Marketing Principles and Practices Applied to McDonald's: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, principles, and practices. It begins with an introduction to key marketing concepts and terminology applicable to McDonald's, exploring concepts like production, product, selling, marketing, and societal marketing. The main body delves into McDonald's product strategy, branding, and promotional strategies, highlighting how they have contributed to the company's objectives. The report identifies specific marketing strategies and programs, such as target marketing, localization, and marketing campaigns, that have helped McDonald's achieve its goals. Furthermore, it examines two key marketing concepts and principles employed by McDonald's for managing daily operations, including the 7Ps of the marketing mix. Finally, the report discusses the relationship of the marketing function with other functional areas within McDonald's, concluding with recommendations for continued success.

Marketing Principles and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Explain key marketing concepts and terminology applicable to McDonalds’s.....................3
Identify marketing strategies and programs that helped McDonalds’s in achieving their
objectives................................................................................................................................5
Explain two of the marketing concept and principles used by the McDonalds’s for managing
their daily organisational operations......................................................................................6
Explaining the relationship of marketing function with other functional areas of McDonalds.......9
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an important function with the help of which organisation aims to achieve their
overall objectives. Various marketing principles and practices facilitate them to formulate
strategies with which they can achieve their marketing objectives (Hollensen, 2019). Fast food
industry is rapidly increasing with the changed taste and preference of the consumers. It is
considered to be a type of mass produced food that is for commercial resale. It includes various
precooked means which has various adverse impacts on the health of the consumers. But the
changing lifestyle people prefer fast food due to which the industry is growing rapidly. The
restaurant offering such food promotes their offerings with the aim of creating awareness among
the customers and for achieving their organisational objective. In this report, McDonald's is
taken into consideration which is one of the largest fast-food chains operating in 119 countries
throughout the world. They have been offering a wide range of food products with the aim to
satisfy a large number of customers. In this report various marketing concepts and terminologies
used by McDonald's are discussed along with various strategies and programs. Apart from this
various Marketing concepts and principles used for managing daily operations by McDonald's
are discussed later in the report.
MAIN BODY
Explain key marketing concepts and terminology applicable to McDonalds’s
The marketing concept is the strategy with the help of which the needs and wants of the
customers can easily be satisfied by the organisation. Along with this they can achieve their
organisational objective as well such as increase in sales, maximisation of profits etc. The five
key marketing concepts include:
 Production concept: According to this concept the consumer prefers those products
which are easily and widely available and ar quite inexpensive. Due to this in this concept
the focus of the organisation is on operations with mass production as it facilitates them
to reduce their cost (Philip, 2017).

 Product concept: The product concept is the one which focuses upon the fact that the
customer considers the quality of the product, its performance and innovative features at
the time of making purchases. Along with this it supports that they becomes loyal if such
products are provided to them with a wide variety.
 Selling concept: In this concept it is assumed that the customers buys those who which
are highly promoted and are sold aggressively by the companies. In this competitive
business environment the companies such as McDonald’s need t focus upon marketing
along with selling (Madhani, 2017).
 Marketing concept: The marketing concept relies upon the pull strategy in which the
customers are attracted towards the products by creating significant awareness of the
products. The organisation focuses upon creating their brand strong as with this they can
make the customer to choose their product over other.
 Societal marketing concept: This is the concept with the help of which the organisations
emphasis on needs and wants of the customers so that better value can be delivered to
them and competitive edge can be taken over.
For ensuring the success of the business various marketing terminologies and strategies are
adopted by the companies so that they can ensure their survival and accomplishment of their
business objectives. The McDonald’s has been using such terminologies which are given below:
 Product Strategy: The product strategy is associated with what the product of the
organisation must achieve ad how it contributes to the accomplishment of their
objectives. It outlines the strategic vision of the company for their offerings and their
related strategies such as the target market for the product, features of the product etc.
McDonald’s focus upon the development of their product as their product strategy in
which either changes are made in existing products or new product are launched by them
in their restaurant as per the taste and preference of the customers. For some of their
products such as hamburger, cheeseburger their product strategy are permanent while for
seasonal product temporary product strategy are adopted by them as with they aims to
give their customer a new experience (Grant, 2017).
 Branding: The branding is related with the branding decisions which consist of four
crucial decisions such as positioning of the brand, selection of the name of the brand,
brand sponsorship and development of brand. It is considered to be a long term plan with

the help of this the companies can achieve their objectives. With the help of a well
defined branding a business can directly establish connection with their customers’ needs
and their emotion which enables them to take competitive advantage over others. Various
branding that has been adopted by the company includes innovation in the logo and
collaboration of opening the stores inspite of not effective revenue to the company. They
developed strong brand elements such as the brand character outside their restaurant,
their logo and the tagline of “i’m lovin’it” make the customer to develop emotional
connect with them. The brand character efficiently attracts the customers and enable them
remember the brand. In addition to this the segmentation and marketing mix strategies
facilitated them to make their brand strong (Theurer, 2018).
 Promotional Strategy: The promotional strategy is designed by the organisation with the
aim of creating awareness among the customers, reminding the customers about the
services of the company. For this a combination of sources are adopted such as
advertisement, sales promotion, social media marketing, personal selling etc. With the
help of promotion mix the target audiences are persuaded to purchase their goods and
services. The McDonald’s has been using various such strategies for persuading the
audiences such as they advertisement through televisions, radio and print media; through
personal selling within the restaurant by the employees; through sales promotion by way
of discount coupons, offering meal options etc. This strategy enables them to directly hit
their sales by making their customers aware of their offers.
Identify marketing strategies and programs that helped McDonalds’s in achieving their
objectives
For achieving the business objectives the company has adopt various business strategy,
corporate strategy and marketing strategy. This enables them to take planned actions with the
help of which the goals and objectives can be accomplished. Various strategies that has been
adopted by McDonald’s are franchise model with the help of which they expanded their market
presence, re-engineering of the products and services offered by them (Okonkwo, 2016). The
company has adopted various marketing strategies with the help of which they ensure their
growth such as:
Target marketing: With the help of identifying right market for the company they aim to
increase their market share. They develop the products as per the needs of the customer targeted

by them. The consumer behaviour theory facilitated the McDonald’s in determining the
requirements of the company and for this they emphasis on four aspects of the concept such as
people to buy, consumer needs, buying motives and the buying process. With the help of these
four aspects they could easily understand the customers behaviours with the help of which they
formulated various strategies.
Localisation Strategy: This strategy facilitated McDonald’s in anticipating the continuous
changing needs of the customers as with they could achieve the professional efficiency because
with this they can efficiently bring change in their offerings. This strategy also enables them to
incorporate changes within their country specific strategies rather than the global marketing
strategy of the company (Solimun and Fernandes, 2018).
Marketing Campaigns: By launching various marketing campaigns the company aims to
improve their relations with the customers and to maintain them. The launched a marketing
campaign worldwide with the aim of improving their overall operations by ensuring better
quality of services by offering better ambience, clean and attractive interiors of the restaurant and
many more. With such campaigns they tries to improve the overall customer experience with the
help of which they could easily make their customer brand loyal. Along with this they have used
“Happy price” campaign in India with the help of which they could increase their customer base
Branding strategy: the branding strategy so adopted by McDonald’s facilitated them in
accomplishing their objectives as with the help of this they could easily create brand awareness
about their offerings. They used a tagline “i’m lovin’it” with the help of which they could
establish connection with the customers and to present the brand among the customers (Kucuk,
2017).
For achieving the objectives of the company various strategies are formulated by them but
to ensure success with it operations must ethical as unethical practices adversely affect the brand
image of the company as well as the profitability. They have faced various legal proceedings for
unethical practices such as use of unethical ingredients, unhealthy food because it contain
various too many calories, added sugar, unhealthy fats etc. that has adverse impact on the health.
Due to this case the brand image of McDonald’s got adversely affected and along with the
accomplishment of objectives as well.

Explain two of the marketing concept and principles used by the McDonalds’s for managing
their daily organisational operations
For managing the daily operations of the company it is important for the organisation to
adopt various concept and principles so that they can ensure the success of the company. with the
help of marketing principles the McDonald’s can analyse various strategies and tactics that they
have to incorporate so that they can manage their daily operations in terms of significant demand
of the customers, availability of the material to them so that products can readily be provided to
the customers (Liu, Y., 2017). Various marketing principles and marketing concepts that are
adopted for managing daily operations are given below:
Marketing principles: The marketing principles includes 7 marketing mix strategies with the
help of which McDonald's can efficiently manage their daily operations as this strategy
contributes to the current performance of the brand and enables them to achieve their overall
organisational objective. Various elements of marketing mix for McDonalds are given below:
 Product: McDonald has been offering a wide variety of products to the customers which
are composed mainly of food and beverages. It is the fundamental determinant for the
brand and its corporate image as on the basis of product the value of the company can be
determined. With a wide variety of product McDonald's attract a large number of target
audience as they have various option for all such as hamburger and sandwiches, salads,
snacks and sides, chicken, breakfast, McCafe etc. It enables them to satisfy the need of a
large segment .
 Price: This is another basic element that attracts the customers as they are price-
conscious in context to the quality offered. McDonalds aims to maximize its profit
margin by increasing the prices. The pricing strategy that has been adopted by them
includes bundle pricing strategy in which day offer meals to the customers at discounted
prices. It makes the customer spend a little more and have a happy meal. With this day
could easily manage their daily operations.
 Place: Place is associated with the venue where the products are offered. McDonald's
offers its products through their own restaurants (Denton Jr, 2019). A few restaurants
manage to operates kiosks for enabling to sell a limited selection of the product. The
kiosk is temporary while the restaurants are permanent which serves to the customers
efficiently. They also make their food available through mobile apps which makes

convenient for the customer to have their products getting it delivered at home. In
addition to this, the customers can also place orders through postmates website.
 Promotion: Variety of promotion mixes are used by the organisation for creating
awareness of the products. McDonald uses a combination of promotion mix as a tactic as
with the help of this they can attract a large number of customers to their stores on a daily
basis. They have been using various sources such as advertisements through television
and radio, sales promotion with the help of which they increase their daily sales by
offering various discounts and by offering combinations of orders. Along with this, they
promote their product through social media marketing due to which they can easily
attract youth to their stores (Bowie, 2020).
 People: The employees of McDonald’s have standard uniforms and offer friendly and
prompt services that contribute to improved customer experience. Also, they manage the
pressure and negative responses of the customers on a daily basis and resolve their issues
that increase the footfall of the customers.
 Process: The entire process of manufacturing food products is transparent in
McDonald's, through which they can easily attract customers on grounds of hygienic
products with safety and security.
 Physical evidence: The Ambience of the restaurants, brand character of McDonald, the
holding and menu display are the physical evidence for McDonalds.
To outperform it is important for the organisation to efficiently target the market by
classifying them into various segments (Massiera, Gilmore and Sellami, 2018). For achieving
the goals and objective McDonald uses STP strategy to manage their daily operations which are
given below:
Segmentation: With this strategy, the market can be divided into segments on the basis of
common characteristics which is based on various factors such as behavioural, geographical,
demographic and psychographic. McDonald's has segmented its market segment on the basis of
demographic factors such as age and income. Also they consider the psychographic factors such
as taste and preference of the people as well as their religious belief and lifestyle.
Targeting: Out of the identified segments the target market is decided which the company
aims to cater to. Target market of McDonald's includes kids, teenagers, and families. It is

because they offer a wide variety of products with which they can satisfy the need of people of
different ages with different preferences.
Positioning: The positioning strategy of McDonald's is considered to be outstanding since their
initial stage as they have successfully developed a distinct and unique image in the mind of the
people that easily attract them to their restaurants. They also extensively advertise their products
with which the customers get to know about them (Payne-Palacio, 2016).
Explaining the relationship of marketing function with other functional areas
of McDonalds

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
It is concluded from the above report that for an organisation it is important to adopt
various marketing principles as with the help of this they can easily manage their operation and
achievement of various objectives. Various marketing strategies such as promotional strategies,
branding, marketing mix strategies, segmentation, targeting, positioning etc. facilitate them to
determine the ways with which they can reach to their customers. Along with this the marketing
department of the companies work interestedly with other departments so that they work for the
common objectives of the company and ensuring their accomplishment. On the basis of the
analysis within the report various recommendations are made to the company which includes:
 The organisation operating in food industry must ensure the food safety and it must be
included in the value statement of the company and their code of conduct as with the help
of this the business practices can be made ethical.
 For improving the brand image due to unethical practices the McDonald’s must ensured
the quality of the products offered by ensuring the quality of the ingredients. Also the
company must adopt CSR social web model with the help of which they can contribute
more to the society and this has positive impact on the customers.
 A combination of communication mix strategies must be used but on frequent basis as
with the help of they can easily remind their customers about their offerings.
 Innovation in the products must be ensured on consistent basis as with the help of this
they can make their customers loyal for the brand.