International Marketing Strategy Report: McDonald's in Zimbabwe

This report provides a detailed analysis of McDonald's international marketing strategy, focusing on its potential expansion into Zimbabwe. It begins with an introduction to international marketing, highlighting the challenges and opportunities companies face in a globalized market. The report then delves into Task 1, which examines the application of the marketing mix (7Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes, and Physical Evidence) to McDonald's entry into the Zimbabwean market, specifically focusing on a new spicy hamburger. Task 2 explores various market entry strategies, including franchising, licensing, and strategic alliances/joint ventures, evaluating their suitability for McDonald's. Finally, Task 3 addresses the issues impacting the international marketing environment, such as the global financial crisis. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and recommendations for McDonald's international marketing efforts.

International
Marketing
Strategy
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................12
Books & Journals......................................................................................................................12
Online........................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
International marketing is also known as Global marketing. Now a days many
organizations are doing international marketing. It means companies are exporting and importing
their goods with the other countries. It is a worldwide process that plans and execute the strategy.
They made exchanges of goods and services that satisfy the needs of an individual and business.
When companies do their business globally they have to face many environmental issues
like political, technological, legal, economical, cultural and social. These issues are
uncontrollable so companies have to adopt these changes and perform accordingly. There are
many companies who wants to increase their profits and want to spread their business worldwide
so they go global. The marketer can easily deal with controllable factors or internal environment
and marketing mix of the organization.
This report explain the concept of international marketing and how companies can follow
the strategies and establish their business worldwide. For the present report, MacDonald wants to
spread their business in the Zimbabwe. So they have to built international marketing strategies
and to use of marketing mix which suits in Zimbabwe. This case explained each and every
element of marketing mix that suits the business in foreign market.
TASK 1
MacDonald is global brand and known for their tasty foods and dishes, company is
working in most of the countries in the world. But some of countries are remaining, so
MacDonald wants to explore their business in the these countries and it is staring from
Zimbabwe (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2013). Company wants to open their outlets with a new
type of Hamburger which having more spicy ginger garlic taste in it. This country is situated in
the Southern Africa and this is known for their dramatic landscape and diverse wildlife.
Zimbabwe having tourism based economy, many tourist comes here to visit wild safari, Zambezi
River, Victoria Falls, white-water rafting and bungee-jumping.
So this is an interest for MacDonald, tourist wants to go and to eat their well known taste
food. Company is wants to total globalization market so they want to open their outlets in those
countries where they are not working. So it is very essential to analyse there situation and to
make an effecting marketing strategy which is based on there local situations. Marketing mix is a
tool which is related on the over all analysis and the marketing of a product. So this is a best tool

for launching a new product. In these international marketing mix, company will use 7 p's of
marketing mix tool. This tool having 7 part in it which is related to the price, promotion, product,
etc. These are helps into making international marketing strategies and the brief of 7P's are here:
1. Product: A company should launch a product that fulfil the needs and wants of the target
market. They have to launch a right kind of product for right kind of target audience.
When business go global they have to consider certain factors like consumers buying
habit, background and their income (Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2014). MacDonald is
GLOCAL company their burgers are adapted at local and global level. Company provide
burgers at both level according to the taste of the customers. This is related to a
Hamburger, this is having some extra spicy and special ginger garlic taste in it. This is a
new range and a unique taste in Hamburger range. It attracts to those customer who wants
spicy taste in this product range.
2. Price: Pricing of a product can affected by these factors; cost of transportation, import
duties, exchange rate fluctuations, economic situations and income of consumer etc. The
price of the product should justify the value of that product. If price and value of that
product are not matched then consumer will not buy that product. MacDonald have to
make a fair price for this product. The economic conditions are not good in Zimbabwe so
company have to use effective rates in this product which is attracts to the new consumers
of the market. The speciality of the taste does not affect on the cost because it is just a
flavour.
3. Place: This factor of marketing mix tells about the place where the products are sold to
the consumers. At this place sales person and customer are interact with each other. The
product should be available from where your target consumer finds it easiest to shop.
This is important for MacDonald to open their outlets in the main markets and they can
sell their burgers online at affordable price. Most of the peoples in UK are making their
online orders it is easy to access (Henseler, Ringle and Sinkovics, 2009). But in the case
of Zimbabwe, there are some places where internet is not accessible so in this case they
also use the telephonic order service and some other types of distribution channels.
4. Promotion: Through advertising, public relations and social networking sites company
can promote their product. These promotional activities are important part of any
company and these should be performed within and outside of the organization.

MacDonald may use the print advertisement to make the promotions for this Hamburger,
effectively. Television ads are also useful in this to make some promotional activities.
5. People: This is an important factor which may effect the promotional activities and sales
activities of a product. People is the important part of the company who are running the
organization in right manner. Having the right people in the organization is must because
the wrong people cannot achieve the goals that are predefined by the organization
(Berthon and et. al., 2012). MacDonald have to recruit some peoples from Zimbabwe for
the front line sales operations.
6. Processes: Processes is related to the services that are offering to the end users or
customers. Every organization should have a proper distributing channel that should be
maintained by the people. Processes affects the services so companies should focused on
the cost minimization technique. MacDonald focuses on the processes and they make
products that satisfy the demand of the customer at low cost and also they focused on
price sensitive customer.
7. Physical Evidence: Physical evidence should be there in companies that products and
services are delivered to consumers. It is related to brand of the company that how
consumers perceive products. Image of the company should be good in market then only
customers will prefers products of a particular organization. Packaging of product should
be attractive so that it can attract more customers. MacDonald use this factor in their
packaging that attract more customers and demand of burger increases.
[Source: 7 p's of marketing, 2016]
Illustration 1: International Marketing Mix

TASK 2
When companies spread their business worldwide then they have varieties of options
available in the market. These options are depend upon different factors like cost of the product
and risk attached with the product. MacDonald is using strategy to enter in a new market in a
new country. Whenever a company wants to enter in a foreign market, they have to use a specific
market entry strategy (Atuahene-Gima and Murray, 2007). This report is about the
McDonald's international business. It is a restaurant that provides fast food on global level. The
Company follow different types of strategies like export, franchising, strategic alliances and
investments. Some strategies are explained below-1. Franchising: MacDonald does not use the export of the production because they are
dealing in food. MacDonald primarily operates through franchises in the new country like
Zimbabwe. Franchising is a way to expand their business into another country and control
should be there on the usage of brand and operations of the franchiser. Through the
concept of franchising companies can earn more profits and run faster than any other
organization. Company have low investment in the initial period and control should be
there in usage of brands and operations (Sheth, 2011).
Evaluation: This is not easy for a company to make a franchisee in a new country but for the
MacDonald it is not a big task. Company is a big brand name and their name is their goodwill.
The other part of the franchisee model is that profit share is big deal in it, generally it is decided
in the contract between the both parties and conditions are placed from the MacDonald. But this
is not a perfect model this may be used for the primary basis in a new country. Franchisee model
does not succeed for a long time. This is depends on the business to run it or not.2. Licensing: Licensing is a strategy that is used by the organizations to enter into
international market. In this strategy licensor give the right to the organizations to use
their brand name and operations and in return they get a good amount or royalty payment
and loyalty customer. This strategy is used by many organizations like MacDonald. Small
players take licence from the international organization and serve the local customers
under the name of the licensor. Licensing reduced the direct investment of the local
players who are entering into new market. This help the organization in minimizing the
financial risk. Due to these investment profit potential of the organization is get reduced

in the new market. Another risk of this strategy is that if licensor company may suffer
from the quality products and services then they can end up with the licensing (Aspelund,
Koed Madsen and Moen, 2007). If licensee company perform below the expectation rate
of the customers then licensor may take the right from the local player .
Evaluation: It is not easy to control on the quality in the licensing situation and this is a serious
disadvantage of this. It is directly impacting on the brand name so these type of issue can harm
the goodwill and brand name of MacDonald. Another thing is that it s all depends on an
international partner also creates or reduce risks regarding the success of that firm. MacDonald
have to rely on their partner but this is not sure that they does not cheat them or they give them
full of revenues due to relying on an external party is also a key disadvantage to this model.
3. Strategic Alliances And Joint Ventures: Both strategic alliances and joint ventures are
same. In this strategy two parties are come together to perform some objectives and goals
in international market. These two companies share their knowledge, expertise, shares
and profits are also shared among the partners. They both tried to reduce the risk in the
organization and increase the growth of the organization. This is the main advantage of
the company is that partners can share their problems with each other and can reach at
best possible solution. In this strategy the all the investments and net profits are shared
among the joint venture partners (Palmatier and et. al., 2009). McDonald’s also used this
strategic alliances and joint ventures strategy to entering into a new market. It has formed
such subsidiaries in new markets. These subsidiaries are joint ventures and these joint
ventures have to perform controlled and negotiation process.
Evaluation: This is really good and works for the MacDonald, to get a experience in a
new market. One more thing is that firms have many goals that they have to perform so t
hey go for strategic alliances and joint venture. Partners in a strategic alliance can get
advantage in many aspects like they can build a strong relationship with their partners,
can access unknown and unfamiliar markets, they can share risks, shared technology,
costs and profits. So on the behalf of the report, join venture is a good strategy for
entering in a new market.
TASK 3
In the current scenario, there are several issues which affecting on the international
marketing environment. So here are some of them:

 Global Financial Crisis:
The global financial crisis often termed as financial crisis. It happens when there is a
collapse of large financial institutions, the monitory assistance given to banks by national
governments and declines in stock markets over the globe. In different areas, the housing market
also agonized that is resulted into evictions, foreclosures and prolonged unemployment. In the
failure of key businesses the crisis played a very significant role . This is affecting on the
international marketing environment (Verhoef and Leeflang, 2009). A company is like
MacDonald; they have a big chain in many countries so they are directly affecting on it. This is
an economical affect in the international market. Global market have quick affect by these
financial crisis. Whenever it becomes in the market the big multi national companies have to
make changes in their economical policies to survive in these conditions. In the context of
MacDonald, company have to make changes in the prices and they have to reduce their
functional cost. They have to rely on their partner in the international joint ventures. These are
the situations where a company like MacDonald they have many employees and they are
working for them. But sometimes it make a burden on the management of the MacDonald. It is a
economical issue of international marketing environment. Causes of poverty:
The state of majority can be termed to poverty which is for world's people and nation.
The enhancement in the interconnectedness which have been promised by modernisation are the
policies and the practices and the global decisions and can be formulated by rich and powerful
society and are also typically influenced or formulated. (Rindfleisch and et. al., 2008). As the era
of globalisation, the organisations like McDonald, setup their business in country like Zimbabwe
where the poverty level is very high. This is a situation where the organisation trying to setup
their business in new nation in relation to the majority of consumers who like their products and
services. The poorest people will also have less access to health, education and other services.
Problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease afflict the poorest in society.
The society marginalize the poorest and have little representation or voice in public and
political debates and also making it even harder for the poor ones to escape poverty. During this
period the governing bodies of such poor economies and their people are often powerless.
 Tax avoidance and tax havens; Undermining democracy:

It is of compulsion for each and every individual and also for the business corporations to
pay the tax at a regular basis companies all have to pay taxes but then also there are some of the
world's wealthiest individuals and multinational companies and they are able and find out ways
by the help of their ingenious lawyers and accountants and figure out how to avoid paying
enormous amount of taxes (Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels, 2009). The organisation's like
McDonald, also relies in the same category. If this actually happens then the entities may get into
some serious trouble for evasion of tax and waiving its payment which may cause some severe
damages to entity.
Many of the influential organisations also loads lots of financial into making and turning
a internationally and also it has its contribution in the development of globalization that seems
less like true free market capitalism but it is more like a modern form of the unequal mercantile
that prevailed during colonial and imperial times (Cateora, 2008).
 Corruption: This an element which highly affecting on the international marketing
environment. In developing economies the rate of corruption definitely must be high on
the priority lists. The corruption is a main problem in a developing and undeveloped
countries. This is a global cause to make uncertain things in the international market. In
the current scenario, company have to face these in several sectors and generally they
face it into the governance. So as the result, this is a direct making a impact on the cost.
 World hunger and poverty
As poverty leads to hunger the sense full long-term mitigation of hunger is planted in the
ass-augment of poverty. It is a symbol of big poverty in the world. The company should not only
focus at distributing food, or improving food production or distribution, and if done so then the
main reason would be still in the existence which makes hunger, poverty and
dependency(Bergkvist and Rossiter, 2007).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that McDonald have to improve the
strategies for improving the performance in the market. The company have to make the good
product so that the consumers can purchase the market and company can increase the sales they
have to sell the products at the reasonable price by that the consumers can purchase the product
and satisfaction level of the consumers also increase. The best method for entering into the new

market McDonald have to take the license and then they can produce the product with the best
quality and at the reasonable price.