Who even goes to McDonald’s? Everyone.

“Who even goes to Maccas?” a colleague asked me last week. The answer is as simple as it is complicated – everyone does.

I don’t mean 65 million Brits; I mean the demographics cover every persona you can think of.

Who goes there on a Monday lunchtime, for example?

• The local 20-somethings from the college, five minutes walk away

• Workers from the factory across the road

• Four suited-and-booted execs, meeting to discuss a new project

• A 90-year-old man and his carer, out for a bite to eat

• The group of builders working on a nearby site

• Three new mums who met at an NCT class, with their babies in tow

• A 55-year-old journalist plugging into her laptop and typing up notes

• Two estate agents chatting through a recent deal

• A teen couple arguing over something insignificant

• A starving night shift worker coming in for a much-needed late dinner

• Me. You. Us.

Businesses like McDonald’s and JD Wetherspoon – sometimes perceived as ‘cheap’ – need to cover a variety of audiences, but they have got it made.

Yes, the entry-level price points are low. But just ask yourself, when was the last time you went into Wetherspoons or Maccas and spent under a fiver?

You either drag in a group to make multiple purchases, staying for a while, or end up being upsold (those bloody hash browns…).

The beauty of their offer is that it is attractive to different people.

"Our top priority is to understand the audiences [you] want to engage with"

This is something to bear in mind if you have a wide number of potential audience personas.

At CPL, whenever we take on a new project for a client, our top priority is to understand the audiences that client wants to engage with.  

We know no-one understands your business or offer better than you. However, working with us to take a fresh look at your key audiences can help identify and clarify who you’re trying to talk to and, therefore, how to communicate effectively with them.

We recommend taking a holistic approach based on evidence from a mix of sources, including – but definitely not limited to – digital analytics, stakeholder interviews, consumer research and social media audits.

Get in touch if you want to chat about a new project – don’t worry, we know some decent pubs if you don’t fancy meeting under the Golden Arches.

This blog originally appeared on CPL's website.

Networking: a cautionary tale

Someone contacted me recently asking for a work-related favour.

This person was relatively well known in similar sectors and specialisms to me, although with significantly more years’ experience.

I’ll be honest – it was a nice ego boost to hear from this person. They were asking me for help and advice. It was nice to hear. I was cordial, helpful and kind – yet wary.

You see, we’d already met a number of times before, at industry networking events in the past, when I was more junior. But, on those occasions this person had blanked me.

"The first impression you make usually sticks..."

At our first meeting, I was hungry to network and eager to meet this person, who I’d heard a lot about.

However, when it came to the ‘hello-handshake-nice-to-meet-you’, this person looked me up and down, decided then and there that I was not a networking ‘target’ – a potential client/someone they needed to know at that point in their life – and pretty much ignored me.

Bit hurtful yes, but I was an adult and moved on, and I’m not one to hold a grudge.

People change, things happens, but the first impression you make usually sticks. When the second and third impressions are more of the same, then…

You never know when or where you will need to ask someone for advice, contacts or a favour in the future, so my rule of thumb is to be nice to all.

So will I help this person? Yes, of course. Will I go out of my way to make connections and recommendations? Probably not.

Be careful about trampling over the ‘little people’. It’s a small world.