Marketing Plan for a Food Business

This solved assignment explores the crucial role of marketing in a food business's success. It delves into market analysis, competitor evaluation (Burger King, KFC), strategic focus (market penetration and development), and financial considerations (budget allocation). The assignment emphasizes the significance of understanding customer needs and delivering value through effective marketing practices.

MARKETING ESSENTIAL

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
Marketing in a process in which need of consumers are analysed by an organisation so
they can make product and services according to the necessity of society. It is considered as one
of the most important function performed by a company because it provided great assistance to a
firm in order to achieve their desired objectives. McDonald's is an organisation who operates in
fast food restaurant industry. They are present across the globe and at almost 36900 locations.
They have very clear mission, which is to design and develop their goods and services (Al-Ekam
and et .al., 2012). Their vision is to retain the top spot in restaurant industry in all the countries
where they are present. This report include key roles as well as responsibilities of marketing
function and their impact on the organisation. Marketing mix and planning will also become part
of this file because they provide great assistance to an organisation at the time of advancing
toward company's objective.
TASK 1
P1 key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is an important department in every company become it play crucial; role in
development of business and remove different type of hurdles that a firm face at the time of
implementation of strategies. Some of the role and responsibility of marketing is as follows:
Exchange of goods – Material that is used in making of final product in McDonald's is
transferred from factory to the restaurants. Their are some countries where cited organisation do
not own the place, they give permission and material to the licensee so they can sell food by
using name and taste of this firm. It is the role of marketing team to remove the troubles that
exist between the process of transferring different kind of sauce, beverage etc. Their are various
communication problems which create hindrance in the smooth movement of goods, they should
be stooped at the point of their generation (Batt, 2013). Marketing team play an important role
in finding the priority of customers and provide this vital information to the production
department.
Understand competitiveness of industry – Policy and plans of a company should be
made according to recent trends that exist in sector, marketing assist in determining the mood of
industry so effectiveness in various type of strategies can be maintained and organisation can
move toward their goals.
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Find out what customers want – It is considered as a key role because McDonald's can
not produce items which people do not like, it will increase cost of business operation and make
an effect on profit of company. Marketing help in ascertaining taste and preference of consumers
so product can be developed according to their need. This support is maintain customer
satisfaction which is essential in restaurant industry.
Competitive environment – Every organisation wan to reach at top spot in a sector.
Most of the firms get this responsibility to the marketing team because they have potential to
develop a business in a very short period of time (Desai, 2013). They provide great assistance to
McDonald's in reducing the price of products because when their sale will grow they can lower
their rate. This will support them in enhancing their market reach.
Assistance in distribution system – It play a crucial role in development of product
distribution system, cited company has too many customers in different location they need
effective system so proper attention can be given to geographical area where this company
operates.
Building and maintaining demand – When an organisation develop new product it has
to be marketed appropriately so customers can get all the important information relating to the
item. This will assist sales department which will ultimately make a huge impact on profit of the
firm. Maintaining demand is another significant role which has to be played by marketing team.
They support in enhancing awareness and promotion of various items which is needed to be done
on continuous basis.
Find target market – An organisation can not start production of goods without
ascertaining the potential customers who may buy their products. They need to find various
segments based on income, culture, religion etc. Marketing play a crucial role in finding the
market that McDonald's is going to target for a particular product. This remove confusion in
from the organisation and they make clear goals which can be achieved by effective execution of
different kind of policies.
Market research – In restaurant industry, changes happens swiftly, so continuous focus
is needed in order to analyse market and make changes accordingly in company. Taste and
preference of customers changes on regular basis so McDonald need to examine need of industry
in regular period of time (Desselle,Zgarrick and Alston, 2016). Marketing will help them in
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finding and understanding recent development that are happening in this sector so they can do
alteration in their policy which will help them in advancing on right track.
Developing management information systems – Progress of an organization should be
analysed on quarterly or yearly basis. Other departments in a company do not focus on
determining the overall growth of firm, but marketing wing of McDonald's is responsible to find
the growth which they are getting in the business. This assist in making effective strategies for
upcoming time by examining the work that organisation has done in past.
Synchronising the objectives – McDonald's has their presence across the globe. It is
very difficult for top management to make an action plan which can be adopted in different
countries and states. Marketing help in providing the various needs of different region to the
policy makers so products can be made according to their taste and preference (Hauer, 2011).
They also work in determining the profit which company can get from different locations.
Assistance to research and development department – It support in communicating
demand of customers to the R&D team so they can launch new food items which can be
accepted by consumers easily. This main high competence in the market and whole industry
move towards right direction.
Growth of business – One of the most important role that marketing wing of an
organisation ha to play is bring business in company. They are responsible for increasing
revenue so an enterprise can achieve their long term objectives.
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relating to McDonald's in wider context.
All the department in an organisation has their own importance, they do particular work
according to the task allotted to them. One of the significant function that marketing wing of
McDonald's has to do is proper distribution goods and service. This can only be done by
maintaining good contacts with logistic department. An idea do not earn money for a company,
they need to take the product to the customers in order to earn profit and increase revenue of the
firm. In general case distribution is considered as an easy task like opening a shop, but when an
organisation operates across the globe than they process of arranging product delivery become
complex. It provide great assistance in maintaining proper demand and supply. Every firm
believe that in order to achieve success for log period of time, company need to make sound
connection between marketing and finance department. Money is needed to make money, when
performance of marketing team is above par than investors from various part of the world would
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like to put their money in the organisation. Their brand value and price of share will also increase
which will support finance team, they will have better options to borrow money for expansion or
new product development (Hsu, 2011). This can help McDonald's in maintaining sound financial
position in industry which will give them some extra edge over their competitors.
Their is another angle by which relationship between these two teams can be analysed. If
finance wing do not arrange money for marketing department than they can not do their work. In
order to perform various task efficient use of wealth is necessary. If performance of finance
department improves than marketing team will get more money which they can utilise to boost
up their performance. In restaurant industry, taste and preference of people changes on constant
basis. Their are some important decision relating to investment in new economies and
manufacturing techniques. By doing market research exact demand and need of goods and
services can be determined which will support business in enhancing overall revenue.
Innovative technology is needed in manufacturing process, it is responsibility of marketing wing
to find what are the new techniques that industry and other competitors are using so McDonald's
can also adapt them and improve their manufacturing process. They have complete knowledge
about the thing that are happening in this sector, they provide their views and prediction to R&D
department so they can introduce new food items according to the demand of customers
(Kennedy and Parsons, 2014). This will also help them in retaining the top spot in most of the
countries where they are operating.
Relation between marketing and production function – Manufacturing activity has
high dependence on marketing wing because they provide them correct information and data
about the need of customers. They also help them about what quality they should maintain and
which item should manufactured in more quantity and which should be produced in less
quantity.
Relation between marketing and human resource function – HR activity is
considered as one of the main function of every organisation, they choose right man for a job.
Connection between HR wing and marketing team does not directly relate costumers but it make
a huge impact on company. If hiring department do not hire proper candidates in marketing
teams than this department can not work effectively. If a person is recruited in organisation who
does not understand market and does not possess skills to convinces potential consumers than
overall performance of firm will go down.
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Relation between marketing and purchase function - McDonald's buy raw material
which is necessary to make finished products. They have a responsibility to maintain proper
supply chain by proving the material that is needed by production department. They can not
perform this task effectively without taking assistance from marketing wings because they
provide them various data product which customers consume at a high level and which food item
are loosing their demand in market. This help an organisation in minimising the waste, which
assist in cost reducing and enhancement in profit.
Relation between marketing and sale function - People often get confuse between sales and
marketing department (LEHTINEN and MÄKINEN, 2012). They consider it same but they are
many different between both wings of an organisation. Selling is basically related to convince a
potential costumer so he/she can buy a product but marketing has a wide scope. It work on
finding the need of consumers so product can be made according to them, it also focus on after
sale service and customer satisfaction. Marketing department provide vital information to selling
wing so they can properly convince potential buyers and increase sale of organisation.
McDonald's do not need to do one to one selling, they try to attract consumers by advertising and
other ways of promotion. This can only be done when they have data about market demand in
different states and countries. These numbers are obtained and analysed by marketing
department so correct plans can be made to attract more consumers.
Synchronisation between all department of McDonald's is necessary in order to achieve
set target. If one wing of this organisation perform below par than it will make a huge impact on
profit of company and on their brand value. Every firm face various kind of trouble at the time of
implementation of different strategies, if they work together and support each other than they can
face any challenge that arise in business operation. Proper synchronisation also assist in optimum
utilisation of available resources (Lipsman and et .al., 2012).
TASK 2
P3 Application the marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business
objectives.
Marketing mix is set of activities, or tactics which an organisation use in order to promote
their product in market or brand. It is need of every company because these mix assist firm in
reaching towards their goals in appropriate time. Their are 7 marketing mix which can be applied
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by an organisation in various tasks like marketing planning. Following are the marketing mix
their application:
Product – McDonald's is know for their quality product. But with time, taste and
preference of customers will also change. So cited company need to make plans which can assist
them in retaining top spot in the industry. They have to make different items according to the
taste that exist in particular culture (Maghaireh, 2016). Their are some places where most of
people are vegetarian so selling a non-veg burger would not be a good idea. Same thing happens
at the time of introduction of new product, before launching a new item in restaurant first it is
needed to be verified by experts of this field. Some sample can also be launched in order to find
response of public. Quality should also be maintained because in this industry if customers do
not find the taste same time of a product every time than they may switch to other restaurant.
Packaging is a big issue in current time. Their are many organisation who do not have good
quality in their goods but their packaging is so attractive that customers buy it by forgetting all
the lacuna that exist in that item. McDonald's should start attractive packaging so new as well as
existing buyers can be convinced to visit the restaurant.
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Process - It is mainly related to service department, in most of the nations McDonald's
has a policy of self service and they are also opening self service kiosks. They can start
restaurant in prime locations where they can start serving on table and charge amount more
amount for that (Mihart, 2012). Their are many customers who complain about slow service in
restaurants, this problem should be solved as soon as possible because nowadays people do not
have much time to wait in line for their turn. They can hire more people to improve various
services and reduce waiting time of customers.
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Promotion – McDonald's consider promotion of their brand and product as one of the
most important task performed in their organisation. They are investing huge amount in this area.
This strategy play a crucial role in success of this organisation (Mittal, 2014). They should
continue this tactics in order to get some extra edge on its competitors. They can start some new
special offers which can attract new costumer and assist in maintaining existing consumers.
Advertising is another area where they are investing their money aggressively. They should
continuous allotting more money in this filed so so their dominance in industry can be
maintained for a long time. McDonald's get popular when they started giving free gifts to the
customers and children who visit their restaurant, this idea should reintroduce by company in
some countries and their are some locations where they this concept was not introduced so in
these place it should be launch so more customers can be attracted and promotion of brand can
be done effectively. Company can make and post new leaflet and posters so people do not forget
the name of McDonald's.
Some competitors are trying to steal their idea of aggressive promotion, cited company
should initial some new ways of promotions so they can maintaining the extra edge that they
have on other players of the industry. In current scenario promotion on social media is also
necessary because it play a huge role in attracting young generation which is considered as a
prime source of revenue for cited company.
Price – McDonald's has various pricing strategies in different location. They can use price
penetration in the locations where they already have restaurants and planning to have more in
upcoming time (Moini, 2012). Their overall manufacturing is a lot compared to other
organisations so they can maintain their revenue by enhancing sale and decreasing prices of
items they all selling. In some countries, restaurants of cited company have high demand. In
these locations they are using price skimming strategy in order to rapidly recover the expenditure
they have done. In initial stage, they target rich class people because they happily pay more price
for a new food item.
Place - Location of a restaurant play crucial role in its success, McDonald's have a clear
strategy to open eating places in prime destination so more people can visit their eating house
and it can be tracked by potential customers easily. Food items that cited company serve vary
from place to place because consumers in different countries has different taste and preferences.
McDonald's approximately have 36900 outlets across the globe. In currents market trend, they
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can start home delivery by taking order on their website or through mobile application (Nguyen
and Simkin, 2012).
Physical environment – Designing and facilities in a restaurant made a huge impact on its
success, there are some food outlets who do not have any special quality in their food but
infrastructure, interior and designing of their eating places in so attractive that people prefer them
over some good quality food restaurant. McDonald's always keep a friendly environment in their
outlets, they spend huge money on their interiors so it can attract children as well as adults. Cited
company believe in using latest technology in order to provide top class service to its customers.
Their furniture is more comfortable compare to its competitors which provide an extra edge to
the organisation on its rivals. These things look may look unimportant and small but they always
make a huge impact on consumers mind.
People – Human resource of an organisation is considered as one of the main resource of
firm because they implement the strategies which are made by top level management. Cited
company has almost 365000 employees in different countries. Their main focus is to enrich the
experience of customers so they can become permanent consumer of outlets. Workers are the
face of this organisation because they take order and serve food by providing quality service. In
upcoming time they should select candidates who can enjoying their job and meet costumers
with a smile (Ogunmokun and Tang, 2012). People in company are selected according to the
existing culture so they can understand demand of customers and serve them accordingly.
Nowadays McDonald's has many competitors in different countries. It is difficult for
them to retain the top spot where they are sitting from a long time. They need to implement some
innovative techniques to enhance their sale so their revenue can be increased on continues basis.
Domino's has started home delivery of their food items long time ago, but McDonald's still do
not provide this kind of service, they should use technology in their business and make mobile
application so orders from customers can be taken online in order to enhance sale of company.
Their were complains about raw material that they were using in various food items, this made a
huge influence on their brand image, they should start a campaign which focus on regaining the
previous image of the company. McDonald's is known for their aggressive promotion, many
other players in the same industry copy their strategies so more consumers can be attracted
towards their restaurant (Wu, Kirkole and Huang, 2016). Burger King is popular rival of cited
company, they use some innovative tactics to make permanent customers. In some countries they
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give a crown to some buyers so they can feel special. This small become so popular that sale on
Burger King increase by almost 3 time (Papasolomou and Melanthiou, 2012). Cited company
has some policies which can be changed like ,only breakfast meal is available before 11 a.m., in
order to retain number one position in restaurant industry.
McDonald's keep their focus on quality instead of quantity, on the other hand Burger
King, their main competitor, like to serve variety of food with decent quality. Earlier Burger king
was keeping their product's price high but now they are trying to copy cited organisation by
introducing double cheese burger at 1 dollar. McDonald believe in expanding their business
aggressively, they want to open their outlets after every 3 km, on the other hand their key
competitor adopt different plan, they like to open stores only in prime location.
Basis McDonald's Burger King
Product Burger at economic price and best
taste
Beside veg food, chicken and fish
product are their prime product.
Price Their main focus is on affordable
pricing.
Many times they have adopted
price skimming strategy.
Place They has store is prime location as
well as bucolic areas.
They mainly open restaurants in
prime locations.
Promotion They spend huge some on promotion
of their brand and products
They have a limited and
competitively less budget for
promotional activities.
People They have quality workforce and
they only hire people who love their
job.
Employee basically focus on
providing high level of customer
service.
Process They are using innovation in their
production process.
They are aggressively updating
their production process.
Physical Evidence Popular restaurant and Burgers are
physical evidence of this
organisation.
Their successful restaurants and
variety of products is physical
evidence of this organisation.
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TASK 3
P4 Basic marketing plan for McDonald's.
Marketing plan of an organisation always relate to mission and vision of the company.
McDonald's want their restaurants to become favourite place of their customers, they want smile
of faces of millions of people. Cited firm believe in quick service by following core values of
organisation because time is considered as one of the most important resource that a person can
have in his/her life. Their marketing plans concentrate of customer perception because they are
responsible for success and failure of the organisation. Some of the areas where marketing
department of cited company focus are as follows:
 Price that a customer can pay.
 Products that are liked by most of the consumers.
 Which TV channels, internet website, newspapers people read or view.
 Which outlets has more footfall and sale.
Accurate and extensive research is essential to decide right marketing mix specially for a
company who has presence across the globe (Purvis, 2016). McDonald's firmly believe in
evaluation of the target customers in order to find whether their number is increasing or
decreasing. One of the most important part of planning is to identify the changes in economy,
legal system, society and technology. They are external factors who made a huge impact on
business of an organisation. Cited firm has divided their customers in various segments like one
is for children, another is for business customers, teenagers and a parent with two children. All of
them visit for a different purpose so they are treated accordingly. Parent with children visit to
give treat to them, other children go to outlet to have fun. Business customers want quick service
and great taste, they may prefer to eat their meal in their car instead of spending time in eating
house. Teenagers focus on affordability and access of internet, do not care about fast service or
best quantity of food. It is necessary to receive customers according to their need because it help
in providing better service to consumer and it improve brand image of the organisation.
In a research it was found that McDonald's own highest amount of land in the world (Raj,
Walters and Rashid, 2012). They should keep this strategy aggressive expansion so other players
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of industry do not get a breathing space. Cited company should investing huge amount in
developing countries because in upcoming time they will play significant role in maintaining the
enhancing the revenue of whole organisation. They should start making new food items
according to the culture of the country where they are operating. Technology is one area where
they have huge scope to improve. They are very active in T.V and newspaper advertising but
they do not give much attention to in areas like social media, promotion on mobile phones etc. In
order to retain their top spot they have to change old techniques of product promotions and
branding. They should start an application which help them in taking online order and solve
various queries of customers online (Tonkin,Whitmore and Cutroni, 2011).
Their discounts offers are also getting old so they can work on some new innovative
ideas in order to attract more potential consumers and retain their permanent customers. Their
are some areas where cited company has to work a lot like, they have very limited flexibility in
their operations, some food in their menu card are unhealthy etc. These types of issues are
creating major trouble for the organisation because other players in industry are providing more
flexibility and better service compared to this firm. In today's world people are getting more
health conscious, this will make a huge impact on business of McDonald's because their food is
not healthy and they have no plan to introduce some healthy eatables in their menu card. They
should make proper strategies in order to remove these hindrances because it will help them in in
retaining the top position for a long time.
Marketing objectives – In order to raise the satisfaction level of the customer the objective of
marketing team is to reduce the delivery time of orders.
SWOT of McDonald's
Strength
 Aggressive advertisement strategy
 highly trained employees
 Global presence
Weakness
 Franchisee system is not working for them
 their product development is weak
Opportunities
 Expand their business in Asian and African region
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 Start home delivery of products
Threats
 Customers are want to eat healthy food which is not available at the stores of McDonald's
 increased number of local competitors
PESTLE of McDonald's
Political – Tax reforming are pending in various countries in which cited company is operating.
This is making a negative impact on their business.
Economical – Slow economic growth in European and Chinese market is a big threats for
mentioned company. But the US market is growing gradually and this is a good sign for them.
Social – People want to eat healthy food which is missing at McDonald's stores. Cultural
diversity is a good opportunity for them.
Technological – By using technology like booking order through mobile application, they can
attract more customers.
Legal – The new laws relating to minimum wages is a threat for this company. This can make an
unfavourable impact on their business.
Environmental – If they increase the number of corporate environmental programs then they can
earn profit in upcoming time. Their goodwill may also get increase.
Competitive analyses
Porter's five forces analysis of McDonald's
Threat of competition (High) – Fast food market is very competitive. Location of
restaurants is crucial for running business successfully. Burdger King is the main rival of cited
company.
Threat of new entry (High) – One can easily set up a new restaurant who can sell variety
of burger and other fast food. Subway's did this by adopting the policy of market penetration.
Threat of substitutes (Low moderate) – Outlets of McDonald's are available in many
nations. People do not choose cited company only for eating food, they also enjoy spending time
in at their outlets.
Bargaining power of customers -They are strong force and their bargaining power is
high. The switching cost is not high and they have large number of options.
Bargaining power of suppliers – Low bargaining power. The number of suppliers is high
so and they cannot make any huge impact on performance of cited company.
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Recommendation
This company should keep their strategies of aggressive advertisement and expansion.
They should also focus on offering more products because their rivals are introducing healthy
and tasty food.
Basic objectives – Customers should have easy assess to the product of refereed company.
Business aim – Efforts are taken to develop the total sales to at least 20%
To promote the new products launched by the company
Expansion of the market
Target market segmentation – In this context the company is concentrating more on doing the
geographic division and also focusing on particular age group customers.
Main competitors – Burger King, KFC etc.
Strategies – in order to cover more and more market share the referred organisation is focussing
on market penetration and development of same.
Budget – In order to carry out the new pan mangmnet will require a set amount which will be
utilised to carry out the various operations. As per the requirements the estimations will of funds
will be done.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that marketing play a significant role in
success of an organisation because it is interconnected with various department of a company. It
mainly focus on finding the needs of customers and society and deliver product and services
accordingly. Marketing concentrate on 7 main areas place, price, promotion, process, product,
physical environment and people. Plans relating to this topic should be evaluated on continuous
basis in order to maintain good level effectiveness in business operations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Mittal, A., 2014. Role of Marketing Mix for Indian Marketers. Global Journal of Finance and
Management. 6(3). pp.191-196.
Moini, J., 2012.Focus on Pharmacology: Essentials for Health Professionals. Pearson Higher Ed.
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Nguyen, B and Simkin, L., 2012. Fairness quality: The role of fairness in a social and ethically
oriented marketing landscape. The Marketing Review.12(4). pp.333-344.
Ogunmokun, G. O. and Tang, E. C. H., 2012. The effect of strategic marketing planning
behaviour on the performance of small-to medium-sized firms. International Journal of
Management. 29(1). p.159.
Papasolomou, I and Melanthiou, Y., 2012. Social media: Marketing public relations’ new best
friend. Journal of Promotion Management. 18(3). pp.319-328.
Purvis, J., 2016. Human Resources Marketing and Recruiting: Essentials of Digital Recruiting.
Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.53-71.
Raj, R., Walters, P and Rashid, T., 2012. Events management: an integrated and practical
approach.
Tonkin, S., Whitmore, C and Cutroni, J., 2011. Performance marketing with Google Analytics:
Strategies and techniques for maximizing online ROI. John Wiley and Sons.
Wu, C., Kirkole, S and Huang, Y., 2016. Environmental Protection: Essentials/Antecedents of
Digital Book Adoption. Theoretical Economics Letters. 6(05). p.1115.
Online
Marketing Essentials. 2017. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/286545>. [Assessed on 26th June 2017].
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