Marketing Essentials: Report on McDonald's Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's marketing strategies, encompassing various aspects of the business. It begins with an introduction to the concept of marketing, exploring current and future trends relevant to the fast-food industry. The report then delves into different marketing processes employed by McDonald's, including market analysis, segmentation, targeting, and the development of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion). It also outlines the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager within the organization, including market research, strategy development, customer relationship management, and brand development. Furthermore, the report examines how marketing interrelates with other functional departments, such as production, finance, and human resources. The importance of marketing in McDonald's is highlighted, along with its role in building relationships, maintaining reputation, handling competition, and driving product development. Finally, the report summarizes the interrelationship between various functional departments and concludes with an overview of McDonald's marketing plan, emphasizing its strategies and objectives.

Marketing Essentials

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Concept of marketing with its current and future trends....................................................1
2.An overview to different marketing process.......................................................................2
3.Roles and responsibilities of marketing manager................................................................3
4.Influencing of marketing that interrelates with other functional departments of the
organisation............................................................................................................................4
5. Importance of marketing in McDonald's............................................................................4
6.Summarizing interrelationship between various functional department.............................5
7.Comparison of marketing mix between organisations........................................................6
8. Marketing plan of the McDonald's.....................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference.......................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the term where buying ans selling of goods and services takes place
to keep and satisfy the customer(A. Griffith, and et.al., 2014). It is one of the essential
components of business organisation. To reach the customer and to developed strategies four
essential elements are used in doing marketing of product that is identification, development, its
price and distribution channel. In this current report role of marketing and its functional units in
McDonald's organisation will be studied. Its value and importance in the organisation and the
role of manager in doing marketing is also to b e studied. Further different marketing process
with current and future trends will also be discussed in this report.
TASK 1
1. Concept of marketing with its current and future trends.
Different marketing concepts:
Production concept: this is the idea where consumers will only favour products which have
high demand in the market. Companies which adopt this concept run a major risk to focus on
their own business operations.
Product concept: according to this concept, consumers only hold product which have high
quality, performance and have innovative features.
Selling concept: according to this concept, consumers will not buy firm's products until it has
large selling and promotion effect.
Marketing concept: this is the concept which adopt by companies in order to achieve
organisational goals in accordance with needs and wants of the consumers.
Marketing concept is the process which is implement by firms to satisfy customer needs,
to increase profitability of the company and also to increase sales volume of the company.
Marketing is a term used in the McDonald's organisation for the buying and selling of goods and
services in the entity to keep customer attracted and satisfy them with particular needs and wants.
Marketing used to attract customer in the organisation by doing some promotional activities in
the entity that can be advertising, selling and distribution of product and services so that
organisational objectives can be achieved.(Baker, M.J., 2016. )
Current trend in marketing includes the elements which are the present expectations of
the customers with the organisations. Company present expectation is to introduce new products
that would satisfy customer expectations and which also increase company's sales by which
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company will able to products which their competitors not able to provide to customers in
business market. Therefore, current trends according to recent research are globalisation,
diversity, native story telling from the help of social media, marketing with message and emails,
brand positioning, more investments in promotional activities, educating customer about the
product of the organisation etc.
Future trends in the company are the strategies which every organisation has to perform
to shape the future of the market. Future trends policies in the company has a large impact that
every organisation face McDonald's is also facing the same because of large competitors in the
market. Future trends in the marketing is to maximise the efficiency cost cuts are now new factor
in the organisation. Companies which are connected to customer via social network are
achieving more profits than that of companies which are not connected through social media.
Data security grantee is to be provide to every customer like if customers are paying through
digital option like (debit or credit cards) their data security is must so that customers can feel
satisfaction with the organisation. ( Pelsmacker van Tilburg and Holthof, 2018.)
2.An overview to different marketing process.
Marketing process is the elements used to analysis the opportunities in the market, to
target the customer in the market, to develop marketing mix for the effective management
process. Here are the different marketing process applied by the McDonald's organisation.
To analysis new opportunities in market.
New opportunities of market is to be analysed so that organisation can avail that
opportunities to satisfy the customer needs. These new opportunities are the factors that
competitor cannot be able to satisfy the customers in the market. By finding this new
opportunities' entity can able to attract the customers. Such strategies are to be so effective that it
runs for the long term success and improve entity's performance.
Selection of target market.
It is the most important step which help entity to target the customers from the markets.
McDonald's cannot be able to target the whole market for that therefore these market is divided
into three segments that is market segmentation, market targeting, and market positioning.
Market segmentation includes different segments of consumers which have similar wants and
needs and which needs different marketing mixes and strategies.(Huang, X., 2018.) Market
targeting includes strategies which satisfy the customer for long run success of the company.
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These strategies must have the power to influences target market. Market positioning includes
strategies which has power to build the image of brand among customers which attract them to
try the products of the company.
Development of marketing mix. Market mix are the elements which company mixed with the
strategies so target the consumer in the market. These mixes are product, price, place and
promotion. Products are the goods and services which offered by company to customers. Price is
the money which customer pay to purchase the product of a company. Place includes the location
of the business organisation which satisfy the customer to try the product in the market.
Promotion incudes company's efforts to increase the sales by doing many promotional activities
which encourage customer.
3.Roles and responsibilities of marketing manager.
Marketing managers roles is to focused on the new opportunities in the market and
practically apply them in the entity. McDonald's marketing manager responsibility is to handle
the marketing activities which provide efficient and effective performance in the organisation to
achieve the objective goals. Here are some responsibilities.
To conduct marketing research.
Marketing manager role is to conduct proper research which helps entity to know the
different marketing opportunities in the market.(Johnson, P.F., Leenders, M.R. and McCue, C.,
2017.) These regular research helps company to identifying new opportunities which helps
organisation to create strategies for the product and services of the firm. Research can be done by
using questionnaires, face to face interview or by regular analysing of customer buying habits.
To develop marketing strategies.
By doing continuous research manager is able to make new strategies which help
organisation to achieve the objective goal. But the main responsibility is to develop that new
strategies in the entity, for that managers have to influences the employees of the company to
adopt the new strategies which helps firms to earn higher revenue. These strategies help
organisation to face competition in the market.
To develop the customer relationship.
Responsibility of manager is developed that product and services which helps to maintain
customer satisfaction from the organisation. For this manager have to collect previous data base
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records if the company and by analysing that record new strategies are made to attract more and
more customer and existing of previous customers.
To develop the employees' satisfaction.
Manager role is not only to satisfy the customer needs but to satisfy the employees needs
in the firm is also a responsibility of a manager. If employees are not satisfied they cannot give
their extra hours work to organisation so here manager responsibility is to provide good salary
package and bonus which makes them to work hard for the entity.
Brand development.
This is also a responsibility of manager to promote organisational product up to that level
it creates a strong image in front of the customers of the markets. By developing the brand image
entity can able to earn a goodwill among competitors.
4.Influencing of marketing that interrelates with other functional departments of the organisation.
Marketing is the term which interrelates with all the departments of the organisation. In
McDonald's entity marketing also influencing other departmental functions. Here is the
explanation.
 Marketing with production department.
Marketing department in the organisation have to work closely with the
production department so that any new research and development strategies are developed with
the proper plan so that customer needs and wants are satisfied. Those items are made with proper
quality and order delivery can be done on proper time.
 Marketing with finance department.
Marketing department or marketing-planning-overview manger has to work
closely with the finance department so that marketing strategies do not cross the budget of the
organisation. Finance department helps managers to do the research and promotional activities in
adequate budget so that business operation can be done with financial capabilities. Marketing
cannot be applied if permission is not granted by the finance department.
 Marketing with human resource department.
To do adequate marketing process managers needs skilled employees which
recruit by human resource department so marketing department needs to collaborate with human
resource department of the company so that effective work will provide to the potential person.
Human resource management also helps marketing managers in creating effective research and
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ideas that meet organisational objectives.(Kee, A.W.A. and Yazdanifard, R., 2015) They work to
create team which full of ambitions to work in the company.
5. Importance of marketing in McDonald's.
Marketing plays an important role in McDonald's organisation whereby doing regular
research of new opportunities managers can able to implement them in the organisation by which
gets effective results. Here are the points which explain its importance.
Builds relationship. Marketing plays an important role to build effective relationship between
organisation and customers. This relationship builds on the honesty, understanding and pride of
the company. This relationship builds by effectively building order in proper time. Once this
relationship became then it helps organisation to achieve loyal customer support.
It maintains company's reputation. Marketing plays important role in building company's
reputation. This reputation in the market can only be achieved when consumers are aware of the
company's product in the market. For achieving this reputation marketing helps in promoting
products and services by different activities like advertising, personal messages, social media
marketing etc.
Handles competition. Marketing involves continuous research by which entity able to see new
competitors in market. But by doing continuous research managers able to handle the
competition by focusing on current and future trends in the market.
Maintains communication. Marketing helps in developing effective communication between
entity and its customers.(Turner, P., 2018.) This communication process is done by doing
activities through social media, internet and smart devices. In this competitive environment
product which is not communicated are known to be dead.
Product development. Marketing helps in establishing product of the organisation. Product
development only be generated where there are chances of having consumer who try product and
services of the organisation. Marketing 4P's helps to develop product of the organisation.
It creates employment. For implementing effective marketing strategies in the organisation
management needs peoples who work effortlessly to achieve organisational objective. Therefore,
it helps to generate employment in the organisation.
6.Summarizing interrelationship between various functional department.
Marketing in the McDonald's company plays a huge role between functional department.
Companies policies are to make continuous research on the new strategic plan and opportunities
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so that by implementing them company can able to earn greater income and revenue which helps
in generating higher amount of profits.(Kotler, P., 2018) Marketing influence in the production
department of the company where new strategies cannot be implemented if the production
department does not allow implementing them. Production department work is to produce goods
and services which company sell to the consumers. If company implement their policy to
produce more goods and service it provides stress for the workers of production department and
plan will not work.
Same as in the case of finance department marketing strategies cannot be implemented
till finance department provides permission to access them because their work is to maintain
overall budget of the organisation and if policies are going over budget then finance department
will not allow them to implement in the organisation.
Marketing strategies will also influence human resource department because the work
human resource department is to provide new ideas and policies which helps organisation to
attract new customer therefore, marketing department needs to collaborate with the human
resource department so that for achieving the faster result of the implemented work new people
joining is to be there.
Marketing strategies also affect employees management. It is affected like when new
strategies are made managers needs to clarify them to employees so that company's new vision
and mission is to be accepted by employees for achieving organisational objectives.
7.Comparison of marketing mix between organisations.
Marketing mix refers to the factors that company applies to promote goods and services
in the market.
MARKETING MIX McDonald's Burger king
place McDonald's doing business in
across 110 countries and
operates almost 36000
restaurants all over the world.
It allows facilities like indoor
and outdoor seating and
provides services to customer.
In the coming years
Burger king is doing business
across the globe. It has high
quality standard department
which measure quality
standards of burger, desserts
and beverages. Burger king is
basically located most in
western countries. It has
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McDonald's target is to
provide free mobile charging
facilities in the organisation. It
has high quality product with
good hygiene. (Loo, and
Leung, 2018)
physical stores, mobile
application to take order to
customer online which helps
them to attract more customer.
price McDonald's has various
bundling strategies to offering
meals with combo's so that
more customers are attracted
in the organisation. For the
presence of customer in the
organisation it has maintained
physiological pricing
strategies. Its main competitors
are Domino's, KFC, Burger
king and Subway.
It follows market oriented
price strategy and bundle price
strategy as well. It has main
competitor McDonald's so
main strategy to attract
customer is to build quality
within reasonable price
products. To maintain its cost
pricing strategy, operational
cost is also one of the
important challenges for
BURGER KING.
product It is one of the leading food
chain organisations which
supply burger, chicken burger,
cheese burger, desserts, soft
drinks, etc. it also supplies
fruits, shakes, salads, and
popularly known for its
hamburgers. This is marketing
mix product strategy.
For different age group
BURGER KING provides
different varieties of foods that
is from snacks to meal. It
serves both veg and non-veg
categories in the products. For
diet conscious customer it also
serves salads, soft drinks and
veggies. To compete with
McDonald’s, it also provides
value meals and kid meals.
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promotion McDonald's promotional
activities are huge they invest
more money in advertising and
in doing sponsorships. It also
sponsors in sporting events
like FIFA world cup, Olympic
games etc. different combos
are also provided to attract
more customers. Digital
marketing is also to be done so
that teenagers and children get
attract more. Birthday
arrangements are also provided
with discounts which satisfy
customers.
Various promotional strategies
are done by the BURGER
KING like advertising in print
media, hoardings, and on
internet. In this activity their
focus is on the food content.
Different events are to be
organised to attract more
customers. Digital marketing
of products is also to be done
to attract customer where in
the first visit a voucher was to
give to use in the second visit
to get some discounts.
People In UK and Northern Ireland
approx 97000 peoples are
working. McDonald's invest
£40 million for the
development and training of
employees.
Restaurant managers operates
daily activities where their
main motive is to provide fast
services to the customer.
Employees motivation is to be
consider by the organisation
where star rating was given for
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the best performance.
process McDonald's performs many
activities in order to deliver its
product to customer. They
have transparent work in the
organisation. Customer may
see food making process by
transparency in the
organisation.
They have huge process to
make investment for the
customer segments. There
main motive is to add more
restaurants with new strategies
in the market.
Physical evidence McDonald's provides the best
physical evidence to customer
so that they attract more. They
maintain clean and hygiene in
the restaurant so that customer
can take good impression with
them.
BURGER KING also provides
good indoor and outdoor
management with providing
king crown to the peoples so
that they attract more in the
organisation.
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McDonald's promotion element is so strong that by this marketing mix element company
will able to achieve their vision and mission and also effective advertisement activities attract
customers in organisation by which company's overall profitability and performance increases in
business market.
8. Marketing plan of the McDonald's
Executive summary.
Marketing plan can be defined as the overall objective of the business from which they
earn higher revenue and profitability.(Nguyen and Simkin,2017.) McDonald's marketing plan is
to be done on FRENCH FRIES WITH CHEESE DEEP AND SALSA which launched recently
in the market.
Marketing objective.
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Illustration 1: marketing planning process
source:(Marketing Planning (Overview),2018)