Don't get Robbed by the McJob McDonald's Bites Off More Than They Can Chew

Don't get Robbed by the McJob
McDonald's Bites Off More Than They Can Chew

A campaign to promote awareness of the mistreatment of McDonald's employees

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

Statement of Problems and Opportunities 2

Goals and Objectives 3

Research 4

Stakeholders Profiles 6

Media Characteristics 8

Themes, Message Points, Strategies and Tactics 9

Timeline 10

Summary Narrative Budget 11

Evaluation 12

Statement of Benefits 13

Executive Summary

The purpose of this campaign is to make the public aware of the mistreatment of McDonald's employees and implement a positive change in their current operation in order to benefit past and present McDonald's employees.

The problems and opportunities that our clients will face are as follows:

Problems:

- The picketers will lose income while they are protesting and not working.

- The negative image that the picketers receive from the publicity will make it difficult for them to find future employment.

Opportunities:

- The picketers will be able to use their media coverage to call attention to how they were mistreated.

- The picketers will be able to use the attention to change current operations regarding the treatment of employees.

Our clients will benefit from these challenges by getting their message into the public eye through media coverage, demonstrating that they will fight for what they believe in and by setting an example for all other mistreated McDonald's employees to not accept the status quo and fight for the excellent treatment that they deserve.

Our campaign will run for approximately three months and will cost a total of $43,500. This price includes our team's fees as well as materials.

The key decision of the campaign is to make sure the public is aware of how the ex-employees of McDonald's have been treated and make sure that policies are changed so that the mistreatment will not continue.

Statements of Problems and Opportunities

This campaign is designed to make the public aware of the severe mistreatment of McDonald's employees. Our goal is to use the media to educate the public about the negative ways in which McDonald's employees are treated and ultimately change the policies that are currently in effect. We have listed below the problems, both short and long term, and the opportunities that our clients will face.

Short-term Problem:

- The picketers will lose income while they are protesting and not working.

Long-term Problem:

- The negative image that the picketers receive from the publicity will make it difficult for them to find future employment.

Opportunities:

- The picketers will be able to use their media coverage to call attention to how they were mistreated.

- The picketers will be able to use the attention to change current operations regarding the treatment of employees.

Goals and Objectives

1.) Goal: To compensate the picketers for the income they are losing while picketing.

Objectives:
- To generate income for the ex-employees the money that they may be owed from past work.
- To work together with picketer's lawyers to obtain a severance package from McDonald's for the employees.
- To contact various "Pro-Employee" organizations to highlight the case of the picketers.

2.) Goal: To make it easier for picketers to find future employment.

Objectives:
- To assist ex-employees with making their resumes.
- To make the ex-employees aware of any job fairs in the area.
- To promote the picketers as being the "good guys" in the case through publicity in local newspapers.

3.) Goal: To call attention and make people aware of how the employees in that McDonald's franchise were treated.

Objectives:
- To hold press conferences explaining the situation to the public and to encourage media coverage.
- To alert television and radio stations about the protest.
- To have the newspaper run a feature article on the protest to encourage media coverage.
- To contact former McDonald's employees at that branch to have them give accounts of their McDonald's work experience and highlight them through media coverage.

4.) Goal: To make the public aware of McDonald's employment policy in order to encourage changes in the policy.

Objectives:
- To conduct research on McDonald's in various parts of the world to find out how their employees and if their employees are more satisfied, adapt their policies.
- To encourage current and past employees to come forward and express their dissatisfactions about the company and give their input as to how the operation can be improved.
- To proclaim publicly the picketer's argument and clarify the fact that we will not have media coverage stopped until there is a change.

Research

To research this case we searched various McDonald's web sites. These web sites ranged from the corporation's homepage all the way to www.mcdonaldssucks.com, made by disgruntled workers and unhappy customers. We researched recent media clippings from newspapers and magazines, such as Britain's The Guardian. We read "What's Wrong With McDonald's" leaflets and also scanned through a McDonald's hate club chat room discussions. Through these documents there were claims to unfair treatment of union workers. We found that 80% of McDonald's workers are part time with a 300% turnover rate and workers are not paid for overtime. (What's Wrong with McDonald's Fact Sheet)
We also went to visit the kiosks at our local McDonald's to obtain employment applications. On these applications, the company spells out the job tasks and what they are looking for in new employment. At the employee station we found the following tasks for manager and crew employees:

Crew
Tasks:
- Strive to satisfy
- Perform duties and responsibilities in efficient manner
- Consistently follow procedures and adhere to standards
- Exemplify dependability
What you learn:
- Display self-confidence
- Demonstrate and promote teamwork
- Effectively manage time and take initiative and ownership

Manager Tasks:
- Identify and hire top talent
- Develop employees to reach potential
- Accurately project and control profits-create respectful work place
What you learn:
- Operate and manage multi-million dollar restaurant
- Create and execute business plans and strategy
- Develop effective team building skills
- Build community presence

Based on with this secondary research, we would also interview the employees and managers involved and the community leaders to hear their position. We would also research books, magazines and the web to document every time McDonald's labor practices have been questioned. This will give us information to put together against McDonald's so that if our case would go to court we would have this as supporting evidence.

After the campaign has been implemented we would research to evaluate the effectiveness of it. We would interview the ex-employees we worked with to see if they are happy with the results. We would also ask for the community's opinions.

Stakeholders

Franchise Manager: The franchise manager is the most important stakeholder because he is directly involved in the situation. It is because of his actions that there are workers picketing and the media reflecting bad publicity on McDonald's. He will be receiving negative comments directly from the picketers the customers and the community. He will be a part of press conferences and then will receive information from the top management of the company. He will be receiving feedback from the employees through the local News stations radio/TV and in the newspapers.

Top Management: The top management is important because they are in control of setting up the various franchises around the world. They are interested in building a McDonald's where the community will embrace the fast food chain. They would not be happy to hear about a franchise that is having negative publicity in the media because it would reflect badly on the whole company. They would be receiving information from the general media --newspapers and television and also directly from the franchise manager and other CEOs of the company.

Shareholders: Shareholders invest their money because they believe in the longevity of a company. They are loyal to McDonald's and see the company making them money. Any negative publicity reflects on their stocks. If a community blacklists a chain, pickets and refuses to do business they are losing money. In result of that they will sell their stocks and financially McDonald's will suffer. They will receive their information from shareholder meetings and emails from their accountant. The will see the Dow Jones dropping on the NASDAQ and know that their stocks are in danger. They can also get their media information from just watching the news and looking on the web to find Internet clippings

Employees: The employees are also very important stakeholders because they have power in the media. The unhappy employees have the power to hurt that particular franchise of McDonald's and the reputation of the company. The happy employees can reflect positive feedback into the media to help the company. They will get their information directly from the franchise manager, community, and local television, radio and newspapers. Also there could be an employee newsletter that can reflect changes in the work environment.

Customers/Community: The customers are also very important stakeholders. They are receiving their information from the local media. Also, they are driving by the McDonald's on a daily basis, reading the picket signs, and seeing the media frenzy. Word of mouth could spread the news in a community and the customers could then boycott the McDonald's if they are not satisfied with the situation at the restaurant. Because of the media presence the customers might choose to attend another restaurant.

Media-Radio stations, Televisions and newspapers are stakeholders because they are documenting the events and displaying them for the world to see or hear. Based on how accurate their facts are and how biased or unbiased their opinions are reflects on how the community will view the restaurant. They are getting their information from interviewing the employees, corporation, managers and community. They can also do in-depth research in to the background of the corporation and its employees.

Media Characteristics

The three main media to be used in this campaign are the print media, specifically local newspapers and electronic media, television and radio.

Local Newspapers
These will be used widely throughout the time period of the campaign. We intend to get the plight of the fired employees highlighted in feature articles in local newspapers. Assuming many people will read these articles, the public will develop empathy for the mistreated employees and this will urge McDonald's to change their unjust policies.

Television
We will try and get some of the fired employees to appear on various talk shows and on the daily news. We will also lobby for a documentary to be conducted on the employee policies of McDonald's. We will also have the press conference televised.

Radio
We will have the ex-employees on the radio doing interviews with local radio hosts to ensure that the public is aware of the situation.

The publicity in the local newspapers, television and radio will be effective in gaining public empathy and interest in this issue and hopefully inspire a change in McDonald's policies.

Themes, Message Points, Strategies and Tactics.

We are going to portray an anti-McDonald's theme where we establish in the public an image of McDonald's being unfair to its employees by giving them facts on McDonald's employment policy and highlighting past mistreatment of employees. The theme of the entire campaign will be to highlight the employees as being the "good guys" and McDonald's otherwise. The slogan we have chosen for this campaign is "Don't Get Robbed by the McJob" Also, as a sub-slogan we will use the line "McDonald's Bites Off More Than They Can Chew."

The main message points in the campaign will be parallel with the goals and objectives of the campaign. Our goals can be divided into three categories - to work together to benefit the employees and to garner public empathy for the employees so they may find new employment, to make known publicly the ill-treatment of employees by the McDonald's management and to push for a change in McDonald's employee policies.

Our campaign will be divided into two parts and is expected to run for approximately three months. Our primary focus in the campaign will be the employees themselves. Press releases will be issued highlighting the situation and the plight of the employees. In this first stage, we will also conduct press conferences and have the fired employees present with their lawyers. Interviews will be conducted with the employees and highlighted in the media. This will be to gain empathy from the public for the employees. We will also hope to arrange for employees to be interviewed on talk shows. These primary actions will pave the way for the next part of the campaign. Approximately halfway through this phase, we will shift gears slightly and highlight McDonald's itself and its poor employment policies. Before we reach this stage, however, research will have to be done on McDonald's regarding the way they treat their employees both currently and in the past. Current and former employees will be called in to assist in this stage. With this stage we hope to create wide public awareness of McDonald's and its ill-treatment of employees.

We expect a few factors to be working for us throughout this campaign. This is not the first anti-McDonald's campaign to be conducted. McDonald's has experienced dissatisfaction by employees in the past. Various lawsuits have been filed against them. After highlighting the plight of the fired employees and with the publicity in the media, we expect to create a wide and deep public awareness about the poor employee policies that McDonald's practices and this would encourage a change in the policies.

Budget

Our budget is comprised mostly of administrative costs, due to the fact that we are planning on using many editorial style outlets. (i.e. talk shows, radio programs and newspaper articles) Though we will be preparing press kits and holding a press conference, most of the following costs are covering our employees and their work hours.

Line item: Costs:
1.) Press Release (1000) 1000 x $.10 =$100
2.) Administrative Cost for making Press Release (8 hours) 8 hours x $20 =$160
3.) Costs for sending Press Release 1000 x $.27 = $270
4.) Phone Time with Editors and Producers 400 hours x $15 = $6000
5.) Brainstorming Sessions 400 hours x $20 = $8000
6.) Investigative Research 500 hours x $20 = $10000
7.) Costs for assembling media kits 40 hours x $15 = $600
8.) Meeting Hall Rental $5000/day x 2 days = $10000
9.) Audio Equipment Rental $1200/day x 2 days = $2400
10.) Food and Beverages for Press Conference $3000/day x 2 days = $6000

Totals:
As our campaign currently stands, the total cost for the entire process will be:
$43,530

Timeline

Evaluation:

Our plan for evaluating our campaign would be to first see if we satisfied our client. We would then interview the community and see if their opinions changed based on the evidence against the company. After that, through research, we would analyze the production and sales of that particular franchise of McDonald's to see if our case made and impact on their well being and that of the corporation. We would gain access to these documents by having our law team try to obtain them from the corporate manager McDonald's.

Statement of Benefits

The intention of our campaign is to expose the public to the past and present mistreatment of many McDonald's employees. Through the processes highlighted in the preceding pages we intend on obtaining our goal. Our goal aims toward the education of the public, with the hope of some sort of recourse against McDonald's, eventually leading to a higher standard of employee treatment. We have listed below a statement of benefits.

Problem:

- The negative image that the picketers receive from the publicity will make it difficult for them to find future employment.

Benefit: Though they may receive a negative image with McDonaldЎ¦s employers, other employers looking for strong-willed employees would love to have the ex-employees of McDonald's on their staff.

Opportunities:

- The picketers will be able to use their media coverage to call attention to how they were mistreated.

Benefit: By calling attention to their mistreatment, the corporate policies of McDonald's may be changed to benefit future McDonald's employees.

The picketers will be able to use the attention to change current operations regarding the treatment of employees.

Benefit: This will pave the way for future employees, by making it known to the employer that employees will not stand for being mistreated

Дата добавления: 2015-09-29