Marketing Essentials Report: McDonald's Roles, Mix, and Evaluation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, focusing on the essential roles and responsibilities within the marketing function. It explores the core functions of marketing, including distribution, market research, pricing, product and service management, promotion, and selling. The report delves into how these functions contribute to achieving organizational targets and improving efficiency. Furthermore, it examines the application of the marketing mix within McDonald's, using examples from Aldi and ASDA to provide context. The report covers the marketing mix elements: product, price, place, and promotion, and how they are applied in marketing planning. Finally, the report evaluates the marketing plan, offering insights into the company's operations and promotional strategies. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK-1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1- Roles and responsibilities of marketing function in context of McDonald's...................1
P2- Roles and responsibilities associated with marketing......................................................3
TASK- 2...........................................................................................................................................5
P3- Application of marketing mix to the marketing planning process...................................5
TASK-3 .........................................................................................................................................12
P4- Evaluation of marking plan for McDonald's .................................................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a key concept of any organisation. It can be defined as a process of
producing, advertising and delivering of goods and services to the final customers. The actual
idea of marketing is very vast. In context of this, “Marketing essential” is a major term that can
be defined as all possible area under marking which is necessary in order to carry out its
operations (Dibb and Simkin, 2013). This includes marketing channels, supply chain, marketing
environment, marketing mix and so on. Managers therefore, need to fully evaluate the major
“marketing essentials” in order to implement various marketing strategy within the company.
There is a continuous change in the market and thus it is very important for any management to
understand the complexity of the environment ( Wirtz, 2012). This will definitely help them to
achieve their target. In context of given report, McDonald's is a world popular fast food
restaurant. It was established in 1940 and today they are serving 68 million consumer
approximately in 120 different countries. They have around 36,900 outlets. This report will
enables to understand major roles and responsibility of marketing functions. Marketing plan can
be evaluated on the basis of specified company's operations.
TASK-1
P1- Roles and responsibilities of marketing function in context of McDonald's.
Before knowing the major idea behind the concept of roles and responsibilities of
marketing function, it is important to understand the basic function of marketing. Major
functions of marketing in context of McDonald's are given below:
1- Distribution- Having a great idea about any product is good but if a company is not
able to decide the ways by which goods can be reach to the customer, then this will be big loss
for the organisation ( Pike, 2015). As far as cited company is concern about, then this can be
clearly understood that they are using clear distribution channel.
3- Market research- This can be considered as one of the major functions of marketing.
It involves to collect the information about the market trends and also about the taste and
preferences of target customer (Blythe, 2012). This is important because until and unless an
organisation is aware about their target customer, then only they can serve customer with the best
products. McDonald's have always been best at this part. They have a tremendous capability to
conduct market research and on the basis of this, their food quality will always meet the
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customer's expectations. Therefore, it is necessary for any company to work on this part in order
to successfully achieve their target.
4- Pricing- It is again a very crucial task of any organisation. It plays a major role to
decide the selling rate of any product and services in the market. It is a very challenging function
of any organisation (Lipsman and et. al., 2012). This is because if price of product are set in such
way that common people do not find it affordable, that means the product will be a big failure in
the market. So pricing should not be too high and it should also not be too low. This is because
too high price will be result in loosing customer and if price will be set as too low, then company
might find difficulty to survive in the market due to heavy loss.
5- Product and service management- This function actually comes after determining
the target customer as well as after setting the correct price of product. This can be done by
listing all the queries of customer and resolving it as soon as possible. There can be alteration in
products and services as per the demand of consumer (Desai, 2013). McDonald's have always
focused on this part because fast food can only be served if it could meet the taste of customer.
Therefore, cited company have introduced many fast food such as Hamburgers, French fries, soft
drinks, deserts and coffee.
6- Promotion- A company can not expect success until and unless they have made a
good promotional strategy. This is important because a product needs to be advertise in order to
get customer attention (Nguyen and Simkin, 2012). Therefore, McDonald's have made a very
strong promotional strategy through social media and with the help of other platform of
promotion as well. Social media may includes Facebook, twitter, Instagram and so on. These are
the strongest promotional platform because most of the people now a days moving towards
technologies. This may includes going online. As social media gives tremendous opportunities to
those companies who are seeking for the best promotional techniques. Promotional activities can
be paid and non-paid as well.
7- Selling- This is the last function of marketing. After performing several functions
under the concept of marketing, last comes the selling. It is important because a company's profit
margin is depend upon its type of selling. Above mentioned company have a unique way of
selling (Kennedy and Parsons, 2014). They make sure that customer should be served at their
best.
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After analysing the core functions of marketing, it is now important to know the roles and
responsibilities of these functions (Hausmann, 2012). Given below are the major roles:
1- It helps in achieving the target- If all the functions of marketing has performed in the
most effective manner then this will surely help the company to achieve their target. McDonald's
have always been used strong marketing functions in order to attain their objective. For this
purpose, they have made separate functional area with a head person who will be liable for
ensuring the goal of that particular department (Ogunmokun and Tang, 2012). This can be
achieved by dividing the entire functional area with different functional unit.
2- Improve the efficiently level- Functions of marketing should be performed in such a
way that all the operations of it can be efficiently achieved. It is necessary that the goal should be
achieved in the most efficient and effective manner.
Therefore, on the basis of performing all the functions of marketing, roles and
responsibilities associated with it can be fully achieved.
P2- Roles and responsibilities associated with marketing.
Roles and responsibilities associated with marketing helps in the performance of other
functions in the organisation. Given below are the basic ways by which marketing can help and
support the other functions in the organisations of McDonald's.
1. Distribution will help in defining demand and supply department- As distribution
can be considered as the most important role of marketing and thus it also affect and help the
company to define their demand and supply department (Cabrera and Williams, 2014). This is
because distribution is the medium by which all the desired goods and services delivered to the
consumer and then demand and supply department determine the requirement of all the material
required to meet the customer expectations on time.
2. Promotion helps the sales team- On the bases of promotion which is again a very
important responsibility of the marketing, sales department evaluate the market share and profit
of their company. Promotions directly affect the sales of any company and hence a company can
evaluate the difference between earlier sales and current sales as per the promotional strategies.
Sales department can also achieve their target by keeping their web content updated. Search
engine optimization that is also known as SEO responsible for putting any particulate website on
the top of search list by the people. Therefore, it is very important to place any particular page on
the top list of search engine so that maximum number of people can get through it. This can
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again considered as a promotional activity (Coombs, 2012). In context of cited company,
marketing department is actually responsible for placing any specific page on the top customer
search list. Demand and supply is affected by the promotional activities of the company. If
customers are more aware about the product then demand will be high indicating the need of
high supply as well (Brooks and Simkin, 2011). Promotions can be done through social media.
Now a days, social media is one of the biggest platform to promote products. Therefore company
needs to fully utilise this stage for their promotional activity. Promotions will further result in
selling of goods and services by the customer. In context of McDonald's, marketing have actually
proven their crucial responsibility against managing all social media sites. Cited company have a
unique promotional strategy. They uses all prevailing platform of promotion in order to get
sustainability in the market.
3. Market research plays a major role in research and development department- Marketing
research as a crucial role of marketing directly helps the company to establishes the research and
development of a product. This is done by the department known as research and development.
This involves the idea of product development, product marketing and product management.
Product development can be defined as a way by which the thought process behind any idea can
actually be performed in reality. This is the practical stage of any business (Lembregts and
Pandelaere, 2010). Cited company have very strong sense of product development because they
have intelligent team of marketing (Brooks and Simkin, 2012). They are responsible for actually
developing the product with all required features. Product marketing is a very different concept
from selling of goods. It is related with marketing the product. This is because selling of goods
or services are considered as the end function of marketing. Whereas product marketing can also
include promotion of the products. Product management is certainly managing all the product
that are being produced for the purpose of selling (Illing and Anders, 2016). This involves the
idea of identifying the problems of market and then developing the product as per the customer
need.
Objective of research and development can be achieved by effective internal
communication. Marketing can also be considered as setting up of internal communication in the
most effective manner (Batt, 2013). This is because sometimes, there are some newsletters which
is made by the company in order to rotate it within the organisation and thus, Employee
communication can be done through marketing within the help of intranet.
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The role of marketing is a focal point for an enterprise which related with the following
department. These are:
Production: ALDI have their own production department which produce goods and services for
their customer. Marketing division required to provide relevant information about the product so
that they can make their goods accordingly.
HRM: Marketing department is responsible to provide relevant information about new skills and
capabilities which help to meet future needs in an effective manner. For instance, ALDI planning
to expand their business which required large number of employees should be communicate to
HR department by marketing manager.
Finance: ALDI needs to provide all information about the proposed marketing plan to the
finance department so that they can allocate enough capital to them and implement such plan in
an effective manner.
Distribution: ALDI one of the leading organization in UK in the retail sector, they having more
than 10000 store across the world. This is the key function of marketing department to maintain
proper supply chain which enhanced customer service and gain competitive in the market.
TASK- 2
P3- Application of marketing mix to the marketing planning process.
There can be many ways by which organisation can use marketing mix. Before going on
that, given below is basic concept of marketing mix with reference to three companies that is
McDonald's, Aldi and ASDA.
McDonald's Aldi ASDA
Product Company have to
make sure that right
type of product should
be served to the right
customer. So during
This company
basically indulged in
marking discount
supermarkets. Their
product made as per
Its a company which
deals in supermarkets.
As customer wants to
buy quality products
without spending too
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product development
phase, it is important
for the organisation to
have a research on the
life cycle of the
product.
the demand of
customers.
much of money and
time. This concept is
adopted by the
mentioned company.
Price This is again a major
element that need to
be determined by the
company. Price should
not be too high and it
also not be too low
(Lembregts and
Pandelaere, 2010). It
must be affordable for
the customer and in
the mean time
company can actually
make some profit out
of it.
As this company has a
command over
supermarket and their
products mostly have
discounts on it.
Its a multinational
group which do not
have very less price
and also they are not
concentrated in setting
up high pricers.
Place Any business unit
should be established
at a place which can
be in reach of the
customer. Therefore,
place determination is
also a major factor
that decides the
success level of any
organisation.
Place of conducting
their business in the
form of supermarkets
should be at reachable
place for the customer.
They have their
different location in
various countries and
their set ups are quire
assessable to the
customer.
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Promotion Any product or
services needs to get
customer's attention in
order to sustain in the
market. For this,
company choose a
suitable platform of
promotion for theirs
product
They have make sure
that there company
uses proper means of
promotion such as
social media.
All the means of
promotion such as
magazines,
newspapers and social
media have been used
by this company.
Process It is very necessary for
any organisation to
select a method,
technique or the
process that can best
fit in the company.
Process has to be
efficient in nature that
can produce best
result or output for the
business.
Their method of
commencing business
should be as per their
objective. They are
using a simple
techniques to achieve
their target.
They are following a
simple and fast process
to carry out the
operations of their
company.
people This is important for
any organisation to
take care of their
employee. This is
because they are the
major resource of any
company (Jung and
Hong, 2012). That is
why, hiring right
They are fully
dedicated towards
their employees.
Fully dedicated
towards employee
relation and recruit
people as per their
skilled requirements.
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employee and then
working in their
favour are the
foremost task of any
management.
Physical environment This can be better
understood as the
concept of branding.
The way by which
customer thinks about
any product or
services (Cabrera and
Williams, 2014). This
is basically an idea of
presenting product in
front of customer.
Customers have a
good image of this
company due to their
quality products.
Their physical set- up
is up to the mark and
attract a number of
custom.
As from the above table, it can be concluded that there are various ways by which organisation
can use marking mix.
Product- In context of products, it is well said that product should meet the demand of
customer and hence McDonald's are making quality of fast food products as per the taste of the
consumer (Griffitts, 2016). Aldi's supermarket concept is all based upon the customer needs and
wants and that is the reason they are offering discounted products. ASDA stores limited on the
other hand is also a British supermarket retailers. They are also offering financial services and
mobile phones that basically uses EE network. It is all based upon delivering the right product
and services based upon the consumer's demand.
Price- Price setting as per the marketing mix should not be too low and too high. This
concept helps the mentioned companies such as McDonald's, Aldi, ASDA to set the price of their
product in such a way that maximum number of customer and avail it. In context of McDonald's,
it is found that the company is successfully implementing the global pricing strategies. They
follow some basic steps in setting up prices of their fast food. These phases includes choosing
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price objective, establishing the demand of the product in the market (Kennedy and Parsons,
2014). Estimates all the possible cost, reviewing the competitor's price and discounts they are
offering, deciding pricing techniques or methods and at last evaluating the final price that a
customer needs to pay in order to buy products.
Place- Place as defined under marketing mix plays a vital role in proper selling of goods
and services. McDonald's have often establish their set ups in the middle of the market so that
maximum number of people can reach their. Aldi and ASDA are also successfully uses the
concept place determination in their organisation. Their supermarkets are not very far from the
reach of customers. This is the reason all mentioned companies are trying their level best in order
to select the most desired place of the customer. So that they can atttract more number of
customers.
Promotion- It involves the the use of various promotional techniques with the help of
which consumer can get the idea of the company and features of its product and services.
McDonald's uses television, magazines and newspaper in order to promote their company
(Nguyen and Simkin, 2012). They are also using social networking sites in order to make people
aware about the product and services. In context of Aldi, the total number of market shares found
to be 5.3 as per the survey of 2015. ASDA on the other hand have 17.1 percent of market shares.
This indicates their efforts in promotional strategies with the help of which company can gain
maximum number of market shares.
Process- This plays a vital role in meeting the company's objective. This can simply be
defined as the means by which organisation's mission and goal can be achieved. McDonald's,
Aldi and ASDA are following best process according to the operational areas of their
companies.
People- As human resource are the major element of any organisation. This is because
with the help of labour force different functions of a company can be performed. Mentioned
companies are working for employee relations so that their workers can feel motivated and safe.
McDonald's have initiated various campaign where they are increasing the employees loyalty for
the company. Aldi in order to keep their employees happy, initiated several programs like brain
storming and thus able to create a healthy working environment.
Physical evidence- All the three mentioned companies are defining their tangible aspect
of product. This can includes features of the designed product. The infrastructure where the
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