Marketing Essentials Report: McDonald's Marketing Strategy and Impact

This report provides an in-depth analysis of marketing essentials, focusing on the case of McDonald's. It begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing in a competitive business environment, highlighting the need for effective strategies to reach target customers. The report details the crucial roles and responsibilities of marketing, including developing, communicating, delivering, and exchanging products and services. It examines McDonald's operations, organizational structure, and marketing functions such as distribution, financing, marketing information, pricing, product management, promotion, and selling. Furthermore, the report explores the interrelation of marketing with other departments, such as research, transportation, risk assessment, and product quality, emphasizing the impact of marketing on a company's overall productivity and profitability. The report also touches upon B2B and B2C marketing concepts within the context of McDonald's.

Marketing Essentials

INTRODUCTION
In the business environment all the companies want to take over the market in which they
are dealing with. The reason behind this is that for a single product there are various companies
who are offering the same prices. So there is cut though competition in almost every segment so
to deal with such competition and gain competitive advantage firms need to market themselves
in a way that people gets convinced to buy their products. Every day there is debut of new
companies which ensure that there is growth of the businesses but due to failure of their
marketing strategies they do not able to carry forward and shuts down (Wertime and Fenwick,
2011). Marketing has been a crucial part of the business operations as through it companies can
easily reach to their targeted customer and make them aware about the products and services
offered by them. Firms needs to ensure that they should have a better marketing strategy and
should appeal to the customer in proper way. Marketing is all about promotion and selling of the
goods & services through marketing strategies. This report will be briefing about marketing
essentials and the factors which can impact their business. For this McDonald's firm’s scenario
will be considered.
TASK 1
P1. Crucial roles and responsibilities of the marketing process.
It is the marketing activities which help the companies to share their concept with the
consumer. It could be said that it is the analysis of the management which includes the exchange
of relationship. In marketing developing, communicating, delivering and exchanging of products
and services taken place and these products has some values in the market. They tell the
audiences that whatever they are offering has some unique and creative features in that and if
they will be adopting this they might get certain benefits in their life. When any company frames
their marketing plan they aim to satisfy the needs of people and through market analysis they can
know consumer behaviour (Yoo and Bai, 2013). They target the ways through which they can
make people aware about the fact that certain brand exists in the market and how it can be used
for the personal purpose. With the marketing operations they try to converts an individual into a
buyer. It is analysed that now a day’s companies allocate lots of budget to their marketing
department as they know that this is the segment through they can increase their sales thus direct
impacting on the productivity and profitability of the company. All the operations of it should be
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managed and handled properly with a proper planning. They should know the significance of
marketing and know that if they have to beat their opponents they need to direct the activities in
right path where they can gain maximum outputs. Whatever marketing activities are performed
they done through keeping customer desire and interest in mind. They know that that with this
they have to fulfil the demands of consumer (Jones and Rowley, 2011). If they gain success in
this, they will easily achieve their goals and objectives.
There has been a drastic change in the consumer demands over the decade which has also
changed the marketing scenario. Today all the marketing operations are customer oriented as
there has been increase in the purchasing power and bargaining power of the consumers.
Organisations are well aware that when they will have more number of customers with them they
will easily experience hike in the profit margins (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). But in order to
attain this they need to frame some marketing strategies emphasising on the demands of the
consumer to which they have made the product and after that goals and objectives are set.
McDonald's is the world's largest fast food restaurant chain and deals with fast food. This
company was formed in year 1940 and since then they have gain success in opening their outlets
and stores in approx. 119 nations. Their product line includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers,
chicken items, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes and various kind of desserts. They have
faced various controversies related to their food and people complaint that they promote
unhealthy eating habits. So after this they have introduced salads, fish, smoothies and fruits so
that their image in the market can be improved. On an average in a single day they serve to
almost 45 million people and through this it can be analysed that how big their market is. The
concept of franchisees is practised by the company in order to gain maximum market share and
reach to almost all the countries. These things have helped them in earning a net profit of almost
4 million. When talked about the organisation structure they have used various models like
functional structure is used for the corporate, divisional structure for the restaurant and
geographical structure for dealing with the market in various countries where they have presence.
People have full trust and rely on them as they believe I serving quality food with different taste
and due to regular inspection of the food it is ensured that there is no variation in the recipes and
taste. Such thing has been possible only because of the structure they are following from years.
Power, task, person and role culture briefs the culture which they follow. Each one of them has
key role to play in the market as through it they are getting delivering better services. In the
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power culture the power remains with single person and they take certain decisions. With the
help of task culture, they are getting help in solving various issues with are acting as obstacles in
achieving the goals which they have set. The employees who are working for the McDonald's are
given certain responsibilities which they have to perform but before that it is analysed that which
employees has what kind of ability (Kim and Hyun, 2011). According to this role are distributed
to those workers and this is done with the help of role culture. With the task culture the
employees can know what are their responsibilities. Marketing to Business to business (B to B)
concept can be followed through focusing on the product concept. It will be ensured that their
marketing should be based on the characteristics of products and services they are offering to
their targeted consumers. When they will be looking for Marketing to Business to consumer (B
to C) it will highlights the benefits which customer can get through the food item.
Following are the marketing function which McDonald's have to carry out: -
 Distribution: It shows the overview of the goods which will be distributed in the market.
It shows that what things can be done to market the products sold by McDonald's. For
success of any new products introduced by McDonald's they need to market it properly.
 Financing: To perform any business activity firms needs funds and same with the
marketing. So they need to take care of the allocation of budget for the promotional
activities.
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Illustration 1: 7 Functions of
Marketing. 2017

 Marketing Information: It is one of the important function of McDonald's as this give
them the ideas that what are things which are desired by consumer and what are their
interest. So according to that information they can frame the marketing campaigns and
has lots of advantages attached to it like they can give better services because they are
well aware about the demands which has been put forward by the customers (Gordon,
2012). For example, during any festival they can come with family meals and this is the
time when families go for get together.
 Pricing: This is one of the crucial functions as through this also the interest of customers
towards the product is made. They have products which ranges from the higher prices to
lower according to the size and quality. It becomes a tough job for them to get decide that
what will be the right price at which they can sell their products in the market. They
ensure that each of the food items they are selling has relevant prices thus taking care of
the profit margins and to attract more consumer.
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Illustration 2: ANDRIA CHENG, 2014

 Products and Management of the Service: To run the outlets in different areas
McDonald's has faced various difficulties. But if they were not managed properly this
might had gone in negative direction thus bringing them heavy losses (Mintz and Currim,
2013). So it should be taken care that each and every task is properly managed and
prepare plan to handle it. To do so they have to conduct a market survey and know what
are things people wants from McDonald's. Any customer coming to the store of
McDonald's should be satisfied and this can only be achieved through treating them in
better way and gesture.
 Promotion: The brand value of McDonald's is good as they know how to promote
themselves through using various media platforms. They market themselves through
advertising on social media as they are aware that with this they can reach to lots of
people in lesser period of time and on the other side it is also expensive. They need to
engage people through various media campaigns.
 Selling: - It is analysed that with the marketing company wants to sell their product
manufactured by McDonald's. To increase their sales, they are regularly trying and
innovating new recipes which can bring new customers towards them.
P2. Inter relation of marketing with various other departments of McDonald's.
It is the marketing department only which hike the productivity and profitability of any
company. They inform other areas of the company about the marketing trends and the demand of
the people thus the way which can be adopted to beat other competitors. It is analysed that there
is direct relation between the marketing functions and other departments of the company. This
briefs that for the success of the business there should be a relation between the customers and
the organisation. Whatever values they have been totally focused on the demands and
requirement of the consumer from the company (Menegaki, 2012). They are regularly putting
their efforts to increase their customer base and builds a strong brand image in the market. So for
that they have to carry out functions with the help of various strategies and promotional
activities. This is the only way they can attain attain the goals and objectives. With their business
functions they convert normal people in their buyers and so for that they have to carry out certain
functions: -
Research: - It is analysed that it is impossible to carry out the marketing function before
any market research. With this they can know the trends which are followed in the market and
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consumer behaviour. After knowing the demands and needs they decides what functions has to
be carried out to attain those goals and objectives. To make the effective and realistic goals they
look at the products offered by their opponents and the strategies followed by them.
Transportation: - As they operate their business in all the areas of the world so they
require a smooth transport facility for the supply chain. For that they have to hunt for low cost
and efficient transportation service offered by various third parties.
Risk Assessment: - In the business carried out by McDonald's they face certain problems
which hamper their image in the market. So there are chances of such types of risks as they know
if such thing comes it will affect the growth and productivity of the organisation. All the risks
which are predictable has to be managed properly with an action plan (Pomering, Noble and
Johnson, 2011). They are aware that they want to reach the goals and in between there will be
lots of obstacles so they need to make them flexible to handle any situation.
Product Quality: - There are various influential factors which can impact the growth of
McDonald's but the quality of the product is one which comes on the top of the list. If
McDonald's wants to attract more customers, they have to focus on quality and set certain quality
measurement tools. They have been on the top rank in the fast food chain business just because
of the quality food items delivered by them to the consumers.
Product Development: - Market research functions of the marketing highlights the
product development. It will be the responsibility of the marketing department to brief research
and development segment of the company about the demands and requirements of the customers
because they act as bridge between the business and consumer through analysing the conditions.
Above mentioned are the functions which are carried out by the marketing department of
McDonald's so that they can attain the goals and objectives. Other than these there are some
other functions which also shows the relation between the marketing and other departments.
Marketing and Human Resources: It is the duty of the HR department to hire new
people for McDonald's in order to meet the demands of the market they should have sufficient
number of employees who can carry out the business activities. Through the help of marketing
department, they can know the requirement of the workforce (Chikweche and Fletcher, 2012).
They ask them for the things which they need to carry out marketing campaigns effectively.
Marketing and Customer Service: They know that for success in the business they
need to emphasise on the current marketing trends. Through their business activities they want to
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satisfy the needs of customer as when more number of consumers will be there then they will
experience better growth and profit margins will be increased. When they will care for the
customers they will get the loyal consumer as those people know that this is the brand which
takes full care of the clients and buyers. To know what customers think about the company and
their products they adopt the survey method.
Marketing with Finance: - Finance department and marketing functions has a close
relation with each other. Both have to rely on the information shared by them. Finance provide
them the budgets for the marketing campaigns and on the other hand marketing area gives the
information about the upcoming expenses which are needed (Singh, 2012). This is done in order
to prepare and aware finance department that they should arrange the funds before the campaign
starts.
Marketing and Administration: - In McDonald's there is a department who ensure that
all the employees abide the policies and legislation formed by them. Marketing departments
briefs them the policies and codes framed by the government which they have to take in
scenario.
Research and Development and Marketing: - To bring new food items in the market
there is involvement of lots of research. The main purpose of this area at McDonald's is to be
unique from others and on the other side they have decided to bring new mode of service in the
market which will give them rise in the customer numbers. In this the marketing department will
give them the needs and demands of the customer and what are the things which has to be
changed at the workplace.
Marketing and Production: - To get some profits McDonald's sell the product produced
by the production department. It is not necessary that whatever products they are making will be
used for many years as there is variation in the tastes and interest of the customer’s changes
frequently. So whatever food item which has maximum sale so according to the information of
that the new products will be sold.
It all briefs about the product and services which has to be focused or offered to the
employees. If they gain success in functioning these functions effectively then they can increase
the profitability and will gain competitive advantage over their opponents (Shin, 2012). All of
the departments aims at brining customer satisfaction.
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TASK 2
P3. Comparison of the marketing mix.
There will be comparison between the marketing mix of McDonald's and Aldi: -
McDonald’s: -
Product: - There food items ranges from veg to non veg fast food. By offering items like
Cheeseburgers, chicken, Mc nuggets, hamburgers and French fries they want to attract more
number of consumers and at the same time also wants to develop their brand image (Kunz and et.
al., 2011). They should ensure that whatever they are delivering is of quality and should be
according to the cultural food concept.
Price: - They know that if they want to increase their customer base they need to deliver
food items with relevant prices. While designing the pricing strategy they look at the area where
they want to deliver the product. For example; the prices of burgers in the UK might be set
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Illustration 3: Burger Lad, 2015

higher as the living standard and income level is high whereas McDonald's will decrease the
price in Asian countries like India.
Place: - It is ensured that whenever they come out with the new restaurant it is at a place
where they can gain maximum customers (Lyus, Rogers and Simms, 2011). There stores will be
found in shopping malls, airports, highways and etc.
Promotion: - It is the process through which they build new customers and sets their
image. To sustain in the market, they have to regularly show their market presence through
advertising and other promotional platforms like billboards, social media and etc.
People: - It is the extended marketing mix and has employees and customers part of it.
Through this they want to set a relation and coordination between the consumers and
organisation. Through highlighting their products in the market they try to targets the sentiments
and emotions of the target consumer to whom they want to sell their profits.
Process: - It includes all the procedure and the business activities in catering the demands
and the products to the customers. With better process which shows effectiveness they can
provide better products. It is analysed that McDonald's use a unique process of packaging the
food items when they distribute to the customers (Kitchen and Burgmann, 2015). This is giving
them competition advantage over others.
Physical Evidence: - It is the part ion which things are intangible in nature and includes
the infrastructure of the McDonald's. They try to attract more consumers through designing
better concept. They look at each and every minute details related to furniture and cleanness. On
the other side the themes of the store of all is same.
The managers are using marketing mix in such a manner through which they can easily target
potential customers. With the help of this, organisation will able to lead in competitive market
and retain customers for a long period of time. As their issues will also be resolved in time
period. So, it will give advantage to company in generating large amount of funds.
Aldi Marketing Mix: - It is the company which was formed in 1913 and sell customised
furniture. Today they have become the largest grocery retail stores.
Product: -Through selling the products they try to earn profits and focusing on
delivering quality products at relevant prices. To make this thing happen they buy the furniture
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