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Anthony Hopkin’s portrayal of the notorious Hannibal Lecter created one of the most infamous and terrifying silver screen villains. The character wasn’t haunting because he was obviously violent, he carried no weapon and was usually calm, no, he was frightening because of his ability to know his audience. It was uncanny how he saw the person in front of him and manipulated individuals to his will.

Perhaps it isn’t fully fair to compare McDonald’s to a horror film antagonist, but the ability to know and influence an audience is something the two cultural figures share. Katrina Strapazzon’s explanation of McDonald’s marketing was illuminating and yet unsurprising. The fast food mammoth has the capacity to segment their target audience into various intersecting identities. Nationality, race, income status, gender, age- no matter your combination, the golden arches have a message tailored for you. Interestingly, this audience segmentation is not only for specific products, but for the messaging around general products. Want the Southwest Chicken Bowl? If you’re a woman, I’ll call it a nutritious, guilt free lunch. If you’re a man, its hearty and flavorful.

I think the video and it’s explanations describe the segmentation of people through geographic means. She describes the different menus that McDonald has in different countries and regions. She describes different menu items that only show up in middle-eastern countries, African, Asian, etc.

She also describes how Mcdonalds markets to different age/sex demographics. They have happy meals that come with toys, as well as a playground that children can play in. They market to young adults by having cheap menu items and also free Wi-Fi. In addition they’ve included lower calorie items (seemingly low calorie) into their menus. 

Based on Katrina Strapazzon’s explanation of McDonald’s target marketing, there are some definite overlaps with health communication segmentation practices. An example of this overlap would be McDonald’s use of geographic segmentation through distinct regional areas including the U.S., Europe, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, other countries (Canada and Latin America) and ethnicity (Hispanics, African Americans and Asians). Each geographic segment reflects taste preferences and is tailored appropriately - examples include the Crispy Chinese sandwich, the McCurry Pan, the McAlooTikki, and the McAfrika etc. While health communication might not necessarily segment by taste, making sure the health information reflects cultural norms and attitudes is important and could touch on a broader form of phychograpic segmentation (even though these might be organized through ethnicity you could also argue these food items transcend ethnicity and form a broader cultural norm found through formative research). They also similarly use demographic segmentation through advertisements and products targeting children (happy meals with toys and playgrounds), young adults/students (free wi-fi) and, as stated in the presentation, low calorie/”healthy food” items that target women (though I imagine this appeals to any McDonald’s customer counting their calories). They also segment on income with their dollar menu, extra value meals, and premium items. Health communication campaigns may also do this at times - in terms of resource access and resource subsidization in the case of lower income populations and picking messages and images that might resonate with the community you are advertising in (e.g. your health promotion ad might be different in Rancho Santa Fe vs Sherman Heights). The author also argues that McDonald’s occasionally segments by holiday. I can imagine health communication campaigns segmenting this way by say encouraging healthy behaviors during holidays that are typically associated with drinking (St. Paddy’s day in Boston...). 

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According to this video, McDonald’s does an extensive job of segmenting their markets. This strategy makes sense for them as their target audience is so broad. The first segmentation strategy they employ is by geographic location. They offer different menu items and advertising messages to reach audiences in different locations. This would be standard in health communication messaging as well. Tailoring health messages to address the specific health issues related to that city/state/region/etc is imperative for effective communication. 

The second segmentation strategy is by preferences or what we call “psychographics” - the specific beliefs, attitudes, and preferences of the target audience. McDonald’s has created different menu options for different cultures. In health messaging, knowing and appealing to the culture of the population we’re trying to reach can make or break the effectiveness of the ad. 

McDonald’s also segments by demographic breakdown, specifically catering to different age groups. Children are offered play houses, free wifi for young adults, and low calorie menu options for women. This type of segmentation is congruent with health messaging as well as different campaigns are targeted to different populations. This Free Life is intended for the LGBT community, the truth campaign is targeted to teens, and PBS began messaging to kids about safer car practices. They also included racial/ethnic segmentation which is critical in health communication. 

McDonald’s utilizes “occasion” segmentation to appeal to its audience members at different times of the year. Similarly in health communication, seasonal messages are promoted. For example, around flu season, messages promoting the flu shot, hand-washing, etc are more visible than at other times of the year. “Occasion” messaging in health promotion could also include “emergency” messaging such as information on the Zika virus. 

The market segment video about marketing segmentation performed by McDonald’s does share some overlap in health communication audience segmentation. The video makes it known that McDonalds  does very well in identifying that different populations have different dietary customs and constraints that are more palatable over others. The company breaks down the global market by geographic region, offering similar menu items that have been altered, by region, to be more culturally appropriate. Ensuring cultural appropriateness is also important in health communication segmentation. A program or campaign needs to research whether an intervention is culturally appropriate for the population of interest and whether or not it will be received positively. Additionally, McDonalds segments my demographics, accounting for age, race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status in its marketing strategy. Successful health communication campaigns should, and do, do the same. What is interesting to me is that McDonalds operates at a global level, trying to market its food products to groups of people that are so radically different from one another. Its segmentation of the global population, almost out of necessity, needs to be done into these large geographic groups. And yet the corporation still does exceptionally well in marketing its products in a way where millions upon millions of people purchase their goods. It is difficult to see a case in which a health communication campaign might do this and be successful. I would not go so far as to make the argument that selling someone a particular product is an easy feat to accomplish, or that selling the same product to different people all over the world is similarly easy. What I will say is that marketing a health campaign to adverse population in such a way is so much harder because of he way that people view their health, and how they make decisions about their health. Everyone needs to eat, and culture around eating, while variable by population, is similar to the degree of biological necessity. But how people  view things like smoking, drinking, sexual health, and exercise vary not just by cultures, but by individuals. For this reason, it would be unwise for a health campaign developer NOT to segment their priority population into the smallest groups possible.

One of the important ways McDonald’s segments their audience/customers is by their geographic location, which is definitely an important dimension of health communication. McDonald’s bases the type of foods they will place in certain geographic regions based on the preferred tastes of the culture residing in those regions (i.e. the McAloo Tikki in Pakistan and India). Obviously “taste” is not a part of health communication audience segmentation, but the idea of psychographics (the attitudes and beliefs about the population in that region) definitely do play into what McDonald’s does. McDonald’s also segments based on demographics by offering certain incentives based on the population (i.e. WiFi to a younger college town); this idea of segmenting based on demographics resonates perfectly with health communication’s methods. McDonald’s also segments their restaurants and food based on the income of certain populations which falls right into the same methods of segmentation as health communication. Something McDonald’s does differently is that they utilize occasions or holidays in a given area (Christmas time, St. Patricks Day, etc.) which does not seem to be very common with health communication as holidays and occasions are very short-term whereas health campaigns are more long-term.