McDonald's Marketing Strategies and SWOT Analysis

The assignment provides a comprehensive overview of McDonald's marketing strategies, including their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The PESTLE analysis model is used to identify external factors that may impact the business. Additionally, the budgeting process and monitoring and control mechanisms are discussed. The document also highlights the importance of customer value creation and relationship management in achieving overall business objectives.

Marketing Essentials

INTRODUCTION
In today's market putting the business forward in the competitive market is of
the most important thing which every businessmen want to do. Increasing the profits
and beating the competitors could be done only by applying marketing essentials.
Marketing is the method or all the tools which a company undertake to promote the
institution or its product and service so that the customer can get attracted towards the
product and buys them. Marketing essentials are the things or the process involved in
marketing which the company uses to promote itself. In the present scenario
McDonald's is an America' fastest growing fast food and hamburger restaurant chain
founded in 1940. The roles and the responsibilities of the marketing in the
development of the company is very essential and the interrelationship between the
marketing and other functional units are important too. The marketing mix is also a
tool by which marketing is useful for the company to grow in the market.
TASK 1
1.1 Explaining the key roles and responsibilities of marketing function for
McDonald's.
Marketing functions involved producing the marketing plan and doing the
research of market which will be helping in product development and promotion as
well. It includes all the tools used by McDonald's to source its customer and help
them to maintain customer. All the functions like advertising, promotion, distribution
for sale, customer service and the public relations which will help McDonald's to
promote them by differentiating them from similar products in the market. Marketing
department of McDonald's is the part which most frequently interacts with the public
and they know what the public want from them and what could be improved (Role
and responsibilities of Marketing Functions 2017). It is the responsibility of
McDonald's to look up to the marketing team what all changes are to be made in the
process of the management to increase the market base. The marketing department of
McDonald's include the brand and product managers, marketing researchers, sales
representatives, advertising and promotion mangers, pricing specialists and customer
service personnels. McDonald's marketing team will be preforming the following
responsibilities to make the company more profitable.
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 Defining and managing the brand image of McDonald's- it is the duty of the
marketing team that the brand image of McDonald's is maintained as it is in the
present because McDonald's is known as the leading brand for the fast food it
provides to the customer.
 Conducting promotional activities- to promote the brand in the market it is
essential to keep promoting McDonald's products or all the upcoming new
products as well.
 Producing marketing and promotional materials- the marketing team of
McDonald's should create the materials which would describe and promote
their main products or the services.
 Online marketing- promoting the McDonald's product online is the main type
of marketing tool which company is using nowadays (Badrinath, 2016). The
website of McDonald's is often the first and the possible place where the
customers will go for taking out the information about any new product which
it launches. So it is the work of the marketing department to keep the content of
the website up to date according to the company.
 Monitoring and managing the social media- apart from the online website of
McDonald's all the other social media like Facebook, twitter, gmail, or the
Instagram are also the part of the online marketing which affect the customers
to a great extent. So it is the duty of the marketing team of McDonald's to
maintain the pages of the social media as well.
 Producing internal communication- the employee of McDonald's need to
understand the company before anyone else in the outer world do. As the
employee are the main assets of the company and they only help them to get
more and more powerful in the marketplace.
 Serving as media liaison- whenever McDonald's is placed in the market for
any controversies or to share any information though the means of media there
is always a person who acts as a spokesperson of the company who is
responsible for the image of the company in the media.
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 Conducting customer and market research- with the help of the market
research McDonald's can define its target market and the opportunity prevailing
in the market and also help them to know how are the product and the service
of the company doing.
 Overseeing outside vendors and agencies- with the help of marketing team
only McDonald's decide who among all the vendors to choose who will be
most suitable for the company to provide the marketing and the production
materials or the raw materials (Burgess, and Munn, 2017). They all include the
ad agencies, printing partners, web providers, PR agencies and the food and
material suppliers.
 Marketing and advertising- this is also the role of marketing department
whose work will be to promote the products and service of the company. This
will be done with the use of digital media and offline mode as well.
 Supporting innovation- this will, be one of the part of role of the marketing
department which could be done after they have conducted market research.
 Setting price margin and profit level- price is the main factor of company
which will be set after marketing department has done the research work pof
the market in best of the way.
 Creating product or service which is representing value- this is also the part
pf marketing department of McDonald's which need to create the value of
services which they are offering to customer.
 Providing metric and tracking- they need to track down the record of
company which they are performing in market.
 Attracting customer- customer's of McDonald's are attracted through the
various tactics which they are using to fulfil the sales goal and profits
maximization.
Apart from all these functions marketing function play other roles also like the
distribution of the products, doing the market research, promoting the product and the
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services in the market, fixing the price of the product, helping them to sell in the
market and the main function is to make lots of profits form the given sales.
1.2 Explaining how roles and responsibilities of marketing functions are interrelated to
other functional areas of McDonald's.
Marketing is accepted as the communication between the company and the
world outside and it focused on the customer what they want and what should the
company give them. But for this to happen it is necessary for the McDonald's to link
all the department of the company with marketing so that organisational goals can be
attain. How the finance department, production department, research and development
department and the sales department are linked with the marketing department is
necessary for McDonald's for the growth of the company.
 Finance department- all the financial planning for McDonald's is to be done
by its finance department (Heroux, 2017). Form where to arrange the fund,
how to invest them and how to manage the expenditure are all decided by the
finance department so whenever the marketing department of McDonald's is in
the need of the fund for the advertising or the promotional activities then the
financing department will arrange the fund for the marketing department.
 Production department- after the marketing department has done the market
research about the product of McDonald's then it can inform the production
department about it so that it can produce according to the demand and the
need of the product.
 R&D department- marketing department can assist the research and
development department throughout from the new idea of the new product till
the implementation (Iancun and Maier, 2017). The R&D will provide to
understand what kind can be marketed and how customer can realize the
features of the product.
 Sales department- marketing is the most essential activities for the sales
department as it is the only department which can increase the growth of the
sales department and to make profits out of the sales. Marketing help in
determining the need of the customer and also analyse the demand of it.
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Without marketing McDonald's can not measure the amount of demand of the product
and how much to supply according to the demand. All these functions of the
McDonald's should interact harmoniously to pursue the organisational goal and the
objectives of the company.
SOSTAC Framework:
Situation analysis- this will be including the whole condition and situation of
McDonald's like its market position and market share in the whole world and the area
where they are operating.
Objectives- the objective of the firm is the goal which they need to achieve and all the
steps which they will be taking to fulfil the target. The objectives of McDonald's is to
increase the sales maximization of profits.
Strategic planning- this will be the overall planning and decision making of the firm
in order to achieve the target of the firm. This will be done after they have conducted
marketing research.
Tactics involving the marketing mix- this will the 7P's of marketing mix like
product, place, promotion, physical evidence, process, people and price of the
products.
Actions (implementation)- this will be the actual action plan or implementation of
the planning and tactics which are taken by company to achieve sales and profit
maximization.
Control- these are the steps which are taken to control the negative part of
implementation of the planning and this is done so that there are no loopholes which
are remaining in the planning or implementation process.
The different roles of marketing within both a B2C and B2B context.
Marketing department is playing important role which will be both in context
of B2C and B2C clients. Business to business clients are the suppliers for which
marketing department could be useful in way like that of they will come to know in
which company and which raw materials must be given to company. Business to
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customer client will be having the knowledge about which product to purchase and
which service to avail.
TASK 2
2.1 Comparing the ways in which the McDonald's use elements of the marketing mix
to achieve overall objectives.
To start the marketing planning McDonald's should first consider what are the
objective of the firm define the vision or mission of McDonald's then working
according to the set goals (Maghaireh, 2016). Developing the marketing strategies will
help McDonald's to realise the business goals and then building a strong brand image
of that product which McDonald's has already done. The marketing strategies will
help McDonald's to target the customers who will be most likely to buy that product.
For this marketing strategies McDonald's need to follow some steps which will help
them to achieve the target and maximize their profits. They are:
 Identify McDonald's business goals- the initial thing which is to be done by
McDonald's is to set the business goal and the overall objective of the firm.
Without this McDonald's will not be able to survive in the market with the
competitors. Then it will develop the marketing strategies after knowing the
business objective.
 Market research- after the setting of the goals of McDonald's the marketing
team need to do the market research to know what the customer like and what
they demand and what McDonald's is offering the customer. With the market
research it is not possible to develop the marketing strategies. McDonald's need
to gather information about the market such as size, growth, social trends and
demographics (population, gender ratio, age group etc)
 Profile the potential buyers or customers- now McDonald's need to target
the prospective customer for whom will it produce the product. As the products
which are produced by McDonald's are generally for all the people irrespective
of their age group or the gender. The customer of McDonald's are also very
loyal because of the taste of the food provided by it which remains the same all
around the world.
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 Profile the competitors- McDonald's need to also profile the competitors as to
with whom McDonald's has to fight it the long run of the business. As
McDonald's is operating in almost whole world so it has its competitor from
every part of the world so it needs to identify those competitors from every
country. But some of its main global competitors are Burger King, Taco Bell,
KFC, Subway and Pizza hut and the most powerful competitor is Starbucks
 Developing the marketing strategies- then McDonald's need to develop the
marketing strategies with which it would be working in various countries. As
all the country's are having contrary rules and regulations regarding to the
company so the marketing strategies should always be different from one
another.
 Use of the 7P's- before when the marketing was not of so importance in the
company's growth at that time they were using only the 4P's of marketing
essentials i.e. product, place, price and promotion (Moini, 2017). But now in
today's ear physical evidence, process and people are of more important than
the product, price, place and promotion. McDonald's need to focus on the
physical evidence, process and people more to sustain the customer of the
company.
[Source:Pappas, 2017]
1. Product- for McDonald's its product i.e. the hamburger, fries, fried chicken
and the ice creams are of the most important part. For McDonald's the products
which are available for the customers are for the utmost important. It is
essentials to keep the quality of the product same and consistence which is also
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the brand image point of McDonald's (Pappas, 2017). It has maintained the
taste of the hamburgers same where ever the customer goes.
2. Price- to retain and to maintain the customer base it is very essential that the
price of the product which McDonald's is selling are constant or are reasonable
for the customer to purchase. The price is the best thing which is offered by
McDonald's as it is the same in every part of the world.
3. Place- McDonald's is today available in almost every nation and is having of
about 37000+ total locations of the world and everywhere it is in the best of its
locations. McDonald's is serving about 70 million customers on daily basis in
more than 100 countries of the world.
4. Promotion- McDonald's certainly after so many years of establishments does
not need any promotion of the products it sells but then also promotion is one
of the things which McDonald's is very good at. As McDonald's know how to
grow the customers in every part of the world like to attract the customer
especially the kids and youngsters it takes out many promotional ads and offers
like happy meal etc (Posavac and Posavac, 2017). It also promotes the products
through social media and various other mode of promotion.
5. Physical evidence- McDonald's provide the best restaurants in the world to its
customers and most stand-alone McDonald's edifice offering both counter
service and the drive through service with indoor and also out door setting. It
provides the most standardised food chains in the world as they are almost the
same in all parts of the country. Drive-ins, Auto-Mac, Pay and Drive or Mc
Drive as it is known in many other country which often has separate stations
for placing the order, for paying and then for picking the order.
6. Process- the procedures involved in the making of the food at McDonald's are
very safe and hygienic. They in all the restaurants follow the same and
consistent process of making hamburgers, fries and all the other food items the
raw materials used in the making are also almost they same. In the year 2015-
16 McDonald's started a new burger service concept known as Create Your
Taste in this customer was allowed to choose his own ingredients including the
type of bun and meat with the optional extras.
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7. People- the employee's working in the McDonald's are trained to serve the
customer in the best possible way they can do. The employee's should be very
decent and very please making so that the customers are retained in the
company for a longer duration of time (Rezaei, Wee and Valaei, 2017). People
working in McDonald's are the only one who directly meet the customers so
the customer will be having the image of employee's over the McDonald's.
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TASK 4
3.1 Producing and evaluating the marketing plan for McDonald's.
Marketing plan and the evaluation of it is very essential for McDonald's as with
the help of this marketing plan McDonald's will be able to target the customer, grow
the sales and increase the profits of the company. If the marketing plan has to be made
McDonald's need to keep some important points to increase the sales and the revenue
as well. To target the potential customers, to divide them into the segment, setting of
the market objective, doing the SWOT analysis, pricing and positioning strategies and
then the distribution plan these are the steps involved in making the marketing plan.
Situational analysis:
McDonald's if preforming very good in the marketplace as is the most loved and
reputation within customer's. The company is liking to be grown and developing in market
using brand value of company in very good sense.
Market goal:
As for the new taste for the customer McDonald's is brining a new real fruit
flavoured ice creams to add on to their desserts menu (Rudden, 2016). This new fruit
flavoured ice creams would be purely made up of fruits this is to attract the new
customers form the markets this is the new set market objective. To grow the sales of
these fruit flavoured ice creams it is important to target the customer and do the
market research for the demand for the fruit flavoured ice creams.
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Marketing Strategy
Segmentation target positioning:
Segmentation-
Fruit flavoured ice creams are generally for all the types of customer and also every
age group likes to go to the McDonald's for having their food in the restaurant. So
McDonald's will target every segments of customers while marketing Fruit flavoured ice
creams in the world and also offer to all types of customer who generally demand the
product.
Target-
The target of McDonald's would be profit maximization and also the sale
maximization and to remain the top and world leader of the world in the food chain
restaurants and also to beat Star bucks.
Positioning-
At the present moment McDonald's is positioned as the worlds second the largest food
chain restaurant after Starbucks and now its aim is to be on the top on the fast food industry.
SWOT analysis:
McDonald's also need to do the SWOT analysis of the company before coming
with the new product in the market (Udachyna, Bandorina and Savchuk, 2017).
SWOT analysis include the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats of
McDonald's in the environment.
Strengths-
The strengths of the McDonald's is its strong global brand image which is also its
USP which make the firm unique in the market (SWOT analysis of McDonald's 2017). The
taste of the food available in McDonald's is also the strength of it as where ever customer go
he'll find the same taste whether in New York or in Hong Kong.
Weaknesses-
The main weak point of McDonald's is the high employee turnover as it pays very less
to the employee so they leave the job very soon. Many times there have been the negative
publicity of the food of McDonald's because of which the sales decreased.
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Opportunities-
The McDonald's always try to expand the plans and the market shares of the
company for the better development there are many opportunities in the
underdeveloped nations of the world (Verma, 2017). At the end of 2018 McDonald's
has decided to open 3500 re franchised restaurants.
Threats-
The biggest threat of McDonald's are its growing competitors in the food chain
markets who are trying to sell the same quality of products but at a convenient price.
Nowadays there is a gradual increase in the more health conscious customer who
prefer the organic products, fresh fruits and vegetables.
PESTLE analysis
[Source: Akbar, Omar and Wadood, 2017]
The PESTLE analysis model determines all the external factors which present
the opportunities and the threats of the business which may be affected by political,
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economical, social, legal and the environment factors (Akbar, Omar and Wadood,
2017).
Political- global influenced,
Government stability, and
changes in rules.
Economical- employment
rates, inflation rates and
monetary policies Environment- regulation and
restriction attitudes of
customers.
Social- distribution of
income, demographic
influenced and lifestyle
factors.
Legal- taxation policies,
employment laws and
industrial regulations.
Budgeting- this is also important so that management could track the revenue and profits and
expense of the firm and according to this planning must be done.
Monitoring and control: steps must be taken so that the objectives are achieved and
everything is done according to the plan of company. There must be no loopholes or negative
parts which must remain in the planning of management. Monitoring is done on regular bases
so that is there are any actions which are to be taken could be implemented within the time
span only.
CONCLUSION
From above report it has been concluded that marketing is not just a tool which
help the company to grow and develop but in recent scenario it has been developed as
a separate department of the company. It guides the company about the market what is
the customer demanding from the company and what all changes it has to made after
the research of the market. Today marketing team must be good at creating customer
value and also managing the customer relationship to retain them. McDonald's been a
leader in the growing fast food restaurant uses the best marketing strategies to grow
more and to sustain in the market. The marketing functions plays an important role to
achieve overall business objectives. Also, the marketing mix like product, price, place,
promotion, physical evidence, process and the people are the 7P's of marketing mix
which help the McDonald's to target the market and to increase the profits.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
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