MSc ICDM: McDonald's Marketing, Branding, and Communication Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, covering its global reach, branding, communication, and marketing mix. The report begins with an executive summary and an overview of the company, including its history and business model. It then delves into McDonald's marketing mix, examining its product, pricing, place, and promotion strategies, with a focus on its adaptation to regional preferences and customer needs. The report highlights McDonald's branding positioning, brand essence, values, and character, as well as its collaborations with other companies and artists. The communication strategy is explored, including its goals, target audience, key messages, communication methods, and use of the PESO model. Finally, the report analyzes a recent communication campaign, including its context, audience, objectives, message, channels, and measurement, concluding with an assessment of McDonald's overall marketing effectiveness and its impact on the fast-food industry.

Name : Sudish SHETTY
Class : MSc ICDM
Name of Company : McDonald’s
Contents :
1. Executive summary
2. About Company
3. Branding strategy
4. Communication Strategy
5. Analysis of 1 communication campaign
6. Conclusion

Executive Summary :
McDonald’s Corporation is a “Centralized, International company”, which is the largestchain of fast food
restaurants with more than apprx 30,000 fast-food restaurants in 100 countries worldwide. Fifty eight
percent of these stores are operated by franchisees, apprx twenty eight by the company, and fourteen
percent by affiliates. McDonald’s expand its market into foreign countries through three primary
methods : franchising, company owned restaurants, and joint ventures which will help McDonald’s easily
to be accepted into unfamiliar markets and franchising continues to contribute heavily to McDonald’s
international success. Although its expanding rapidly, McDonald's still manage a tight grasp on operations,
cost and quality by using a centralized, international structure.
I believe by proper combination of marketing mix, efficient market research, setting targets and delegating
the responsibilities will help Mcdonald to be able to achieve its long term objective.

The Global reach of McDonalds over the years.
McDonald's Has The Largest Market Share in The Fast Food Industry (10% Global Share and
43% of the U.S. Fast Serve Market)
McDonald’s has been one of the leading food chains for many years in terms of the quick-
service segment. They are a company with a broad understanding of the needs of their
customers.
Today, McDonald’s is the industry’s leader not only in sales volumes but also in profit rates
and market valuation. But the question is how did they manage to gain such a strong
position? The answer is its well thought out strategic marketing moves as well as other
internal factors.

So let us start by first learning more about the business model and brand
history of McDonald’s.
ABOUT McDonald’s :
McDonald’s Corporation, or simply McDonald’s, is the world’s largest chain of fast-food restaurants,
serves around apprx 69 million customers per day. Headquartered in the United States, the company
began in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald.
In 1948, they restructured their business as a hamburger stand but later in 1955, businessman Ray
Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent who later purchased the chain from the McDonald
brothers and managed its worldwide growth.
The mission of the company is, “To create delicious feel-good moments for everyone”.
McDonald’s offers its customers a wide variety of its menu items, along with drinks and other
merchandise. It is known for its employee satisfaction, innovation, and commitment to quality.
The business model of McDonald’s is a franchise-based one. It shares the rights of the business with
its franchise partners who later operate McDonald’s in select regions.
Our world population is over 7.8 billion and no doubt everyone has heard about McDonalds, seen
the huge ‘M’ and mascot – Mr Ronald – the clown. In 1955, Kroc realised the key to success was to
accelerate expansion, and the best way to do it was to sell franchises. Over 70% of McDonald’s
outlets are owned by franchisees.
There certainly could be many factors involving its success, however, I believe McDonald’s marketing
strategy is the top reason. McDonald’s is one of the most well-known food brands in the world, with
a leading market share thanks to the innovation of franchising and the production of some of the
most inventive marketing and branding efforts.
Now that we know about McDonald’s Corporation , Let us now go through the company in greater
detail by going through its marketing mix.
Marketing Strategy of McDonalds : McDonald’s marketing mix consists of several
strategies that address the company’s problems among the fast-food restaurant markets globally.

1. Product Strategy : When McDonald’s first opened its doors, one of its goals was to establish a
uniform selection of products tasting the same everywhere. However, McDonald’s has learnt while
uniformity is cost-effective, the flexibility to adapt to regional preferences guarantees success. As a
result, McDonald’s has incorporated the notion of “think global, act local.”
McDonald’s uses beef in its hamburgers in the United States, but the business changed its menu for
example in India to add chicken and vegetarian options – meeting the needs of the country’s food
palettes.
2. Pricing Strategy : McDonald’s follows a thorough pricing mechanism in place for each nation to
establish the price for a set market without compromising the quality of their products.
3. Place Strategy : McDonald’s operates a hybrid
structure of franchised and company-owned
restaurants. The corporation has over 37,000
locations distributed in over 100 countries.
Customers may either visit these locations to dine
or avail of take-away.
4. Promotion Strategy : McDonald’s works to
personalize its marketing strategy to serve for the diverse range of cultural and other variants each
nation presents. In that context, this food corporation examines consumers’ opinions regarding its
products, consumption patterns, ethnic, moral, and religious factors.
McDonald’s runs a variety of marketing initiatives in different nations. Recently, worldwide, they
collaborated with a Korean boy band, BTS and curated a special month exclusive BTS meal campaign.
They implement traditional forms of marketing such as advertisements on televisions, radio channels
and newspaper outlets. They also advertise online via social media on platforms such as Instagram,
Facebook and Instagram. They communicate with their consumers and inform them about the
current happenings within the company.
McDonald’s assign a large sponsorship budget as a promotional technique. This is an essential
element of the image-creation process. McDonald’s brand recognition has increased as a result of its
sponsorship at the FIFA World Cup, the Premier League, and the European Championships.
McDonald's Focuses on Marketing Towards Children :

> The chart below you can see how much McDonald's focuses on advertising towards
children between the ages of 2-5, and 6-11 years old. McDonald's is more than three
times than their competitors.
> This shows they are highly driven towards their target audience & make
communication plan according to their lifestyle & consumption pattern.
Through McDonald's Happy Meal Toys, it is noted that they are the “largest
distributor of toys in the world”. From focusing on advertising towards children –
including their toys, it results in 20% of their sales.

Branding Positioning :
Whenever one look at the golden arches, we instantly recognize that it’s McDonald’s logo.
When one think of the best fries in the world, it instantly recall McDonald’s fries. When one
think of the yummiest hamburger, McDonald’s instantly comes to our mind. This is the
power of brand position.
 Brand Essence : Feeding and fostering communities by making delicious feel-good
moments easy for everyone.
 Brand values : Happiness, taste, togetherness, accessibility.
 Brand character : Warm, friendly, positive, familiar, American, global.
 Tagline : “I’m lovin’ it”
Here’s an example of a McDonald’s ad that did not even include the brand’s logo in it. It
shows how strong McDonald’s is as a brand in the consumer’s mind.
 We think that it’s all in their logo? Well, NO because this advertisement only has
their ingredients mentioned in it and not even the dish name. But still, every
McDonald’s lover can easily tell the brand’s name.
 The whole concept of McDonald’s branding strategy is to focus on customer’s needs
rather than fitting the norm.
 Adapting to the Change , Focus on Customer’s Needs, Quick Service, Competitive
Pricing, Cleanliness Always, No Compromise on Quality are some of the key factors
of the brand which set them apart from their competitors.

Collaborations of McDonald’s :
McDonald’s has been having a long history of collaboration with various companies and
artists. The motive behind these collaborations is to maintain its brand strengthening in the
minds of its customers. This goes beyond simply creating advertising campaigns that
promote the value of its products.
It very recently collaborated with BTS – the very popular South Korean Music band where it
introduced a special McDonald’s meal called the BTS Meal. Likewise, it has collaborated with
artists like Travis Scott, J Balvin as well as beverage Companies like Coca Cola which it has
long association, we all know.
When it comes to McDonald’s, it has a very strong strategy in place. Right from
showcasing its delicious burgers along with bringing out the positive “McDonald’s
vibe” to ending the commercials with slogans like, “I’m Lovin’ It… Para Pap Pap Paa”

Communication strategy :
- > Goals & objectives : McDonald's main aims to make customers preferred
place to eat, serve good food in a friendly and fun environment, to be a socially
responsible company.
- > Target audience : Kids & mainly Millennials which are the primary
consumer of the brand.
- > Key messages : Providing food of high standard, quick service & value for
money.
- > Communication methods & channels : Print, TV & Digital ads.
-> How does it fit the marketing strategy : By blending these medium, McD
can create more memorable & hassle free experiences for their customers
while driving traffic to their brand both online and offline.
-> How is the brand reflected in the communication campaigns : It’s reflected
in more funny & causal way. Keeping “think global, act local” strategy to help
meet the cultural needs of each of their consumer segments in different
regions.
-> Managed in-house or with external partners : Their communication
medium is mostly done by well renowned external advertising & digital agency
like LeoBrunett & Publicis Groupe's Starcom , OMNICOM to name a few.
- > PESO Model : Yes they use this model repeatedly as the consumers have
bad perception that their products have little nutritional value. So to change
this mindset they have communication & PR campaigns to educate, change
brand perception and increase brand loyalty.

Analysis of Communication campaign :
Context : McDonald’s latest brand platform and campaign : ‘Change a little,
change a lot’ hopes to communicate its positive impact on people, farming and
the planet as it has aims to have net-zero emissions across the UK & Ireland
business by 2040.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrIjvo_xrrk
Audience : This ad campaign cater to wide demographic of adult to be
thoughtful on product they are consuming in daily life & realise McDonald’s
effort by bringing positive impact for the future on people and planet in
making a big difference to the environment.
Objectives : It has objective to have net-zero emissions across the UK & Ireland
business by 2040. Also to ensure the business leads positive change in four key
areas of the business planet, people, restaurants and food. McDonald’s will “go
even further” to source quality and sustainable ingredients and support
farmers and suppliers.
Message / Tone : It’s Positive and inspiring . Advocating sustainable way of
doing business where small change can make big difference in the society.
Channels & media planning : Ad agency Leo Burnett, London, was hired to
showcase the small changes McDonald’s has made in the areas of youth,
farming and waste. The campaign features three 40-second TV ads, the first of
which launched on 7 October which focused on waste, with the films on youth
and farming which was rolled out later.
The brand aims to source all packaging from renewable, recyclable or certified
sources that are designed to be recyclable or compostable by 2024. It will also
open its first restaurant built to a UK industry net zero-emission standard in
Shropshire later this year.
Measurement : All three ads will be supported by 40-second radio spots, as
well as social campaigns and YouTube activity. This will be analysed by various
social media analytical tool like Hootsuite & SEM rush to understand the reach
of the ads, audience reaction & comments to help them build & make change
if required in such kind of interesting goal based ad campaign in the near
future.

Conclusion :
McDonald’s is one of the world’s most recognized fast-food restaurants. With
annual revenues in excess of $19 billion, it is no doubt that McDonald’s has a
major influence on society in terms of food choices.
Its reach extends far beyond the borders of its home country and
geographically encompasses many nations around the globe. With a strong
presence on both offline and online marketing, good control over the
production and distribution, futuristic sustainable goals. This make McDonald’s
a very well placed company to take up industry’s-dynamic challenges.