Marketing Analysis of McDonald's

This assignment delves into the marketing strategies employed by McDonald's, analyzing their interrelationship with other functional departments within the company. It compares McDonald's marketing mix with that of ASDA, highlighting key differences and similarities. The document also presents a detailed marketing budget for McDonald's and proposes a basic marketing plan for future growth. Finally, it offers recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of McDonald's marketing efforts.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
LO1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an
organisation......................................................................................................................................5
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function for the chosen
organisation......................................................................................................................................5
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context
for the chosen scenario....................................................................................................................7
Task 2:...........................................................................................................................................11
P3 Compare how the chosen organisation applies the marketing mix to the marketing planning
process to achieve business objectives..........................................................................................11
Task 3:...........................................................................................................................................16
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for the chosen organisation..............................16
1. Company Overview:..............................................................................................................16
2. External environment analysis:..............................................................................................16
4. Internal environment analysis:...............................................................................................19
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................25
References......................................................................................................................................26

Introduction
As an organisation, the name Mc Donalds need no introduction. It is one of the most famous and
named fast food joints in the world. Initially it started only as a Hamburger joint, but later on,
they started selling French fries, cold drinks, ice cream and increased their menu. They are
located all over the world as of now. Mc Donalds was established in 1940 as a fast food
restaurant which sold hamburgers by Richard and Maurice McDonald.Currently, Mc Donalds is
the fourth largest employer concerning the number of employees. In the current business quarter
it employees about 1.9 Million employees approximately all over the world. And has branches
around the globe (Mcdonalds.com, 2018). The union of all these resources gives a huge brand
name to the company and helps in the marketing.

LO1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other
functional units of an organisation.
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function for the
chosen organisation.
Introduction to the concept of marketing, including current and future trends
Marketing is basically a strategy to promote a brand name in various ways in a particular
segment and sometimes globally as well. Over the years marketing has seen multiple deviations.
Previously marketing was limited to only News Papers and TeleVision. In the old people used to
discuss about a certain product if they liked it and even criticize some products as well
(Sheth,and Sisodia, 2015). This discussion itself is advertising. Building a rapport and good
name for an organization so it can grow smoothly and increase its profits is the sole purpose of
marketing. In the modern world, marketing has taken various turns and can be divided into
multiple categories and subcategories.
An overview of the different marketing processes
As discussed above marketing could be of various types, to major classifications can be Online
and Offline marketing. Offline marketing may include the distribution of fliers, the discussion
between people regarding the positive points of a product and service. And the shortcomings as
well. There could be free advertising as well. Let's take a practical example to understand what

free advertising is. Let's assume there is a consumer who liked the product or service of a certain
organisation or did not like it; the customer will go ahead and tell that to hi s family and friends.
Going further the group of people he has introduced the brand to will go ahead and discuss that
with their friends which in result will create a Domino effect (Tomczak et al., 2018). Then there
are intangible resources as well. The amount of intangible resources a company owns which
includes its huge brand name, the reputation all over the world and the frequent partnerships and
collaboration also is a result of marketing and can be used for marketing as well.
Role and responsibilities of a marketing manager in the context of the organisation
Taking the example of Mc Donalds, one can study as to how they have used marketing to grow
and prosper as a business. Mc Donalds has spread all over the world with its different branches
and had marketing managers around the globe. The job profile of a marketing manager can cover
a huge area of scope. As the branches are spread all over the world, the marketing techniques
used by the managers are also very different. As the concept of marketing depends hugely on the
culture and generally speaking the demographics of an area.
The job profile of a manager includes tasks such as "Market Research", which implies that a
marketing manager is supposed to keep an eye on the competition. What is the competition doing
now what are the price differences in the market concerning the service they are providing. What
is the development graph of other competitors compared to the manager's organisation etc.?
One of the major job roles also includes the development and implementation of various
marketing strategy. After doing research as to what is the status of the market and what
competition is doing, a manager is supposed to invent and analyse new marketing strategies to
withhold the reputation in the market (Bai and Chang, 2015). A very good example can be

Wendy’s; Wendy’s is another fast food joint and directly competes with Mc Donalds in terms of
business. The profit graph of Wendy's was slowly depreciating. But the organisation made
correct use of social media and established their name once again in the market. The twitter
handler of Wendy's started roasting other profiles and business and started making memes.
Meme culture is the new trend in modern society; a meme is a visual representation of a funny
statement that goes viral. And Wendy's marketing managers correctly used the ongoing trend for
their own use and developed a new type of marketing strategy. Wendy was all over the internet,
and that boosted the sales of the organization, and that is the result of proper marketing
Now it’s important that a marketing manager does not only invent a marketing plan but
implement it properly as well. The basic steps to invent and apply marketing strategies are,
identifying the business activities that are going on in the organisation and what steps can be
taken to improve them or replace them if necessary (Mishra and Modi, 2016). The second step is
to find out the target areas as to where the business could prosper more and applying the
marketing strategy there. The third step is to analyse and evaluate the marketing plan devised by
the manager if it's working or not. What are the shortcomings of the plan and what strong points
does the plan have which is working? The fourth point is to be open to changes; a manager
should be open to change their marketing plan if it's not working. That's the main point, by trial
and error method a good marketing plan can be converted to a perfect marketing plan.

P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context for the chosen scenario.
An explanation of how marketing influences and interrelates with other functional
departments of the organisation
Marketing is directly related to each and every department of an organization, and if marketing is
not done properly then the brand name will not prosper, partnerships will not take place.
Marketing directly influences the profit of a company and profit is directly linked to the number
of branches, number of employees an organisation is able to hire and keep. Because good salary
is important. It is a huge domino effect, and the first piece is marketing.
The value and importance of the marketing role in the context of the organisation
The marketing roles directly hinder and affect the various branches of an organisation. Be it
production, be it the partnership. In easy words marketing is the visual representation of an
organisation which creates the first impression in the eye of a consumer as well as a potential
partner.
Conclusions that emphasise the significance of having effective interrelationships between
different functional departments
As discussed above, marketing is the first piece in the huge domino effect between production
and profit of any organisation. Each and every organisation is directly or indirectly related to
marketing. If all the departments are interlinked, then the marketing managers will be able to

know all the sides and little details of the dept and will be able to devise new marketing
strategies effectively and vice versa.
6 Identifying goals and objectives-
Mc Donalds should be going ahead and sorting out their objectives as to what is their aim and
what points do they lack in and what needs to be changed and kept. The clear vision helps any
organisation to work efficiently towards their goal and eventually success (Mcdonalds.com,
2018). Not only Mc Donalds but in general it will help in the betterment of any organisation.
7 Description of Product and services
As an organisation, Mc Donalds offers various products and services which include various food
items such as hamburgers, fries, dessert, cold drinks. Moreover, the organisation has partnered
with various other companies which add to the already large catalogue of the company
(Armstrong et al., 2015).
8 Marketing Budget
A proper marketing budget should be devised as to what needs to be improved and what needs
to implemented newly. For now, Mc Donalds can estimate their marketing budget to £60,000.
Now the budget has two aspects to it first one is the cost of maintenance and the second one is
labour and promotion cost. The maintenance can be kept to about £20,000, and £40,000 can be
used as the labour and promotion cost.
9 Strategies

Developing proper marketing plans and implementing them should be one of the primary aims of
the company. The advertising management should work towards developing new strategies and
using the social media in a much proper way.
10 Timing
A proper time limit should be fixed so that a plan can be applied and a lookout should be kept as
to how the plans are working and are there any improvements necessary. Or the plan needs to be
replaced as a whole. Every plan has advantages and shortcomings, and that can only be figured
out if there is ample amount of time. Time management is important as it gives the opportunity
to devise and apply new strategies all the time
11 Evaluations
After developing, implementing and studying the plans properly in the end, evaluating as to how
the plan has worked till now and how will it work in the long run when compared to the
competition. Study of the validity and stability of the particular marketing plan needs to be done
(Sheth, and Sisodia, 2015). This is the final stage and by carrying out this steps one will be able
to find the final shortcomings and will be able to decide if anything is supposed be eliminated or
added to make the plan more efficient,

Task 2:
P3 Compare the ways in which the chosen organisation applies the marketing
mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
In order to gain the proper business marketing is essential for the Mc.Donalds. The concept of
the marketing mix plays a vital role in the marketing activity of all the organisation as well as
McDonald's. Marketing mix involves seven elements which precipitated the complete
understanding of the marketing to attain the highest degree of growth for the McDonalds. Seven
elements of the marketing mix include place, people, price, product, promotion, physical
evidence, and process (Armstrong et al., 2015). In this section of the project compare of the
marketing mix utilisation of two organisations will be described for understanding the critical
importance of the marketing mix and its utilisation in the marketing context. Two companies that
have been chosen for this section is the McDonalds and ASDA: one is retail industry, and
another is from the food sector. Marketing mix tool enables the companies to describe all the
direction of the marketing in very significant manner. Descriptions are as follows:

Figure1: Marketing mix
Source: (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Price:
Price is one of the important elements of the marketing mix which reflects the value paid by the
customer to buy a product. Fixing proper price by considering the market value and competitor
analysis and many more factors are playing the major role. If the price is high, then sales of the
company will slow down and can lose the customer base, but if the price is affordable and also,
quality product service can enhance the business. McDonald's is able to fix their price by
considering the market and competitor's price. McDonald's also follows the low-profit high
selling policy which is beneficial for them to maintain the price in the affordable range and this
is the reason that their sales got increased 2.5% and able to achieve the 22.82billiuon revenue in

last year (Mcdonalds.com, 2018). On another hand, ASDA is one of the biggest retail stores in
the UK, but still, they are searching for the fixed price and trying to apply fix price for every
product.
Products:
A product is the main visualise elements that the consumer can touch or feel. In more simple
word people comes to know about the company through their products. People always want
quality products in the low cost and balancing the product quality, quantity with the price is very
much difficult because all the sales depend on this. Mc.Donalds deals in the food industry where
they offer various foods like Hamburgers, chicken, soft drinks, salads, French fries, milkshakes,
breakfast wraps, desserts, coffee, and many more and due to increasing the sale they reduce the
price of their products (Mcdonalds.com, 2018). McDonald's considered as one of the large stores
with the variety of foods. In contrast with the Mc. Donalds, ASDA also have food varieties in
their outlet, but in competition, with the Mc Donalds they are the little bit behind because they
have some limitation like continental crisp, tropical spices are not found in the ASDA.
Place:
Place refers to the location from where the consumer can get their needed products of the
company. It is very much important to choose the proper area for the business and minimum
30% sales depends on the place of the store. McDonalds and ASDA both are big branded
companies and have numerous branches in all over the world. McDonald's has more than 36,000
stores all over the world which is massive in number. People can easily connect or collect the
product from the McDonalds (Harrington et al., 2017). In compare with the McDonalds, ASDA

has only 642 stores all over the world which is very much least in number. They need to expand
their service to provide flexible product delivery system.
Promotion:
Promotion is one of the best parts of the marketing and all the marketing department of the all
the organisation highly involve in the promotion of their brand. Research has been continuously
going to improve the marketing, and after the introduction of the digital media, promotion
becomes more expanded. In McDonald's promotion basically done through social media where
the company places various food video with price, sometimes different offers are also can be
seen in the video. Beside this television, advertisement is another main part of the promotion of
McDonald's. Not only that word of mouth promotion is also playing a role in McDonald's.
Beside this ASDA also trusts on the online marketing like social media, different road campaign,
television advertisement banner and many more (Asda.com, 2018).
People:
People are one of the important elements of the marketing mix which denotes the people
associated with the business both internally and externally. In external and internal context
people run the company, and people buy the products. External people basically refer the
consumer. McDonald's need to satisfy their customers to gain in the business. Internal people
denote the employees. In McDonald's, all the employees are highly professional and humble
towards the customer which increases the brand image. In ASDA, employees are also highly
skilled, but they need to attract more external people to gain in the business (MacLaren et al.,
2017).
Physical evidence:

McDonald's is one of the largest food destinations of many people all over the world, and they
provide various choices to the public. Different food and brand image help to get more people
every day. McDonald's provide an auto-generated bill for their customers to provide the trust of
the products which they are providing. Besides this, they also send SMS to their patent
customers who are attached their mobile number to the company for getting updated with the
latest news (Mcdonalds.com, 2018). People can also complain about the food or again any
unfortunate occurrence within the store by showing the bill. In ASDA they also provide the auto-
generated bill. In addition, they provide email and SMS service to make the customer aware of
their offers and products.
Process:
This is the last element of the marketing mix which refers the process how a consumer can get
the products. McDonald's offers the large variety of products to the customer and very fast
service. They have more than 36,000 stores all over the world, and beside this, they also have the
free online delivery system to the consumers. The consumer can order food online, and the free
delivery system is also available in McDonald's. In response to the McDonalds, ASDA has few
stores from where people can get the products (Asda.com, 2018). Online service is not also
flexible like McDonald's.
From the above seven elements of the marketing mix provided the complete understanding of the
marketing structure of both the organisation. In response to ASDA, McDonald's possesses
complete service with a large number of stores. All the elements of the marketing mix revealed
the each and every direction of the marketing context to gain in the business. In order to get the
goal, both the companies can use the marketing mix and can strengthen their service.

Task 3:
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for the chosen organisation.
1. Company overview:
MACDONALD possesses one of the greatest positions in the chains of the market throughout
the world. It has been successfully spreading over its business in the distant countries of the US
and other European countries. MACDONALD has been maintaining its position successfully to
become a reputed business organisation as it has been able to develop a strong market planning
and organised management.
Situation Analysis: Analysis part is most important for a business to grow. All the internal and
external situations regarding the performance of the employees, productivity with its value and
the managerial body would have to be analysed well. The external threats and the competition in
the market must be analysed to serve the customers with quality service.
Market Overview: The market should be evaluated on the basis of competition, price, products
availability etc. The proper scenario of the company and its position in the marketplace should be
analysed, and Macdonald holds a bright position regarding this.
2. External environment analysis:
PORTER’S FIVE FORCES:
The threat of New Entry: McDonald's is well known, and big branded food company operated
all over the world. They have their own consumer base and business strategy which is very
much strong and successful. In oligopoly market of UK McDonald's already settled their

business in an extended way. The new entry in this market is nearly impossible, but several local
companies provided same food at very low cost which can hamper the business of McDonald's
slightly.
The threat of substitute: there are much companies like KFC, subway who offers same food to
the market. All the competitors of the McDonald's also have the reputation and McDonald's need
to be serious about their products and food quality to avoid the threat of substitute. Subway is the
company offers nearly about same products.
Bargaining power of customer: in UK market due to large competition, customer get the
province to select the companies who give the value. In such alarming condition McDonald's
need to concentrate on their product quality and service as well as cost to hold the customers
(Armstrong et al., 2015).
Bargaining power of suppliers: McDonald's maintain their products quality and service, and
they invest the lot on their suppliers all over the world. Due to this suppliers do not have much
power to switch to other companies because the huge amount of money transaction occurred in
every financial year.
Existing rivalry: KFC, Subway, ASDA and many more are the main competitors of the
McDonald's. They have their own brand image and patent customers. Different offers are also
placed in the market regularly by the competitors, and people are very much flexible to grab such
offers for food. McDonald's need to concern about this fact to sustain the business in a
systematic way
PESTLE ANALYSIS:

FACTORS DESCRIPTION
POLITICAL The political situation in the UK is unstable, but
still, they have the normal business atmosphere.
Several laws regarding food security act have
been imposed by the government to provide and
reduce the disease spread by from food.
Economic After the economic recession UK moving forward
slowly. In such condition government also
forwarded the helping hand to support the small
business. But McDonald's have their own
financial support, but due to the lower buying
power of the customer, they adopted the low price
high swelling strategy (Mcdonalds.com, 2018).
Social In order to maintain the social factor McDonald's
provided money in the term of CSR to develop the
city. Beside this, they are trying to launch the eco-
friendly packaging system and different event to
support the society.
Technological Technology is one of the most important factors
in the recent business context. McDonald's also
implemented several technologies, but they need
to start the smart mobile application and strong
information technologies to support the business.
Legal UK government increases the VAT from 17.5 to

20 percent, This sudden rising of the tax affected
the business definitely and also high labour rate
hampers the business (Mcdonalds.com, 2018).
Environmental Several environmental campaigns have been done
by the McDonald's to improve the environmental
awareness. Beside this eco-friendly packaging
system is also in consideration to support the
environment.
Table 2: Pestle analysis
(Source: created by author)
3. Marketing objectives:
The ultimate goals and the aims should be fixed with greater insight and foresight. Regulating
the capital and resources in the most positive way have to be found out to cast a fair impression
on the customers. The quality products at a reasonable price drive the consumers take an interest
in the organisation. The main objective of the company would be to increase the sales by 12% by
the year 2019. It also aims at increasing its market share by 5% within 2019.
4. Internal environment analysis:
SWOT Analysis: The deliberate and significant plans and strategies lead a company to be
unique and for this SWOT analysis is much required. SWOT stands for STRENGTH,
WEAKNESS, and OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS. These are the factors which should be
assessed and evaluated very attentively for the success of the business.

Strengths
 Different product variety
 There are more than 700 shops
throughout the UK.
 Quality products at a lower and
reasonable price
Weaknesses
 Inefficient and unconfident in selling
some products
 Digital and web technology is not used
efficiently
 The debts have cast the worse
impression
Opportunities
 Digital platforms are being used
more. Marketing through online takes
place and gives a better result.
Threats
 There is much competition from
companies like ASDA, KFC etc
 Subway and KFC are the most
rivalries.
Table 1: SWOT Analysis
(Source: Mcdonalds.com, 2018)
5. Marketing strategy Proper goals and objectives need to be identified. To mitigate the
customers' satisfaction is the ultimate aim to be reached. Relation with the customers should be
maintained well. The customers should be aware of the description of products, their
characteristics, and the process of producing.
Ansoff matrix

Market penetration
Burgers, French fries, breakfast items, desserts, soft
drinks, salads.
New products
The innovation of the products
Market development
Identify the potential products for the existing
market and introduce new products based on the
demands of the customers
Diversification
Grilled innovation in the existing products
Table 4: Ansoff matrix for McDonald's
Source: Created by author
6. Tactics (Marketing mix):
Price McDonald's obtain the low price high selling
policy, but in future, they need to concern about it
because several other companies are also offering
their products at lower cost. McDonald's can
maintain their quality by fixing the justified amount
of the products.
Products McDonald's has large products variety, and
different types of food with different tastes are
there. Noe, they need to evaluate the market for
other products which competitors are providing in
the market. Like KFC is famous for their chicken
item. McDonald's can also launch various chicken
item to fight against the competitors
Place McDonald's has more than 36,000 stores all over

the world. People can get the products whenever
they want (Mcdonalds.com, 2018). Now
McDonald's need to concentrate on emerging
market like Asia, Africa where they need to open
more stores. Besides this, they can also open more
flexible home delivery system.
Promotion The promotional activity of the McDonald's is
very much active in the market, and people love to
see their advertisement. They need to start the
email and mobile application promotional system
to grab more customers.
People McDonald's have skilled employees in their every
store, but still, they have some issues regarding the
behaviour. McDonald's need to train their
employees more significantly so that they can
maintain the good relationship with the customers.
Process The customer can get the food direct from the
McDonald's store. But they need to open more
store in the rural area to grab the rural crowd.
Besides this online delivery system can be futile for
them (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Physical evidence Besides the auto-generated billing system,
McDonald's can provide SMS notification
procedures so that consumer can also get their

billing status over the SMS service.
Table 3: Marketing mix
Source: (Armstrong et al., 2015)
7. Operational plan: A creativity is needed to make a bunch of business strategies taken up by
the managers and authority of MACDONALD. The management should be looking at
identifying the resources or implementing the marketing strategies.
8. Control measures
Timing: Being punctual and delivery on time is required to run a successful business. Lunching
of different products at an appropriate time is also significant.
Evaluation: An good evaluation of the plans, strategies, activities, product quality leads the
famous company like make the MACDONALD put forward in the field of the industry.
Marketing Budget: A proper budget is very important. It may provide the estimation about the
cost of the products and investments that can be spent for marketing of those products.
Marketing Budget Plan of McDonald's
Categories Quantity Unit Cost Subtotal
Research
Web based research 2 $
2,000.00
$
4,000.00
Other research 1 $
500.00
$
500.00
Total $
4,500.00

Advertisements
Radio 3 $
250.00
$
750.00
Web 2 $
350.00
$
700.00
TV 3 $
2,000.00
$
6,000.00
Brochures 500 $
3.00
$
1,500.00
Total $
8,950.00
Promotions
Celebrity fees 1 $
25,000.00
$
25,000.00
Product discounts 210 $
25.00
$
5,250.00
Promotions Cost Total $
30,250.00
Public Relations
Sponsorship 5 $
500.00
$
2,500.00
Advertisement 3 $
1,000.00
$
3,000.00
Promotion of employees 6 $
500.00
$
3,000.00
Public Relations Costs Total $
8,500.00
TOTAL MARKETING BUDGET $
52,200.00
Table 5: Budget for the marketing plan
Source: Created by author

Conclusion:
From the above description, it can be concluded that marketing is one of the important facts that
need to be considered in large scale for the growth of the company. In this project role of the
marketing has been described for the McDonalds. Interrelation with the other functional unit
with the marketing is also described completely. In McDonald's, all the departments are
interconnected in a systematic manner. In next part of the project concept of the marketing mix
and utilisation of the marketing mix in compare with the other company has been described and
marketing aspects have been revealed for both the companies McDonalds and ASDA. A basic
marketing plan for the McDonalds has also been formulated for future development of the
company. Few recommendations are also provided for the better development of the company.

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