Marketing Essentials Report: McDonald's Marketing Plan Analysis

This report delves into the core principles of marketing essentials, employing McDonald's as a comprehensive case study. It begins by defining the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function, including distribution, financing, marketing information, pricing, goods and services management, promotion, and selling, all within the context of McDonald's operations. The report then examines the interrelationships between the marketing department and other functional areas within a firm, highlighting how effective marketing strategies contribute to overall productivity and profitability. The analysis includes McDonald's marketing strategies and its marketing plan. The report includes a comparison of the marketing mix elements of McDonald's and Aldi and a detailed analysis of McDonald's marketing plan. The report concludes with a comprehensive overview of the marketing concepts and their application in the context of McDonald's, providing insights into the company's success in the fast-food industry.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.....................................................1
P2. Marketing inter-relationship with the other departments in the firms..................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3. Comparison of the marketing mix elements of McDonald's and Aldi..................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4. Marketing plan for McDonald and its analysis.....................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Business is the trade of goods and services in exchange of money, but in order to make
sure that more number of products are sold so that the profit margin can be increased it is
necessary that its marketing is done properly. Marketing is an activity which involves promotion
and selling of the goods which involves market research and advertising. It is the way through
which the concept of the business is reached to its target customers (Al-Hasan, Thomas and
Mansour, 2016). This includes coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing.
Through this, firms want to convince and satisfy the consumer that why they should use their
products and what all benefits they will have if they do so. Due to expansion of business
environment competition has increased and if organisation wants to gain competitive advantage
they have to adopt marketing strategies which are unique and flexible (Babin and Zikmund,
2015). This all report will be consisting of marketing essentials and how they interrelates with
other functional units of a company. What are the role and responsibility of marketing activities
will be briefed in this and for this fast food restaurant chain McDonald's will be considered. It is
owned renowned company and who has set new benchmark in the food industry all over the
world. This would be interesting to see its marketing concept and what all things they adopt to
beat their rivals.
TASK 1
P1. Key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. It is the process of
creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that has certain value for the
consumers, clients and society if it is taken into larger context. The basic aim of this is to bring
new customer, retain and satisfy the existing one. It is the customer centred activity which
involves ideas and innovation. If a business have to survive in the market they have to bring new
marketing concept on regular basis and this will help them to engage their customers in the
business operations (Baines, Fill and Page, 2013). Whatever targets they have through they can
achieve them in quick period of time and will also ensures proper use of the resources. Whenever
a firm introduces a new brand they definitely bring a marketing concept with them. This helps
them in attracting customers towards them in less period of time. Without making people aware
about the goods and services it is impossible to sustain in the market. Through analysing all the
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things like their competitor's products, market condition, demographic factors, trends, customer
taste and etc. they have to design their marketing campaigns. In this they have to make sure that
it posses creativity and uniqueness. It should reflect their concept and should convince people
that why they should buy their products. In a same sector there are products which has lots of
substitute so the firms regularly have to update and bring new things in the market.
There was time when marketing didn't had a crucial role in the success of organisations
as there were less number of rivals in the same sector, economies was not open and there was not
much privatization. But in this era where technologies has become advanced and this has brought
new platforms of communication (Baker and Saren, 2016). This has changed the scenario and the
importance of marketing has also increased. Firms are focusing on attracting new consumers
through their marketing operations and all there activities has become customer oriented. One of
the reason for this is that the purchasing power of customers has increased. Through marketing
research they find out the needs and requirements of the consumer and according to it they
produce products. For example; there is an area where lifestyle of people is not good and
believes in eating something cheap. So any fast food restaurant brings a new chicken burger
which is cheap and healthy (Banerjee, 2013). Through better marketing they can double the
customer and at the same time they can increase their profit margin. All the objectives are set by
taking consumer demands in preference.
McDonald's is an American fast food restaurant chain which was established in 1940 in
the city of California. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, French fries, breakfast
items, soft drinks, milkshakes and various varieties of desserts are included in their menu. It also
brought salads, fish, wraps, smoothies and fruits in their menu after facing protest and criticism
over its unhealthy products. It operates in almost 119 countries with 3000 restaurants and serves
to 45 million individuals all across the world. It is top ranked restaurant chain in the world. Not
only they own self restaurants but the franchisees concept is also followed. Only 9000 stores are
under their ownership and the rest are on franchisees level (Beatty and Samuelson, 2014). With
the net income of almost 4 million its experienced approx. 23 billion revenue in 2016. Talking
about its other factors it is the world second largest employer with employing 375000 people in
their various chains. They have restricted themselves to a single structure but believes in
following matrix structure for various activities. Functional structure is used for the corporate
itself, divisional for the restaurants and geographical for their global market. To make sure that
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they provide high quality product they uses this structure. Organisation culture can be described
into four various parts i.e., power, task, person and role culture. All these have various aspects
like in power culture the all power remains with few individuals and they will be responsible for
all the decisions. Task culture can be followed in order to achieve objectives or they can resolve
any crucial issue. It is considered as important because in includes a group of people coming
together to achieve gain something important. In order to extract best out of the staff role culture
is followed in which people from the particular field are given the roles according to their
capabilities (Bivins, 2013). With the help of task culture employees can know what is their
responsibilities and functions in organisation. Whereas the firm get to know what the potential of
their workers. In the scenario of McDonald's task culture culture is followed because without the
collaboration of workers no operations cannot be performed.
There are two types of marketing concept as in one marketing is done by keeping product
in mind and in other it emphases on consumer. When McDonald focuses on marketing to a
consumer they looks at the features of the product and no emotions are included in the
purchasing decision. In the marketing to customer emphasises on benefits of the goods and their
decision is emotional.
Following are some of the marketing functions which McDonald has to carry out:-
 Distribution: It describes about the marketing concept that define how a company will
sell its good and services.
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Illustration 1: Temploo, 2017

 Financing: To carry out any marketing function some budget is needs and through
budgeting things can be improved to a great level.
 Marketing Information: If McDonald's wants to provide service quality they should
know what the customer is demanding and this they can get to know through obtaining
the information of their consumers. Whatever information they have got should be
utilized in the marketing concept (Berkowitz, 2016). For example; they can offer
discounts to students if they come to McDonald's restaurant with their mother on
Mother's Day. This will increase the sales and will have a positive impact on the minds of
people for the company.
 Pricing: It is the crucial concept through which they can gain competitive advantage.
Normally most of people look at the price of the products when they visits any food store.
So they should have reasonable price of the burgers and make sure that pricing policy is
updated according to the change in the business environment (Blythe, 2012).
 Goods and Services Management: It is necessary that McDonald's should manage
products and services according to the demands & requirements of the consumer. They
should clearly check whether service staff is behaving properly with the customer or nit
and the stores are clean or not.
 Promotion: Through this they can aware people that want products and services they
offer. They can use various media platforms to do so and other than this they can also
make people engage on social media.
 Selling: The last function of the marketing, so they should make sure that it is done
properly. They should focus on making sure that consumers are served with better and
hygiene food (Braslow, 2015). The other thing which is included in this is the prices at
which they will deliver goods and services.
P2. Marketing inter-relationship with the other departments in the firms.
If the marketing department of the company properly performs all their tasks this will
increase productivity and profitability of a firm. All the functions of marketing describes the
interrelationship with different department. Through marketing procedure they can establish a
link between the consumers & firms and this will help them in attaining the goals which they
have desired for. All its products are focused on customer demand and requirements, so through
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this they are valuing their consumer. It is setting good image in the minds of people. McDonald's
regularly focus on expanding their market in the countries and regions where they don't have
their existence (Brooks and Simkin, 2012). They also use different marketing tools and
techniques to satisfy the current market. McDonald's develops promotional activities and
strategies to improve their performance in better way. With this they are becoming successful in
attracting more customers at their stores. In the all process they undertake lots of tasks which are
as follows:-
Research: It is considered as one of the major function of any organisation as through
this they can know the current status of the market. By performing this they get a great help in
designing their marketing strategies. With this they can get better knowledge about their rivals
like what they are offering and what operations they are carrying out to attract more consumers.
Transportation: With the help of this they transfer their resources from one place to
another. They need to make sure that all the things are reached on time at the workplace so that
all the demand is met by the company (Campbell and Martin, 2015).
Risk Management: In the business there might be some factors which can hamper the
marketing of the company. So for that they need to identify all the things which are affecting
their functions. Risk is an uncertain situation so all the things should be managed properly so the
risk causing factors can be eliminated.
Quality of Goods: This is the function which plays the most crucial role in defining the
success of McDonald because if there will be no quality in the food people will hardly come to
their restaurants. Whatever goods and services are served should pass the quality test.
Product Development: Through the marketing they can know what all demands are of
the customer and what changes they what to see in the products and services. Product
development define new goods at the market place which emphasises on consumers
requirements (Cua, Reames and Chai, 2013).
Above mentioned functions describe the marketing procedure of McDonald so that they
can gain objectives. In order to increase the productivity of the departments it tries to give
support to them. It basically briefs about the relationship with other departmental functions.
Marketing with the Human Resources: Marketing department aware human resource
department about the requirements of the people for different tasks. It attracts a lot of consumers
at the store which will increase their sales and by this they will get more profits. They get certain
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crucial information form them and also provide them knowledge about the resources which will
be required to do marketing function.
Marketing with Customer services: All the strategies of McDonald's are focused on customer
satisfaction. In order to give quality services they make sure that all the demands of the
customers are met. This will increase their performance at the marketplace and will get better
results. With the help of various surveys which is part of the market research they get to know
what consumer wants from them.
Marketing with finance: Finance department of any organisation is responsible for
handling accounts and finance related things. They provide an insight about the cost which
which has been inquired in the market place (Desai, 2013). Marketing will help them in knowing
what all future expenditure they can acquire in future. This will help them in allocating right
budget for various activities.
Marketing with Administration: With this they can get to know what all rules and
regulation they have to follow. There are some government laws and policies which needs to be
taken care of in the business process.
Research and development with Marketing: This department helps them in creating
and developing new products in the market. The marketing people which provide information to
this department that what all things the consumer wants and what all things are trending in the
market (Desselle, Zgarrick and Alston, 2016). According to the information provided by the
department they research and comes out with a new concept. They have to regularly comes with
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new products because in the business competition is high and taste of the consumer continuously
changes.
All the above mentioned functions of the marketing briefs interrelation with the various
business function and through this they can achieve whatever goals they aim for. Distribution
and sales department is also regarded as the crucial part as this helps them in gaining customer
sanctification and increase in the performance (Dibb and Simkin, 2013). Marketing department
all have to do with the customer so they should guide other department on the basis of the
consumers. There main aim is to conduct a research in the market and set goals and objectives by
taking crae of the needs of the customer.
TASK 2
P3. Comparison of the marketing mix elements of McDonald's and Aldi.
Marketing mix is the tools or techniques used by the organisations to sell their goods or it
can be used for the promotion of their services. In the expanded form it has 7 elements i.e.,
product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. There will be
comparison of marketing mix with the Aldi company which is an global discount supermarket
chain.
McDonald's:-
Product:- It has variety of food products from non-veg to veg related to fast food. It has
specialization in hamburgers, chicken nuggets and etc. By following the concept of giving best
quality food they are constantly on increasing their customer base (Dioko, 2016).
Price:- Prices can be a deciding factors for any business. Prices should be relevant
enough where both customer and company can get benefit. With the cost leadership strategy they
are providing products at competitive prices. They also decide pricing by taking care of the
buying capacity of the market. In Asian and African the prices are low compared to other
countries.
Place: They are delivering their services in almost 120 countries They target shopping
malls, airports and the highways where customers can easily reach. Both the urban and rural
areas are targeted.
Promotion: They have almost reach to all the promotional platforms which make ensure
that customers are engaged with them. They use different TV, radio and other social media to
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reach to large number of people in less time. All the promotional activities connect the people to
McDonald's by creating an emotional touch in them. For different countries different ads and
promotional strategies are made because for any country the promotional campaign might not be
effective of the other nation.
People: It includes all the internal and external public of McDonald's like their
employees and customers. By building healthy relation with customers they can earn credibility
and will attract more consumers (Draelos, 2010). By motivating their staff they can bring
efficiency in their work.
Process:- With the process of providing convenience to its consumers in receiving
services. This also make sure that there is effective delivery of the products and services with
fine quality. They uses packaging methods for delivering the products ordered by the customers
and with this they also allow their customer to look at the ingredients used by them in making
food item.
Physical Evidence: They have to properly look at the store and try to modify it with new
attractions. The food which they deliver is the intangible thing which customer does not notices
but at the first time they get impress from the structure of the store and its location (Fill, 2011).
So through designing better interiors and exterior they can gain competitive advantage form their
rivals.
Aldi: It is the largest grocery store which was founded in 1913. They are giving
customised products at discount rate. They have aim of giving products at better quality on low
prices.
Product: This is the thing on which whole business is established and through this they
earn revenue. They are giving better products at discount rates. To maintain this concept they are
only taking products from the suppliers who are maintaining the quality and giving them on
lower prices. This attracts more customers towards them.
Price: It creates demand for the goods and services in the market, so by keeping market
condition in mind they should determine prices. While making pricing policy they should at the
competitors and should analyse the their prices (Hauer, 2011). This can be an advantage for them
if they offer less prices from their rivals. They should also make sure that they don't set much
low prices because with this their profit margin will decrease.
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Place: They choose better place for their new stores in UK and normally focus on the
populated areas. With this they have been successful in opening 8000 stores in almost 18
countries.
Promotion: Aldi is using advertising and pamphlets for their promotion. This increase
the awareness and more customer attracts to them.
People: If they have to maintain their brand value they regularly needs to support their
employees and customers (Hoványi, 2013). They also give heavy discount to their employees
when they make any purchase. On the regular basis staff are trained so that they can perform
better during the peak season.
Process: Aldi has set their stores in a way that people find it easier to locate the goods
they want in the store. They have made separate sections for each category and this increase
efficiency in the working of the staff. Customers don't have to wait in the long billing lines as
they have brought the concept of self billing (Jackson, 2011). Screens are set in the stores which
are giving all the product related information to them.
Physical Evidence: They don't believe in much creation, so they have kept their store
interior in simple way. This helps them in attracting the customers towards them. They provide a
assistance to the customer while shopping which briefs product quality and content.
TASK 3
P4. Marketing plan for McDonald and its analysis.
McDonald's is the world leading organisation in the fast food industry so in order to
maintain the existing position they should regularly comes with new products and marketing
plan. Marketing plan is the plan which determines how the promotional activities will be carried
out. What all things will be followed to make customers attract towards the new product. What
all operation will be performed in order to achieve the targets (Jain, Ahuja and Medury, 2013). In
the process of developing a marketing plan it is necessary that an analysis of the internal and
external environment should be done. Through this they will get to know what all are the factors
which are impacting their business. Following are the marketing plan for McDonald's:-
Mission of the company: In order to generate more profits best food products wilol be
provided with the world class services to the consumer.
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Analysis of the Situation: To know what all factors can influence the working of the
company SWOT analysis of McDonald's can be done.
Strengths
 Operates its services in almost 110
nations.
 People are well aware about this brand
and had been successful in creating a
good brand value.
 To achieve cost reduction strategies
economies of scale is used by the firm.
 They are capable of achieving higher
income.
Weaknesses
 In the situation where markets has
become saturated they are finding it
difficult to expand their market.
 They are not able to generate pace in
their research and development
department so they are not able to bring
new products on time.
Opportunities
 They can bring more added values in
their restaurants so that more number of
people could come to them.
 Through providing products whose
recipes matches with the local market
where they are operating their business
will give them advantage.
Threats
 There are lots of other brands who are
just behind them and giving them tough
competition.
 With change in the currency business of
the company can be affected.
Competitors: Burger King, Subway, Vendey's, KFC and Pizza Hut.
Objectives of the Marketing: They are focusing on the delivery time which they take to
deliver the orders. To make it success they can use new media for the promotion of it.
Overall Objectives: To create a strategy through which negative reviews can be
addressed as quick as possible.
To expand into the market where they don't have any restaurant.
To ensure that their goods are easily accessible.
Business Objective: To increase the sales by almost 25 percent. To make customers
aware about its products which are less popular. To open new stores at 10 new places.
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