Marketing Essentials 1: Report on McDonald's Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, focusing on key concepts such as the role of marketing, its interrelation with other functional units, and the application of the marketing mix. The report delves into McDonald's approach to production, selling, product, marketing, and societal concepts, highlighting the importance of customer-centric strategies. It examines the roles and responsibilities of marketing within the marketing environment, including market strategies, information systems, and marketing research. Furthermore, the report explores the key elements of marketing functions, such as research, strategy, planning, and tactics, and their interconnections with other organizational units like finance and production. The report also includes the development of a basic marketing plan for McDonald's, offering insights into how the company achieves its business objectives.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
LO1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an
organisation................................................................................................................................3.
Task a): Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function and its importance
in other functions of the organization..........................................................................................3
b) The basic concept of marketing and future needs, Overview of the elements of marketing
process………………………………………………………………………………………….5
c) Roles and responsibilities of marketing with respect to marketing environment……….7
d) Key elements of marketing functions and interrelations with other functional units of
organization……………………………………………………………………………………8
Task 2 Ways of using marketing mix for achievement of business objectives…………….9
a) Comparison of application of marketing mix in marketing planning process in different
organizations……………………………………………………………………………………9.
b) Different tactics applied by the organizations to achieve business objectives…………..10
TASK 3 Developments and evaluation a basic marketing plan…………………………….11.
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
The important tool for today’s business organization is marketing. It is combination of
marketplace, customer demand, satisfying demand of customer, strategy that is build for the
customer and providing a quality product to the customer. In today’s world the business
organization knows that customer id the king therefore they formulate the marketing strategies
that are customer driven. The organization has a better knowledge about the market essentials
and the customer importance strategies. This assignment is about the business organization
McDonald's. McDonald's deals in food chain industry. The company has a big revenue
generation. The success of the organization is because of the customer driven market. They focus
on the demands of the customers.
The assignment brings forwards the marketing concept with respect to the McDonald's. It
discusses in details the functions of marketing and important role of marketing with respect to
other function of the organization. This report further highlights the marketing mix importance in
business organizations objectives and goals to be achieved. This assignment also prepares a
marketing business plan for the McDonald's (Howell, 2015).
LO1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an
organisation.
Task 1: Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function and its importance
in other functions of the organization.
The main objective of marketing is to bring in market a successful product that satisfies the
needs of the customers and helping that product to expand its market share. Therefore it helps in
the promotion of the product. The first objective of marketing is doing the proper research about
the product, preparing the proper implementation plan, preparing a development plan for the
product, doing promotion of the product, increasing the sales of the organization and helping in
customer service of the product. The business organization has to perform various functions with
respect to the marketing of the product. The various departments that have to help in marketing
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include research department, finance department, production department, sales department,
distribution department and the HR department. Therefore the marketing has a close connection
with the other functions of the organization.
The various departments of the business organization are connected with the marketing function
of the organization. The marketing department is the backbone of the other department for their
effective working. If the organization need marketing plan of the business product to be bets that
it need the support of the finance department, production department, human resource
department, sales department and logistic department. The similar concept holds for the
McDonalds Company. If the marketing department brings out a discount offer of buy 1 and get 1
free, in that case it cannot work alone. It needs the support of the finance department for the
supply of more cash for the procurement of raw material, it need the help of production
department for producing more food and it may require more employee to meet the current
demand of the customers. Though the organization has a separate department of marketing but it
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requires the support of all the departments for the plan to be successful and the organization have
more profit. One of the major functions of the marketing department is to increase the sales of
the organization but if the sales increase the production of the organization increases, therefore
all the departments have to coordinate with each other. The finance department is responsible for
the allocation of the budget to the marketing department. The production department is
responsible for producing the product of goods as per the requirement of sales. The logistic
department is responsible for transporting and storing of the product before reaching the
customers. If the sales increases then more employees has to be employed. This work is done by
the human resource department. The research department has to find if the proposal of the
marketing department is beneficial for the organization or not. Therefore each and every
department has to work collectively so that the overall profitability of the organization increases
(Lewis, 2013).
b) The basic concept of marketing and future needs, Overview of the elements of marketing
process
The marketing component of the McDonalds is divided into 5 major parts. The marketing does
not involve the present but also includes the future demand of the customers. The five
component of marketing in McDonalds include production concept, selling concept, product
concept, marketing concept and society concept
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Production Concept: The organization is always customer centric. The customer prefers to buy
the product which is good in quality and is less in cost. Thus if both the criteria are fulfilled the
marketing department is in better situation. Thus the sales can increase and the profitability of
the organization can be increased. Thus the organization should produce good quality of products
in bulk and the cost can be dressed. The organization should pay attention towards the
production rate.
Product Concept: This concept says that the customer will buy the product if it fulfills the need
of the customer and it is good in quality. If the product is not good in quality the customer will
stop using that product. Moreover the demand of the customer is not always same. The
organization has to always be innovative for meeting the demand of the customer. Thus the
organization should concentrate on the quality and innovation part of the product.
Selling Concept: This deals with the awareness part of the product to the customer. The
customer has to be attracted towards the product so that he buys the product. This can be done if
there is proper promotion of the product in the market.
Marketing Concept: This concept focus on the fulfilling the current demand of the customer. I
this competitive world the organization should be effective enough to provide the best quality
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product and service to the customer. Marketing creates a brand image in the mind of the
customer which will help the organization to achieve its objectives. If the marketing department
creates a positive image about the product in the market, then the customer will be automatically
attracted to buy the product.
Societal Concept: This is related to the society in which organization operates. The organization
has to fulfill the commitment that it has provided to the society. They have to focus on the
current need of the society and produce the product according to the requirement (McDonald,
2013).
c) Roles and responsibilities of marketing with respect to marketing
environment
In today’s environment there are certain roles that the marketing has to fulfill. The planning and
implementation of the different concept of marketing is called marketing management. It
basically involves pricing, selling, distribution etc. The various marketing roles are discussed as
below:
Market Strategies: The first role of the marketing is to formulate a marketing plan and
strategies to implement it. This has to be made on the basis of the current need of the customer.
The strategies are a connection between the need of the customer and the objectives of the
organization.
Marketing information system: This is like a database which stores all the information
regarding product, customers etc. Any information can be extracted from it and can be used to
formulate the strategies of the organization.
Evaluation of the marketing environment: There are various factors that influence the
marketing of the product. This includes the political environment, social, cultural, economic etc.
The demand of the customers is also depended on it. These factors have to be analyzed to make
innovation in the product or to build a new product.
Marketing research: This is a very important part of the marketing. It is continuous in nature.
Before implementing a strategy research has to be done regarding the feasibility of the plan. The
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research helps in bringing the best product in the market and satisfying the need of the
customers.
Market segmentation: The whole of the world cannot be targeted for the single product.
Therefore before starting with the marketing, the key customers have to be identified. Therefore
the manager of the marketing department has to segment the market based on the product that
they are offering.
Brand Equity: The marketing department has the responsibility of building a strong brand
image in the mind of the people. If the customers have a positive image regarding the product
then they will be automatically attracted to buy the product. This will help in increasing the
demand of the product and increasing the profitability of the organization.
d) Key elements of marketing functions and interrelations with other functional units of
organization
Marketing cannot be performed independently. It has to work in coordination with other
departments like advertisement, finance, distribution, production etc. The major components of
marketing functions are discussed below:
Research: It is a major function of the organization. Organization has to do full research on the
current and the future need of the customer. Depending on the need of the customer they have to
select the plan that will best suit the objectives of the organization. It has considered the various
political, social, economical and cultural factors. The information that can be used by the
marketing department is extracted with the help of the research department.
Strategy: Once the work of the research department is over then the information extracted from
the research department is used to formulate the strategies of the organization. The strategies
should be in sync with the organizations goals and the objectives. These should realistic and
achievable in nature. They should be customer focused and should increase the overall demand
of the product.
Planning: Once the work of the research and strategy formulation is over then work of planning
comes. This is the implementation part. Each department of the organization is assigned the work
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that they have to perform. It deals with the financial planning, production planning, logistic
planning and hum resource planning.
Tactics: Tactic relate to achieving the short term objectives of the organization. Once the
strategies are planned, tactics for short term has to be formulated. They are to be in sync with the
long term objectives of the organization. For example buy one and get one free is tactic to
increase the current demand of the product but cannot be extended to longer time.
These are the various functions that the marketing department has to perform but other
departments are also connected with the marketing department. The first department with which
is linked finance department. They have to set a budget of the marketing department. Resources
have to be provided in term of money for formulation of the strategies, research and tactics of the
marketing department. There should be proper coordination and communication between the two
departments for the smooth working of the organization. Marketing department has to be in co
ordination with production department. Information about the demand of the product must be
conveyed to them. Any changes in the requirement of the product and service must be informed
to the production department by the marketing department because they are in contact with the
end user. Sometimes the marketing department brings forward the tactic that increases the
demand of the product. Then more products have to make for meeting the demand of the
customer. The human resource department has to be in fill coordination with the marketing
department with respect to employee requirement. Inventory planning in the organization has to
be done after getting the details from the marketing department. They have the information about
the demand of the product and therefore accurate raw material has to be stored (Pike, 2015).
Task 2 Ways of using marketing mix for achievement of business objectives
a) Comparison of application of marketing mix in marketing planning process
in different organizations
The marketing mix varies from organization to organization. It is dependent on the goals and the
objectives of the organization. The marketing mix is dependent on the product, market,
customers and the size of production of the organization. This is tool to understand the concept
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of marketing. It basically involve 4p of marketing they are product, place, price and promotion.
This was later changed to 7p which now includes people, process and physical evidence.
McDonald has grown in the previous few years and it has a brand image. This is basically due to
its customer focus approach and the marketing mix that it has adopted. Though there are large
numbers of similar companies in the market but they do not have the same brand equity. It has
adopted the strategies which are different from the competitors. The quality of the product is
high and is cost effective in comparison to the competitors. They have target customers on the
basis of their eating habits. The distribution and delivery process is quite different from other
organizations. They are customer centric in approach (Kotler, 2012).
b) Different tactics applied by the organizations to achieve business objectives
Every business with different organizational culture applies different tactics to reach to their
objectives of the business. The successful company such as McDonalds uses 7P’s techniques for
their marketing planning to reach to their intended organizational objectives. While there are
other organizations which are contemporary to McDonalds’s use a process of market
segmentation to reach to their organizational goals. The marketing process used by other
companies is as below:
 Defining the market for the organization which is to be targeted.
 Then they create the market segments
 Evaluations basis a specific criterion for the different segments
 Segment Process is map is drafted
 How attractive the market is then evaluated
 Selection of the target market is then initiated
 Implementation of positional strategy is then developed and implemented
 Feedback process for the segment process is evaluated
In case of McDonald’s they have made use of extended marketing mix available in their
organization to reach to the set goals and objectives and the process which they use will be use as
below:
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Product: Every product or service has to be created with the needs and demands of customers in
mind. One should always remember that the main reason for creating the product is to satisfy the
customers
Place: The product should be placed where is easier for the end customer to reach and is
available when they need it. The outlets should be located in a place where there is heavy footfall
of targeted segment customers to make best use of the product and services.
Price: This is one of the important aspects of a product and services, the cost at which the end
customer is able to make use of the product or services must give them a sense that it is value to
their money. This has to be given a consideration as at times the company has to take into
consideration the value at which competition is offering the product and services.
Promotion: In case of promotion of the product and services the company makes uses of print
media, sales promotion techniques, social media and advertisements on television. In case of
McDonald’s they make use of all these mediums to attract their target audience and also sales
promotion ideas are the most successful technique used by them.
Process: This part take cares of how the services of a company are delivered to their end
customers. How well they are being experienced by their customers. In case of McDonald’s they
always deliver the product to their customers with a smile and make is better moment for their
consumers.
People: The people part of it involves the employees, the management, culture of the
organizations, the policies related to their employees. It is every important for the company to
take care of their employees and should keep them satisfied and rewarded to make best use of
them.
Physical environment: This part take cares of the environment given to their employees and
their consumers to deliver the product and as well as to prepare or manufacture the product
(Lilly, 2014).
TASK 3 Developments and evaluation a basic marketing plan
a) Basic marketing plan for Mcdonald’s
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 The basic marketing plan for McDonald’s can be created with taking care of below series of task:
 The company has to create a plan with keeping in their mind the end customer or a specific
audience. McDonald’s should do a sample research in the marker and then they should draft the
objectives of the product they want to offer in the market. The question that the research should
answer is that why the end customer will use their product and also what is the main
differentiator of the product which will be offered in the market. In order to make the product
sustainable and successful in market then they should be able to deliver to customer’s
expectations from the product.
 Then comes the identification of the audience which McDonald’s wants to target. This step is
equally important and has an important place in the overall process of marketing plan. The
product should be made keeping this audience in minds.
 The next step is the identification of the competitors which will be there when the product will
be launched to the target audience. This step helps the organization to prepare themselves better
with launch of their product and also by making best use of the weaknesses of the competitor’s
product.
 Then comes the evaluation of the research which has been conducted and the strategies which
have been developed for the target audience. Also, a budget has to be proposed for the product
and timelines for delivery of the product should also be analyzed.
 Making use of best promotional medium to place the product into the market has to be done. The
company must make use of promotional ideas for placing their product as they have to at times
create a need for their product.
 Finally the step of evaluations and keeping a track of the marketing plan take place (Dibb and
Simkin, 2013). If there is any deviation corrective steps has to be taken to remove the deviation.
b) Coherent marketing plan which tactically applies 7P’s to achieve marketing objectives
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