Marketing Essentials Report

This report analyzes the marketing strategies employed by McDonald's, a global fast-food chain, to attract customers and maintain its market position. It examines the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, its relationship with other departments, and the application of the marketing mix. The report also includes an evaluation of McDonald's basic marketing plan.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function for McDonald.......3
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing are related to the wider organizational
context....................................................................................................................................7
P3 Compare the ways in which chosen organisation applies marketing mix.........................9
P4 Evaluation of basic Marketing Plan For McDonald........................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to advertising of company's product or services in the targeted market so
that customers get aware about the product and influences them to buy it in order to achieve
company's overall objective (Spanjol and et. al., 2015). The purpose of this report is to
understand the marketing strategies used by McDonald's to attract the customers and maintain its
position in the competitive market. Mcdonalds is a fast food chain restaurant selling fries,
burgers, etc. The report will explain the concept of marketing including its current and future
trends, different marketing processes and its importance. This report will also include role and
responsibilities of marketing manager and influences of marketing on other functional
department of the organisation.
Task
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function for McDonald
Marketing is referred systematic process of selling by promoting the goods and services
of an organisation. The concept of marketing is about analysing the demands of clients and
designing their objective along with satisfying the customers better than other companies do.
This concept is totally based on customers centred philosophy which means that the organisation
identifies the wants of clients and then respond to them accordingly. The main agenda of
marketing is to find right product for the customers rather than finding right customers for the
products. By following this, company will increase the sales and profits for the firm. Some
common modern marketing trends which most of the entities follow to increase the sales and
profit are given under:
 CRM (Customer relationship marketing): Customer Relation Management is a method
used by company to manage and analyse the customers needs and wants, and through this
the company can bring improvement in its product to meet those needs and satisfy them.
By practicing CRM, a company builds a strong relationship with its customers(Spanjol
and et. al., 2015).
 Event marketing: It is a marketing method which focuses over the face to face
interaction with the public by live events , trade shows ,corporate meet etc. Its main
mission is to promote their brands by organising mega and local event ,exhibition shows
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and publicity stunts . Through this, McDonald's can communicate and build a profitable
relationship with the customers and other co-partners.
 Environmental marketing : In this type of marketing ,products are produced or
designed with minimal use of natural resources so that it wouldn't affect atmosphere .the
organisation set a mindset of utilizing limited use of resources with the concern of not
harming the environment (Spanjol and et.al., 2015).
Some of the future marketing trends which can be followed are as follows:
digital marketing: means use of digital techniques to create communication with the customers
which will support the organisation to retain customers while building deeper relationship
with them (Khan, 2014) .
Social media marketing: it is a major method of marketing which uses social media as a
platform to establish its product over internet (Kraak and et. al., 2017). As most of the
customers use online shopping rather than going to shops in search of products, McDonald's
can promote there items over Facebook, twitter etc.
Mobile marketing : it includes marketing over mobile like marketing through SMS, location
based services, GPS messaging etc.
There are five types of concepts which are as follows:
Production Concept: This concept holds that consumers go for products which are easily
available and affordable(Mohammad, 2015). This concept results in mass distribution,
achieving broad product efficiency, low cost production. This concept is generally followed
by marketing managers in developing countries, where consumers prefer quantity over
quality.
Product Concept: The product concept holds that consumers go for high quality products,
performance and inventive features over its price. Therefore, marketing manager focuses on
improving the process and making better quality products.
Selling Concept: This concept holds that an organisation must go for a strong and effective
selling and promotional effort for its product. Thus, it assumes that effective selling and
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advertising of the product will lead to stimulate buyers. And firms adopt this concept when
it has more supply of products more than its demand.
Marketing Concept: This concept is followed in today's competitive world to achieve
competitive advantage over competitors. This concept focuses on expectations of the buyers
and delivering according to the needs and wants.
Social Marketing Concept: this concept holds that an organisation should determine the need
and wants of buyers and deliver according to their demand with more efficiency and
efficaciously than competitors and enhancing consumers well-being.
A business generally focuses on satisfying its customers by meeting their needs and
wants. Marketing process is a process which focuses on analyzing the available opportunities,
selecting the target market, and then developing the marketing mix to accomplish the target.
Situation analysis: the first step of marketing process is to analyse the situation in order to find
the available opportunities in the market. These analyses are reletd to the needs and wants of
customers which are not satisfied by the competitor's company. And satisfying the customers
needs will benefit the mcdonalds in expanding the target market.
Marketing strategy: this is an important step in marketing process as it focuses on selecting the
target market. To apply the marketing strategy, a company follows different steps, such as:
market segmentation, market targeting and market positioning.
Applying marketing mix:after applying the complete market strategy, marketing mix is used.
Marketing mix invoves 7ps which are components of an organisation. 7Ps are product, price,
place, promotion, people, physical eviodence and process.
Implementation and control: and the final step is to manage all the above process and controlling
it. The result of all marketing process is evaluated and essential steps are taken to guarantee the
positive result.
The marketing manager set target market for the staff and also give duties and roles to the
employees in the department (Bai and Chang, 2015). The marketing manager focuses on
developing strategies to satisfy the customers, promoting products and services so sales can be
improved and it can result in generating profit.
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In McDonalds, marketing managers ensures friendly services are provided to consumers.
They are responsible for resolving customers complaint and also disputes between employees.
Managers also give guidance and training to assistant manager and supervises the employees and
ensures customers satisfaction (What Are the Functions of a Marketing Manager or Officer,
2018).
The successful fast food chain restaurant McDonald's manager performs many duties and
has to interact with many departments such as, research & development, production department,
sales, finance, etc. The responsibilities of marketing manager of McDonald's includes the
following:
Conducting market research: The manager of McDonald's conducts marketing research
to find out the needs and wants of the customers(Khan, 2014). The research enables to identify
the expectations of buyers so the products are modified or improvised accordingly and it results
in satisfaction of consumers.
Developing strategies: The marketing manager develops the marketing strategies for the
business that benefits the administration in short as well as in long run. The manager of
McDonald's make strategies which clearly states how McDonald's needs to promote its product
and services to the target market and it also states ways to maintain competitive advantage over
its competitors.
Creating a market plan: After the strategies are made in accordance with achieving the
goals, the market plan or action plan is made. This determines how, when, where and which
marketing activities will take place to achieve the organisational target.
Employee management: The manager is responsible for employees of the marketing
department and so it's the responsibility of manager to evaluate the performance of the
employees of marketing's department and manage employees performance and development (Bai
and Chang, 2015).
Customer relationship management: The manager is also responsible for creating
customs relationship management in the organization. The manager of McDonald's creates a
customer satisfaction survey to get information regarding the customer's expectation and to know
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if products are meeting their needs or not. And then manager shares this information and ensures
to provide better services to clients and builds long term relationship.
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing are related to the wider organizational
context
Marketing is an essential process for any type of business as it promotes the product or
services resulting in attracting buyers to buy the product. The process of marketing involves
different task such as researching, promoting, or presenting the company's product or services in
a way that customer is attracted towards the products and tends to buy it. So, the marketing
department needs to coordinate and communicate with all the other functional department to
ensure smooth running of business and resulting in accomplishing the targeted objectives of
business.
Production Department: The marketing department communicates with production
department to ensure that adequate products that are manufactured so as they meet the demands
of the customers. The marketing department also ensures the quality of product to retain its
position in competitive market (Spanjol and et. al., 2015).
Administration Division: The administration department looks after the day-to-day
activities of the organisation and marketing department need to interrelate with this department
to ensure that day-to-day activities are carried effectively and employees are working in right
direction which will result in achieving the overall objectives.
Human Resource: The marketing department work closely with human resource
department as to ensure that proper proficient staff is present to carry out the tasks of the
organisation and skilled staff is capable in researching and developing new ideas, meet set
targets and achieve the goals of the company.
Finance Department: The finance department looks after the wealth of the business as
business operations are mainly based on financial capabilities of the organisation (Bai and
Chang, 2015). The marketing department need to communicate with finance department to
assure that an adequate budget is there to meet the needs of promotion, research & development
and distribution of the products.
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Sales: Marketing department will carry out research to find the demand of the product in
market and forecast sales and promote the products accordingly. Therefore, marketing
department needs to interact with sales department in order to accomplish the goals.
All the functional department of an organisation aims to pursue the overall objective,
therefore, they need to interrelate with each other and communicate and maintain smooth
functioning of business activities.
Marketing is the most important process as it supports promotion and selling of goods
and services of the organization to target market and accomplishing the objectives. McDonald is
one of the best brand of fast food restaurant which is famous in worldwide (Spanjol and et.al.,
2015). McDonald's is recognized by everyone and it has created an important place in the minds
of the consumers through its effective advertising or marketing of the products and services
offered.
Brand Recognition & Loyalty: The ultimate goal of marketing is to create a brand
recognition and McDonald's has achieved it (Khan, 2014). The aim of creating brand recognition
is that creating an image in customers mind which tends them to buy the product. And it also
benefits the company as it also creates customers loyalty towards the brand.
Increase in Profit & Sales: The eventual goal of any organisation is to sell its product or
service and gain profits. A company like McDonald's who has created brand loyalty of its
customers tends people to buy their product which finally results in increased sales and profits.
Thus, marketing plays an important role in creating brand loyalty of customers towards the
product which lastly results in increasing sales and profits.
Builds trust: McDonald's has achieved the trust of people by meeting their needs and
wants (Hanssens and et. al., 2014). Marketing department focuses on researching about the
expectations of customers and plan in order to meet those expectations and build trust of
customers.
Creates Employment: Marketing involves different processes, which gives employment
to many people. The McDonald's company is operating its business worldwide, needs large scale
production, which widens the role of marketing and thus creates employment.
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Formation of Goodwill: The effective marketing process of a company results in
creating brand image and loyalty of its customers by meeting their needs and expectations at
providing the products at reasonable prices. The firm McDonald's has formed goodwill of its
brand by effectively applying the marketing process (Luo, Roach and Jiratchot, 2016).
Basis of decision-making: In today's competitive world, marketing has become a very
complex process because it involves making people aware about product and making people
remind the product and creating brand loyalty. As a result, production department of McDonald's
will largely depend on marketing as what and how much to produce and sell and all decisions
will be based on marketing's techniques and strategies.
Interrelationship between different functional areas is important as it strengthens the
departmental communication and maintain efficient flow of info and smooth flow of business
activities (Mohammad, 2015). The effective communication between every functional
department of mcdonald's builds trust within the organisation and it also increases efficiency of
the overall performance of the organisation.
For example, if marketing department of mcdonalds does not communicate properly with the
production department regarding the high demand of the fast food in target market then
production department will be unaware about the demand of the fast food in the market, and will
not produce enough to meet the demand. Therefore, a failure in exchanging accurate information
between the functional department may cause financial loss to the mcdonalds organisation
(Spanjol and et. al., 2015).
An effective interrelationship between different functional department results in retaining
customers, brings brand loyalty, avoids conflicts, creates trust among employees and customers
as well and ultimately, it also helps in achieving the targeted goals and objectives of the
organisation.
P3 Compare the ways in which chosen organisation applies marketing mix
Marketing mix is a mixture of different factors that influences the decisions of consumers
while purchasing the product or service (McDonald and Wilson, 2016). It is an important tool
that assist marketing department to form the right marketing strategy that help the organisation
in reviewing the key issues that affects the marketing process and influences customers
decisions. McDonald's has around 37000 fast food chain restaurants in over 120 countries. And
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KFC has around 20000 restaurant chains located in 123 countries. Both the company has strong
marketing mix and strategies. The elements of marketing mix that make up the marketing
process includes the following :
Marketing Mix McDonald's KFC
Product : Product refers to the
goods that a company offers to
its customers.
McDonald's is world's leading
fast food industry and it sells
food products such as burgers,
beverages, fries, snacks&
drinks. The company focuses
on offering the products that
meets the customer's
expectation, so it delivers the
product according to
customer's expectation.
Kfc is known as Kentucky
Fried Chicken and it is a fast
food chain restaurant. It offers
products like fried chicken,
soft drinks, salads, chicken
sandwiches, etc. the company
KFC focuses on serving the
chicken items.
Price: Different pricing
techniques are used by
marketing departments to sell
the product or services and
attracts the customer's to buy
their product.
McDonald's uses bundle
pricing which means it bundles
different products together
naming it as “combo products”
and offers it at affordable
prices which encourages
customers to buy it.
KFC follows optional pricing,
in which customers can
purchase the main item from
the menu and can opt for
“extras” like drinks which go
well with the main item.
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Place: An area where
organisation runs its business.
Different distribution
strategies are used by
marketing's department to
serve the customers.
Mcdonalds operates its
business from engaged places
like main road, shopping
malls, markets, cinema
theatres, etc. where a customer
generally visits. And
McDonald's are open 24 hours
a day
KFC operates its restaurants
from occupied places and it
also offers online services to
order the food withfinger
tips(Spanjol, and et. al.,
2015).KFC also offers home
delivery in some places.
Promotion: Promotion is the
important tool in marketing
mix that attracts the buyers to
buy product or services offered
by the company.
McDonald's marketing
management team promotes its
brand in football matches,
sponsors different clubs, etc.
and also uses different media
channels like TV, online ads,
hoardings to promote and
advertise its product
KFC depends on mass media
to promote its product. It uses
different strategies such as
segmentation, targeting, then
positioning to promote the
brand.
People:People are involved at
every stage of the organisation
and play a great role in smooth
functioning of business
activities.
McDonald's focuses on
training and development of
the employees as they are the
main aspect of the marketing
mix. If employees are not
skilled or lack training in
doing their task effectively,
will not serve customers
properly which lead to poor
customer service.
KFC provides quality products
to its customer's at affordable
prices. For producing quality
products, KFC needs qualified
staff so it can render quality
services to its customers and
satisfy their needs.
Process: Process generally
means steps involved in
delivering a service to the
For a big fast food restaurant
like McDonald's, food
preparation is the most
KFC delivers fresh and high
quality products to its target
market. The KFC outlets offers
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customers. important activity. Therefore,
manufacturing of food is
completely transparent to
customers. And it also
fabricated efficient cooking
equipment.
dine in and take away options
for customers(Kraak and et.
al., 2017). KFC uses various
methods for packaging and
distribution.
Physical evidence: It refers to
elements of physical
environment such as location
and appearance and it gives
impression in the minds of the
visitors and also reflects the
functions of the organisation.
McDonald's marketing
department aims at
maintaining effective physical
evidence by keeping the
restaurants' clean and hygienic,
attractive, comfortable and fun
loving.
The marketing department of
KFC aims at developing new
methods to attract the
customers. KFC started
marketing its fried chicken in a
cardboard bucket which
became a tradition.
P4 Evaluation of basic Marketing Plan For McDonald
A marketing plan states different business activities which are involved in achieving the
targets fixed in time frame (Sulaiman and Syahrivar, 2018). It guides the organisation's personnel
to develop the products or services to meet the needs of target customers and also includes the
changes or alteration in product or process, if needed.
Introduction Of McDonald's
McDonald's is the fastest growing restaurant in fast food service and it serves in more
than 120 countries and have approximately 35000 restaurants serving about 50 million customers
every day.
Vision:
McDonald's visions to be the best speedy service restaurant and aims at providing quality
services to their customers at affordable prices and also to retain customer and build trust,
goodwill and loyalty, the company maintains good relationship with its customers.
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Mission:
McDonald's mission is to be best-loved point for customer's to eat and drink and
company's global operations are made in strategy named as Plan to Win.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
McDonald creates high revenues and sales because of its relationship with customers
which brings loyalty and trust. It operates its business in global market with the help of its
efficient employees(Hanssens and et. al., 2014).
Weakness:
McDonald's lacks in innovating processes which slows down the development of business.
Opportunities:
McDonald's can expand its business in developed countries and enter in places like Europe, Latin
America and Asia by innovating its product and services(Hamzah and et.al., 2016).
Threats:
Changes in foreign currency rates acts as a threat for McDonald's. It is open to alteration
in the global market.
Target, positioning, segmentation : Mc Donald is presently targeting parents with young
children. An organisation can target teenagers and business customer group. In addition to this,
Mc Donald is presently utilising the adaptive style of positioning and firm is enraged in
periodically repositioning of their goods. An organisation can use demographic marketing
strategy for positioning their products or services.
Marketing OBJECTIVE: Mc Donald marketing strategy is to gain customer loyalty. In addition
to this, an enterprise intends to increase market share.
Pricing strategy : as the marketing objective of Mc Donald is to increase market share an
organisation can adopt cost leadership pricing strategy.
Distribution strategy : Multiple or omni channel can be adopted by Mc Donald for distributing
goods or services to customers.
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Promotional strategy : Mc Donald can adopt online marketing strategy. In addition to this, firm
can use social media sites for promoting products and services.
Budget:
Marketing expenditures Q1 Q2
Magazine advertisement $ 240000 50000$
blog (inbound marketing) 45 $ 45 $
Website 300 $ 30$
Outsourced marketing research 2500 $ 5000$
CONCLUSION
Report concludes that the marketing department of organisation focuses on directly
connecting with its customers to make the marketing experience more personal and attracting
customers to buy their products by using different techniques and ways. Applying 7Ps of
marketing mix to different processes results in accomplishment of the target objectives and
sustain its competitive position in competitive world. The report states importance of effective
relationship between functional areas and its influence on overall objectives of the organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bai, X. and Chang, J., 2015. Corporate social responsibility and firm performance: The
mediating role of marketing competence and the moderating role of market
environment. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32(2), pp.505-530.
Hamzah and et. al., 2016. The Role of Marketing Mix (7P) for Consumer Buying Decision
Pastry Cake in Malang City.
Hanssens, D.M. and et.al., 2014. Consumer attitude metrics for guiding marketing mix
decisions. Marketing Science. 33(4). pp.534-550.
Khan, M.T., 2014. The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review
paper). International journal of information, business and management. 6(2). p.95.
Luo, A., Roach, S. and Jiratchot, C., 2016. The effect of the 7Ps of the marketing mix on air
freight customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Journal of Supply Chain
Management. 9(2).
McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016. Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from
them. John Wiley & Sons.
Mohammad, H.I., 2015. 7PS marketing mix and retail bank customer satisfaction in northeast
Nigeria. British journal of marketing studies. 3(3). pp.71-88.
Spanjol, J. and et.al., 2015. Enacting Change in Strategic Marketing Decisions: The Role of
Regulatory Focus in Teams. In Marketing in Transition: Scarcity, Globalism, &
Sustainability (pp. 37-37). Springer, Cham.
Sulaiman, J. and Syahrivar, J., 2018. The Influence of Marketing Mix 4A and Ethical
Consciousness towards Ethical Consumption.
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