Marketing Essentials: An Analysis of Mc Donald's Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mc Donald's marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing concepts and the fast-food company, highlighting its products and global presence. The report then delves into the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including the production, product, selling, marketing, and societal marketing concepts. It also examines the roles of a marketing manager and their responsibilities. The second part of the report explores how marketing relates to the wider organizational context, including its relationship with HRM, production, finance, and research & development. Finally, the report analyzes Mc Donald's marketing mix, comparing it with Burger King using the 7 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, and Process), and concludes with a marketing plan for the organization. This report offers valuable insights into Mc Donald's marketing approach, making it a great resource for students and anyone interested in marketing strategies.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function .........................................................1
P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organisational context.............3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Marketing mix of Mc Donald's .............................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for organisation ...........................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the study of buying and selling of products and services within the market.
It also includes promotion, advertisement and doing research of product. Employees under
marketing department concentrates on attracting customers by using slogans and doing
innovation in design of packaging. This report is on a American fast food company Mc Donald's
which was founded in 1940 and has headquarter in Chicago, USA. It's product are hamburgers,
wraps, chicken, coffee, salads and many more. Moreover roles and responsibilities of marketing
function, concept marketing mix which includes 7 P's of marketing and a marketing plan of Mc
Donald's is also mentioned in this assignment.
TASK 1
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing Concept
It is a function in which companies analyse requirements of customer and launch
products which will meet their needs along with giving competition to its competitors within
market. Mc Donald's is a fast food company which function and has franchise MC Donald's
Restaurants and is a second largest restaurant which serves a more than 120 countries. Mangers
of this company uses marketing concepts which are mentioned below (Baack, Harris and Baack
2013).
Production Concept: This main idea of this concept is clients will get attracted to those
products which have lowest prices and highest quality and is one of a oldest concept of
marketing. Here in Mc Donald's they try to keep delicious food and beverages at a very low price
which is affordable for every individual.
Product Concept: In this concept they try to bring more innovations in existing products
and services to attract targeted market. They try to give best quality in products and performance.
Mc Donald's try to come up with innovative food, meals and beverages and try to add a new
variety a burger every week which attracts the customers and customers is inclined towards it.
Selling Concept: Under this concept a firm makes a product according to their needs
rather than taking consideration of customer requirements which involves high risks and is
usually suitable to unsought goods (Silver and et al, 2012).
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Marketing Concept: It holds on achievement of objectives of firm by considering needs
of customer and providing them satisfaction and takes their clients as a top most priority. In Mc
Donald's , they concentrates on requirements of customers and deliver products and customers
which satisfies them. They focus on values and satisfaction of customers to achieve increase in
their selling and profits of firm.
Societal Marketing Concept: This strategy makes sure that products and services should
be delivered to customers which gives benefit to them as well as to society. Mc Donald's makes
meals and food keeping in mind welfare of their customers and focuses on present needs of
customer and business both (Armstrong and et al, 2015).
Roles of marketing manager
Marketing manager plays a very crucial role in increasing productivity and profits of
firm. Their major roles are mentioned beneath. Creating an effective marketing plan: A marketing manger is one who makes a plan
from manufacturing of a product to its distribution in market and it cannot be possible
without having a proper marketing plan. So it is the duty of manager to develop a plan
which has execution of all marketing activities that is sales, sales promotion , product
distribution and more so that they can achieve the goals of market.
 Managing customer relationship: Manager of a company gathers information related to
records of customers from a company which will help creating survey for customer
satisfaction. The information collected in survey is shared with other staff members to
makes sure that they deliver excellent services to their clients so that they can build a
healthy and a relationship that will last till future (.Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E., 2014)).
Responsibilities of Marketing Manager Team Development: Team development is done to increase knowledge and skills of
members of team. It is responsibility of a manager to create team within an organisation
and bring out effective and efficient results from them to increase the productivity and
profits of a company.
 Provide information to customers: It is responsibility of manager to give the description
of a product or services to customers so that they have all the knowledge and information
of the product and they get attracted to buy those products (Armstrong and et al, 2015).
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P2 How roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organisational context
Marketing is a wide concept which mainly focus on formulation of business relationship.
It impasses on satisfying consumers needs and wants. It is a process in which communication,
exchanging, creating, delivering of services and goods takes place to fulfil customers interests.
Marketing perform very essential role in an organisation to accomplish their pre determined
goals and profits. Organisational structure is a set of systematically arranged responsibilities,
duties, authorities and duties of a company. This structure defines the way in which roles and
responsibilities are firmly authorized to every individual in an organisation. In this context,
McDonald's which is an worlds finest fast food company and are situated in UK, there
marketing teams are helping in promotion of their business worldwide. They formulate plan and
coordinate with every other departments to operate functions more effectively (Lovelock, 2011).
Marketing and HRM
Marketing concepts revolves around branding and communication of products and
services to costumers to achieve pre set profit. A on the other side the concept of human
resource deals in recruitment and hiring of people in an organisation department. Marketing and
human resource functions are generally complimentary they both perform to achieve growth in
productivity. Thus, to earn high prosperity and growth both units of McDonald's whether its
marketing or human resource have need to perform together that will help them to develop
favourable and satisfying goods and services (Silver and et al, 2012).
Marketing and Production
Marketing and production units perform their function in an complementary manner.
While marketing body provide help to production team in order to arrange effective
communication about marketplace environments and customers taste or preferences. At the
same time, production unit support marketing team by providing them products of high value
and satisfaction. By performing together McDonald's marketing and production units can able to
fulfil high success and profit worldwide (Clow and James, 2013).
Marketing and Finance
Marketing and production is one of the most essential element for any organisation
through which a company can achieve long term growth and development. Finance department
are mainly focuses on financial factors which include budget, cost, profits and financial
performance of an organisation. While on the other side, marketing is mainly concerned with
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selling, advertising and publicity of products and services. Therefore, both of this organisational
functions or department are complementary to each other. McDonald's finance and marketing
units can bring out more effective ideas and best outcomes for a company if they perform their
work together.
Marketing and Research& Development
This function of Research and development plays their significant role in investigating of
activities in order to enhance quality of existing services and products. World is dynamic and
keeps on changing frequently so it is very essential of any organisation or company to adapt this
changing scenario to get success. While the concept of marketing is basically focus on
malvertisement and branding of different products and services. Therefore, Marketing and
research unit of McDonald's must need to perform their work together to attain pre set objectives
and goals (Rossi, Allenby and McCulloch 2012).
TASK 2
P3 Marketing mix of Mc Donald's
Marketing Mix is a combination of actions which are used by a company so that they can
do promotion of their brands or product in market. It comprises of 7 P's of marketing which are
Price, Product, Place, Process, Promotion,People and Physical Evidence. Marketing mix of Mc
Donald's as comparison with its competitor Burger King is described:
BASIS Mc Donald's Burger King
Product It is fast food restaurants
which delivers burgers,
chicken and sandwiches, fries,
salads, shakes and drinks and
also provides their clients with
various options like straw
berry Sundae, Double Cheese
burger, Hot Caramel Sundae,
Vanilla Cone and many more.
The menu of Burger king
includes hamburgers, French
fries, soft drinks , milk shakes,
mini muffins, French toast
sticks, cookies , onion rings
and many more.
Price The pricing strategies which
company uses are value
The pricing strategies which it
uses are competitive pricing as
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pricing, cost plus pricing,
going rate, loss leader and
price discrimination. They aim
in providing customers food
with a competitive value and
set price using the demand
based methodology.
it has a high price from Mc
Donald's. They constantly
evaluate their prices so that
their customers do not feel any
burden. They also use
psychological pricing which
ensures that the price of the
product should match the
quality of product so that
customers do not hesitate in
giving price for those products.
Place Restaurants of Mc Donald's
are located in more than 110
countries and it operates more
than 36,000 restaurants and is
located in prime locations like
malls and shopping
complexes. Place refers to
distribution and company
offers home deliveries to
customers.
They are being located almost
in all the countries of global
market and has 79 countries
with 13000 outlets. It's
international locations include
East Asian countries like
Singapore, South Korean,
Japan and Taiwan, Europe and
Oceania.
Promotion Company uses various
techniques of promotion which
includes advertisement in
television, newspapers,
magazines , internet and other
media and uses techniques of
sales promotion as well. They
hardly use negative campaigns
against their competitors and
They used promotional
strategies based on doing
improvement in its brand
within specific time. Its
campaigns as melodious
jingles and its slogans “Have it
you way” is becoming a
synonym to company. They
have also aligned themselves
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focus on targeting children
through happy meals.
to various charitable
organisations and do local
advertisements on hoardings,
lollipops etc.
People Mc Donald's has a specific
way for treating their
customers and employees as
well. Their workforce have a
dress code and are emphasis
on treating their clients
friendly and giving them
satisfaction.
Burger King employees fresh
talents so that their skills can
be enhanced and they can
mould them according to their
requirement.
Physical Evidence Physical evidence of a
company plays a major role in
attracting its customer.
McDonald's stores display
brand colours and have
young , family and vibrant feel
to promote the feeling of a
family restaurant. They have
self service counters, lively
music on background, etc. to
give the feeling of user
friendly and strong presence to
their customers.
It has an internet presence
through its website BK. Com
which provides video about
history of company and
information regarding stock. It
is also coming with changes in
its décor which will have
feature modern, box like
architectural lines, etc.
Process They have improved the
methods of cooking and
process which is being used.
The cycle of manufacturing of
food is made visible to
Burger King concentrates on
customers which spends a lot
in their restaurants and
company seeks for growing
further and having more
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customers. Besides this they
have quick services and fast
home delivery services.
Moreover they invented most
efficient cooking equipments.
popularity through doing
innovative marketing
promotions.
TASK 3
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for organisation
Marketing Plan
It is an overall business plan which includes documents and blueprints of various
business activities for achieving marketing objective in a competitive business environment. It is
a process of analysing customer needs to achieve overall organisational goals and objectives. In
this context, this marketing plan will help McDonald's in identifying their strength and weakness
which can be used to gain competitive advantages in a business market. This plan includes
marketing research, strategies and making plan budgets and policies (William and Zikmund,
2012).
Overview of a company
McDonald's is an American fast food company founded by Richard and Maurine
McDonald in 1940 in United States. It is worlds largest restaurant chain with a serving of 67
millions(approximately) of customers in more than 100 countries. Its revenue is generated
mainly by royalties and rent paid by franchisees (Baack, Harris and Baack 2013).
Vision
The vision of McDonald's is to be number one fast food restaurant at a global level and
satisfy its customers according to their needs. To provide a hygienic, safe and healthy
environment to its customers.
Mission
The brand mission of McDonald's is to provide their customers a one stop destination to
eat and drink. Its main focus is to satisfy their customers needs on a daily basis which leads in
increasing their productivity and efficiency in a business market.
Marketing Objective
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The main objective of McDonald's is to increase their sales by 25% in coming 3 years
and also to identify and satisfy customer needs and wants on a regular basis (Silberschatz,
Galvin and Gagne 2014).
SWOT ANALYSIS
In this context, it will help McDonald's in identifying their internal strengths and
weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats in a business environment.
Strength Weaknesses
 McDonald's is successful in creating a
brand image and in satisfying its
customer needs
 It never compromises with the quality
of its food products
 It operates at a global level and
customer loyalty is their key strength
 It has a largest market share value as
compared to its competitors
 It has strong determination towards its
customer preferences and quality of
their food
 It has being criticized for unhealthy
food items in its menu and weak
product development
 It has lack in product innovation in
some areas.
 It increases it price at a time of
competition and also neglect poor
restaurant conditions some time.
 Its product range is smaller as
compared to its competitors.
 It has less vegetarian option and food
products have high calories
Opportunities Threats
 It has an opportunity to expand its
business in Asian markets.
 It can use online marketing strategies to
promote their brand at a global level
 It can expand its business on some
areas to foster company's growth
 It can introduce healthier products also
in their menu
 It can merge with other food chains
 Increasing competition in fast food
sector
 Peoples are focusing more on healthier
products
 Its market share is decreasing at a
global level
 Prevailing economic situation is not
good
 It has less press and media support
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brands also
STP model
STP stands for Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. It is beneficial while creating
communications plans in marketing and also help the owners of business that combines
organisation, brand and products benefits to a particular market segment also implements a
market strategy that will help in tieing these elements of a company. The manager of the
company uses this model to increase their sales within targeted customers. The STP model of Mc
Donald's is mentioned below (Joshi, 2012).
Segmentation: It is a method of dividing a wider range of market into smaller sub
sections of customers. It is beneficial for a company as it helps in acknowledging the
requirements of a customer to products they want. Geographic: It includes customers who are residing in geographical areas, city and
states. Psycho-graphic: Under this the division of people is done on a basis of their lifestyles,
attitude, personality and more. Behavioural: This includes the people according to their perception and involves the
behaviour of people towards company product and their loyalty.
 Demographic: Here the division is done on the basis of gender, marital status, education,
ethnicity, occupation and many more factors.
Targeting: This includes segment in which people and market is being targeted by a
firm to do distribution of their products (Baker and Saren, 2016). The manager of MC Donald's
also targets customer according their requirements and demands. They usually target college
students and family members.
Positioning: It defines the reputation and position of a brand in minds of customers and
people at a market place. This helps in knowing position of a company in market and it is
necessary for every company to know its market position so that they can analyse their position
holding in a marketplace. Here , in Mc Donald's they use this factor to know their marketing
position (Brady,2014).
Marketing budget
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Particulars 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year
Initial money 10000 5000 5000 5000
Investment 10000 10000 6000 5000
Total 20000 15000 11000 10000
Marketing
outlay
15000 1000 3000 5000
Promotion 4000 1000 5000 2000
Sales
publicity
2000 2000 1000 1000
Direct selling 4000 3000 1000 1000
Total 25000 7000 10000 9000
As per the above mentioned report, it is essential for McDonald's to make an effective marketing
plan to identify its investment details which will leads in analysing in which sector more
investment is required.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, this has been concluded marketing plays an every
essential role in every type of organisation to achieve success. This function of management
perform complementary with all other department of a company. Manager of marketing
department must need to know their roles and responsibilities to enhance productivity. Marketing
is mainly a costumer oriented process which aim to satisfy consumer needs and wants. Proper
marketing strategy prepared by manager will help an organisation to create more profits and
increase performance level in workplace. This will help an organisation to decrease their wastage
level which will help them to build efficient market procedures to perform at their level best in
marketplaces.
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