McDonald’s and Mommy Bloggers
To ensure that McDonald’s new healthy changes to fast food menu items don’t impact the huge success of the (in)famous Happy Meal, McDonald’s determined the target market for Happy Meal buyers: moms. And the influential people in that target market? The moms who dole out advice, the ones who say what your kids should and should not eat; the moms, in short, who are the influential leading ladies in parenting advice. Mothers are always looking out for “the best” for their children via other mothers. The social network of mothers is dense, but there are key players. McDonald’s has identified a demographic that represents these influential mothers: mommy bloggers. As NPR reports, McDonald’s invited mommy bloggers to its digital press conference because, as McDonald’s director of social media said, “they spread information very, very quickly”.
The ability to identify the influential players in the market is crucial so that network effects will allow McDonald’s to have continued financial success with one of its institutionalized products: the Happy Meal. The director of social media’s quote clearly shows how important the mommy blogger is to the social network of mothers. Such a tight-knit community looks towards advisors for support and mommy bloggers are exactly the kind of mentors the community utilizes. By influencing the influencers, McDonald’s sets its Happy Meal in a position where it appears that “the important people”, the mommy bloggers, are already buying the product. Thus, due to the strong social network of mothers, other mothers will assume the Happy Meal has gained popularity and begin buying the product as well.
While mommy bloggers may seem like an unexpected demographic for McDonald’s to approach, the executives at the large fast food chain clearly have their knowledge of network effects down. Mommy bloggers are an ingenious identification of the trendsetters for parents, and introducing the bloggers to the healthy Happy Meals first allows a popularity standard of the enhanced product to be set. By using this targeted marketing, McDonald’s ensures that its bottom line is not affected. By network effects, McDonald’s revenue from the new Happy Meals can only go up.
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