Detailed Marketing Report: McDonald's Roles, Responsibilities, and Mix

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within the organization. It explores how McDonald's applies its marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, people, and process) to achieve its business objectives. The report delves into the significance of relationships between the marketing department and other departments, such as research and development and finance. It examines how McDonald's utilizes various marketing tactics, including advertising, promotions, customer needs analysis, brand image management, innovation, digital marketing, and market segmentation. Furthermore, the report outlines a detailed marketing plan for McDonald's, including the development of effective marketing strategies and the importance of budget allocation. The report also discusses how marketing is used to promote the mission and vision of the company and how it ensures the company's long-term survival in the market.

Marketing Essentials

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:..........................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function..............................................................1
M1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function.............................................................3
P2 How roles and responsibilities relate to McDonald's........................................................4
M2 Significance of relationships between marketing and other departments........................5
P3 How McDonald's apply its marketing mix to achieve business objective........................6
M3 Different tactics used by McDonald's to achieve objectives...........................................7
P4 Marketing plan for McDonald's........................................................................................7
M4 Producing a detailed evidence marketing plan..............................................................12
CONCLUSION:.............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION:
Marketing department plays a crucial role in advertising and promoting the products or
services. Marketings is done by using various tools and techniques. For this different strategies
are developed through which product is marketed. It focuses on marketing mix strategy that
describes 7 P''s of marketing (Babin, and Zikmund, 2015). Also, the firm sales and profits are
entirely dependent on good its marketing activities are. Moreover, every department in
organisation are interrelated with marketing department. This report gives brief discussion on
how major roles and responsibilities of marketing function relates to wider organisation concept.
Also, what are the major roles and responsibilities of marketing manager in developing
marketing strategy.
For this assignment the organisation selected is McDonald's. The cited firm belongs to
fast food sector and is operating their business all over the world. The existence of company on
global level requires effective marketing plan to promote their products and services. Thus, this
report will help in developing a relevant one for the cited establishment (Brady, 2014).
P1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
There are many definitions of marketing given by authors.
 CIM: As per this, marketing is the method of managing those practices which are
responsible to identify and satisfy the customer requirements.
 AMA: Marketing is the set of activities ad different processes that helps in developing,
interacting and exchanging products and services to customers.
 Kotler's: According to this, marketing is the science and art of finding, creating and
rendering values to satisfy the needs of customers.
The basic goal behind marketing product is to promote the mission and vision of
company. This is done to achieve the goals and objectives. Also, it helps in attracting customers
and generating sales (Hair, 2015). Moreover, it is useful for organisation to survive in long run.
The main functions of marketing are:-
Managing and defining brand- A product is always marketed under a specific brand. It shows
what are you selling, who you are, etc. Marketing help in interacting with customers and
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describing its goals and objectives. Also, it becomes easy for company to promote its products if
the brand image is highly strong. Moreover, McDonald's can attract customers at a large extent.
Listen to customer needs- Marketing help in identifying customers needs and accordingly
providing products to them. Also, if there is any change in taste and preference of needs it is easy
to find out. For this a depth research is done to provide data and information to company about
what a customer expect from them. This helps McDonald's to develop products and expand their
business.
Monitoring position in market- For every business it is essential to know what is the current
position in the market (Cavusgil and et..al 2014). This function is performed by marketing
department by collecting data. It helps in developing strategies about what can be done to
improve market presence. With this market condition can be monitored. McDonald's can monitor
its position by analysing its competitor strategy. Without this all the efforts made by firm to
distribute product will be useless.
Transit brand value- The main motive behind marketing the product is to deliver the brand
value of product to the customer. It includes services, product features, etc. This is done by
developing logos, messages and offers. It helps in making aware customers about brand. This
increases brand value resulting in attracting more people. McDonald's, can do this by organising
campaigns, debates, etc.
Market segment- Segmenting the market can be useful in making aware more customers about
the brand. It will help in providing a variety of products top different people. Moreover, it will
identify needs of people and fulfilling them. Also, McDonald's will be able to focus on different
market in a better way ( Malhorta, ,2015). For example- for indican market they can develop veg
products and for European market they can develop non veg products. This will give an insight
on needs of customers.
Innovation- Every product needs some improvements due to change in taste and preference of
customer. This innovation can be either developing new product or making some change in its
features. It helps company to expand in the market and retain its customers. Other than this
innovating promotion techniques, customer services, etc. can be done to attract new customers.
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Communication- An organisation goals and objectives can only be achieved if there is effective
communication between marketing and all other departments. This enables in integrating their
efforts in building a stronger brand in the market. Moreover, a strong communication between
research and marketing unit will be helpful in developing new products. Top management must
be informed about what changes are been made in product. This will help them to provide
information to stakeholder (Martin, Campbell,. and Harmsen, 2014). For example- change in
product must be informed to production unit so that accordingly changes can be made in
equipments.
Marketing plan- It is the most important function in marketing. Without having a proper
marketing plan it is impossible to promote product. An effective market plan developed by
marketing unit will describe what steps and measures will be taken. It contains information about
competitors, target market, etc. It is been developed so that efficient time and resources are
utilised in advertising a product. It also guides sales force about their tasks and roles.
Outcomes- Marketing function also involves measuring the outcome of sales force. It is done to
find out what efforts were done by them. With this it becomes easy to assign tasks to each team
member. Furthermore, it helps in measuring the overall performance of marketing unit. A
marketing plan consist of following concept:-
Production concept- It means producing a product whose price is low. This will attract large
amount of consumer as they prefer low price products.
Product concept- It refers to features that a product contains. The product is developed as per
needs of customers. (Hugos, 2018).
Marketing concept – In this marketing strategies must be determined that satisfies the needs of
customers.
Selling concept- This is regarded as the business orientation. For this, the selected organisation
is require to undertake effective techniques and promotional efforts.
M1 Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
There are various roles and responsibilities of marketing functions. These are as follows:-
 Developing effective marketing strategies to promote McDonald's products in the market.
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 Coordinating with stakeholder to provide reports about profits and losses.
 Forecasting sales with the help of research department.
 Coordinating with other functional units of organisation to achieve goals and objectives.
Apart from this, there are some importance have been analysed such as:
 Providing continuous growth and development opportunities to organization through
development of proper plans and strategies through which the company will be bale to
achieve its objectives (Rancati, Gordi. and Capatina, 2016).
 Further, it also enables the organization to make investments in promotion of products
and services so that they will be able in increase the consumer base.
 It makes the organization aware about the importance of consumer behaviour and
preference of target customers towards products and services.
P2 How roles and responsibilities relate to McDonald's
The roles and responsibilities of marketing are as follows-
1. Advertising and promotions-
Advertising plays crucial role in the marketing the products of company in effective way.
McDonald's which provides quality meals to customers' has great contribution of advertising. By
analysing needs of customers', company come up with new innovate ideas and develop products
in accordance to it. When it becomes ready to sell, promotions are required so that customers
may come to know about new product of organisation. Thus, advertising has the responsibility to
provide message about new meals so that sales may be injected.
2. Analysing customer needs-
Marketing research is important aspect in the marketing and as such, it is required that
marketing department analyse consumer needs and then provide products (Więcek-Janka,., 2015)
It is also required that marketing department should take feedbacks from customers so that
improvements can be initiated in existing products and suggestions should also be taken so that
new range of meals may also be developed.
3. Brand image-
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McDonald's has good reputation and brand image in overall market in the whole world.
This is the responsibility of marketing department to protect brand image in front of customers
so that it does not lead to deterioration in brand value. Thus, the role of marketing department is
to communicate and share ideas to customers' which marks as a base of enhancement of brand
image up to high extent.
4. Innovation-
Customers need to be given innovate products so that they may be attracted to the
company up too much extent (Santrock, , 2015). Innovation leads to enhancement of brand value
and McDonald's should innovate new burgers and related products so that they may be surprised
quite effectively. Thus, the role and responsibility of marketing department is to implement
customer retention policy, new and attractive advertisements and promotions which help to grasp
customer's attention with much ease.
5. Marketing budgets-
Firm cannot function well if budgets are not implemented by it. It is the responsibility of
marketing department to prepare budget and provide the same to the top management so that it
may be able to analyse it and initiate funds for the coming period. Thus, budgets are important so
that income and expenditures may be assessed well in advance so that desired revenue may be
earned by the company.
6. Digital marketing-
Digital marketing has been modern day role of marketing in the organisation.
McDonald's company uses digital sources such as e-mails, web, social media to promote
products in effective way (Zeuch, 2016). This is the cost effective method which is incurs low
operational cost and reduces overall expenditures of company which was incurred in traditional
marketing. This has helped company to garner lot of customer's attention within short period.
7. Monitoring-
Marketing main role is to keep up to date company's accounts on various social media
websites so that customers may be attracted to new offers and necessary improvements can also
be implemented to satisfy them with much ease. Thus, marketing has immense role and
responsibilities to organisation to achieve success.
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M2 Significance of relationships between marketing and other departments
The relationship between marketing and other departments is very crucial. It helps all
other units to implement product accordingly. It is because the entire promotion and marketing
activities are performed by this unit. For example- marketing and R&D department are correlated
with each other. Data and information provided by R&D helps in developing new products and
strategies. Also, it is useful in identifying weak areas and focusing on them. Besides this finance
unit also provide funds for all marketing activities (Caragher, , 2016.). This is useful in deciding
the budget. Both HR and marketing department work together with an aim of hiring qualified
employees in organization which are increase the promotion and provide innovative to satisfy the
needs of consumers.
P3 How McDonald's apply its marketing mix to achieve business objective
A marketing mix consist of all the factors that are controlled by company to promote it
products and services. It helps in developing effective strategies. It consists of 7 elements that are
as follows:- product, price , place, promotion, physical evidence, people and process. These all
elements are combine together that helps in achieving business objective.
Product- It is a thing that contains set of features which are offers to customers to satisfy their
needs. The features of every product differs from each other in slight manner. The product of
McDonald's is related to fast food. So it requires to be healthy enough to satisfy customers needs.
Moreover, it uses product life cycle that contains four stages. These are introduction, growth,
maturity and decline stage. McDonald's focus on all these stages to maintain their product quality
as well as services. Besides this, they can identify customers demand and accordingly changes
can be made.
Physical evidence- In this element the firm interact it with customers. It describes how
McDonald's interacts with customers by taking help of signs, logo, etc (Wilson, , 2014) This is
useful to give a proof about the existence of product. McDonald's creates an environment which
helps them to easily reach its target audience.
People- The man power that is working in McDonald's. They are having highly qualified and
skilful people working with them. This shows how employees interact with customers. Also, the
culture within organisation is very good and healthy. It enables employee to work freely and
increases their efficiency.
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Process- It refers to method through which product or service is produced and delivered to
customers. McDonald's must have effective supply chain so that demands of people are easily
met. Also, innovations must be done in process to increase employee productivity and quality of
services. . In this way objectives will be achieved leading to improve business efficiency.
Place- It determines the area or region at which product will be available to customers.
McDonald's are having its outlets in every area where there is the highest footfall of customers.
They have established its stores in shopping malls, high street markets, etc. where people are
easily attracted. This enables them to create awareness about brand and generate sales.
Price- It is related to pricing of a product (Akbar and et..al, 2017). An organisation profit is
entirely dependent on what is the price of product. While pricing three common strategies are
followed that are market penetration, neutral and market increasing. But price is determined by
total cost of product incurred or customers ability to pay. McDonald's product price is very
affordable and customers can easily pay it. They are charging same price from all class of
customers. This makes them
Promotion- Strategies that are used in advertising or marketing a product is considered in this.
In this techniques such as offering discounts, using media, etc. These techniques have to be
modified frequently to retain customers and increase their satisfaction. Also, it depends on the
size, nature and product of company. Along with this sales targets are decided.
M3 Different tactics used by McDonald's to achieve objectives
SWOT analysis- It means to analysis the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats that any
organisation. It is very helpful for any organisation to cover its area (Ward,., 2017). This analysis
is being used to identify the internal factors that affects the business operations and marketing of
organisation like Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats etc.
Porters five force model- It is effective tool to identify what further strategies can be followed.
It is also considered as aspects that provides an understanding about forces that organization
needs to analyse before development marketing plan such as: bargaining power of customers,
bargaining power suppliers, threat of entrant, Competitors rivalry, threats of substitute. In this
context, company has faced major threats from substitutes products in market as it provides
major impact on it sales and promotion in market.
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P4 Marketing plan for McDonald's
A marketing plan helps in providing activities that has to be implemented in marketing
the product. It clearly outlines what efforts are to be done to achieve business objectives. It is
made for a specific period because it changes with change in market conditions. In current
scenario, McDonald's is operating in all over the world so it requires an effective plan to compete
in the market. Moreover, it has to deal with different economic conditions. So marketing
objectives of McDonald's can be analysed to develop plan:-
Vision- It describes what a company wants to be in the future. McDonald's vision is to become a
modern, progressive burger company delivering contemporary customer service.
Mission- This is made on the basis of vision statement. It describes what strategies will be
followed to achieve vision of the company (Nguyen, Simkin, and Canhoto, , 2015). The mission
statement of McDonald's is to bring customers to their favourite place to eat and drink.
Along with this McDonald's strengths and weakness can be analysed in order to develop
a plan. It will help in identifying weak areas and improving it.
Strengths- It is the second largest restaurant network serving customers. It has almost 44717
stores in various countries. It is one of the cheapest fast food provider. Also, due to its size they
have full control over suppliers. With this they can easily lower prices. This has enabled them to
expand its product range. Moreover, its business operations are spread all over, this has helped
them to grow and attract new customers.
Weaknesses- Due to intense competition McDonald's is facing reduction in its sales. They are
loosing its customers. Moreover, it has been involved in legal action that has created negative
impact on it brand image (Silberschatz, Galvin,. and Gagne, 2014). Also, they are not having
proper meals for customers. Besides high employee turnover rate negative impact has been there
on McDonald's.
Threats- The major threat is most people are becoming health conscious. So they are avoiding
junk food. Also, increasing number of local outlets can give competition to enterprise. These
outlets are providing organic foods to people.
Opportunities- McDonald's is having a vast opportunity to expand its market in Asia and China.
This will help them to attract customers and gaining market share. Their low cost menu items has
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attracted large number of customers. With globalization company can expand its operations in
many countries.
With this analysis it can be seen that McDonald's is having a strong position in restaurant
chain. Also, company will be able to overcome their weakness. This will help them to improve
its market share and increase sales. Moreover, in order to decrease threats they must develop
effective strategies. This enables it to grab opportunity for growth and development.
Apart from this, PESTEL analysis is done to determine the impact of external factors on
McDonald's. (Ryan, 2016) It provides an insight on how these are influencing business from
expanding. Also, how cited enterprise must develop strategies to deal with all the factors.
Political- It refers to the political conditions of the country. Fast food industry is highly impacted
with change in political issues. McDonald's is been affected with this as they have to pay taxes of
different countries. Moreover, company is facing extreme reduction in profits due to increasing
rate of taxes. In US McDonald's have to face high cost due to lawsuits with breach of quality of
service.
Economic- The economic condition affects company's profits and sales. McDonald's sales is
dependent on economic condition. Enterprise exports most of its raw materials that reduces its
per unit cost. Moreover, in US they are having very high sales as compared to other markets. It is
because of developed economy.
Social- Each country have its own culture. So McDonald's have to respect their culture to
provide products. Due to this in country like India McDonald's have recently launched vegetarian
items in their menu. It is because of existence of different religious groups. With this they have
created a better and good image in Indian market.
Technological – Technology plays a crucial role in creating awareness about a brand in the
market. With the help of different apps and social media marketing and selling products becomes
easy (Griffitts, 2016). McDonald's has successfully used digital marketing to promote its goods.
They have been able to attract large amount of customers. Moreover, R&D have connected
suppliers and merchants to share technology and improve its operations efficiency.
Environmental- For every business it is their foremost duty to save and protect the environment.
This help them to sustain for a long time. McDonald's are been focused on improving their
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supply chain to decrease the impact on environment. Moreover, enterprise is highly involved in
corporate social responsibility activities. This have creates a better brand image in industry. Also,
biodegradable packaging is introduced by company to reduce wastage .
Legal- It is considered with laws and regulations of country. Any change in laws impacts
company operations. It enforces firm to change its policies. Also, employment is provided on the
basis of these laws (Nizhneva, and Nizhneva-Ksenafontova,.2015) McDonald's have to provide
product according to standards that are mentioned by government. Besides this, employees
security and healthy working atmosphere must be provided by McDonald's.
McDonald's needs to make certain marketing objectives to gain better brand image and to
increase its sales. It will also useful in expanding business. Objectives are :-
 Enhance customer relationships
 To provide a wide range of unique and attractive food products that contain excellent
quality ingredients with excellent taste to satisfy the needs of customers.
 To improve the quality of after sales service.
 To expand business operations by fulfilling needs of each market segment.
For attaining all these objectives market strategy is developed. This will give an insight
on what strategy must be followed to achieve objectives. Some strategies are described below:-
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