A Customer Found a Short Note With Their McDonald's Delivery. It's a Master Class in Marketing

You may have seen the story of a customer who received a surprise note with their Mcdonald's delivery on a professional networking website. There is a picture of a brown paper bag and a note. It's not what one would expect, but neither is what the note said.

Hello! 

We've seen that you've placed your order from the hospital. Hope you're keeping well! 

Your order is on us. 

The McDonald's UAE Team

According to the Harvard Business Review, McDonald's led with transparency when it came to its use of data. The negative connotations that come from data-driven marketing are washed away thanks to this.

McDonald's was able to connect with the customer by using the data. According to Psychology Today, making them feel seen makes them feel heard and understood. The fast-food chain's approach to data-driven marketing was so genius.

Customer data can be used for improved ad targeting that leads to increased sales or dynamic pricing that leads to increased profits for businesses. As companies look for ways to use data to benefit them, there's a tendency to overlook how it can benefit their customers, which creates a win-WIN situation.

McDonald's move was genius because it used data right away. It didn't take a long time to draw insights and make conclusions. Fresh data is the best data when it comes to guiding large decisions and strategies. It's fresh and you can use it to reach your customers when it's most important.

Highly calculated, if not robotic results, are synonymous with data. Data needs to have a human touch in order to be used to improve a business. Make space for last-minute opportunities and leave some strategies to the humans, who will recognize the emotional weight a customer ordering delivery to Mcdonald's might be experiencing, and find very simple, yet human ways to connect with them.

Businesses are trying to do more in less time by segmenting people by interests and buying habits. This is a good thing for general marketing but not true personalization. The power of data is to allow us to understand our customers as individuals.

To know your audience, you need to know who they are and how you can reach them. In the case of Mcdonald's millions of customers, data opens the door to individual insights and customer experiences that are truly personalization.

The power of data is immense. The world's most valuable resource, data, gets a bad reputation, but when businesses use it to their advantage, customers will be happy. The world's most valuable brands are those that use it this way.