Marketing Report: McDonald's Strategies and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, examining the role of marketing as a function versus a department, and the structure of the marketing department within the organization. It explores the marketing process, emphasizing the importance of the marketing environment and the influence of the marketing function on other associated departments. The report delves into the marketing mix, evaluating techniques used to achieve organizational objectives and culminates in a discussion of a strategic marketing plan. The analysis covers various aspects of McDonald's marketing efforts, including promotional strategies, market research, and the interrelationship between marketing and other departments like production and finance. It also discusses the roles of key marketing personnel such as the marketing manager, social media manager, and chief marketing officer, highlighting their responsibilities in driving marketing initiatives and achieving business goals. The report also examines the marketing process adopted by McDonald's which includes market research and identification of opportunities, selection of target market, and the integration of marketing efforts to derive outcomes.

Marketing
Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Roles of marketing as function opposed to role as department in a company...................1
2. Structure of marketing department of organisation............................................................3
3. Marketing process and importance of marketing environment to marketing function......4
4. Explain how marketing function influences and interrelates with other associated
departments.............................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Marketing Mix...................................................................................................................7
M3 Evaluating techniques which help in achieving organisational objectives....................10
D2 Strategic marketing plan.................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a process that focuses on identifying right customer segment, designing
developing and producing a product or a service needed by customer segment (Baker and Saren.,
2016). Marketing is often misunderstood as advertising, publicity and sales techniques whereas
marketing is not an isolated effort but focuses on identifying and satisfying customer needs and
requirements profitably. In this report, marketing strategies of McDonald's are studied.
McDonald's is an US based fast food company which was set up in 1940 as a restaurant initially
in San Bernardino, California. This report focuses on role of marketing as function opposed to
role of marketing as department and also significance of interrelationship of marketing
department with other departments. It also applies various strategies that are used by marketing
managers for achieving long term goals and objectives.
TASK 1
1. Roles of marketing as function opposed to role as department in a company
ROLE OF MARKETING AS FUNCTION
Marketing as a function is a process of identifying successful products of an organisation
and then helps a business entity in promoting those products. In this context, it is essential for
chosen organisation McDonald's in getting various opportunities in a competitive business
environment, which indirectly helps an organisation in improving their overall growth. The
major roles and responsibilities of marketing function are:
Enhance Sales and Profits: It is a crucial role of marketing function as it helps an
organisation in improving their profit margin in a competitive business environment. In this
context, it is the duty of McDonald's manager to adopt effective strategy which will increase
sales of an organisation (William and Zikmund, 2012). It is also essential to provide appropriate
training to its employees which will increase customer satisfaction level for an organisation. An
example with respect to McDonald's can be considered to understand role of marketing function
in this. By conducting marketing research they will evaluate requirements of customers, if
expected standards are met by McDonald's as per customer's requirement then it will lead to
positive impact on their sales.
Promotion: This is a crucial role of marketing function which is important for an
organisation as it helps them in attracting new customer by promoting their products and services
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(opolšek and Čurin 2012). In this context, it is necessary for McDonald's to choose effective
promotional strategy, which will helps them in achieving their customer's loyalty and in
generating awareness to customers about their particular products and services. In relation to this
factor, McDonald's is continuously using promotional methods like, T.V, social media and print
media. It is one of the most important functions of marketing department of McDonald's i.e.
promotion of their services and products. If effective promotional activities are carried out by
them, then they will be able to enhance their customer base.
Using and managing Marketing information system: In this function marketing data
of a particular organisation is collected and given to its managers on regular basis, which leads to
efficient decision making. In this context, it will help the chosen organisation McDonald's is
analysing market information and then use this as an opportunity to generate revenue. This factor
will helps McDonald's in guiding its managers to make effective decisions to improve its overall
performance. By using MIS marketing function of McDonald's can gain high advantage in terms
of what they have done in past and what impact it had created on their operations or sales.
So as per the above mentioned discussion, it is essential for McDonald's to perform all
marketing functions and responsibilities effectively and efficiently in order to increase their
overall performance in a business environment.
ROLE OF MARKETING AS DEPARTMENT
Managing the brand: This indicates that marketing as department assists an entity in
defining who they are, what they really stand for, their operations etc. This provides assistance to
McDonald’s as they are able to provide a good experience for customers and partners when they
build an interaction with business.
Campaign management for marketing initiatives: Marketing as a department assists in
identification of such products and services that renders an advantage to company in the event of
putting significant focus on those goods over the course of sales cycle. Within McDonald’s this
assists the company to produce and develop such material and communications that assist in
creating awareness the fast food items being sold by the firm.
Creation of content for Search Engine Optimization for website: A company’s
website is the prerequisite through which people gain information about the entity. The
marketing department of McDonald’s is responsible for maintaining the Web content current and
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working to make sure that the fast food giant’s site emerges quickly when an individual searches
for same type of business.
Monitoring and management of social media accounts: Marketing department strives
to contribute towards the management and maintenance of an entity’s social media pages. The
marketing department of McDonald’s is responsible for managing accounts as well as carefully
watching and supervising what is getting posted about the company online.
2. Structure of marketing department of organisation
MARKETING DEPARTMENT ROLES
Marketing Manager: A marketing manager working within the organisation is
responsible for a number of tasks. In this regard, the roles and responsibilities of marketing
manager are given below:-
 Marketing manager of McDonald's is responsible for carrying out marketing research as
if they are able to identify exact requirements of customer then they will be able to
provide them with what they needs this will increase their brand value within market.
 Marketing manager assists McDonald's to evaluate the prices their competitors are
offering by this they can formulate their own pricing strategies to gain competitive edge
within market.
 By evaluating the past experiences of company, marketing manager takes decisions in
view of different aspects such as promotion, market research, pricing and many other
activities.
 Major role of marketing manager is to carry out market research to identify needs of their
potential customers, recognise their major competitors, strategies that rivals have been
using and latest trends within market.
Social Media Manager: This managerial person within the organisation is responsible
for taking into account the content that is currently available or going to be present on the
organisation’s social media accounts. Further, they are responsible for devising and developing a
social media strategy for company to enhance sales and profits in marketplace. Within
McDonald's, social media manager is responsible for looking into the company’s website so as to
provide relevant, valid and reliable content over it. Also, social media manager within
McDonald’s selects the social media accounts which will serve as effective marketing channels
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for the enterprise and contribute towards enhancing the position of this fast food company in
global market. Also, they handle the social media accounts managed by organisation such as
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus etc.
Chief Marketing Officer: Within an organisation, CMO is responsible for carrying out
the marketing activities in an orderly conduct. Chief Marketing Officer of McDonald’s usually
performs 3 tasks, namely, analytical, creative and inter-personal tasks.
 Analytical tasks: This is related to carrying out research associated with pricing and
marketing.
 Creative tasks: This involves conducting activities so as to design and formulate
advertising and promotional activities of McDonald’s.
 Inter-Personal tasks: This is associated with the role to coordinate the diverse set of
thinking styles of marketing personnel in a single collaborative team.
3. Marketing process and importance of marketing environment to marketing function
Marketing process is the key to success and growth of an organisation as this outlines the
efforts and initiatives undertaken by company to survive in market for a long duration of time. In
this regards, McDonald’s is an organisation that is largely dependent on marketing process to
gain the attention of a large number of people and build a loyal base of customers who do not
intend to shift to substitute products. In this regard, the marketing process that takes place within
McDonald’s is specified below:-
Market research and identification of opportunities: The first and foremost step that
takes place within this process is conducting market research so as to gain knowledge about the
consumer psyche and the latest trends and products prevailing within the marketplace. In this
regard, McDonald’s invest heavily in R&D department and gain an insight into the needs and
wants of customers so as to offer tastes that are out of the box and unique to customers. For this,
company makes use of Marketing Information System and effectively tap the opportunities
prevailing in market so as to maintain their leading position and reputation among customers.
Selection of Target Market and Target customers: The next step in this process is to
identify the target customer segments and target market by making use of segmentation,
targeting and positioning. In this regard, McDonald’s segment the markets as per the
demographic characteristics of consumers in terms of their age. Their main target customer
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segments are children and younger generations who are always willing to try new tastes and
possess the enthusiasm to pay extra if the quality of products is good.
Marketing Mix: Here, a company integrates the 7P’s of marketing into a wholesome
package so as to offer high quality products at a suitable price at the right place by making use of
relevant marketing channels and marketing process. In this regard, 7P’s of marketing are the
reason behind McDonald’s success in global market which is hyper competitive.
Integration of marketing efforts to derive outcomes: This is the final stage of
marketing process wherein all the marketing efforts and initiatives undertaken by company in
association with promotions, advertisement, public relations etc. are integrated to meet the
organisational goals and objectives in a desirable manner.
4. Explain how marketing function influences and interrelates with other associated departments
Marketing is a very broad term which not only refers to selling but also encompasses
entire business promotion and working into it. It is a basic activity of every business concern and
not any specialised activity (William and Zikmund, 2012). Marketing can further be explained as
a result of a whole business view including the end result from customer's point of view.
Concern and responsibility are two essential key areas of marketing that apply to all areas of
management. Although marketing is carried out by only one department yet it applies to all
departments of business. McDonald's is a huge fast food joint that is taken into consideration for
studying this report. The interrelation of marketing and other associated departments is explained
below:-
Production and marketing: Production department deals with manufacturing of goods
and services in their very basic form. Marketing department carries out market analysis in terms
of what people expect from them. Then this information is given to production department.
According to that they (production team) prepare their own strategies to accomplish those needs.
After completion of manufacturing of those requirements, marketing team carries out
promotional activities to make people aware of the fact that their needs have been addressed.
Marketing and finance: Finance department works as a lifeblood of any business
concern. It works at providing adequate flow of funds at a timely basis in any organisation.
Marketing managers of McDonald's work close knit with finance department to ensure that there
are adequate amount of budgets in every department so that needs of research , promotion and
distribution department can be met. It is very important that every business operates within its
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financial capacity and does not overspend (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). They work in
synchronisation with each other to make sure that functions of marketing team are not hampered.
Finance team provide them with amount by which they can carry out their operations in effective
manner. It is responsibility of finance department to ensure that they gives funds according to
what is reasonable rather then what other department like marketing is asking for.
Human resource department and marketing: Like every other business concern, human
resource department of McDonald's also aims at providing proper training and development to its
employees and workers to help them work with greater efficiency. Marketing department of
McDonald's needs to work closely with human resource department to ensure appropriate skills
and staffing is provided to all employees so that they are able to research and develop new and
innovative ideas about product development, meet all production targets within set time limits
(Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2014). Moreover, HR department is also responsible for
recruiting human resources in marketing department. This will assist marketing team to carry out
their operations in new way as new joiner will bring new energy and innovation with themselves.
Research and development and marketing: Research department of McDonald's behaves
like an engine of whole organisation which generates new ideas, innovations and aims at forming
new creative products and services for attracting customers. Research and development should
always be performed based on initial marketing concept and should always keep needs of
consumers as central to any new research and development in order to deliver products that are
able to satisfy needs of customers of McDonald's. Research & Development team is responsible
for designing new strategies depending upon market. This research can be used by marketing
team to have effective promotional activities by which they can enhance their customer base.
IT department and marketing: IT department of McDonald's focuses on the use of
technology to treat with provided information which simply implies about how managers receive
information and how they further utilise in creating products and services. This is a very wide
sector as compared to all other sectors. Marketing managers of McDonald's need to maintain
harmony with IT department so that they are able to disseminate information and work on
improving products and services to satisfy customers and create a brand image. Marketing team
can take assistance from IT department to carry out online promotional campaigns or activities to
attract large number of candidates. Furthermore, marketing team can assist them (IT department)
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to make changes in their website and apps according to what customer expect from them and
which is feasible.
Marketing department of McDonald's hence needs to work in co-ordination with every
department to achieve high growth in terms of enhanced brand image, profits etc.
TASK 2
P3 Marketing Mix
It is a group of strategies use by an organisation in order to promote its products and
service in market. This will help McDonald's to develop effective strategies to create marketing
intelligence. This strategy also helps a company to determine effective marketing plans and
strategies to enhance their productivity in dynamic businesses market. It is a tactic which is use
by an organisation to promote its product or services in a competitive market. It will help
McDonald's in making up an effective business plan to develop marketing intelligence (Brady,
2014). It will also help an organisation in identifying a suitable marketing strategy to increase its
productivity in a dynamic business environment. It plays as a key function to distribute and
maintain flow of goods and services. They have a well built portfolio of products that make their
company different from all other competitors in marketplace. This mechanism will help
McDonald's to identify their strength and weaknesses and develop effective measure to in order
to overcome their weaknesses. In this regard, seven marketing mix p's which are pursued by
McDonald's and burger king to become competitive business identity are discussed here:-
7P'S MacDonald's Burger King
Products McDonald's serves various kinds of
food products to their consumers which
include hamburgers, sandwiches
shakes, drinks, fries and salad. Tastes
of their products vary from different
geographical locations. Quality of their
products helps them to gain competitive
advantages in marketplace.
Burgers king provide somehow same kind
of food products to their customers which
includes sandwiches, drinks, salads, burger
and shakes. They generally focus on
improving their existing products with IT
department so that they are able to
disseminate information and work on
improving products and services to satisfy
customers and create a brand image and
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introducing new food variants.
Price McDonald's keeps on implementing
different types of pricing techniques in
their structure like price discrimination
and value pricing to sell products and
services. They use this method to
attract customers in their affordable
pricing range and also to gain new
customers.
Burger king likewise provide afordable
price range to their customers in order to
increase their brand image. They have
adopted lower pricing range strategy to
give competition to McDonald's so to
acquire it's consumers.
Place This element mainly refers to the
distribution channels and strategies of a
company so to deliver their products to
its consumers. McDonald's distribution
strategies are slightly different and
differ from area to area. They have
adopted intense channel of distribution
which means their outlets will remain
open 24/7 in some areas
Their product distribution techniques are
as far as considered same as McDonald's.
But they don't follow intense distribution
method that means their outlets are not
open 24/7. And moreover their outlets are
located in prime and residential locations.
Promotio
n
McDonald's uses various attractive
advertisement techniques to attract
customers which include newspaper,
internet and television (Brady, 2014).
They use different sales methods for
example, if a person buy two burger
meal ten they will get a coke free of
their choice.
Burger king uses different kinds of
advertising techniques like television, bus
shelter and bus hoardings etc. their main
target is to attract kids and teenagers. They
also use pamphlets placing techniques in
their various outlets.
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