Marketing Essentials Report: McDonald's Marketing Strategies and Plan

This report provides a comprehensive overview of marketing essentials, focusing on their application within McDonald's. It begins by outlining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, examining its relationship to the wider organizational context. The report then delves into the ma...Read More

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1 .................................................................................................................................................3
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function.......................................................3
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organizational context.............6
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................9
P3. Comparison of application marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve
business objectives.................................................................................................................9
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................10
P4. A basic marketing plan for McDonald's.........................................................................10
CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing essentials is concerned with understanding the basics of marketing and its
management in order to run business activities. Marketing essentials is focused on performance
based approach. McDonald's operates its business in fast food chain restaurants and offers
variety of food products and beverages to its customers. McDonald's uses various marketing
techniques and tools in order to attract customers and influence them to buy products and
services offered. Marketing techniques facilitate in attracting consumers and gaining their trust
and it also builds brand image and loyalty. In the following report, current and future trends of
marketing and different marketing process are explained. Value and importance of marketing are
also explained and relationship between various functional departments is also discussed.
LO1
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
The marketing concept helps business organization to understand the needs and wants of
its customers which can be helpful in meeting their expectation and satisfying them. McDonald's
analyses demands of its target market and serves them accordingly and gain competitive
advantage. Marketing concepts are divided into five parts and it also involves current and future
trends which help in effective planning of marketing (Brychkov and Domegan, 2017).
Current and future trends of marketing:
Virtual reality is increasing and trending in current market situations. McDonald's adopts
virtual reality as a marketing tool in order to attract and influence customers and increase market
share. Virtual reality refers to interactive experience generated through computers and it
incorporates audio and visual feedback.
Now-a-days business organisations focuses on adopting right time of marketing which is
trending in current markets as it can help in gaining competitive advantage. Business
organisations does not focus much on real-time marketing.
Pinterest is also one of the trends being adopted in markets to gain attention of customers
and to attract them. It is niche social media site or platform used by organization to advertise and
promotes its product and services. It allows McDonald's to capture additional attention of target
markets.
Artificial intelligence is a future trend which may greatly influence the marketing and
business operations. It enables organization to lower down the need of human resource to handle

and manage the business activities. McDonald's can make use of artificial intelligence by
implementing robot waiters which will lead to bring efficiency in operations. AI would also lead
to attract more customers.
Product concept: Product concept refers that customers gets attracted towards the
products and services which have value for money and quality. McDonald's aims at providing
those products and services which are beneficial for customer's and it also creates value for their
money.
Production concept: Production concepts refers that customers get attracted towards
product which are available easily at reasonable rates. So, McDonald's focuses on increasing its
productivity which overall results in reducing its cost price which attracts more customers. It
basically aims at providing quality products at reasonable price and which results in increasing
its market share.
Marketing concept: It explains that consumers get attracted towards organization which
has created brand image. McDonald's aims at attracting the target markets by effectively
marketing its products in market which helps in creating brand image.
Selling concept: Selling concepts explains that consumers are tended to buy those
products which have aggressive promotion in markets. McDonald's uses various marketing mix
to promote its product and attract consumers (Hamzah and Sutant, 2016).
Societal marketing concept: This concept explains that organization should focus on
meeting demands of target markets which will attract customers. McDonald's aims at meeting
expectations of its target markets which results in increasing market share and gain competitive
advantage.
Overview of different marketing processes
Marketing aims at executing various plans and concepts which leads to achievement of
goals. Every business organization needs to adopt systematic process in order to accomplish
overall objectives of organization (Stead and Hastings, 2018). McDonald's uses following
marketing process in order to meet its targeted goals and objectives:
1. Identify needs and wants of customers: Marketing focuses on analyzing target markets
in order to find out expectations of customers. It analyses both internal and external
environment of McDonald's so that strategies can be made that leads to satisfaction of
customers.

2. Designing a customer-driven marketing strategy: After analyzing both internal and
external environments, marketing focuses on making strategies that act as a guide to
business. It involves various marketing tools, pricing strategies, type of marketing mix to
be used, etc.
3. Construct integrated marketing program that deliver superior value: This process
turns plans into actions. Various plans and strategies are being applied on business
operations of McDonald's which makes smooth flow of activities.
4. Building profitable relationship and create customer delight: This is the essential
concept of marketing as it develops customer relationship which leads to creation of
brand image and loyalty. It aims at satisfying customers by providing them with the best
quality goods and services.
5. Capture value from customers to create profits: This leads to capturing of value return
for products and services. The return may be in form of creating brand image and loyalty,
sales, revenue and profits. Creating superior value of customers leads to satisfaction and
ultimately results in achieving targeted goals.
Role and responsibilities of marketing manager in McDonald's
Marketing managers are responsible for handling the marketing activities of business
organization. Marketing manager develops and implements various plans and strategies in
business operations and ensures smooth functioning of activities that leads to achievement of
goals.
Role of Marketing manager:
Conducts market research: Marketing manager is responsible for conducting market
research which explains about taste and preferences of target markets (Hill, 2017). McDonald's
market research will enable it to produce its products and services accordingly which meets
customers’ expectations.
Developing market strategy: Marketing manager develops plans and strategies that
guides McDonald's in adopting advertising and promotion strategies for its products and
services. This facilitate in increasing productivity and sales and overall objectives are achieved.
Responsibilities of Marketing Manager:
Customer relationship management: Marketing manager aims at creating and
developing relationship with its customers so that it leads to creation of brand image for

McDonald's products and services. The effective customer relationship will lead to gain
competitive advantage and also facilitate organization to increase its market share.
Employee management: Marketing mangers looks after activities of marketing
department and is also in charge of its department. Manager looks after day-to-day activities of
marketing function and assign duties to its subordinates. It focuses on maintaining effective
employee management so that it leads to smooth functioning of activities.
Interrelationship between marketing and other functional departments
Marketing interrelates with other functional departments to operates business activities in
effective way that leads to accomplishment of objectives (Kumar, 2014). Interrelationship
between marketing and various departments of McDonald's are explained below:
Research and development: Marketing department communicates with McDonald's
research and development team to get information about taste and preferences of target markets
so that it can focus on same and produce its strategies accordingly.
Production department: Marketing department communicates with production
department to get information about products and services so that it makes its marketing plan and
strategies to influence target customers.
Illustration 1: Line Organizational Structure
Source:( Line Organizational Structure, 2018)

Finance department: Marketing function requires funding for implementation of
updated plans and policies, conducting business research, evaluating strategies, etc. Marketing
cannot conduct its business activities properly without communicating with financial department
of McDonald's. If marketing department wants to adopt various advance marketing techniques
and tools so it needs to connect with finance department for budget and related things.
Human Resource: Marketing department communicates with HR department regarding
need of human resource in McDonald's to operates its growing business and operations. HR
policies must be aligned with policies of marketing and other departments (Brychkov and
Domegan, 2017).
Marketing department communicates and maintain relationship with other functional
departments in order to make smooth functioning of business activities which leads to
achievement of overall goals and objectives.
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organisational context
Marketing plays a vital role, it helps organization to gain competitive advantage, it also
helps in creating brand image and loyalty of its customers. Marketing applies various tools and
techniques to increase market share and profits of business. Every business organization needs
marketing to operate its business activities.
Creating brand image: Marketing helps McDonald's to create brand image in the minds
of customers. McDonald's faces large competition by various fast food businesses and marketing
facilitate McDonald's to gain advantage over them by applying techniques and strategies.
Marketing conducts market analysis to identify taste and preferences of customers and make
products accordingly.
Product development: It refers to identifying target markets for fast food products,
identifying expectations of customers and then developing products which meets demands. This
leads to achievement of goals and also gaining competitive advantage (Chandra, 2016).
Building effective relationship: Marketing builds effective relationship between
customers and organization. It focuses on identifying needs and wants of target markets and
leads to satisfying them which creates trust and build loyalty and also creates strong relationship.
Maintaining company's reputation: Marketing aims at creating brand image of
McDonald's by providing quality food products and beverages to its customers. It also aims at

maintaining reputation and brand image by maintaining quality standards in its products and
services.
Gaining competitive advantage: McDonald's faces large number of competition in its
fast food chain business. Marketing uses various techniques and tools which facilitate in gaining
competitive advantage and sustain its profits and market share.
Significance of effective relationship between functional departments of McDonald's
Marketing plays an important role in business activities and it leads to increase profits
and productivity. It interrelates with other functional departments of organization which helps
organization to grow and develop(Gnizy and Shoham, 2014). Effective relationship between
functional department leads to increase productivity, minimize waste and achieve target
objectives.
Research And Development Department: Research and development department
conducts market analysis in order to find out needs and wants of customers, identifying target
markets which can help in achieving business objectives. McDonald's marketing department
communicates with research and development department to know about target markets so that it
can promote its products and services and gain their trust.
Production Department: This department focuses on producing those goods and
services which can meet demands of customers. Marketing helps in identifying current trends
being adopted in market, taste and preferences of customers and then communicates with
production department to produce goods and services accordingly. This leads to satisfaction of
customers by meeting their demands.
Finance Department: Finance department aims at allocating budgets to every
department to run it business activities (Gnizy and Shoham, 2014). Marketing helps to identify
target market and demands of McDonald's products and services which can guide finance
department to allocate accurate budget to every department. If demand of fast food products is
high, finance department will allocate more budget to marketing in order to attract customers and
gain competitive advantages. It will also allocate more budget to production and sales
department to meet demands of target markets.
Human Resource Department: This department aims at recruiting and selecting
talented employees for organization and also focuses on retaining them. Marketing aims at

increasing revenue and profits of McDonald's which requires effective and capable employees.
The need of employees is fulfilled by HR department.
Sales Department: This department is concerned about generating revenue and profits
for company. In order to increase sales of McDonald's products, it communicates with marketing
department to know about competitor's strategies. Then applying tactics and strategies which are
helpful in gaining competitive advantages and increase its sales.
LO 2
P3. Comparison of application marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve
business objectives
Marketing mix is an important element of marketing planning process. It includes set of
tools and techniques used for marketing of products and services (Hamzah and Sutant, 2016).
McDonald's uses marketing mix while generating marketing plan which can lead to
achievement of overall goals and objectives. Comparison is given of application of marketing
mix to marketing planning process of McDonald's and Burger King:
Elements of
marketing
mix
McDonald's Burger King
Product McDonald's aims at producing quality
products and services so that it meets
needs and wants of customers. It
Burger king focuses on providing
products and services that can generate
revenue and profits. It provides fast food

provides burgers, french fries, soft
drinks which are up to quality
standards.
products like hamburgers, sandwiches,
chicken fries, etc.
Price McDonald's uses price skimming
strategy for its fast food products and
services.
Burger King adopts product line pricing
techniques to generate revenue and
increase its market share(Hill, 2017).
Place McDonald's uses exclusive distribution
strategy in order to sell its product and
services to target markets.
Burger King applies exclusive
distribution strategy to deliver its food
products to customers.
Promotion It uses various marketing techniques
and tools to promote its products and
services and gain competitive
advantage. It does celebrity
endorsements which attracts customers.
Burger king adopts various techniques
of marketing to advertise its products. It
aims at competing with burger
companies.
People McDonald's uses various tools and
techniques to satisfy its customers as
employees. Satisfaction of employees
leads to smooth functioning of
activities (Khan, 2014).
Burger King focuses on maintaining
organizational culture and environment
in order to provide comforts and
satisfaction to its employees.
Process It uses transparency of business
operations in order to satisfy customers
and show them quality standards are
being adopted.
Burger King aims at delivers its
products and services to its customers
with a smile to satisfy customers.
Physical
Evidence
It puts nutrition content on packaging
which results in gaining competitive
advantage.
Its visual appealing fails as it puts
corporate information on packaging of
products.

LO 3
P4. A basic marketing plan for McDonald's
The marketing plan of McDonald's will help in creating new ideas and strategies for
business development and growth (Kumar, 2014). Marketing plan includes analysis of its
experience of past and its performance and it also includes goals and objectives which needs to
be achieved. This marketing plan will guide McDonald's to implement various plans and
strategies that will be helpful for business organization in long run. Marketing plan also includes
different tactics and approaches which facilitate in better growth of business and its operations.
Aim and Objective:
McDonald's aims at providing quality food products and services to its consumers. It also
aims at providing cleanliness and value to each customer. This marketing plan aims at increasing
the market share of McDonald's and also to gain competitive advantage.
Company overview:
McDonald's is the largest fast food chain business organization and offers wide range of
food products and beverages including French fries, burgers, soft drinks, coffee, hamburgers, etc.
It serves around 57 million people in a day. The restaurant chains business is spread around
world-wide in 119 countries with having 31000 restaurants. McDonald's owns some of its
restaurant and others are operated by franchises and affiliates. McDonald's generates large
number of employment in order to run its business and business related activities, it employs
approx 1.5 million people around the world. McDonald's generates its revenue from sales of
products and services, rent and royalties received and also from fees paid by franchises.
McDonald's Product :
McDonald's aims at producing quality products and services so that it meets needs and
wants of customers. It provides burgers, french fries, soft drinks which are up to quality
standards.
Current market situation analysis:
Analysis of market situation of McDonald's is done in order to identify strength and weakness of
company. The identification of weakness can be overcome and corrected by applying tactics and
plans. And the strength of organization can be used and developed to grow and gain advantage in
competitive markets (Larson and Draper, 2015). The internal and external analysis of
McDonald's is done by using SWOT and PEST, which is discussed as below.

Internal analysis:
Internal analysis of McDonald's is done by examining internal factors that affects functioning of
company. The internal analysis of McDonald's facilitates in making required improvements and
generation of ideas by determining various influencing factors. It will help in correcting its faults
and gaining competitive advantages.
Strength: McDonald's aims at providing quality products so it maintains its standards of
services which helps in building brand image of company (Liu and et.al., 2018). McDonald's is
fast food chain business which provides information of nutrition on its product packaging and
gain trust of customers.
Weakness: Since McDonald's is chain business, if one of its franchise fails to offer
quality standards to its customers, whole brand image will get affected. In order to maintain
brand image of company, McDonald's should come up with innovation ideas and strategies
which build trust and loyalty of customers.
Opportunities: McDonald's aims at providing quality services to its customers and also
quickly. People now-a-days like to have food that is served quickly and in friendly way. This
creates opportunity for McDonald's to attract customers and gain their trust and loyalty and
increase its market share.
Threats: Fast food chain business has great competition, like Burger King, KFC.
McDonald's should make its strategies in a way that it can gain advantage over its competitors. It
can come up with new products to influence customer’s decisions and it can also provide
discount and offers to attract them.
External analysis:
External analysis of McDonald's considers factors which are outside of the organization
which affects business and its operations. External analysis of McDonald's is done by PEST
(Pike, 2015).
Political factors: It refers to rules and regulations applied by government. McDonald's
gets affected by political factors as it may restrict issuing license of franchises which will restrict
McDonald's to increase its markets share.
Economic factors: This factors include tax policies, economic condition of country, etc.
If economic condition of a country is not stable, McDonald's will get affected as people will not
have much income to spend on fast foods.

Social factors: Social factors include lifestyle of people, trends and culture followed in
country, education level, etc. Young people like to have fast foods which increases demand of
products of McDonald's.
Technological factors: McDonald's implements and updates its technologies in order to
gain competitive advantage. Recently it implemented technology which increases speed of
transactions of its products and which resulted in attracting customers.
Summary:
Marketing plan helps business organization to understand various environmental factors that
affects business and its activities. It also ensures that organization correct and removes its flaws
and enhance in proper and accurate manner (Stead and Hastings, 2018). Organization uses all
fair ways to conduct the business and its operations.
Estimated budget:
Expenses Estimated cost(amount in Euros)
Raw-material expenses 100
Production expense 85
Labour charges 155
Marketing expense 90
Technological advancement 75
Total estimated expense 505
This marketing budget plan includes various expenses which needs to be occurred to run
business and its activities. It is used by McDonald's to make annual marketing campaign and
budget for organization.
CONCLUSIONS
Marketing is very important in today's competitive world, every business organization
needs to adopt various techniques and tools of marketing in order to sustain and gain advantage
over its competitors. It is an approach that focuses on attracting customers and aims at making
marketing experience in more personal way that attract customers and leads to increase market
share and productivity. Role of marketing and its interrelationship with other functional
department helps business organisation to grow and develop. Marketing mix are used in business

to achieve business objectives. Marketing plan helps business organisation to grow and develop
by making effective strategies and plans.