Marketing Essentials: Analysis of Mc Donald's Strategies and Plans

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mc Donald's marketing strategies. It begins by examining the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including defining the brand, conducting market research, developing strategies, and managing customer relations. The report then explores the interrelationship between the marketing department and other organizational departments, such as human resources, finance, production, and sales, highlighting the importance of coordination for effective business operations. Furthermore, the report delves into the marketing mix of Mc Donald's, outlining the 7 P's (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence) and comparing them with those of Burger King. The report also discusses the importance of a marketing plan and the strategies employed by Mc Donald's to attract health-conscious consumers, including the launch of new products. The report analyzes the company's approach to pricing, product development, and promotional campaigns. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and providing insights into Mc Donald's marketing effectiveness.

MARKETING
ESSENTIAL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 The roles and responsibilities of Marketing function............................................................1
P2 The roles and responsibilities of Marketing in organisation departments.............................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Marketing mix of Mc Donald's..............................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4 Marketing Plan.......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing essential act as tonic for the organisation as it assist the management in
implementing various marketing strategies which are used by marketing team to enhance the
growth and development of business. Marketing plays a vital role in enhancing customer base
and loyalty. The report will analyse the roles and responsibilities of marketing function in Mc
Donald's, the largest growing food chain across the globe. Moreover, it will evaluate the
importance interrelationship between marketing and all the organisational department. Further,
report will outline the new product launch and its marketing strategies used by McDonald's to
attract the attention of its health conscious buyers. It will discover the implementation of
business strategies in order to improve effectiveness and efficient of marketing plan. Thus, the
report evaluates 7 p's of marketing mix which assist the firm in determining various pricing and
process strategies in order to serve customer satisfactory services.
TASK 1
P1 The roles and responsibilities of Marketing function.
Marketing refers to gathering appropriate information about companies performance and
its products and services. For an example, when the firm plans to launch of new product, the
manager need to analyse the situation of business and than organising for training and
development of employees in order to guide about the changes which can be either in existing
product or innovating some new good according to the customer requirements. Further, the
marketing manager aims at managing resources and strategies which can help the organisation in
implementing changes in order to satisfy needs and wants of customer's. In this marketing
manager of Mc Donald's analyse the changes in taste and preferences in buyers requirement
which can assist the organisation in making further changes in the process of sales and
marketing. The marketing function in the organisation is beneficial for the firm in monitoring
and controlling the performance of entity according to its rivalries (Wertime and Fenwick 2011).
There are various roles of marketing manager in order to regulate marketing functions which are
as follows:
 Defining and managing the brand name
 Conduction promotional campaigns to make people aware about the products.
 To enhance customer base and loyalty.
 Developing and analysing the use of marketing strategies.
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 Monitoring and managing companies' performance as per planned objectives.
 Identifying and researching market requirement (John 2017).
 Regulate and track the organisational functions and strategies as per rivalries.
The major responsibilities followed by marketing manager of Mc Donald's
Conducting Market Research: the marketing manager of company conducts market
research in order to analyse the market requirement and changing taste and preferences of
consumers. This is done when the company start getting stable or declining returns. It assists the
company in collecting feedback from customers which helps in determining the need of changes
(Blakeman and Brown 2010). Thus, this is conducted through primary source of research which
is either done by directly communication with customers through door to door interview or by
emailing questionnaires.
Developing marketing Strategy: In this marketing manager develop strategies which
can be beneficial in promoting products and services of the company. This is done by manager to
make changes in the organisational process according to the strategies followed by rivalries of
same industry (Huotari and Hamari 2012). Formulating and implementing the best strategies
assist the marketing team in enhancing business operations and in attaining competitive
advantage.
Managing relation with customers: The most important responsibility of marketing
manager is to maintain and manage appropriate relations with consumers. In this the manager
collects the and frames database to order serving buyers satisfaction.
Product Development: In this, the manager of Mc Donald's aims at analysing the
requirement and gaps and further implementing changes in existing products or innovating new
product according customers' taste and preferences. Further, in this the ultimate motive of the
organisation is examine sales and profits and then ensuring increasing return from the changes
(Reimann, Schilke and Thomas 2010).
Communication: It is the foremost responsibility of marketing manager to establish
communication with its buyers therefore to connect with Customer, the marketing team of Mc
Donald's promote its products and services through events and promotional campaign.
Promoting services on event and campaign assist the organisation in creating awareness and
developing strong customer base (Singh 2012). Apart from this Events are beneficial for Mc
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Donald's to identify loopholes and shortcoming and further establishing strong relationship with
consumers across the globe.
Sale Support: It is the responsibility of marketing manager to coordinate and cooperate
its efforts with the sales team as the department assist in examining and keeping a check over
demand for products of the company.
Key Elements of Marketing function
 Advertising (Television, internet, radio, newspaper and magazines).
 Direct Marketing
 Sales promotion
 Maintenance of public relations (Mogos 2015).
 Personal Selling
 Events and Sponsorship
 Attractive packaging
For instance, the marketing team of Mc Donald's analysed that from so long the demand
for products and profits of the organisation are on one note neither decreasing nor decreasing.
Therefore, to enhance the profits and serve customer satisfaction, the team researched about
buyers requirement and competitors products from which its has been found out that the
company need to focus on demand of its health conscious buyers for which it has to either
innovate or will have make changes in existing product that is burger. Thus, after collecting
consumer feedback from stores and advertisements the company is planning to launch Mc Tikki
burger for its health conscious foodie.
P2 The roles and responsibilities of Marketing in organisation departments.
It is important for marketing department to connect with all other departments of the
organisation to ensure smooth functioning of business operations (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker and
Bloching 2013). The interrelationship between all the department and marketing plays a vital
role for Mc Donald's to establish efficiency and effectiveness in its process and services. The
responsibility of marketing with all other organisational department is as follows:
Human resource Department: This department act as tonic for the firms as its main
function is recruit and Hire skilled and capable employees according to job requirement.
Marketing manager coordinate its plan with HR department in order to make sure that there are
capable employees who can assist the company in implementing changes. According to
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information given by Marketing manager HR will focus on analysing the existing staff and the
need of hiring new employees (Beck and Reichert 2012).
Finance Department: This plays an important role in establishing smooth flow of funds
in all other departments which enhances the business functions. Further, Finance team of Mc
Donald's assists marketing manager in developing effective investment decision. Besides, the
finance team also assist marketing manager in making forecast about the sales, product
development and innovation (Taneja and Toombs 2014). Thus, as per the forecast marketing
team implement strategies to promote the sales of services in order to maximize profits and
satisfy consumer needs and wants.
Production Department: This department of Mc Donald's understands the taste and
preferences of consumers that is why it is important for marketing team to coordinate their
efforts with production team in order to determine the innovation and strategies which can assist
in promotional stages. In accordance to the marketing team share the collected information with
production department in order to analyse the experience for specific products (Biggemann
2012). In this the production manager examines the consumer reaction towards almost same
service to evaluate whether the innovation will assist the company in maximizing profits and
serving customer reaction.
Research and development department: Marketing manager coordinate the ideas and
plan with R&D as it assist the company in determining best and effective strategies which can
enhance the innovation plan by making cost effective function and establish optimum utilisation
of resources. Further, research and development team of Mc Donald's assist marketing team in
identifying what products will be accepted by the consumers. In accordance to low fat burger the
research department researches about market needs and effective techniques which can help the
organisation in developing quality product at lowest prices in order to satisfy buyers and
maximize profitable returns (Morgan 2012).
Sales department: Link between marketing and sales department of Mc Donald's plays a
vital role in determining the efficiency and effectiveness of changes and innovation. The bond
between both the department assist the company identifying various loopholes and shortcomings
which are the reason behind declining growth and development of organisation (Satit, Tat and
Sukati 2012). The sales department shares a healthy and friendly relation with buyers which
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helps the marketing team in easily connecting wit consumers to collect feed back and examine
the need of changes according to requirements.
Information technology department: This department helps the marketing department
in overcoming technical changes and loopholes which can be related to anything that is relation
to new product development plans. In this IT team, assist the marketing team in accessing over
various marketing technology which provides easy guidance of implementing changes and
strategies.
Customer service department: Coordination with customer care representatives assist
the marketing manager in recognising the need of changes as the individuals are directly
connected to buyers. In this department customers shares their queries and problems with
customer care representative which passes this information to marketing team in order to
implement changes accordingly (Reimann, Schilke and Thomas 2010).
Significance of Interrelationships
 Link between organisational department of Mc Donald's assist the company is
establishing coordination and cooperation between business operations.
 It is important it is beneficial for the firm in managing time and in regulating Smooth
organisational operations.
 Interrelationship between marketing and all other departments are important Mc Donald's
to deliver quality customer satisfactory services.
TASK 2
P3 Marketing mix of Mc Donald's.
Marketing mix is the strategy used by marketing manager of Mc Donald's to determine
the changes according to consumers. It assists the marketing team in setting and identifying
various strategies which can be beneficial in deriving companies growth and development. There
are 7 p's of marketing mix which assist in determining basic functions of organisation which are
as follows:
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7 P's of Marketing mix McDonald's Burger king
PRODUCTS The company offers wide
range of differentiated
products like hamburgers,
cheese burgers, low fat burger
sandwiches and beverages
like, Mc flurry, shakes, sundae
desserts and many more.
Further, it also respects the
religion and belief of its
consumers therefore it as
separate cooking areas and
equipments for non veg and
veg products (John 2016).
Besides, the company focuses
on launching the healthiest
possible commodities but still
sometimes lack the ingredient
therefore now to expands
product market, manager
planned a launch of new low
fat burger for its health
conscious buyers.
The restaurant offers limited
number of products. As its
services are limited to burgers.
Moreover, the additive in the
food offered to consumers are
specific therefore innovation
becomes difficult. Apart from
this, the company do not offer
transparent kitchen processing
which limits the consumer
loyalty. However, in contrary
the services of company are
fast and are already focused on
healthy food products.
PRICE Mc Donald's offers products at
easily affordable prices and
therefore the organisation is
cost leader across the globe.
Moreover, according to pricing
the firm holds happy price
menu. Apart from this, to
The pricing strategy used by
its biggest rivalries Burger
king is Bundle pricing in
which the organisation sets
prices of food products
according to the prevailing
market conditions and
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attract more and more
consumers, the company offers
various combos and discounts
on weekdays.
demands of consumers.
PLACE The ultimate focus of company
lies in its availability of
services for which the
organisation is doing as it is
located in almost every
country across the globe.
Moreover, the stores of Mc
Donald's are located at places
were people have easy
transportation and have
frequent visit. Moreover, it
provides the option of drive
through to save times of it
consumers. Further, to over
come this weakness the
enterprise is located at prime
locations like, Malls, airports,
Tollways and shopping
complex almost in all cities
worldwide.
The ultimate advantage over
McDonald's to Burger king
offers the online and offline
services.
PROMOTION The manager make use of
every possible promotional
technique like, Television,
radio, social media, press,
newspapers, magazines, etc. In
order to promote products and
Burger king the company
holds major advantage over its
promotion tactics and activities
as services of Burger king is
limited to advertising, public
relation and sales promotion.
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services the firm makes
attractive display
advertisements, make
schemes, door drops, direct
mailing and customer loyalty
schemes. For promotion the
ultimate focus of organisation
is kids and young generation
for which at day its offers
Happy meal hours, scratch
cards, and lucky draws. The
promotional strategies of Mc
Donald are formulated in way
to offer products at lowest and
discounted prices for limited
period.
PEOPLE The quality of services
increase when the employees
of the organisation treats
customers wit respect. In
accordance to this, the
employees of Mc Donald's are
trained to treat customers with
respect and should guide them
in friendly way. Moreover, the
organisation aims at
maintaining clean and healthy
environment at every store.
Further, the employee's ave
uniform stand and equal rights
for maintaining healthy and
Burger king the competitor of
McDonald also offers the
friendly environment and
services to consumers but it
does not offer the
entertainment services which
assist the organisation in
stabilizing its food services.
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safe environment for buyers.
Apart from this, the manager
focuses on organising various
creative activity like, gaming
and pricing scheme to attract
kids (John 2016).
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Physical evidence is
determined by cleanliness,
speed, quality and
transparency. Mc Donald's is
the largest food chain of UK
selling its goods and services
across the globe and its
ultimate aim is to serve
customer satisfaction at lowest
possible prices. Therefore, the
manager keeps track of market
fluctuation and complies with
every regulations in order to
deliver standardized products
at global pricing strategies.
Further, the food items of
company are made of natural
and consumer friendly
ingredients which are avail to
buyers at approximately 30%
cheaper prices according to all
the food chains across the
globe. Hence, its is the only
company which sells food at
stable prices without any kind
Burger king offers hygienic
environment and it has
consumer friendly staff which
make its business operations
successful. Moreover, the
services if Burger king are
online but the physical stores
are limited.
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of discrimination (Hennig-
Thurau, Hofacker and
Bloching 2013). The stores of
McDonald's are easily
available at all prime locations
which demonstrate its strong
base over Physical evidence in
comparison to its competitor.
PROCESS The process of Mc Donalds is
transparent to consumers
which helps in developing
their loyalty and trust. The
company uses various
differentiated packaging and
distribution methods to attract
buyers. Further, the manager
make use of several advanced
and efficient cooking
equipments. Apart from this,
to gain trust of consumers, the
firm allows consumers to
check ingredients used in
production of product which is
the major reason behind
developing trust of people on
the food chain.
The McDonald attains
competitive advantage over its
biggest rivalry Burger king in
food processing system as it
offers transparent process of
preparing food which assist the
enterprise in gaining
consumers trust and enhancing
consumer base.
Hence, the pricing strategy used by to attain competitive advantage are as follows:
Market Penetration: This is the strategy in which the Mc Donalds charge low prices for
new launched products like, for Low fat Mc tiki burger first the company will charge minimum
price and further will increase price according to the demand (Singh 2012).
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