Working at a fast-food drive through location can be challenging at the best of times, it can be even more difficult when your best attempts at customer service end with you being the unwitting star of a viral social media video.
If you work for McDonalds, however, you can bank on your brand responding positively to the incident, turning into an obvious social media win and one that’s typical of an incredibly innovative customer support team.
To this end, McDonalds also unveiled its long-awaited loyalty program at the beginning of January. But what will the benefits of this be for the brand?
McDonalds Inadvertent Viral Meme
The original viral video started out innocently enough, with a car passenger shouting a drive through request through a microphone after the driver had refused to add it to the original order.
Despite stumbling, she asked the cashier for a blue raspberry slushie, only for the agent to respond by querying whether she wanted a sausage McMuffin. Cue plenty of laughter, while a large number of commenters also expressed sympathy for the employee who was trying to work with a headset.
Incredibly, this combination of laughter and empathy sent the video viral, with more than 13 million views garnered through TikTok alone.
Of course, McDonald’s proactive Twitter account was quick to pick up on the joke and leverage this to their advantage, resulting in even more (albeit coordinated) confusion and genuine hilarity.
More specifically, the brand posted a picture of the Sausage McMuffin with the caption “Try the new blue raspberry slushie”. Of course, those who hadn’t seen the video responded with confusion, causing the original video to gain even more traction and the McDonald’s brand to receive further exposure across its various social platforms.
Of course, this type of effortless brilliance and creativityis central to the brand’s marketing approach, which has seen McDonalds earn genuine praise within the advertising sector.
Introducing MyMcDonalds
More recently, the McDonald’s brand also took the plunge into the competitive world of rewards programs, launching its first ever loyalty scheme in the form of ‘MyMcDonalds’.
Released on January 10th, the scheme is being trialled in select stores nationwide, while it will enable customers to earn points on their spending and redeem these on popular items such as Big Macs and McNuggets.
While the brand is slightly late to the loyalty scheme party, it’s arguably the final piece in a brand marketing strategy that consistently drives recall, recognition and loyalty among its consumer base.
Not only this but entering into a loyalty program will also unlock additional benefits for McDonalds. Certainly, the brand will find it easier to stop competing solely on price with competitors, which is crucial in such a crowded and similar marketplace.
Similarly, McDonalds will increase the potential lifetime value of their customers, boosting turnover and profitability in the process!
