McDonald's: A Detailed Report on Positive and Negative Aspects

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of McDonald's, a global fast-food giant. It delves into the company's positive aspects, highlighting its consistency in service and operations across various locations, and its continuous innovation in product offerings and service delivery, such as introducing new menu items based on regional preferences and implementing drive-thru services. The report also critically examines the negative aspects associated with McDonald's, particularly the concerns surrounding the nutritional value of its food, which is often criticized for high levels of fat, sugar, and salt, potentially impacting consumer health. The report further discusses the company's strategies to address these criticisms, such as introducing healthier menu options, and its efforts to maintain market share in a competitive environment. The analysis considers the impact of customer service, marketing strategies and the evolution of the fast-food industry.

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McDonald’s Positive
and Negative Aspects

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
McDonald’s Positive Aspects....................................................................................................2
Consistency............................................................................................................................2
Innovation..............................................................................................................................3
McDonald’s Negative Aspect....................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The restaurant business is a part of the foodservice industry that works to provide food
facility to the people living outside their homes. The industry is at the growing stage, and
several factors have influenced the industry growth, such as the increasing disposable
income, change in lifestyle and increasing variety of cuisines. The industry provides the
customer with a choice of fast foods restaurants, full-service restaurants and home-delivery or
takeaway services (Brotherton, 2012).
McDonald’s is an American Fast food company, headquartered in Chicago, United States.
The company was founded in 1940, by Richard and Maurice McDonald. McDonald’s is the
world’s largest fast-food restaurant chain with a revenue of $21.025 billion. The company
operates with the vision of proving the customers with great restaurant experience every time
they visit the restaurant. The company initiated a customer-focused strategy which included
adopting the local consumer's pattern for food consumption (McDonald's, 2019).
McDonald’s Positive Aspects
Consistency
The first aspect in which McDonald’s excel is its consistency, it does not matter at which
location McDonald’s is operating its business, the service experience for the customers will
be consistent. They will receive a satisfactory service whenever they visit a McDonald’s
outlet. Service, Cleanliness and Value are the McDonald’s motto from the very beginning. As
the organisation is focused on providing its customer with the experience they want. As the
concept of being consistent does not end after earning a brand name, the organisation is
required to keep working on the concept continuously, and McDonald’s has focused on the

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concept from the beginning of the organisation and is working constantly to improve the
performance and maintain the customer service experience (Lim & Loh, 2014).
McDonald’s has focused on developing an entire process that starts from the deciding upon
the product recipe and ends with serving the customer with satisfaction. The process is
ensured to be followed and applied at each franchisee outlet. To ensure the service
consistency, McDonald’s has developed training modules and development programs for its
managers and employees, so that they can effectively understand their job responsibilities and
work accordingly, as a result of which the organisation can maintain its effectiveness.
Being consistent is the McDonald’s strategy to be at the top positions and to attract the
customer’s attention within the industry. Adopting a practice of providing consistent services
to customers not only improves productivity, but it also helps in improving brand image
along with improving customer loyalty which results is the business expansion and achieving
positions within the industry (Blackburn-Gay, 2017).
Innovation
Apart from consistency, McDonald’s has a strong reputation in promoting innovation within
the products and service being provided at the McDonald’s outlet. Being consistent does not
resist the organisation from being innovative. As being innovative is a positive aspect that
promotes consistency within the organisation. Innovation is done with a focus of providing a
better service to the customers as compared to before, and such practices improve consistency
within the organisation. As to provide customers with menu options McDonald’s focus on
generating a menu according to the food preference of the customers within the nation in
which it is operating its business. As the customer’s taste and choice of food depend upon
various cultural and religious factors within the nation, so to provide them with a satisfactory

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service, McDonald’s focus on their eating habits and develop a menu that the customers
would adapt easily (Shabbir, 2018).
In terms of improving the service quality, McDonald’s provide the Nutrition Facts on the
food that are being served by them. McDonald’s have introduced a concept of the drive-thru,
through which the customers are not required to step out of their vehicle to order the meals,
they can simply drive through the McDonald’s drive-thru window and can order and collect
their order. As the restaurants have a peak time during the meal times, and the people usually
prefer to eat breakfast at home, therefore to change the customer's habit and attract them
McDonald’s introduced a breakfast menu at its outlets and introduced new products that
peoples would prefer in breakfast. Introduction of such a breakfast menu helped the company
to gain market popularity and the breakfast menu accounts for a major share in its revenue
(Fontinelle, 2019).
McDonald’s has also focused on innovation of menu which contains innovative products but
at an affordable price, so that the mid-level market can be captured effectively and providing
customers with pocket-friendly menus will help the company in gaining the market share.
McDonald’s Negative Aspect
The aspect for which the McDonald’s is being mostly criticised for is its food nutritions. As
with the emerging healthy lifestyle trends within the industry, people are being more health
conditions and avoid consuming such fast foods that contain, fats and unhealthy elements that
may affect the health of the individual. Also, the governments are putting certain constraints
and regulations of the sale of fast foods, to influence people to take care of their health and to
live a healthy lifestyle. Also, with the introduction of organic and nutritious products within
the market. McDonald’s fast food is highly criticised and avoided by society. The fast-food
provided by McDonald’s are an alternative to home-cooked food and are readily available

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also priced reasonably. Also, such foods contain high calories, fats, sugar and salt and have
their effect on the healthy living of individual (Blake, 2018).
The fast-food industry is highly criticised because of the negative impact of consumption of
fast foods on the health of an individual. Experts criticize that the fast food at McDonald’s is
unhealthy, and most of the products served at McDonald’s are deep-fried and are fattening
and leads to causing serious health issues. The food is made with refined flour which contains
very low dietary fibre, also does not have high nutritious content. As to influence the
customer's perception for fast foods, to think that they can be healthy McDonald’s is focusing
on changing its menu and including fruits and salads so that the customers can be provided
with a healthy food option (Forbes, 2016).
Conclusion
McDonald being the largest fast-food chain in the industry focuses on providing its customers
with better and consistent services, so that the customer can rely on the brand name and can
experience the same service across all the outlets. The McDonald’s has a strong brand name
for providing consistent and innovative service to its customers. As the organisation has
focused on training modules and development programs to train employees and staff how to
deal with customers effectively, also focus on promoting innovation within the organisation
so that the customers can be provided with the improved service experience. Despite a strong
brand reputation McDonald’s is being criticised for its unhealthy food, that contains elements
harming the physical health of an individual. McDonald is focusing on improving its menu
and including nutritious food products within its menu to maintain the market share and to
attract the customers that are focused towards consuming nutritious and healthy foods.

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References
Blackburn-Gay, D., 2017. Mcmarketing: Consistency Builds the Brand. Focus is the Driving
Force.. [Online]
Available at: https://www.marketingstrategiesinc.com/2017/02/22/mcmarketing-consistency-
builds-the-brand-focus-is-the-driving-force/
[Accessed 03 January 2020].
Blake, I., 2018. Burgers and fries at McDonald's are now worse for your health than they
were in 1989 - despite chain's efforts to offer more healthy options. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-5490101/McDonalds-food-
worse-health-1989.html
[Accessed 03 January 2020].
Brotherton, B., 2012. International Hospitality Industry. USA: Routledge.
Fontinelle, E., 2019. McDonald's: A History Of Innovation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0410/mcdonalds-a-look-
back.aspx
[Accessed 03 January 2020].
Forbes, 2016. Is It Unhealthy To Live Entirely Off McDonald's Food? The Answer May
Surprise You. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/04/07/is-it-unhealthy-to-live-entirely-
off-mcdonalds-food-the-answer-may-surprise-you/#202a7904c816
[Accessed 03 January 2020].
Lim, C. & Loh, S., 2014. Gen Y consumers' perceptions of quick service restaurant and the
mediating role of purchase intentions-A case study of McDonald's in Singapore. European

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Journal of Tourism Research, 7(1), pp. 31-44.
McDonald's, 2019. Company Overview. [Online]
Available at: https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/investors-relations/company-
profile.html
[Accessed 03 January 2020].
Shabbir, M. S., 2018. Innovation Strategy of McDonald Business from Historical
perspectives. Innovative Journal Of Business And Management, 7(12), pp. 30-41.