Marketing Report: McDonald's, Burger King, and Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing essentials and then delves into the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within McDonald's. The report examines the company's product and service management, marketing information management, financing, purchasing, product distribution, promotion, selling, and risk management strategies. It also explores the interrelation of different departments within the organization and their impact on marketing activities. Furthermore, the report compares the marketing mix of McDonald's and Burger King, highlighting their approaches to product, price, place, and promotion. Finally, it discusses the marketing plan for McDonald's, including customer segmentation and targeting. The report aims to provide a clear understanding of McDonald's marketing practices and their effectiveness in achieving business objectives.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibility of marketing function of McDonald's:...........................................1
P2 Roles and responsibility of marketing related to McDonald.................................................4
P3 Marketing mix of McDonald's and Burger King:..................................................................6
P4 Marketing plan for McDonald's...........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a process of management of relationship between buyers and sellers. They
both are important elements of the market. It is an activity which includes creating,
communicating, delivering and exchanging offers and services that have value for clients,
customers, groups and partners (Aaboud and et. al., 2017). Marketing essentials are described as
understanding and learning basic aspects which are related to management theories, concepts
and methods with actual business scenario of world. The basic aim of marketing is to satisfy
their customers with products and services which are offered by any firm or organisation. This is
the most important and essential component of business management. McDonald is a popular
food and service provider across world. Their major aim is to fulfil the needs and wants of
customers in order to achieve goals and objectives. They use various strategies or technologies
for promoting and creating the awareness about products. The report contains the study about
roles and responsibilities of marketing functions. Marketing Mix adopted by cited organisation.
Comparison between McDonald's and Burger king are evaluated to know about their different
marketing mix policies adopted by them in relation to product price, place, promotions etc. Role
and responsibilities which are related with marketing functions. Marketing plans which are
designed for segmentation and targeting customers.
TASK 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function of McDonald's
Marketing is related with selling of products and services to customers for final
consumption. It thus helps in satisfying the needs of customers by providing them goods and
services according to their requirement. Marketing consists of important activities of business
management which are different from innovations. Marketing activities are related with 4 Ps
which are as follows:
 Products manufactured by cited organisation
 Determining prices at which products can be sold
 Place from where products and services can be distributed
 Promotional strategies used by McDonald’s
Example: McDonald's uses various promotional strategies as marketing tools to attract
large number of customers towards products and services.
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Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions of McDonald's are:
Product and service management: It helps in assisting, developing and designing of
various products which require different services to serve needs of its customers. Cited firm
provides food products to large markets. They are the leaders in providing fast food services and
they are owned and operated by local businessman. They have different meal options available
for its customers. McCafe have its presence across various markets and franchisee payment
flows (Al-Hasan, Thomas and Mansour, 2016). There are various employees who are appointed
inside company to make customers aware about different food products which are available for
customers. Good communication policies should be followed by employees so that customers
would feel comfortable in giving orders for different products of McDonald's.
Marketing information Management: It is related with different needs to manage,
obtain and use market information so as to improve the decision making process. It is also
helpful in improving the presentation of marketing activities. Cited organisation is based on
locations and target markets for their products. Ronald McDonald has attracted young children to
buy food products. This has been achieved by creating happy meals with free gift toys for
children. They have established a huge variety of products which are available for everyone
which includes burgers, salads, McFlurry and many more. Many food items are named after the
name of company like McChicken.
Financing: It is used for maintaining budgets of cited organisations and to obtain
necessary business information. Different ways are adopted to provide financial assistance to
customers so that they would become the final consumers (Baker and Saren, 2016). Cited
organisation is able to manage their finance as firm is owned by single individuals. They have
business investors who manage production of business.
Purchasing: It deals with plans and procedures which are to be developed to carry out
business operations to obtain goods and services for business. Cited organisation uses various
product line methods so as to maintain consistency in quality of products. This is the main
reasons for high customers’ expectations towards products and services of cited firm. Their main
aim is to reach at a large number of customers around globe. Supply chain management is thus
created to increase the revenue for firm.
Product Distribution: Best methods should be developed and plans should be made so
as to locate products and services to customers (Clow and James, 2013). The distribution policy
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adopted by cited organisation and ways by which products reaches to market is essential since it
is the biggest business for food services. They cover over 30,000 local eating place operations
and they are spread in 121 countries. Their main aim is to expand their business rapidly in
market with the help of different advertising strategies to promote their business. This is the
main reason for achieving high shares in growth by McDonald's around globe.
Promotion: It is a technique which is used to communicate with customers through
advertisements in relation to information about different products and services. Promotional
strategies are used so as to attract customers to buy products and services offered by McDonald.
Various promotional strategies which are used by McDonald's are online deals, vouchers,
advertisement in newspapers about discounts, coupons and other promotional techniques to
attract customers. Different games are organised which provide different gifts to winners so as to
create interest for customers in food products which help in creating more revenues. There are
various competitors who offer same products and services so that cited organisation will keep
prices of products low or moderate to achieve large number of shares.
Selling: It helps in creating personal communication with customers in order to target
needs by products and services (Cohen and et. al., 2010). McDonald has sold their 80% shares to
China. But it has been evaluated as a problem because company does not have foods that will be
suitable for Chinese market. Cited company is selling over 20,000 restaurants which are
operating globally. Also, firm has faced slow organisational growth since 2014 as competition
has increased rapidly and there was high growth of popular restaurants.
Risk management: They are involved in planning, controlling and managing risk
through plans and procedures which are used to limit the losses of business. Most of the firms
are not having green looks which are not able to attract large number of customers. There are
various risks in consuming fast foods like increase in children obesity and other health issues
which are caused because of consumption of fast foods. There were various beliefs of people
about cited firm that its food was unfit for consumption. New laws have to be implemented in
order to solve the problems that were faced by people (Chamorro-Mera, Miranda and Rubio,
2014).
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P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing related to McDonald’s
To achieve success for organisations, it is very important to define various roles and
responsibilities which are helpful in implementing different business activities. Managers are
responsible to perform different operations and activities which are helpful in achieving the
growth and success of organisations. Effective roles and responsibilities help in defining various
opportunities which are effective for the business operations.
There are different functional areas in organisations like HR, Finance and IT and these
functions are interrelated with the functioning of firms. HR helps in recruitment and selection of
employees who can perform various activities of cited organisation. This department is
responsible for controlling the overall operations of department. Finance department has
responsibility for managing funds for performing different activities related to business.
Example: if marketing department of McDonald's think of running a campaign for its business
activities then it has to communicate with finance department for managing funds that are
required for business activities. Inter relations of roles and responsibilities determine that
different departments have to take the help of other divisions in order to carry out its
responsibilities in an effective manner. This helps in keeping healthy relations with operations of
every department which are running in the cited organisation (Dioko, 2016).
Functions of McDonalds.
The functional area of business includes Research and development in which new strategies are
developed for business operations so that activities of organisations can be carried out in an
effective manner.
Providing services to customers is also an essential function of every organisation. If the
customers are satisfied with services, they will become loyal towards consuming products and
services that are offered by McDonald's.
The distribution of various products and services of cited organisation implies places
from where services of cited firm will be distributed so that people can have easy access to
consumption of foods and services offered by McDonald.
Marketing activities like sales promotion, advertisement, etc. are helpful in the promotion
of different food products which are offered by McDonald's.
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Effective selling of products help in achieving growth and success for long term which
are helpful in increasing the sales efficiently.
Defining roles and responsibilities:
Market Research: These researches are very helpful in analysing the different market
situations by understanding differential needs and wants of customers which help in
understanding the demand of products and services by customers of McDonald. In depth study
about market situation also helps in determining different business operations in an effective
manner by analysing recent trends in markets. It can be conducted with the help of market
research which are helpful in identifications of needs and wants of customers.
Product development: Marketing plays a vital role in the product development process.
New product development process is done on the basis of marketing acts and these acts are
necessary to be followed by the firm. Major aim of every organisation is to fulfil the need and
demand of consumers and for this, it is very much necessary for them to make some innovation
and development in products. New inventions are helpful in providing support to firm for
attaining growth and success to maintain sustainability in the competitive market.
Sales: This is the major aspect of every firm. They mainly concentrate towards selling
their goods and services at market place. McDonald's is more focused upon marketing and
therefore, it increases the sale of goods or services of firm. If demand of a product is increase
then productivity will improve in very effective manner. It will directly cause to rising in sales
of a product. Growth of firm is depend on total sell of product. If sale is high then company
reach at profit, if sales rate is not high then it leads the organisation at loss situation.
Communication: Major activities of marketing are related with effective communication
policies which are adopted by firms to create awareness about products and services. This will
help organisation in the promotion of different activities to individuals and thus, large number of
customers will be attracted towards their services. This is an essential policy for firms as it will
help the organisations to grow and thus, creating awareness about products and services is
essential for customers of society.
Segmentation: Marketing division helps in dividing the market according to their target
customers. This helps in understanding various choices of customers according to their
requirements. Planning of different activities can be designed according to the requirements of
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target customers (Kirby, 2012). This method is helpful in dividing market where large number of
customers are available and thus, it is not possible to reach at each and every customer.
P3. Comparing ways in which marketing mix of McDonald's and Burger King is applied to
marketing planning to achieve business objectives
Marketing mix consists of 7 Ps which include product, price, place, promotion, people,
process and physical evidence. These are helpful in determining important decisions which are
taken by the management.
Marketing mix of McDonald's is described as follows:
Product: It includes designing and manufacturing of products which are helpful in enhancing
the satisfaction level of customers. It relates to the physical products and services which are
offered by company to its customers. There are various aspects which are in relation with
products of McDonald which includes packing, looks and styles as well as desirability.
It has limited product depth and width. It had firstly evaluated the behaviour of Indian
customers and than the products were designed accordingly and thus the products and services
offered with totally different from international markets. According to beliefs of Indians beef
is banned and thus porks and mutton burgers were deleted from the menu. In India McDonald
offers vegetarian foods to customers and thus sauces and cheese used in its products are also
pure veg. The changes are made in products according to taste and preferences of customers.
The recent study introduced Chicken Maharajah Mac and chicken burgers.
Price: It is the most important component of marketing mix. It includes various discounts
available for customers, payments methods, etc. pricing policies should be designed keeping in
mind the pricing policies which are adopted by competitors. Prices should be adopted which
are suitable for customer. It is an important factor as it helps in deciding revenues for
McDonald’s. Prices should be designed according to the demand and supply factor in economy
. Attractive punch lines are used by cited organisation to attract large number of customers
like'' I am loving it''. These tag lines and symbols used by firms are used for gaining attention
of every age group of customers. Various price building strategies which are adopted by
McDonald's are combo, happy hour and family meals, happy prices, etc. so as to effectively
increase the sales of organisation (Baines and Page, 2013).
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Place: It refers to various outlets and distribution channels of company from where the
products and services can be distributed. The products and services should be made available
to customers are right place and right time and right quantity as it was demanded by
customers. Various fun loving activities are organised by firms so as to entertain large number
of customers. It provides good and hygienic products to its customers and better services in
term of customer satisfactions. Internet services are available for customers at various outlets
and music systems are installed according to preferences of present generations so as to make
pleasant atmospheres for customers. Various games are available and boll-ons are given to
small children's this is also a promotional strategy used to attract children's as they are getting
free gifts in return.
Promotion: The promotional strategies which are adopted by McDonald's are very helpful in
communicating effectively with target customers. Communication mix includes personal
selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing. It describes the cost which had
to be feasible according to customers. Marketing campaigns which are adopted by McDonald
are: Food,folks and fun loving activities, I am loving it, Deserves a break so get up and get
away. McDonald’s uses promotional strategies to become the world’s leading Empire of
burgers. Different promotional tools used by McDonald's to integrate communication
programmes related to marketing allows cited firm to clearly communicate with channels so as
to transfer the message to customers easily and make products available for target audience.
People: Cited organisation understands the needs of its employees and customers. If the
employees are happy with working environment then they will serve customers in an efficient
manner. It focuses on internal marketing plans because if internal marketing will be effective,
it will lead to the success of external marketing strategies. Internal marketing strategies include
various aspects like recruitment of employees, training and motivating the workforce. This
helps in serving the customers and thus results in rendering high satisfaction of them. The
punch line indicates that employees love to do their assigned work at McDonald's and thus
they will also serve happy customers (Baker and Saren, 2016).
Process: McDonald uses same process for making food all over the globe. The food products
specialization in relation to size, quantity and cost are same. The layout design of kitchen and
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restaurant are same in all outlets around the world. There are language and cultural differences
and so, menu of cited organisation should contain images which makes similarities
everywhere.
Physical Evidence: All the outlets at different locations are created with friendly
environment. Play areas are also designed for small children and services are rendered to
customers with smile on every face. All menus are designed in almost same ways which
contain combo packs and fries. Meals which are available for kids contain toys to make
children happy. These physical evidence are same at all the locations of McDonald’s.
Marketing mix of Burger King
Product: The basic need of every firm is product which plays a vital role in the
performance of organisation. As a food restaurant chain, Burger King produces cheeseburgers,
hamburgers, salads, fries, hash browns, onion rings as well as coffee, shake, juice, cookies and
pies. It tries to keep it far from the competition and provides each order with different options in
which many things are included. They put their complete potential in increasing wealth in order
to maximise profit. They serve food in different patterns such as package of meal, selective
burgers, free food like fries, shakes, etc.
Price: The price of Burger King is different from the other brands, they sets itself apart
from competition. They made the best strategy for earning high amount of profit. Recently,
Burger King planned to sell a special slushy drink in summers at a very low price as compared to
McDonald's summer drink for the purpose of price leadership. The firm applies many pricing
strategies to reach at higher position. They offer better facilities in very less price just for
attracting large number of buyers (Caporaso and et. al., 2010).
Place: Every firm is focused towards selecting that area where they can easily sell their
goods at possible profitable price. They conduct some survey for select a target group for making
better purchase. Burger king chose those areas in which people are more interested towards
consuming offering product and services. They enlarge their business with the help of franchise,
under arrangement of franchises organisation spend in signage, seating, décor and equipment. At
some places they owns or leases the building for creating set up for providing services to their
buyers.
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Promotion: Burger king used various strategies for promoting their firm among the
population. Mainly, they attract teenagers and children for maintaining sales as these two
segments are mostly affected with any new launch. They conduct talent show, circulate videos to
display skills and talents, company provide special tour in urban areas for creating awareness
among the public. They doing promotion through television, radio, social media, templates,
newspapers, magazines etc (Beatty and Samuelson, 2014).
People: They are available resources in any firm, they are some essential elements who
providing their skills and ability in order to attain growth and success. Burger King hires those
people who are having great knowledge and idea about the fast food. They recruit young
employees because of getting more knowledge about consumer’s preference in food products.
Process: The basic function of Burger King is to focus on those segments in which
people spend more amount in their restaurant. These customers can be man or women who are
providing support in expansion of food chain in fast food sector through visit more than 10 times
in a month.
Physical evidence: Things that consumer can use or apply through physical evidence.
Burger king has placed at worldwide, it has its own internet presence vie a website, through
which it provide all detail in form of video. The firm recreate their image with the use of
innovative décor changes.
P4 Marketing plan for McDonald's
All the business owners knows importance of business plans which supports
organisations in achieving there determined goals and objectives. One of most important element
of business planning is marketing plan which is mostly prepared by all concerns with certain
objectives. Marketing plans are prepared with use of certain strategics which is termed as
marketing strategies.
Strategies for effective implementation includes:
Market penetration These strategies are used to capture large markets by adopting
market promotion activities.
Market development: Cited organisation has used expansion plans to develop new
market and strategies so as to achieve high growth rates.
Control measures should include security at McDonald's.
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The plans of McDonald in relation to marketing and its objectives are as follows:-
Customers of McDonald:- Business have determined its customers by using marketing
strategies which supports them to focus on determined customers for there products and services.
Predetermination of customers for whom goods and services are meant for supports organisation
in high rate of earning by focusing on particular customers which also reduces certain cost of
organisation. The customers of organisation are determined by using two marketing strategy i.e.
Market segmentation and Targeting which is described as follows:-
Market Segmentation:
It is a process of dividing large market into small parts on certain basis where business
operates (Malhotra, Birks and Wills, 2013). This a significant concept used by McDonald which
supports in dividing market into parts and their certain parts on the basis of age, gender,
occupation and purchasing power of individuals. These are described as follows:-
On basis of Age:- McDonald have segmented market by on basis of age group which help to
determine the age group of individuals for which services is meant for. On this basis the
youngsters and children are its main customers for which services are meant for.
On basis of gender:- This factors don't affect organisation. It products and services are meant for
all individuals either male or female.
Target Market:
McDonald have used demographic factor in targeting market. By using this organisation
have determined customers. The main customers of business are children's, youngsters and urban
group of families (Kirby, J., 2012).
Marketing objectives:
 Cited organisation is focusing on providing timely delivery of services to customers.
 Providing value added services to customers.
 Complaint handling process should be effective so as to resolve conflicts.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been found that marketing process is essential for making
relationship with customers. Marketing functions play an important role in growth and success of
any organisation. The basic aim of McDonald’s is to provide quality food services to their
customers in order to attain high level of profits. Burger King keeps itself away from the
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competition because pricing strategies are totally different from its rivalries. Marketing mix is
designed to achieve objectives which are planned for target market. Prices of the products should
be economical which makes purchasing of food products easy for customers. Apart from that, it
has been assessed that new range of products should be made available for customers so as to
implement changes.
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