Marketing Essentials Report: MacDonald's Marketing Strategies Analysis

This report examines the marketing strategies of McDonald's, a prominent fast-food chain. It begins with an introduction to marketing, emphasizing its role in making goods and services available to consumers. The report then delves into the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within McDonald's, including advertising, market study, commodity management, and customer service. It also explores the relationship between the marketing department and other departments within the organization, such as finance and IT. The core of the report focuses on the application of the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) to the marketing planning process, analyzing how each element influences McDonald's decision-making. Finally, the report includes a marketing plan for McDonald's, offering strategic recommendations for future growth and success. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and providing references for further research.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTODUCTION..............................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.............................................................1
P2 Relation between duties of marketing and wider organisation.............................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Application of the marketing mix to the marketing planning process .................................3
Task 3 ..............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Marketing plan.......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTODUCTION
Marketing is a process through which goods and services are produced and made
available in market. The main aim of this concept is to make services available where they are
most demanded by the customers. MacDonald is a big food chain which is dealing in
consumable products since 1917 and was founded by Ray Kroc. Following report is prepared in
order to understand the various duties performed by marketing team in cited organisation. Below
study will highlight the various functions of a selling management that are performed in order to
develop and expand the scale of operations (Aaboud and et. al., 2017). Thereafter, the given
report ill enhance the knowledge of reader about ow different marketing mix elements effects the
decision making of cited organisation.
TASK 1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
In the present business environment it is observed that food industry faces maximum
competition as demand for same has increased to a good level. MacDonald's is known for its
burgers fries and beverages. Now with increase in need for such products many new entries are
also taking place with a view of earning higher profit. This has increased pressure on each unit as
in order to maximise sales marketing team of cited company needs to take more efforts so that it
can stand in the external competition. They have to be more responsible and perform their duties
with more dedication (Aad and et. al., 2012). Variety of function are performed by marketing
manager of cited company which are given below. These also contributes in increasing the total
profitability. Functions of same are as follows:
Advertising – In order to update customers with new products launched by the cited company,
management needs to update consumers timely. Depending upon the target market mode of
publicity can be adopted like newspaper, social media advertisement hoardings etc. This way
clients gets to know about the innovations or changes or new product developed by company.
Each mode of marketing has their own positives and negatives. Therefore, it is one the most
important function performed by marketing team to choose the right option as if a wrong
decision is taken than it will result into loss of resources and time which may further lead to
adverse effects on profit margin. Customers like changes and when they get to know about a new
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product they get more attracted and therefore total sales increases (Al-Hasan Thomas and
Mansour, 2016).
Business interaction – Whenever a change in existing operations is done by management of
cited company they need to communicate the same to different users like customers, investors or
other stakeholders. Depending upon nature and type of information it needs to be communicated
as their decisions may get affected once they are informed.
Market study – In order to formulate polices and strategies management needs to have complete
knowledge about the latest trend in market. This is another function which is performed by
marketing team in which it collects data from the external surrounding and accordingly take the
various decisions. Once important facts are gathered it becomes easy to formulate different code
of conduct for the cited company.
Commodity management – For maximising profit it is very important that company provide
customers with what they actually demands. For this an important function of product
management system is conducted by the marketing team so that right product is made available
on right time.
Competition analysis – in order to survive in market the most important thing is to analyse the
whole industry as it helps maximum in fixing the price. Customers are very much cost sensitive
and switch their demand very easily when provided with low cost products. Hence, fixing the
right price is another major function performed by marketing team so that it does not get affected
with other brand products.
Work and transmit brand value - to create goodwill of the company is a prime function of
promotional team. Customers are now very much sensitive, they like using good branded
products even if they have to pay high as they are more conscious about brand value instead of
its services (Babin and Zikmund, 2015).
Coordination of various activities – Variety of activities are performed in an organisation.
Marketing itself is a big individual task and to maintain coordination among various activities is
of vital importance. It is the duty of promotional team to take various efforts so that they each
function is performed in an effective manner.
Customer service – Once the product is sold it is not like the responsibility ends. Even after sale
management has to ensure that customer does not have any issues regarding the same. In case
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any problem arises it is the duty of marketing team to resolve the matter. It can be a after sale
service, customer dissatisfaction complains etc.
Marketing planning – Objectives are set by the top authority which needs to be accomplish
within the given time period. To achieve those planning needs to be done that how the set targets
will be accomplished. Thus marketers has to take efforts towards how work has to be done and
who all will be a part of that project.
Standardisation and grading – Before manufacturing the actual products MacDonald's needs to
decide what will be the size, shape quantity of each commodity so that accordingly production
can be done. Sales are possible only if the given aspects are achieved properly. As variety of
products are produced by this company grading becomes important so that accordingly
placement of each item is done.
Packaging – Cited company provides take away facilities also to their customers. This way it
becomes more important to have effective facilities of wrapping their products so that clients do
not find it inconvenient to carry the same.
Physical Distribution – To make products available where they are actually required is of
immense importance and this is another function performed by management in order to create
place and time utility (Baines, Fill and Page, 2013).
Storage and warehousing – Enough time gap takes place between the time of production and
consumption of products produced by cited company. It is thus an important role performed by
marketing management team to maintain the required stock that too with care so that it does not
get much effected.
Budget maintenance – In order to control total cost it is important that total activities are
managed and targeted against different budgets. Marketing manger sets budgets against each
activity which helps in reducing total cost. Also this way efficiency of management gets
increased as they know their performance will be evaluated though this process.
P2 Relation between duties of marketing and wider organisation
Marketing is necessary in the business entity as it helps in doing promotion of products
and services and it helps in attracting large number of consumers. Marketing having a adverse
affect on the different functions of McDonald which includes Human resource, finance,
information technology, consumers service department etc. so for that they have to make
merchandise plans in the correct way and attain maximum benefits (Hoványi, 2013). Finance
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department makes the proper financial statements which assist in finding the proper care of funds
which assist in making changes and on the basis of that correct decisions to be made. IT
department helps in identifying new and innovative technology to manufacture best food items.
In McDonald, research department have to identify the needs and wants of consumers and have
to fulfil them by collecting appropriate data. All the departments having knowledge they have to
know about market situations which assist in perform the work in a better way in attaining
growth. There are different functions of marketing which includes pricing, selling, distribution,
marketing information management, promotion, product as well as financing.
In every department, they have to do better and qualitative work and for that they require
funds which will assist in fulfilling the needs as well as desires of service users. For making
better research funds require and also have to use appropriate resources. Finance department
make proper budgets and provide them so that they can do expenditure accordingly and by using
that funds they can deliver better products and services to them which will helps in increasing
sales of McDonald and also aid in generating maximum revenue (Jain, Ahuja and Medury,
2013). McDonald having their marketing department which does the promotion of products
when they provide offers and different deals to their consumers. That deals and offers helps in
attracting consumers by which company can increase their sales.
TASK 2
P3 Application of the marketing mix to the marketing planning process
Marketing mix is a combination of all those factors which are utilised to achieve the
objectives of any business. Earlier it used to consist of 4ps but later with increase in their
effectiveness three more were added which helped management in establishing an effective
business entity. Through this process all the relevant decisions are taken with maximum care so
that best alternative is chosen by the business authority. Given below are the details of various
factors which help in decision taking to management.
Product: Organisation offers variety of fast food to their clients, such as, Big mac, ground
sirloin sandwiches and cheeseburgers, quarter pounder French fries and so on. Along with this,
they offer sweet items like Mc flurry treats, sundaes, delicate serve cones, pies. Products offered
by cited company are liked by all although this company failed in full fulling its promise of
maintaining health of their customers as products offered by same are not very healthy. It is very
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important for MacDonald to work on its offerings so that they do not harm the health of
consumers. People now have become so much of health conscious that they do not compromise
with the quality of what they eat. Maintaining the quality of products is an important feature for
all but as cited company is dealing in items that are used for intake it becomes more important
for company to be careful for what they produce (Baker and Saren, 2016). Production team has
to ensure that they use healthy ingredients and do not compromise with the total quality.
Place – MacDonald has its stores in various locations that are easily accessible by all. Apart
from this company also takes care of those who are in hurry and do not have time to sit and eat
as for those cited organisation provide their clients with the facility of drive through. This way
total sales gets increased. It has its stores all over the world and depending upon the demand its
size varies which helped the management in acquiring more and more market. With increased in
demand for food items competition has increased much as more and more food joints are coming
in industry with very close substitutes and therefore this increases pressure on the cited company
to keep their products at best places that it does not have to invest more on marketing and comes
in notice of more people due to its location like famous malls, nearby toll areas universities etc.
Price – Best advantage with this company is that it maintain very economic cost for its products.
They do not charge much and because of this it is more popular among the students (Banerjee,
2013). Biggest challenge for any business entity is to maintain the controlled cost so that it does
not have to alter price of different products as making variations in price effects the image of
cited company. Customers before taking their buying decisions compare the value of different
options and than accordingly make their choice and as cited company prices are kept low
consumers do not switch to other brand much.
Promotion – It is an essential element of marketing as through advertisement customers gets to
know about the various new and existing products brought by company. Cited organisation use
an effective method of promoting their brand by keeping in mind their target markets and
accordingly planning the strategies. It take use gifts for small children like giving them toys on
their purchase on special events (Beatty and Samuelson, 2014). Apart from this company is also
known for its attractive mascot with which clients like clicking their pictures and this way more
and more people visit the place. Not only this but it also gives their customer facility of various
celebrations like organising birthday parties for kids etc. This way it is famous among other
brands and is successful in promoting its brand.
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People – It consist of all those who are part of cited company like its employees, customers, staff
members etc. To expand and develop the most important factor is to maintain healthy relation
with all those who are directly or indirectly related with the business. Loyalty towards customers
is very important so that trust can be developed and accordingly long term relation can be
established (Clow and James, 2013). Apart from this staff working in the organisation also needs
to be provided with good working surroundings so that they can work with total concentration
and dedication. Also when employees are happy with their work place absenteeism and labour
turnover is reduced which increase the total output.
Physical evidence – In order to attract more people it is important that the appearance of
different outlets should be attractive. Although it can not change or add new designs in different
locations as it maintains the set standards in all of its stores. Cited company has adopted theme of
red and yellow colours which is very attractive and lively therefore liked by all (Cohen and et.
al., 2010). Also it provides its customers drive through facility which is rarely adopted in other
brands making it different from all. This way it gives its clients facility to save their time and
efforts.
Process – To manufacture products with maintaining effective process is very important.
Management needs to ensure that the manufacturing cycle is small and placement of each
producing unit should be such that it does not require to take much time to be transferred to next
producing unit. Cited company use an open kitchen concept which enable customers to watch
what is being cooked (Braslow, 2015). This also help in building customer loyalty and trust that
hygiene is maintained in the process of producing goods.
Task 3
P4 Marketing plan
Marketing plan are produce to meet Mc Donald marketing aims and objectives. The element of
of commercialization mix is being followed in the designing marketing plan for the organization.
Introduction:
Marketing plan is start with well constructed and considered marketing strategies that are
being adopted by Mc Donald in his business. It consist of various aspect that are covered in
designing plan. It consist of small summary of detail of used information which are help in
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producing a document purpose. It help reader to identify and analysed it future chance of growth
and success.
Overviews:
It contain company information and its background with contact details. It will help in attracting
customers who by seeing it review through online or any means (Caporaso and et. al., 2010. It
includes:
Name of the company: McDonald's
Address: McDonald's Restaurants Ltd, 11-59, High Road, East Frinchley, London N2 8AW
McDonald's is known as leading restaurant in food and beverages sectors in most of the country.
It is established in 1940 as barbecue restaurant which is operated in California. It is known as
one of the major provider of food sector in UK.
Vision:
The overall vision of McDonald's to become a modern, progressive burger company in
delivering a contemporary customer experiences. Modern is about the brand were it stand in
current situation, progressive is about doing what takes to be the best for customer in future
prospective. By focusing all this statements it aims to provide best test in quality food to its
customers (Chamorro, Miranda and Rubio, 2014).
Mission:
It's Mission is all about to become customer most favourite place and way to eat drink. It also
based on delivering best place for people to work in one roof. Its mission is based on aspect to
become positive impact in their communities and also to deliver quality, services cleanliness
product to its customers.
Porter model of McDonald's:
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It experience that effect external factors to related intensities. The company need to adopt
various strategies to minimise the negative impact of business. There are various elements
proposed by porter which are given below:
 Competitive Rivalry - McDonald have faced hard competitions because the food
restaurant market is already saturated. It help the effect of competing firms in industry
environment. Under this it is based on various factors like high number of firms, huge
aggressiveness of company towards its customers and low transferring costs.
 Bargaining power of Customers - The basic element of five forces are analysed deals
with proper demands of customers. It includes various aspects of barraging power of
buyer includes low transferring cost, large number of providers and large amount of
substitutes available with the company.
 Bargaining power of Suppliers - The weak power of suppliers is based on following
external factors like many suppliers are available with the company, low level of vertical
integration, huge supply of raw material. Large population effect weaken the supplier
because of regional and global alliances among suppliers (Dioko, 2016).
 Threats of Substitutes - It is a serious concern for McDonald's that is deals with the
potential effects of substitutes available in growth of company. It includes various
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substitutes are available with McDonald. Cost of switch is also low under this. The cost
of ratio is huge in terms of performance.
 Threats of new entrants - It reduce the market shares of McDonald's. It required
moderated switching cost and moderated cost to its new entrants. Brand development
cost is high under this.
Swot analysis of MacDonald
Through doing the internal analysis of cited company its strength and weaknesses can be
identified which further help management in taking various decisions like which are need to be
improvised. Also through this process company gets to know its strong points like what all
factors are their in which cited company is doing excel so that same can be utilised to expand the
whole business (Harris Schwartz and Brownell, 2010). Apart from this while doing the swot
study threats are recognised which is also of an immense importance as this way management
can make arrangements in present so that degree of risk can be minimised.
Strength – It has a good hold in international market as its stores are spread all over the world
which gives a tough competition to other companies in same field. It is earning good returns as
its customers are increasing continuously and also it faces minimum fluctuations in external
environment.
Weakness – The biggest drawback with cited company is its research team is ineffective in
suggesting innovative ideas to its customers and therefore very few new products are launched
by it.
Opportunity – It can work on its product to come up with innovative ideas. Also company
should take care of different ingredients which are used by it so that it provides healthy food
items. Apart from this it should also use various new marketing strategies to expand.
Threats – with increase in outside eating trend the major danger to cited company is more and
more new entries are taking place in this industry which is increasing the level of competition.
BCG Matrix:
As per BCG matrix McDonald's is belongs to Star business. Because of high market
growth and high market share in all market where it situated. On the other hand KFC and pizza
hut are the cash cows because of their low growth level and high market share. Another
competitor of McDonald's is subway. According to BCG matrix it is said to be Dog market.
Some of the reason of lower market in expansion are because of low level of strategies adopted
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by the company. Star categories are based on high market share with maximum market growth
rate. The company main target is to expand his business through promoting, marketing of their
products. Question mark: One of the product of McDonald's Ice Cream Cone is the break even
product of the company because of low market share with maximum market growth rate. It
indicated that product has captured good market value in the minds of the customers (Cohen and
et. al., 2010).
Dog product of the company is related to less market share and less growth chances. This is a
kind of product which shows charm product because the company is not going to invest more on
money to increase market share in market share.
McDonald's Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning:
It is one of the integral aspects of its marketing strategies. Segmentation involves division
of people on the basis of certain characteristics. Where target market a particular specific group
identify as market to sell its products. It is based on the geographic factors which is based on
particular region, density, age and gender. Demographic situations is based on life cycle stage of
a product. Positioning indicates choice of marketing mix for a suitable customer segment of
other categories. In the case of McDonald's it use adoptive kind of strategies in his positing of
product to its customers. It is a kind of creating a perception in the minds of customers about its
brand and products (Cua Reames and Chai, 2013).
Targeting is more similar aspect of company to identify those customers who are having
purchasing power to buy his products. It is based on income level of each customers.
Tactics and action: McDonald's can receive extra benefits through improvising certain actions
and tactics. In relation to his product there are always some of other doubts in the minds of
consumers and in order to resolve problems that are faced by customers while using his products.
If customers are satisfied with the products of McDonald's then profit and goodwill of the
company will be increase. Same store sales for the global through increasing restaurant chain in
all over the country.
Budget: It is a kind of plan that is made with relation to a definite period of time in relation to
various income and expenditure that a company can invested in manufacturing a product. The
main objective of preparing budget is to know the estimation of sales and profit that it gain for
coming year. So advance budget is being prepared to control cost and other expense those are
used while production process.
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Control: In the marketing plan it is important to plan a control chart that would help to protect
the wastage of funds and working of McDonald. The main aim of marketing of product is to
achieve the objective that is set by the company to became huge market of in serving product to
its customers. The limit of budget is also being control through plan monitoring techniques and
do review on regular basis.
Conclusion
From the above study it can be summarised that it is very important for cited company to
have an effective marketing management system so that it can maintain and develop its total
business. Through adopting the right process it can effectively work on its different operations
which is very crucial to stand in the tough competition which is faced in this industry. Marketing
mix factors discussed above shows how it is necessary to give equal importance to various
factors so that management can take the right decision on correct time and make the required
product available in the market. Lastly, the given report concluded with planning for cited
company which help management in taking the right decisions on time for their business.
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