Marketing Strategies and Buyer Behavior at McDonald's: A Report

This report delves into the multifaceted role of marketing within McDonald's, examining its impact on brand maintenance, competitive positioning, and market adaptation. It analyzes the company's franchise model, marketing campaigns, and responses to internal and external environmental factors, such as menu adjustments and sponsorships. The report explores McDonald's targeted market approach, emphasizing its focus on the youth demographic and the influence of buyer behavior on marketing communications. It discusses the relevance of buyer behavior in shaping product offerings, pricing strategies, and communication tactics, including digital marketing and promotional events. The report provides recommendations for enhancing McDonald's marketing effectiveness, including improving CSR activities, adopting integrated promotional mixes, and understanding the importance of digital communication and customer feedback.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Role of marketing in McDonald’s..............................................................................................2
Role of Markets in McDonald’s.................................................................................................3
Buyer Behaviour in relation to marketing communications strategies......................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report helps in analysing the different role of marketing and markets in the
business of McDonald’s ("McDonald's: Burgers, Fries & More. Quality Ingredients.", 2018).
The different effects of the external and internal environment have to be analysed along with
target market of McDonald’s. the relevance of behaviour of buyers will be discussed in the
next section as well.
Role of marketing in McDonald’s
Role of marketing in McDonald’s
Marketing plays a major role in the different kind of business of McDonald’s wherein
the focus of the marketing is maintaining a constant brand in the competitive market.
McDonald’s has introduced business strategy by using the Franchise model, there are more
than 80% of the business is operated by different franchises. McDonald’s introduced fruit
bags in the year 2004 that was an additional option for Happy Meal wherein the individuals
enjoyed separate snack item (Mcdonalds.co.nz, 2018).
Furthermore, it has been seen that McDonald’s focuses on delivering sales for the
present and they focus on protecting the long-term reputation of the brand as well. It has been
seen that in New Zealand McDonald’s stopped advertising Happy Meals during the
programming of children in the year 2014 and in 2015 they started advertising their products
with implementation of digital technologies (Frösén et al., 2016).

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Figure 1: Marketing Campaign in US
(Source: "Ethnic Marketing: McDonald's Is Lovin' It", 2018)
From the diagram, it can be analysed that the spending of the individuals has
increased and this has led to different kind of marketing campaigns that includes they provide
sponsorships to junior rugby and soccer in New Zealand. They assisted them in many ways
that include providing them equipment and awards for different teams as well.
It has been in the news that the McDonald’s need to increase their revenues by
implementing different marketing technologies that include the following website
(Mcdonalds.co.nz, 2018). It has been seen that the revenues of the company were falling
down as the unique marketing strategies applied by Starbucks were not applied by
McDonald’s. It has been seen that McDonald’s franchisees support different kind of local
communities that included hosting different local playgroups along with other sporting
events.
Internal and external environments of business of McDonald’s

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Furthermore, the external environment includes the different ban of items such as beef
in India and this has caused huge negative impact on the menu of the company. The company
will find it difficult to retain such sales and revenues in an effective manner (Armstrong et al.,
2015). McDonald’s will face different kind of pressures as this will affect the environment
negatively. The different kind of sponsorships for soccer and rugby matches in New Zealand
has helped the company in involving themselves in a welfare program to gain competitive
advantage. Furthermore, it was seen that the new management team on board has helped the
company in implementing their new ideas for different CSR activities and this helped in
improving their performance.
Recommendations
Therefore, it can be recommended that the strategies of McDonald’s have to be
improvised in an effective manner as this will help the company in gaining competitive
advantage. The two recommendations are as follows:
Firstly, McDonald’s need to understand the different CSR activities and programs that
has been done by other competitors in the market. From year 2003, McDonald’s has
started organizing different sponsorship events such as for Soccer and Rugby matches
in New Zealand and this helped them in improving their strategies (Weinstein &
Pohlman, 2015)
Secondly, integrated promotional mix has to be adopted by McDonald’s as this will
help in promoting their brand and they need to recognize the importance of social
media in an effective manner (Keller & Kotler, 2016). McDonald’s need to focus on
different small cities as well as this will help them in promoting their brand in all over
the country and open a new application of McDonald’s itself to serve all types of
customers.

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Role of Markets in McDonald’s
Importance of selecting markets along with approach of business
The business of McDonald’s follows a targeted market approach wherein the main
target customers of the business are young generation individuals. McDonald’s has
introduced happy meals concept that helped the company in gaining competitive advantage
(Corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2018). The young generation includes the different college and
school going students and they have the potential to providing feedback to their friends and
relatives. The consumers will play a major role in gathering feedback from other friends and
this will help in improving the offerings of the company as well. Furthermore, the customers
will act as the agent that will help them in bringing in new customers as this will improve the
marketing effectiveness of the company.
Market chosen by McDonald’s to compete in market
The market that has been chosen by McDonald’s is the mass market wherein
McDonald’s provide different food items that are liked by all age groups. The targets market
will help the company in gaining competitive advantage. As the target customers are the
college and school goers along with the young generation wherein they love junk and fast
food and thy will refer to their friends about the services and products provided by
McDonald’s.
These kinds of services include that they provide nutritious, affordability, innovation
and quality food to the customers that is liked by them. As the company has selected the
high- end customers, it will help the company in gaining competitive advantage as they are
engaged in proper utilization of economies of scale to achieve cost advantage (Huang et al.,
2015).

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From the ("Ethnic Marketing: McDonald's Is Lovin' It", 2018), it can be analysed that
there were different issues relating to the selling of beef products in the different markets that
was targeted by McDonald’s. McDonald’s need to apply the different kind of marketing
techniques such as digital marketing by advertising their products in the company like
Starbucks.
Figure 3: Net financial debt
(Source: "Annual Reports | McDonald's", 2018)
Recommendations
Therefore, it can be recommended that McDonald’s need to understand the different
preferences of the customers in an effective manner.
Firstly, McDonald’s need to change the menu that will cover the different tastes of the
customers. This will help the company in customization of the menu and provide
healthier options to the target market (Bresler & Lubbe, 2014). McDonald’s has stood
up for the welfare of animals wherein they have adopted the technique of farming

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animals in a respectful manner and the different suppliers of McDonald’s helps in
legislation of the animals (Mcdonalds.co.nz, 2018)
Secondly, McDonald’s need to improve the customer service in an efficient manner as
this will help in gaining more customers in the future. McDonald’s need to introduce
the membership programs for the customers who are regular customers of the
restaurant. McDonald’s need to provide different kinds of membership cards such as
premium and gold wherein they will gain more competitive advantage (Hutchinson et
al., 2015).
Buyer Behaviour in relation to marketing communications strategies
Relevance of behaviour of buyers
There is a huge relevance of the behaviour of the buyers in marketing communication
strategies of McDonald’s. The buyer behaviour is systematic approach that is followed by
customers and making buying decisions. The buyer behaviour of McDonald’s help in
designing the best product or service that is fully help in satisfying the needs and preferences
of consumers (Kotter, 2015).
The buyer behaviour will help in deciding the product or service that will help in
providing easy access to the customers and price has to be decided effectively that will prove
effective in nature to buy such products. The company adopts the marketing communication
wherein they have adopted the different online social media networks as this will help in
adopting to the different strategies in an effective manner. McDonald’s has to introduce
different kind of new food items and they need to promote such food items with the help of
social media as this will help in gaining competitive advantage.
Process of McDonald’s in adopting marketing strategy

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McDonald’s need to conduct proper survey with the public wherein they will
understand the different tastes and preferences of the customers. With the help of analysis of
the tastes of customers, the awareness of the product is essential in nature as this helped them
in increasing their awareness of the product among customers. McDonald’s uses the concept
of interest of product wherein they deliver the information to the customers in a successful
manner. The adoption of the product is essential for McDonald’s as wherein this makes the
payment simple and easier in nature.
Marketing Communication Tactics
There are three marketing communication tactics used by McDonald’s company in
relation to the behaviour of the buyer are as follows:
The online medium of communication is one of the tactics used by McDonald’s as
this helps the company in bringing more customers and making them their target
customers (Pasquier & Villeneuve, 2017). The online medium is applied to the
business by introducing different applications wherein the individuals order their
different food items and they can rate the food as per their preferences
Secondly, the executive sponsorship and campaign events in rugby or soccer matches
in New Zealand held by McDonald’s and this helps the company in gaining
competitive advantage. McDonald’s need to introduce different other food items that
helps in encouraging the customers to buy food items. The company provides free
vouchers to the customers as this will increase their value in the market and this will
help them in performing effectively as well
Lastly, McDonald’s clown mascot named Ronald McDonald is the other
communication tactics used by the company. The clown mascot can be used by them
as this will help the company in making the customers aware that this is their

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trademark and they will gain more competitive advantage in an effective manner.
There can be different events that can be conducted by them as this helps them in
providing more profit in the future.
Therefore, it can be seen that these are the different marketing tactics that can be
applied by McDonald’s as to gain competitive advantage. The marketing strategies has to be
adopted in an effectual manner as this will provide the company a proper view on the
strategies that can be adopted to remove barriers.
From the annual reports, it can be analysed that the buyer behaviour has to be
analysed by McDonald’s in an effective manner as they are the assets of the company.
McDonald’s need to implement the different kind of other activities that will help them in
increasing their revenues in the market. There are different kind of campaigns done by
McDonald’s such as good to know campaign and journey to Christmas campaign as this
helped them in understand the requirements of customers (Mcdonalds.co.nz, 2018).
Recommendations
Therefore, it can be recommended that the marketing communications of the company
has to be analysed in an effective manner. The two kinds of recommendations are as follows:
McDonald’s need to understand the buying behaviour of the different individuals as
this will help the company in meeting the different demands of the customers. The
customers are the assets of the company wherein the requirements are to be met with
effective communication strategies. Digital communication is one such medium that
can be followed by company as to provide importance to the lives of the customers.
The proper development of the content for the website is essential in nature for
understanding the different purchasing power of the consumers. McDonald’s need to

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implement the feedback mechanism within the different outlets as this will help in
understanding the behaviour of the buyers and solve them effectively
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the role of market and marketing plays a major
role in the increasing effectiveness of the company. The company has adopted different
communication tactics that has helped the company in gaining competitive advantage.

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References
Annual Reports | McDonald's. (2018). Corporate.mcdonalds.com. Retrieved 22 March 2018,
from http://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/investors-relations/financial-
information/annual-reports.html
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Bresler, M., & Lubbe, I. (2014). Marketing management.
Ethnic Marketing: McDonald's Is Lovin' It. (2018). Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 22 March
2018, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-07-08/ethnic-marketing-
mcdonalds-is-lovin-it
Mcdonalds.co.nz. (2018). Corporate Responsibility | McDonald's New Zealand. [online]
Available at: https://mcdonalds.co.nz/about-maccas/corporate-responsibility
[Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].
Frösén, J., Luoma, J., Jaakkola, M., Tikkanen, H., & Aspara, J. (2016). What counts versus
what can be counted: The complex interplay of market orientation and marketing
performance measurement. Journal of Marketing, 80(3), 60-78.
Huang, J., Guo, P., Xie, Q., & Meng, X. (2015). Cloud Services Platform based on Big Data
Analytics and its Application in Livestock Management and Marketing. Proceedings
of science.
Hutchinson, K., Donnell, L. V., Gilmore, A., & Reid, A. (2015). Loyalty card adoption in
SME retailers: the impact upon marketing management. European Journal of
Marketing, 49(3/4), 467-490.
Keller, K. L., & Kotler, P. (2016). Marketing management. Pearson.