisine. Customers can even order food and drinks from their seats while they're watching a movie.

These innovative concepts provide enough incentives for people to make the trip to a physical location, and that's why we'll see more of them in the coming year.

Data will continue to be a significant component of retail success.

More retailers will apply data to every part of the retail process, from the supply chain all the way to the post-purchase stage of the buyer's journey.

Retailers who make data-backed decisions will outperform those who don't. More and more merchants will recognize this - which is why we think companies will double-down on data collection and analysis.

JustFab is one example of a company that puts its customer data to good use. The fashion retailer uses style quizzes to learn more about its members and then makes recommendations based on each member's preferences. JustFab also closely tracks the products each member browses, rejects, and buys - and then uses data to curate selections for each member.

Using data to personalize customer experiences is just the beginning. Data analysis also plays a major role behind the scenes, especially when it comes to inventory management and merchandising. Retailers rely on data to forecast demand and to make important stock-control decisions.

Have a look at what clothing company Patagonia is doing. Patagonia factors in current trends and historical data (among other things) to figure out which products to purchase and distribute in its stores. In doing so, the retailer's able to accurately predict demand, keep stores stocked with the right merchandise, and minimize waste throughout the supply chain.

Specialty stores will be more productive than department stores.

Specialty stores - those that focus on particular categories such as beauty products - will have a leg up in 2017 as consumer interests focus in on curated selections and localized wares.

Look for specialty stores to win in the coming year. We have many reasons to believe this'll be the case.

Specialty stores tend to stock carefully curated selections (often of local wares and artisanal products), and they're generally considered trendier than old-school department stores. These details cater to millennials - who are, of course, today's most sought-after shoppers.

Specialty stores also tend to provide better in-store experiences for their customers, with more knowledgeable staff, better prices, and more personalized service. By offering all this, specialty stores prove their advantages over department stores and develop direct relationships with their customers.

Now, all this isn't to say that department stores will die. Most of the big names (Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Macy's) have recently implemented big changes to their businesses, all designed to revamp the fusty image associated with department stores. We can expect more of these changes - but in 2017, specialty stores will reign.

Retailers will turn to apps, services, and third parties to fulfill the needs of modern shoppers.

The number of retail-centric apps will increase, and we can expect merchants to leverage them to stay competitive.

It's no secret that consumers these days are demanding more from retailers. Aside from shopping across multiple channels (i.e. brick-and-mortar, ecommerce, mobile, social), shoppers also want to get their hands on their purchases in the fastest, most convenient way possible (enter in-store pickup and same-day delivery).

That's a tall order, and no merchant can do it alone. That's why we expect more retailers to rely on apps and third-party solutions to fulfill the demands of modern shoppers.

Let's look at social shopping, for instance. Retailers looking to sell their products on Instagram are using solutions such as Like2Buy, Tapshop, and Soldsie to make their photos "shoppable."

Check out what Aeropostale is doing. The company uses Like2Buy to make it easier for its Instagram followers to shop its feed. If you see a product you like, all you need to do is head to Aeropostale's Like2Buy page and proceed to checkout with just a few taps.

Retail-centric apps and services are also common in the fulfillment space. We're increasingly seeing retailers seek help from third parties to get their products into consumers' hands quickly and easily.

Take Apple, for example. The company has teamed up with logistics company Postmates to offer same-day delivery to its customers.

Meanwhile, AT&T has partnered with personal commerce platform Enjoy to provide hand-delivery services to shoppers. With this new partnership, AT&T customers who purchase phones won't have to swing by a store to pick up and activate their devices. Instead, they can just wait for an expert from Enjoy to hand-deliver their new phones and get them set up. Moving forward, these omnichannel efforts will be the difference between the retailers who succeed and the ones who fail.

Retail and technology will become even more inseparable.

As part of the effort to provide consumers with better experiences, retailers will incorporate technology even further into their businesses.

In 2017, evolving technology in the retail industry will be instrumental in enticing customers into physical stores and in creating seamless omnichannel shopping experiences.

Artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and the Internet of Things will stake firm claims in retail as tools that brick and mortar and online retailers alike can use to further elevate and personalize each step of the process.

Some examples of what we can expect?

Augmented reality that allows consumers to virtually experience products as they might use them in their own lives, smart dressing rooms in fashion stores, and glass touchscreens as interactive components of storefronts.

Many small and medium businesses will adopt retail technologies as well. Expect to see SMBs roll out loyalty apps, customer displays, and other solutions that take the shopping experience to a new level.

2017 will favor retailers who come up with smart, bold ways to personalize & elevate every aspect of the shopping experience.

Seamless omnichannel strategies will once and for all become absolutely essential, and retail will propel itself into the future through implementation of experience-enhancing technology such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

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Retail Trends and Predictions 2017 | 12 Retail trends and predictions to watch for

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Retailers who promote product quality, transparency, & sustainability will flourish. These days, you can find pretty much any information you want online - and because that's the case, shoppers are no longer content not knowing everything about the products they're purchasing.

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Reasons why online marketing increased John Lewis sales

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Reasons why online marketing increased John Lewis sales

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It proved to be a fruitful Christmas for John Lewis, with like-for-like sales up 13% in the five weeks to December 29 compared to the same period in 2011.
And the news from its ecommerce store was even more impressive. Online sales grew almost three-times faster at 44.3% and now account for a quarter of all group sales.

In fact it reached more than £800m in annual sales through Johnlewis.com in December.

So how has John Lewis managed to pull off such a massive increase in online sales? Here's a run down of some of the reasons behind its continued success...

1. PPC

Among the top selling gifts at Christmas were new gadgets such as e-readers and iPads.

A quick Google search shows that John Lewis has clearly spent a lot of money on PPC to ensure it secures traffic for 'iPad' and 'e-reader' search terms, and also for 'iPod' and 'Smart TV'.

2. Well designed product pages

John Lewis' product pages are by no means perfect, but they do tick several of the boxes for best practice.

For example, it has excellent product descriptions (details of the 64GB iPod Touch runs to 443 words), recommendations based on what other customers viewed, delivery costs, stock information and cross-selling of related items.

All these are excellent features that help customers to make an informed purchase decision.

On the down side though, the calls-to-action are quite small and the products I looked at only had one image, although there was a zoom function.

Furthermore, though there is the option to leave a product review very few customers have actually bothered, so John Lewis could do more to encourage people to leave reviews either by post-sales emails or by making it more prominent on the page.

3. Consistent site navigation

Not all traffic to ecommerce sites comes in through the homepage, much will arrive directly at product or category pages, so navigation should be consistent so that people can find their way around the site from wherever they happen to be.

For most sites, this means a constant top navigation and search bar, as on John Lewis.

4. Enclosed Checkout

By enclosing its checkout John Lewis has removed features such as navigation bars and search boxes that may distract the user from making a purchase.

The checkout screen is plain and simple, allowing the shopper to focus on the task in-hand.

5. Simple checkout process

There are six steps John Lewis' checkout process, which could be trimmed down slightly, but even so there is very little form filling involved for either repeat or new customers, and it offers shortcuts such as a postcode lookup tool.

If you choose to create an account, the site saves your delivery and billing addresses so you need only enter your card details, meaning the checkout is completed in a couple of minutes.

That said, John Lewis should consider giving customers the option to store their card details so purchases could be made simply by using a password, similar to Amazon's one-click payment method.

6. Free delivery on orders over £50

Expensive or hidden delivery costs are a common cause of basket abandonment, so it's important for retailers to be upfront with their charges.

John Lewis details its various costs on every product page and offers free standard delivery within five working days if the items are worth more than £50, otherwise there is a £3 charge.

For next day or Saturday delivery the costs are quite steep at £6.95, but by offering a free option for more expensive orders and a free 'click and collect' service John Lewis is able to cater for most customer's needs without charging them for delivery.

7. Guest registration

Forcing customers to create an account before checking out is another common cause of basket abandonment, but John Lewis successfully avoids any mention of registration until the very end of the checkout process.

8. Alternative payments

Not all consumers are happy to enter their credit card details online, so offering alternative payments methods can be a great way to capture additional sales.

John Lewis allows shoppers to pay using nine different methods, including all major credit cards, a John Lewis or Waitrose Account Card, or PayPal.

9. Click and collect

'Click and collect' services that allow shoppers to buy online but pick up the product in-store have proven to be a huge success for a number of retailers.

As highlighted in our report ' How The Internet Can Save The High Street ', 80% of UK consumers have reserved a product online for in-store collection, while 20% do this at least once a month.

Argos' 'Check and Reserve' service accounted for 29% of its £819m sales in Q1 2012, while Halfords introduced a 'Click and Collect' service three years ago and now 86% of all its online sales are for in-store collection.

John Lewis not only offers click and collect, but also allows customers to pick up their items from around 100 Waitrose stores - a service it promoted through a virtual QR code store in Brighton in November 2011.

After ordering online, customers can pick the item up after 2pm the following day from any John Lewis or participating Waitrose store, if the order is place before 7pm the previous day.

10. It was quick to embrace mobile commerce

John Lewis launched its first mobile site back in October 2010, gaining a big headstart on a number of its competitors.

While mobile sales are likely to be a small proportion of its overall online sales, it means that shoppers can easily research product information on-the-go, which helps to increase brand awareness and also encourages people to later make a purchase on the desktop site.

The mobile site also works hand-in-hand with the click and collect service, as it means customers can make impulse purchases and pick up the item at their convenience.

11. Free Wi-Fi in-store

We've investigated in some detail whether retailers should offer customers free Wi-Fi in-store, and overall the benefits for the customer experience outweigh any potential negatives.

John Lewis has offered customers mobile web access since the end of 2011, and last February head of online delivery and customer experience Sean O'Connor told us that it had been a big step forward in helping customers make an informed purchase decision.

They can quickly and easily access our mobile optimised website, or use our iPhone app. Customers are free to access the whole of the web, including competitor sites to test our price commitment, however it primarily enables us to extend our John Lewis online content and services into our physical shops in a way that is convenient for them.

12. Multichannel strategy

Many businesses are still struggling to implement an effective multichannel strategy, but as long ago as September 2010 we interviewed John Lewis' head of online Jonathon Brown about the company's multichannel approach to retail.

He revealed that when the business opened a new brick-and-mortar store it led to an increase in online sales from that area, and that the company was targeting click and collect customers with vouchers and offers to help drive incremental sales in-store.

John Lewis' multichannel strategy has now evolved to include mobile apps that have in-built barcode scanners and store locators, as well as free in-store Wi-Fi, which all helps to boost brand awareness and drive sales across all customer touchpoints.

13. It started its Christmas sale early

Data from Experian shows that shoppers began searching for sales early this year, so it was important that retailers matched this need by launching their sales before Boxing Day.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day one in every 125 searches conducted in the UK including the word 'sale' or 'sales'. The top sales search term was 'Next sale', followed by 'Debenhams sale', 'Marks and Spencer sale' and 'John Lewis sale'.

It could be that consumers were looking to buy items or just researching with an eye on heading to the shops on Boxing Day, but by having its sale live at 5pm on Christmas Eve John Lewis managed to grab a valuable headstart.

In fact, managing director Andy Street revealed that Christmas Eve was the retailer's single busiest online shopping day ever.

14. Competitors falling by the wayside

John Lewis has benefitted this year from the problems suffered by other retailers, most notably Comet's bankruptcy.

Technology sales at the retailer increased by just over 30% and, as we've seen, it has a PPC campaign that targets must-have gadgets, so some of the company's success has probably come from increasing its market share versus its rivals.

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14 reasons behind John Lewis' 44% increase in online sales

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It proved to be a fruitful Christmas for John Lewis, with like-for-like sales up 13% in the five weeks to December 29 compared to the same period in 2011. And the news from its ecommerce store was even more impressive. Online sales grew almost three-times faster at 44.3% and now account for a quarter of all group sales.

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How internet marketing has helped John Lewis

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How internet marketing has helped John Lewis

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All the marketing news, analysis, opinions and ad campaigns from John Lewis.

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All the marketing news, analysis, opinions and ad campaigns from Morrisons.

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Many marketers still haven't discovered the value of affiliate marketing - which means those who have may try to keep this profit