Comprehensive Marketing Analysis: McDonald's Case Study and Strategies

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of marketing principles, using McDonald's as a case study. It begins with an introduction to marketing concepts, encompassing current and future trends like artificial intelligence and virtual reality, and then explores various marketing processes, including situational analysis, strategy formulation, and marketing mix decisions. The report details the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager, emphasizing the importance of customer value and loyalty, marketing research, and integrated marketing communication. It examines the interrelation and influence of marketing functions on other departments such as HR, finance, production, and R&D. Furthermore, it outlines the significance of an effective interrelationship between different functional departments. The report then compares marketing mix strategies, providing a basis for a marketing plan that addresses the creation and promotion of new products. The report concludes with a detailed marketing plan that incorporates market research, segmentation, and targeting to create a strategic approach for McDonald's marketing efforts.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
1. Concept of marketing involving current and future trends ....................................................1
2. Overview of various process of marketing ............................................................................3
3. Role and responsibilities of marketing manager ....................................................................6
4. Interrelation and influence marketing functions on another functional department...............7
5. Importance and value of marketing role in organization .......................................................8
6. Significance of effective interrelationship between different functional department ............9
7. Compare marketing mix strategies between two organizations .............................................9
8. Produce marketing plan ........................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the action of firm which is connected with purchasing and selling products
and services. It involves advertising, marketing and delivering of goods to communities. People
who work in marketing department try to focus on target audiences, utilising packaging design
and general media view. It is business process of build relations with consumers and fulfil their
satisfactions. Marketing is activity of meet and identify the needs of consumers (Pike, 2015).
This study is based on McDonald's. It is fast food company and world's largest restaurants
chain in terms of revenue. Report will introduce concept of marketing involving current and
future trends. It will explain overview of different marketing processes and roles of marketing
manager in the organization. Furthermore, assignment will explain value and importance of
marketing role and significance of having interrelationships between functional departments. It
will outline marketing mix which will helps in outlining comparison firm with competitor and
market plan to manage marketing activities of new product.
MAIN BODY
1. Concept of marketing involving current and future trends
Marketing is the activity and process for creating, communicating, exchanging and
offering values for consumers and clients.
Concept of Marketing:
There are five concepts of Marketing is based on following concepts that is production,
product, selling and marketing that are utilised by marketing assistant of McDonald's.
Production Concept: It is elderly concept in the business. This concept considers that
consumers select goods which are widely available on low-budget (Malhotra, 2015). Therefore,
marketing assistant focus on accomplishing high production ratio, lower costs and collective
distribution. This concept is based on the approach of increase supply and decrease costs in the
McDonald's.
Product Concept: This concept holds that consumers prefer those goods which are
offered the highest quality, performance or advanced characteristics. Therefore, marketing
assistant direct on creating super goods, so that McDonald's develops good of Premium quality
that normally turns out to be costly. The future trend is artificial intelligence. It is upcoming
trend in marketing which can be used in McDonald's for increasing user engagement. AI has to
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address needs and problems of consumers in effective manner. The artificial intelligence is going
to make it easy for the organization to promote its products and services widely.
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Illustration 1: Concept of Marketing
Source: (Concept of Marketing. 2017)

Selling Concept: The selling concept focuses on preparing of actual sale of the good.
This conception centres on creating every possible sale of good irrespective of quality of
commodity and wants of communities (Concept of Marketing, 2017). If the firm is to sell goods
aggressively, so that consumer is highly attracted towards their product. The current trend is
virtual reality. It is becoming progressively common place as tool of marketing for big brands.
The challenge is utilising virtual reality in way that create awareness for overall brand messaging
and target audiences in the McDonald's. This help in selling concept of marketing of increase
selling of goods and services.
Marketing Concept: McDonald's considers places the consumer at the focus of the
business in the marketing concept. The purpose of realize the needs and wants of customers. It
executes marketing approaches according to market research starting from product concept to
sales of company (Brady, 2014). This concept expresses the pull strategy. This means that brand
is powerful which consumers will always choose brand of their company to other. Social media
platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are mostly used by today's organizations to marketing
their products and services. These organizations provide a good audience where McDonald's is
able to promote its wide range of food options easily. Also, this makes the organization reach to
a large customer base and increase its products demand.
Societal Concept: It is new concept of marketing which focuses on needs and wants of
target market and delivering better value as compared to their rivals. Societal concept also
expresses the significance of welfare of consumers and society as a whole. This conception calls
upon marketers to build societal and ethical mentation into their marketing activities.
2. Overview of various process of marketing
There are different marketing processes which are involved various steps that utilise by
marketing assistant of McDonald's. The marketing process of firm is done by implying to market
planning model that is PR sostac which is discussed below:
Marketing Process:
In this marketing process, some steps are involved such as situational analysis, marketing
strategy, marketing mix decisions, implementation and control.
Situational Analysis: In this step, analysis of situations in which McDonald's discover
serves on the basis of determining opportunities to satisfy unrealized needs of consumers (Belch
and et.al., 2014).
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Objectives: The objectives of the process are to provide the organisation with a plan that
satisfies its consumer base. The effective strategies are made and implemented after the
evaluation of various factors which are going to make things easy for the organisation while its
provision of services to the customers.
Strategy: A strategic plan is formulated to move the determined options after identifying
the available marketing options. If the best option is selected, so that create strategic plan for that
option with regard to objectives and products and services in order to meet customer expectation.
The firm incorporates Strategic Marketing Process which comprise some stages are involved
such as segmentation, targeting and positioning of products of McDonald's in the marketplace.
Segmentation is a process of dividing wider customer and business market normally comprising
to exist and possible consumers into different segments based on shared features such as
geographic, demographic, behavioural, psycho graphic sub-groups. Therefore, McDonald's focus
on each segment to attract consumer. Further, targeting is another part of this process which
involves breaking market into segments in company's clients into services then focusing on
marketing efforts on some sections such as age, gender, income group etc. comprising needs and
targeting of consumers. After focusing on segmentation and targeting company needs to direct
on create position of product in the marketplace (Strategic Marketing Process, 2017). This
involve build reputation and ranking between competitors’ goods. Therefore, McDonald's only
focus on particular group for the highest position of their products as compared to their
challengers.
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Illustration 2: Strategic Marketing Process
(Source: Strategic Marketing Process, 2017)

Tactics: In this step, detailed strategic decisions are made for manageable invariables of
the marketing mix. It involves decisions related to product, pricing, promotion and place by the
McDonald's.
Action Step: In this stage, the marketing plan is finished and results of marketing efforts
which are displayed to align the marketing mix according to changes in market (Schulze,
Schölerand Skiera, 2014). McDonald's need to monitor and evaluate the utilization of resource
to meet the consumers needs and wants.
3. Role and responsibilities of marketing manager
Marketing Manager is the person who is managed marketing and product of company. In
this context, marketing manager of McDonald's is responsible for developing personality as
brand. The role is to lead state marketing functions, working with leaders and regional
management to accomplish marketing goals and objectives (Pappas, 2016). There are many roles
and responsibilities of marketing manager of McDonald's such as:
Developing Marketing Strategies and Plans:
Marketing manager is responsible for determining needs and wants, deliver them through
adding value to goods and interact super value. They play role in formulating strategic marketing
plan to deliver sales and mercantilism goals. Marketing manager is analysis data of consumer
and market to evolve powerful insights of consumer and inform state marketing activities and
priorities.
Creating Customer Value and Loyalty:
It is necessary to create value, satisfactions and loyalty of consumers, because they are
king of marketplace. Therefore, marketing manager need to follow process of consumer
relationship management in McDonald's (Varvoglis and Sirgy, 2015). This procedure helps to
manage detailed information about single consumers and utilising them to build loyalty of
consumers. They are responsible for developing, implementing and reviewing activity of public
relation to build McDonald's brand.
Marketing Research:
Marketing manager is also responsible for marketing research which involves monitor
environment, product performance, company's market, target consumer group and result to their
communication efforts to firm. It is very important to target more customers and identify
competitors toward products of McDonald's.
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Designing Interpreted Marketing Communication:
It is also another responsibility of marketing manager is to design and manage integrated
marketing communication (Polonsky and et.al., 2014). Therefore, McDonald's invest in effective
communication which is comprised sales promotion, advertising, etc.
Marketing Planning Process:
It is the systematic approach to the accomplishment of marketing objectives of the
McDonald's. The marketing planning process involves many stages such as:
Setting of Objectives: After situational analysis, it is necessary to set the objectives and
goals of marketing by manager of McDonald's. The marketing objective is to increase consumer
awareness and brand image of company in the marketplace. Therefore, they make efforts to
achieve the marketing objectives and goals.
Situation Analysis: In this step, marketing manager needs determining the situation
analysis which involves external and internal environment factors (Marketing Planning Process.
2019). Internal environment factors involves objectives, strength and weakness, summary of
issues and opportunities for the McDonald's.
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Illustration 3: Marketing Planning Process
Source: (Marketing Planning Process.2019)

Strategy Formulation: After setting the objectives, it is needed to determine and
formulate the strategy for achieving the marketing objectives. Therefore, marketing manager
identify different strategies such as target audience, defining goals and develop the budget which
are the most appropriate for increase awareness and brand image of McDonald's in the
marketplace.
Marketing Mix: It is necessary to determine the marketing mix which involves 4p's such
as product development, pricing, promotion, place and distribution. In the marketing mix,
marketing manager needs to identify the features and quality of product, different pricing
strategy, selecting promotional channel and distribution channel.
Implementation and Control: It is needed to implement and control on strategic
management and planning which help to achieve objective of McDonald's.
4. Interrelation and influence marketing functions on another functional department
Marketing function is usually carried out by differentiated department that is thinking
must penetrate the whole company. Therefore, marketing functions are interrelated with other
functional department such as production, human resource, finance etc. in the organization.
Human Resource Department:
The marketing department is needed to work nearly with HR department to ensure
adequacy in staff skills according to innovation management plan of marketing. Also, create
compulsive and competent marketing team in the McDonald's. HR department will have many
hiring and training demand as per marketing department of firm.
Finance Department:
All marketing plans involve major financial concepts such as evolutions of cost, unit of
sales, budgets that are necessary to utilize strategies and marketing plans. Analysis of budget and
profits are also important aspects of planning and control of marketing that expresses financial
tools in the McDonald's. Financial development including cash flow analysis, capital
requirements and other financial policies are required during marketing inputs (Nyukorong,
2014). This evaluation is required to develop sales and revenue forecast which are later recorded
in marketing plans.
Production Department:
The marketing and production are also interrelated which involves production
capabilities, determine number and type of good which needs to be produced as per marketing
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information. These are important for effectively production operations in McDonald's. The
interrelationship between production and marketing is most evident is the development of new
products. This relation is depended on extended market research and estimate demand for new
goods, time and space distribution and coordinating with production team.
Research and Development:
The efforts of McDonald's in research and development (R&D) which also interrelate
with marketing efforts closely of firm. R&D and marketing rotate around the new product
development efforts of the firm. Research and development are very close with each of new
product development steps from idea generation to final product development stage in the
organization. The interface of marketing and R&D is realized the potential contribution and
predicting consumer response to new product.
5. Importance and value of marketing role in organization
Marketing is unique and separate entity which involve marketing research, advertising,
promotion, price and customer services (Londhe, 2014). Also, marketing plays various roles such
as identifying target market, appropriate strategies, market research, developing new goods,
delivering marketing plans etc. These roles are having different values and importance of the
marketing in the McDonald's.
Creating marketing plans:
Marketing role is important as it helps in creating and delivering marketing plan for
collecting all the information’s such as company's market, products etc. It is essential to identify
potential consumer and target them. This plan helps to meet needs and wants as well as develop
new product of McDonald's in the marketplace.
Commissioning and Understand Market Research:
Marketing role is valuable as it is needed to empowerment and understand market
research by marketing assistant of McDonald's. Market research is very essential to understand
consumer better, every information about the challengers, testing products and growth of
business. This help to increase success of product of firm.
New Product Development:
New product development is valuable as marketing. It is necessary to develop new
product by McDonald's in the new and existing marketplace. New product development is very
important to target consumers and increase sales of firm (Ilić, Ostojić and Damnjanović, 2014).
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