Money can't buy you love, but these days your love may just buy you a burger at McDonald's. On Feb. 2nd, the fast food chain launched the Super Bowl XLIX Pay with Lovin' campaign in the US, which will run until Valentine’s Day and be accompanied by advertising during the Super Bowl

As part of the campaign, random customers in random restaurants of McDonald’s across the US will get opportunity to pay for their meal in a random acts of lovin': a family hug, a phone call to a loved one, a kiss blown in the air, and so on

The happy candidates to win are randomly chosen by the restaurant's Lovin' Lead manager, and it is he or she who will set the “price” they'll be asked to pay. McDonald's Corporation announced that even people entering a restaurant not to buy but simply to go to the bathroom, could be lucky winners. Love, as is known, warmly welcomes everyone

Consumers are looking for brands with social agenda

The campaign is part of a new marketing strategy at McDonald's to bring love to the world. They're not the first brand to do so. At Super Bowl 2014, Unilever's Axe brand took the step of launching its ‘Make Love Not War’ campaign through social involvement in the community

A recently published Nielsen report shows consistent increase in worldwide consumer preference for brands identified with social responsibility. Consumers are looking for authenticity, caring, and the human values behind the scenes of the brand and the corporation

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that more and more leading brands are moving to a social agenda: some choose to empower women or girls, others enable consumers to help the needy, and there are those that carry out “random acts of kindness”. Such campaigns succeed in boosting brand popularity and create positive conversation on social media

Everything is permitted in love and war; not so in marketing

Although I am an avid supporter of brand campaigns that attempt to create a positive social impact, the present campaign of McDonald’s leaves me with a sense of discomfort. It crosses a red line. This line may be a little difficult to see, but it's nevertheless dangerous to cross

There is a difference between encouraging people to empathize with others, and converting their expressions of love into currency, into a commodity. Once love is expressed simply to receive a gift, it is not love – it is utilitarianism, making it the very opposite of love. Meaningful emotion is stripped of its content, and becomes the product itself. This is the difference between genuinely caring and brazen manipulation

Brands may arouse our emotions, but at the end of the day we have to remember that they are just a brand – a product or a service in image packaging. Packaging should not try to be the essence, a substitute for a relationship. A shift manager is not meant to suggest that a customer tell her son what she loves in him. Chips in exchange for expressions of love – cheapens love and cheapens relationships

To best understand the difference between real love and a sales promotion campaign, it’s enough to visit the website that specifies the conditions for receiving a meal for love. There are lots of clauses and plenty of small print – just the opposite of love

הפוסט McDonald’s “Pay with Lovin'” campaign crosses a red line הופיע ראשון בשירלי קנטור

 Personalization in the age of globalization

Coca Cola launched a new campaign at the beginning of May 2013, in which the most common personal names in Israel have been printed on Coca Cola bottles. A similar campaign was launched in Europe and Australia. The campaign was intended to renew the company’s affinity to young consumers.

“Personalization” is the name of the new game in marketing, and this game has rules of its own. Researches show that teenagers and Generation Y (born in the ‘80s and ‘90s) like to see themselves as individuals with unique identities, but it is also important to them to feel part of the trend and of the mainstream. The Coca Cola brand represents the desired mainstream.

First names — a social predicament

On the one hand — a first name is a clear component of an individual’s personal identity. On the other hand — a first name also has cultural significance: it is created and given within a religious or national context, as part of a trend or period, or of a social group.

When a powerful brand such as Coca Cola chooses to create a campaign based on first names, it is already challenging dealing with cultural-social dilemmas.

According to the view of corporate responsibility, it is good to have clear principles guiding how these dilemmas should be dealt with, and for these principles to be clear to the public and to even be determined through dialog with representatives of the public in question.

In Sweden, for instance, a decision was made not to print the name Muhammad on bottles, despite it being a very popular name in that country. The marketing manager of Coca Cola Sweden explained that because the brand is symbolically associated with the U.S., there was a fear that printing the name Muhammad on the bottles would provoke Muslims in Sweden. After consulting with the Muslim Association of Sweden, a decision was made not to print the name.

The Arab segment wants to be like everybody else

In Israel too, it was decided not to print the name Muhammad or other Arab names on bottles and cans, despite the brand’s high popularity among Israeli Arab consumers, despite the fact that it does not suffer from the problem that Sweden has (Coca Cola advertises extensively to the Arab segment in Israel), and despite the assumption that there are probably one or two Arab names among the most popular names in Israel (Arabs constitute 20 percent of the Israeli population).

A new social initiative העתיד - المستقب Ha'atid (Lit. “The Future”), which was established by Afif Abu Much in order to promote the integration of Arabs in the circles of life in Israel, contacted Coca Cola’s consumer services via the brand’s Facebook page and asked why there are no Arab names on bottles in stores, alongside other names.

The answer he was given was that any name in Hebrew, English or Arabic could be printed on personalized labels in a number of points of sale. This could seemingly provide a solution for everybody. But from the Arab consumers’ standpoint, it misses the main point: to see Arab names printed in Hebrew letters, alongside other names on the shelves. Or in other words: to be part of society as a whole. To be included.

Diversity without inclusion does not allow for social change to occur

The terms diversity and inclusion refer to the degree of heterogeneity within a given social framework. The term diversity reflects the variety of different groups represented within a framework. Inclusion expresses the degree of the framework’s openness to include within it different groups, and to enable them to be partners in determining the nature of the framework and its agenda.

Diversity without inclusion — this will not create continuous and sustainable social change; rather it will preserve the basic exclusion of certain groups from centers of influence.

Listen to the consumer with a social ear — and recognize a marketing opportunity and competitive advantage

Every company in Israel that publicly supports the social principles of diversity & inclusion needs to respond to the voice of the new Arab consumer; to listen carefully with a socially sensitive ear.

This is a consumer who does not want to be defined as a segment and to receive offers exclusively in Arabic, on Muslim holidays and in Arab shopping centers. This is a consumer who works, buys and spends time in general commercial centers. He wants to see change in marketing norms, which are influenced by social norms, but can also influence them in return.

There might be a dilemma in dealing with those Jewish consumers who do not feel comfortable seeing Arab names on a Coke bottle in a Tel-Aviv supermarket. This is where the people behind the brand need to hold an internal debate on the set of social values that guide the brand’s activities, values that they committed themselves publicly to.

A powerful brand can lead to change in the social views of consumers. A brand that does not want to take risks regarding social issues, should carefully weigh which social values it will take a stand on.

Brands that have suited themselves quickly to the coming winds of change will be able to catch those winds and create a competitive advantage for the brand, while they are promoting social goals. Others are expected to deal with ravaging storms.

To read this post in Hebrew - click here  לקריאת הגירסא העברית של הפוסט - הקליקו כאן

הפוסט Diversity & Exclusion: Coca Cola leaves the Israeli Arab segment off the communal shelf הופיע ראשון בשירלי קנטור