Marketing Essentials Report: McDonald's Marketing Mix and Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, focusing on the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, its relationship with other departments, and the marketing mix. The report examines various aspects of McDonald's marketing operations, including market information gathering, market planning, product design and development, standardization and grading, packaging and branding, and customer support services. It also delves into how the marketing department integrates with human resources, finance, R&D, product development, and IT departments. Furthermore, the report compares McDonald's marketing mix with that of Burger King, highlighting differences in product offerings and pricing. The report concludes by producing and evaluating a basic marketing plan for McDonald's, offering insights into how the company can achieve its marketing objectives. This report, available on Desklib, offers valuable insights into marketing practices and strategies within the fast-food industry.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain key roles and responsibilities of marketing function................................................3
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organisational context.............5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P3 Marketing mix .......................................................................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.......................................11
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Marketing function refers to a role that helps any business concern to identify potentially
successful products for marketplace. It helps in promoting products and services by
differentiating them from similar products existing products and services. This is a key function
of every business concern. This report focusses on Mc Donald's for studying various functions of
marketing. Mc Donald's is a UK based fast food company which was founded in 1940 as a
restaurant. Marketing mix is an effective combination of all those factors that can easily be
controlled by organisation to influence consumers to buy their products and services. Whereas,
marketing plan defines as an systematic plan that a company create to perform their marketing
functions. It has its headquarters situated in Chicago. This report focusses on roles and
responsibilities of marketing function and its relationship with other departments (Pike 2015).
Also, it helps in comparing two different business concerns of same sector for evaluation.
TASK 1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing function refers to a role that helps any business concern to efficiently identify
and source potentially successful products for marketplace. It helps in promoting products and
services by differentiating them from similar products existing products and services. This is a
key function of every business concern. Marketing function is used for performing numerous
roles and responsibilities which is explained as under:
Gathering market information: First important role of marketing function is gathering of
market information for identifying needs and wants of customers. After this marketers evaluate
this information about how it can be brought into use for forming effective marketing policies
that help in growth. Also it aims towards analysing strengths and weaknesses of Mc Donald's as
well as other factors like political legal social and demographic data of its target market that
would affect its growth or performance (Moore, 2014). This information is highly useful in
market segmentations.
Market planning: Planning is a process which explains how a task is to be performed
and who is to do what. It helps McDonald's to achieve its long term objectives thereby promoting
growth. For instance, McDonald's has an estimated market share of 25% in fast food sector.
Managers of McDonald's aim towards achieving a 40% market share so to achieve this object,

they will have to study market conditions and competitors and accordingly form strategies or
plan that can help Mc Donald's in achieving this. This process is known as market planning.
Planning process also underlines who is to accomplish what task in order to achieve
organisational objective timely.
Product design and development: Product design is a complex process. It is done with
the objective of making a product attractive and eye catchy for target market as well as its
customers. Today customers are king of market and highly aware about every product and
service available in market. They have shifted their focus from just cost to product design,
suitability, shape, style and so on. All these factors are collectively taken into consideration by
managers while decision making. Managers of McDonald's have therefore worked towards
improving quality and packaging of its burgers and other fast food items to improve its sales
ratio. Also, they now supply free gifts that attract kids towards their products.
Standardization and grading: Standardisation is quite a complex process. It involves
producing goods at predetermined specifications. It helps McDonald's to maintain quality of its
fast food items by maintaining and adopting a quality standard. It helps in ensuring that products
meet their established quality and quantity standards. It also helps Mc Donald's in achieving
uniformity and consistency in products and services that are supplied to customers. Grading
involves classifying goods into various categories based on their characteristics. It involves
numerous control standards namely size, weight and so on. Grading is a key factor for pricing
decisions also as higher quality goods and services tend to attract higher prices and more
customers.
Packaging and branding: Packaging is a creative process that involves designing
packages for products. It aims at avoiding breakage, damage, destruction of goods during transit,
delivery and storage. Packaging helps in handling, lifting and conveying or transferring goods. It
helps mangers of McDonald's to increase creativity and designing of food items thereby
developing interests in customer’s mind. Packaging is done on basis of quantities and does not
remain uniform for each measure and quantity. Branding differentiates any common generic
commodity name to a brand name. For example, burger is a generic name while Mc burger or
McAloo tikki is brand specific.

Customer support service: In today's market, customer is king of market. Therefore, it is
a prime responsibility of marketers and marketing managers of McDonald's to take care of
customer's choices. Services provided by marketing managers of McDonald's involve:
After sales services
Handling customers' complaints
Technical services
Efficiency and effectiveness in these services help in satisfying a customer. It further helps in
driving a customer’s towards a brand and develops a sense of trust and loyalty in customer's
mind.
These are certain key roles and responsibilities that are performed by marketing function
in McDonald's. These factors collectively help McDonald's in achieving their goals and
objectives and further ensure their profitability level (Lane 2015.).
P2 Evaluating roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing departments works for promoting their products and services by using various
digital methods. It is necessary for marketing department of a business organisation to be well
integrated with every department of a business entity, which leads in increasing its efficiency in a
competitive business environment. This will also help a business entity in increasing their
customer reach at a global level and also helps its employees in adopting recent changes that
occurs in a business environment. It is the responsibility of marketing department to make an
organisation profitable and productive in a competitive business market. It helps a business entity
in generating awareness among their potential customers by promotion and advertising of their
particular products and services. In this context, it is essential for the chosen organisation
McDonald's to analyse inter-related roles and responsibilities of their department in order to
achieve their goals and objectives (Więcek-Janka, 2015). There are some inter-related roles and
responsibilities of McDonald's which are discussed below as:
(a) Marketing and human resource department
Human resource management department in an organisation works for enhancing their
employees performance by recruiting new employees and also by providing training to existing
employees in order to improve their skills and knowledge. In this context, human resource
department of McDonald's also works to provide appropriate resources in order to manufacture
particular products and services. Whereas marketing department of McDonald's gives emphasis

on creating awareness among human resource team about the needs of changes in their products
and services to meet the expectation of their potential customers. The marketing and human
resource department are linked with each other as they assist marketing department in making
relevant changes in services of firm to overcome dynamics of business environment.
(b) Marketing and finance department
Finance department of an organisation works for providing financial stability in order to
operate their business operation in a competitive business market. In this regard, finance
department of McDonald's provides financial assistance and also keep track on their profit and
loss statement. It also helps them in deciding prices for their particular products or services in a
business environment. The finance department and marketing department are linked with each
other as it also helps marketing department in providing them appropriate funds in order to
promote their particular products and services (Malhorta 2015). It will help McDonald's in
increasing their productivity and also in achieving their specific goals and objectives in a
business environment.
(c) Marketing and R&D department
The research and development department help an organisation in identifying their target
market and also in analysing their customer needs and requirement. In this regard, it will help
McDonald's in implementing changes in marketing plans in accordance with the information
provided by research and development department. It will also help a business organisation in
gaining customer satisfaction, which leads in retaining their productivity for a longer duration.
The marketing department and research and development department of McDonald's are linked
with each other because research and development department provide market information to
marketing department. This help marketing department of chosen organisation in formulating a
best marketing plan in order to promote their products and services in a market.
(d) Marketing and product development department
Product development department of a business entity focuses on manufacturing products
and services in accordance with their customer needs and requirement. In this regard, it is
essential for McDonald's to manufacture products in accordance with their customer
requirement, which will help them in achieving their aims and objective in a business
environment. The production development and marketing department are inter-related as

marketing assist production development department in generating awareness about taste and
preferences of their customers.
(e) Marketing and IT department
IT department in a business entity works for ensuring that all network activities are
functioning properly. In this regard, it will help the chosen organisation McDonald's in smooth
functioning of their business operations related to network. The IT department is important as
organisation success in a dynamic business environment is depends upon them. Thus they are
necessary for a business organisation in achieving their specific goals and objectives. It also
works for securing and developing application data in order to protect organisational information
from intruders. In this context, marketing and IT department are inter-linked with each other as
IT department assist marketing department in their network related queries. Marketing
department of any organisation works for promoting their products and services through digital
medium like website development, e-commerce and data base development. So, IT department
assist marketing department in resolving their issues related to these digital mediums (Pappas,
2017).
According to the above mentioned report, marketing roles and responsibilities are linked
with other organisational department like human resource, finance, IT, production and research
and development. These roles and responsibilities assist each other as they all are working for
achieving common goals and objectives. These departments will help McDonald's in promoting
their products and services in a business environment in order to gain competitive advantage in a
competitive business environment.
TASK 2
P3 Marketing mix
Marketing Mix: It is a model which defines marketing tool which is used by business
firms in order to fulfil their marketing goals and objectives. It includes variety of factors which
can be utilise by organisation to influence their consumers to buy their products and services.
Mentioned below there are marketing mix of McDonald's which is a largest fast food company
and emphasize to satisfy their consumer at their best.
Marketing mix of McDonalds
McDonalds Burger king

Product McDonald's are serving in wide
range of food products that are
hamburgers, cheeseburgers,
fries, shakes and soft drinks.
Also they produce happy meals
for kids and best fast food menu
in order to provide satisfaction
to every age group of
consumers. In addition to this
they are launching their different
products according to various
demographic locations (Griffitts
,2016).
Burger king also serves in variety of
fast food products to their consumers
which includes burgers, hash browns,
onion rings, pies, cookies, salads,
fries, coffee and many more. They
provide various kinds of food
products to fulfil need and wants of
their consumers.
Price McDonald's provide their food
products in affordable price
range. They have adopted
effective pricing techniques to
attract attention of consumers.
Company have implemented
economic pricing strategy to
function their business. Cost
leadership business strategies are
used.
Burger king currently targets on
economically high areas. Also their
price is usually based on market
behaviour and demand of consumers.
Bundle and Market-oriented price
strategies are implemented in pricing
structure of this company.
Place Company is serving its facilities
worldwide. Most of their stores
are located in highly organised
sector. Approximately 36k
restaurants are present in around
Burger king mainly serves in suitable
geographic locations. Their stores are
generally located in economical well-
structured areas. Around 16k
restaurants present in nearby 100

120 countries. Also they target
potential areas where they can
generate large amount of
consumer attraction.
countries.
Promotion McDonald's take advantages of
different promotions techniques
to promote their products.
Advertisement is done with help
of cinema, radio, T.V.,
newspaper, magazines and
merchandising, emails, door
drops are some promotional
methods.
Burger Kings has not adopted
various techniques of advertising.
They done their promotion with the
help of hoardings, newspapers and
magazines. Also different events are
organised to attract consumers and
make them aware of products being
offered.
People Employment management
environment are very
appropriate and effective in
McDonald's. Company have
maintained proper working
culture in their workplace
employees have certain dress
code. Also their staff have
friendly nature toward their
customers. Staff in McDonald's
make sure that they maintain
proper hygienic condition in
their environment which attract
consumer mind in best way.
Providing effective and best
services to their clients is utmost
priority of this company
Burger king put their focus on both
employees and customers. They
provide feasible appraisals to their
employees in order to increase their
performance level. Approximately,
98,000 employees are working in
burger king. Main objective of this
company is to address concerned
issues of employees and consumers
both.

(Griffitts 2016).
Process McDonald's have implemented
certain set of plans to achieve
their targets in best possible
manner. Food preparation is
very important component in
their overall process. That's why
Processing of food is transparent
to customers. They have
developed new methods of
distribution and packaging in
order to attract large number of
consumers. In addition to this,
customers are allowed to see
ingredients which are being used
by them (Griffitts 2016.).
As burger king mainly operates their
business functions in highly feasible
market conditions. That's why their
Operations are designed by experts
which are internationally operated.
They have adopted healthy making
of food process in their structure.
Also quality of products produced by
them are of best in nature.
Physical Evidence This factor refers to availability
of physical environment for
visitors and costumer
experiences. McDonald's have
implemented various techniques
to provide great impression on
minds of their consumers.
Company have maintained
proper hygienic environment
which creates everlasting impact
on clients. Also company aim
Burger king deliver their services in
well-established economic zones.
They have established their outlets in
shopping malls to attract large
number of consumers. Also company
put their emphasis on cleanliness
which create positive impact on
minds of consumers.

towards to provide transparency
in their services.
(Sources: How to use the 7Ps Marketing Mix, 2018)
TASK 3
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation
In this scenario, company is launching their new product that is Steam Burger. It contains
variety of spices and a special kind of flavour in order to satisfy consumers with great pleasure.
They have created mix of different kind of spices which makes that burger extra special. In
addition to this company are also serving unique taste of drink to sooth consumer taste buds.
Mentioned below is an overview of company their vision, mission and strength and weakness.
Company have developed various strategies to launch their product in market in order to get
great consumer response.
Company Overview: McDonald's is an UK fast food company founded in the year 1940.
It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Company is operating their functions in worldwide. Their
key products are hamburgers, cheese burgers, fries, wraps and soft drinks. Main aim of this
Illustration 1: How to use the 7Ps Marketing Mix

company is to serve their customers with healthy and fresh foods with various varieties and in
low prices.
Vision and mission statements
Vision: Vision of McDonald's is to become world's finest quick service restaurants.
Company vision is to provide magnificent quality of service value and cleanliness in order to
make their each and every consumer smile. Overall vision of this company is to become modern
burger company while delivering best consumer services (Essentials 2015).
Mission: McDonald's mission is to be their consumer's favourite place and way to eat and
drink. Company emphasizes to become favourite of their target customers. In order to achieve
their objectives company develops their menu to satisfy different preferences of their customers.
SWOT Analysis:
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 McDonald's is having world known
brand image and quality in food
industry (Moll 2016).
 Company is having strong position in
both domestic and global markets.
 Their annual sales are good and also
they are financially strong
 Company deliver finest quality of food
services.
 McDonald's is socially responsible as
they do lot of charities.
 They have adaptive nature in all kind of
markets
 McDonald's lacks in product innovation
and they deliver limited products in
their menu
 They are having high amount of calorie
and carbohydrates in their food
products.
 company sometimes faces issue due to
legal hassles and dissatisfied
franchisees.
 They have weak product development
strategies
 Company is negatively criticized for
offering unhealthy products to their
consumers.
 There is high labour turnover in this
company
OPPORTUNITIES THREAT