CorpComms Magazine

Investors may now be lovin' it after McDonald's was one of only two companies to outperform the US stockmarket last year, but when Nick Hindle joined the UK-based corporate affairs department of the world's biggest restaurant chain six years ago the story was rather different.

McDonald's was then the whipping boy for the global obesity problem following Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me in 2003. It was under attack from all corners, from the provenance of its food to its environmental record to its alleged exploitation of workers.

But the chain that every day serves nearly 58 million customers from Argentina to Zimbabwe fought back. McDonald's UK has even converted once die-hard antagonists to accept that it is not the personification of all things evil.

It has launched community programmes (McDonald's is one of the biggest sponsors of council provided litter bins), recycled used cooking oil into biodiesel to power its deliver fleet, revamped restaurants, introduced accredited qualifications and apprenticeships for its employees and campaigned to change the dictionary definition of McJob.

'There are four core areas that affect our reputation and brand, and if our brand is doing badly then our business performance drops off,' concedes Hindle, vice president of corporate affairs, and the recipient of CorpComms Professional of the Year 2008.

These relate to McDonald's credentials on food, employee reputation, environment and communities and, as Hindle puts it, are just the 'four areas that we have got good at over the past couple of years'.

In many respects, 'getting good at' really means getting good at interacting with stakeholders. When British farmers launched an attack on McDonald's UK for using French beef, the company corrected them. Granted, it had used French beef during the foot and mouth scare but all its beef was now sourced from the UK and Ireland. Similar misconceptions about McDonald's milk supplies were cleared.

'It is about building up an understanding to change opinion,' explains Hindle. 'That is the essence of what we do as a communications team, either on a one-to-one basis or to a mass audience. We now enter conversations and turn up for debates. In the past, our communication efforts have been dogged by low trust. If we are to move one metric, that's the one that we have to move to help the business.'

ENGAGING WITH THE DOUBTERS

Three weeks after Steve Easterbrook was appointed chief executive of McDonald's UK, Hindle signed him up for a live television debate with Eric Schlosser, author of bestselling Fast Food Nation, on Newsnight. A website, www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk, was also launched to answer questions from customers and critics. 

'The problem was that, because it had got so bad in the past, we stopped talking. It was tough to take all that negativity,' explains Hindle. 'We lost the appetite to engage and communicate. Journalists would go to other people for comments, who would fill the vacuum. We lost control of our debate.'

After the débacle over the McLibel case, when McDonald's pursued two Greenpeace campaigners through the courts in a lengthy battle that turned the spotlight onto its business practices, the chain was loathe to challenge inaccuracy. 'Journalists would write articles without checking facts,' concedes Hindle. 'McDonald's made good copy.'

Even politicians got in on the act, attacking McDonald's to raise their profile but without bothering about the veracity of their claims.

'We went through a rigorous process of rebuilding our relationships,' says Hindle. 'We would follow up whenever anybody wrote or talked about us. It was a highly intensive period. There were a lot of face-to-face meetings with people.'

At the same time as Hindle's team was rebuilding McDonald's reputation, the board was working to turn around its financial situation having reported the first quarterly loss in March 2002. 

Three years into the financial recovery, McDonald's UK's 1,200 branches underwent a face lift. Ronald McDonald was sidelined, and bright primary colours and uncomfortable seating were out. A modern look was introduced, with extended opening hours and free wi-fi. 'Other high street chains were charging between £5 and £10 for customers to get wi-fi,' says Hindle. 'The cost is borne by us and our franchisees. It has reshaped the market.' Other high street chains have been forced to follow.

New menus were introduced, including Rainforest Alliance coffee and tea, free range eggs and organic semi-skimmed milk. 'With food, we are always looking for the right opportunities. But we also firmly believe that we cannot put a premium price on these sorts of things,' adds Hindle. 

Staff uniforms were redesigned by Bruce Oldfield, who counts celebrities like Sienna Miller and Jemima Khan as clients. It was part of McDonald's attempts to change the public perception of its employees. 'We are the UK's largest employer of young people, and the problem is that 16, 17 and 18 year old people don't have a great deal of confidence but customers hold us, as their employer, responsible for that,' says Hindle. 'A customer who walks up to the counter and finds that the server is avoiding eye contact, because they lack confidence, may complain about their attitude.' Similarly, kitchens are noisy places and customers can mistake a McDonald's employee shouting to his colleague as rudeness rather than a way to make himself heard. 'It is not the case that every customer thinks this, but there was a perception that was created over time,' adds Hindle. 'Yet in Brazil, McDonald's is viewed as the top employer in the country while in Australia, having McDonald's on your CV is seen as a positive. You learn useful skills, such as customer service and working with a team.'

QUALIFIED COVERAGE

The introduction of accredited qualifications for employees in the UK is not just a way to improve their literacy and numeracy skills, but also an effort to boost their confidence levels. It also causes customers to reappraise the brand. 

Hindle rejects suggestions that McDonald's efforts on this front were attacked in the press. 'Yes, we suffered from headlines but they were convenient and lazy,' he says. 'But if you evaluate all the coverage, it was incredible. Our proposal stimulated an intellectual debate and made people look at the failings of the country's education system.

The campaign to change the dictionary definition of McJob, which highlighted that more than half the company's executive team started in its restaurants, 'was as much a piece of internal communications as it was external', says Hindle. 'It made people think about people differently. For a handful of seconds or a couple of minutes, customers were engaged.'

Obviously, it is not just about corporate benevolence. 'Young people in their formative years learn very quickly,' adds Hindle. 'If you see employees' confidence increase, productivity rises and profitability follows. It is a well-oiled machine.'

FAT IS A MCDONALD'S ISSUE

The one debate that McDonald's appears unable to win, however, is accusations that its products contribute to obesity. 'Our job is to make sense of the issue,' says Hindle. 'It is frustrating that burger and chips are associated with childhood obesity, but it is much more complex than that. Yet burgers, fries and ice cream - that is what we do, so we can't say it is not our issue. So we have got to work very hard to demonstrate what we do and to change behaviours.' 

Nutritional information on all products is now readily available. Super size meals have been withdrawn. Salt content has been reduced while low-fat options are available. 'The key thing is that we have to look at obesity. We have put a selection of products in place, and we provide the evidence - good and bad,' says Hindle. 'But at the end of the day, what we really need to do is to stay as close to our customers as we possibly can.'  

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit