Critical Evaluation of McDonald's Marketing Mix in Ireland

This report provides a detailed analysis of McDonald's marketing mix in Ireland, focusing on the 7Ps: product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. McDonald's emphasizes menu development to meet changing customer preferences, offers competitive pricing through various techniques, and utilizes multiple distribution channels, including mobile apps and 24-hour restaurants. Promotional strategies include initiatives like the Happy Meal theme and social media campaigns. The company invests in employee training to ensure quality service and maintains attractive restaurant interiors with modern furniture and Wi-Fi. Recommendations include implementing a cohesive marketing mix with balanced social media, enhancing product quality with fresh ingredients, and focusing on service differentiation and continuous employee training for long-term growth.

Running Head: MCDONALD’S 0
Marketing

MCDONALD’S 1
Contents
Marketing mix of McDonalds....................................................................................................3
Recommendations......................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................6

MCDONALD’S 2
Marketing mix of McDonalds
Product- McDonalds put major focus on the development of menu that customers require. It
is true that customer’s tastes as well as preferences have been changing frequently. In order to
meet the changing requirement of customers, McDonald’s introduces new products time-to-
time. In Ireland, McDonalds has taken the serious responsibility to offer the affordable food
that is part of healthy lifestyle and balanced diet. Burgers, breakfast, chicken, fries, snacks,
desserts, salads, drinks, cheeseburger, Vanilla shake, Vanilla Cone, Strawberry Sundae,
McCafe chocolate shake are some for the products it sells. Recently, it has approx. 74
restaurants in the republic of Ireland (Food Chain, 2017).
Price
McDonald’s use various range of pricing techniques in order to sell its products. Cost Plus
pricing, value pricing, price discrimination are some of the techniques used by McDonald’s.
the main aim of McDonald’s is to provide the food at very competitive value driven price.
The use of franchisee helps the McDonald’s in offering the competitive pricing to the
customers (McDonald’s, 2013).
Place
Distribution is the essential element in the Place. Distribution is the way through which any
company provide services or products to its customers. McDonald’s uses the various
distribution channels. Besides this, it also distributes its product through the help of mobile
apps. Besides this, many of the restaurants are open for 24 hours a day. Therefore, as a big
Company, it caters the whole Ireland market. This strategy is followed in order to make easy
availability of the product to customers (Ambrosesmith, 2016).
Promotion
McDonald’s uses various tools in order to promote its products in Ireland. In order to do
promotion, it has started the theme of Happy Meal. This will use the Shrek in order to
encourage kids for eating vegetables, fruits, as well as dairy products more (Harrington,
Ottenbacher and Fauser, 2017). Besides this, when it brought the MC tea, it has highly
persuaded the customers through social media sites as well as advertisement.

MCDONALD’S 3
Process
It involves the various activities that are performed in order to make the final product.
McDonald’s also undertakes the several activities in order to deliver the product. For
example- Food preparation is the essential activity in the process of McDonald’s (Baumann
and Kaiser, 2018). Therefore, it has made the overall process transparent in order to make it
visible to customers. In addition, the other aspects include how long customers wait for their
food, how they are treated by the assistants of customer care.
People
In Ireland, approx. 97,000 people work in McDonald’s. It also spends millions of money to
provide training to its employees. It is true that if employees will not be happy, they will
deliver the poor quality product to its customers. Sometimes, those frustrated customers not
come again to avail the services. Therefore, it is essential to devise the appropriate strategies
in order to satisfy the needs and wants of employees as well as customers (McDonald’s,
2019).
Physical evidence
This is the last element of the marketing mix that refers to the elements of the customer
experience or physical environment visitor. It is true that physical evidence not only affects
the impression of customers, but also the functions of the McDonald’s. In order to take this
element in mind, McDonald’s interiors are quite attractive in order to delight its customers. In
a report, it has been founded that it has made the comfortable as well as modern interior as
per the changing needs of the customers. Modern furniture as well as soft lighting has been
used in order to make its restaurants more attractive. Besides this, it also offers the easy
accessible Wi-Fi services to the customers (McDonald’s, 2012).
Recommendations
 McDonald’s can implement the cohesive marketing mix that has balance of both
modern as well as traditional social media for the promotion of its brand. Therefore,
McDonald’s must recognize the significance of social media in order to promote the
mix of the organization. It should also develop various digital marketing strategies for
doing interaction with the customers on internet.

MCDONALD’S 4
 McDonalds can increase the quality of its product by the enhancement of fresh
ingredients. It should regularly invest in the menu setting and standardization
strategies in order to attract more customers. It can also add some additional services
and can enhance the product features. An investment in standardization strategy can
be prove to be worth for the McDonald’s in attracting huge customer base.
 It is required by the McDonalds to put emphasis on the differentiation services that
will help in offering the services at every touch of consumer from ordering product to
its delivery. McDonalds is also required to regularly invest in training and
development of staff in order to ensure the high quality of services.
 It also invests more money in order to train its employees well. It has been seen that
its manager s are trained more. Therefore, it should also give more emphasis on the
employees training as Company is evaluated by the attitude and behaviour of its
employees. A continuous exercise program will ensure the long-term growth of
organization.

MCDONALD’S 5
References
Ambrosesmith. (2016) McDonald’s distribution channel and supply chain logistics. [/online]
Available from: https://mpk732t12016clusterb.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/distribution-and-
logistics/ [accessed 1/02/2019].
Baumann, L.C. and Kaiser, B.L. (2018) Social and Cultural Context: Healthy Eating and
Physical Activity. In Principles and Concepts of Behavioral Medicine (pp. 373-388).
Springer, New York, NY.
Food Chain. McDonald’s Ireland. [online] Available from:
http://www.foodchainmagazine.com/2007/10/03/mcdonalds-ireland/ [accessed 1/02/2019].
Harrington, R.J., Ottenbacher, M.C. and Fauser, S. (2017) QSR brand value: Marketing mix
dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1), pp.551-570.
McDonald’s. (2012) Improvements in McDonald’s. [online] Available from:
http://www.mcdonalds.ie/iehome/our_story/restauant_improvements.html [accessed
1/02/2019].
McDonald’s. (2013) Irish Produce. [online] Available from:
http://www.mcdonalds.ie/iehome/food/food_quality/about_our_food/irish_produce.html
[accessed 1/02/2019].
McDonald’s. (2019) McDonald’s Corporation. [online] Available from:
http://www.annualreports.com/Company/mcdonalds-corporation [accessed 1/02/2019].