Product & Service Development: McDonald's Unit 22 Report

This report provides an analysis of McDonald's product and service development, focusing on the product life cycle and product line management choices. The report begins with an introduction to product and service development, highlighting the strategies and market analysis involved. It then assesses the life-cycle stages of products and services within McDonald's portfolio, emphasizing the company's plans to introduce new, health-conscious food options. The four stages of the product life cycle—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline—are discussed in detail, providing context for McDonald's current position and future strategies. Furthermore, the report evaluates product line management choices, specifically examining the concepts of standardization and adaptation. Standardization, which involves using the same products and strategies across locations, and adaptation, which involves modifying products to meet local needs, are both considered in the context of McDonald's global operations. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and reiterating the importance of understanding the product life cycle and making appropriate product line management choices for successful product launches.

Unit 22
Product & Service Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body......................................................................................................................................1
P.3 Assess the life-cycle stage of the products or services in a company’s portfolio.................1
P.4 Evaluate which appropriate product line management choices are required for individual
products or services.....................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Product and service development is a process of developing a new service or product by
implementing various strategies and market analysis. In this present report McDonald's has been
chosen for assessment. McDonald's is a Multinational company of fast food which got
established in 1940 by San Bernardino. Organisation has more than 37000 restaurants in all over
the world. This report will focus on the life-cycle stage of the products or services in a
company’s portfolio. In addition to this, appropriate product line management choices will be
discussed in detail.
Main Body
P.3 Assess the life-cycle stage of the products or services in a company’s portfolio.
is something through a product goes from starting to its end use. There are majorly four
stages of product life cycle which helps in development of a product. In context to McDonald's,
company is planning to launch a new food in its menu which will be introduced by the company
(Tukker and Tischner, 2017). McDonald's is planning to introduce such fast food which will be
low in calories and it will be prepared after focusing on diet plans of people. As in today's world
people are very much concern about their health and follow the diet plans for the same. To
develop the diet plan McDonald's will also access the life-cycle stages of the product.
Life-cycle stages of products :
There are four stages of product life cycle which are being managed by the company in order to
launch a new product. All the stages are defined below in detail.
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Illustration 1: Life cycle of product
(Source:Life cycle of product, 2017 )

Introduction: This is the stage where organisation launches a new product, It always cost high
to the company on new launch as the market is always very small for the new products. Sales of
new product at the time of introduction are low and thus it gives less earning to the company
(Charter and Tischner, 2017). McDonald's is introducing its new product for which it has to
make various strategies so that customers can get attracted towards it and company can increase
its sales by the same.
Growth stage: It is that stage where growth is determined and achieved by strong increase in
sales and profits of the company. Overall profits of the company get enhanced and amount can
be invested back again for further growth. McDonald's is at this stage where it has achieved
higher profits from its existing product and now the organisation is planning to grow more by
way of introducing new food in its menu as per the needs of customers. This is a stage where
competition is faced at higher rate by the companies and that results in prevailing normal prices
in the industry (Life cycle of product, 2017). It is more likely to know about public and needs of
customers at this stage of life cycle of product.
Maturity stage: It this that stage where product of the company is liked by customers and the
major aim of company is to maintain their existing market by delivering quality services. Here
cost of the organisation get lowered due to increase in production and sales of the company
(Karlsson, Larsson and Öhrwall Rönnbäc, 2018). McDonald's is already at this stage where its
fast food is liked by customers and it focuses on maintaining its existing market and dealing with
the competition by way of offering combos and discounts.
Decline stage: This is the last stage where company faces decline in its sales and profits get
lowered down. McDonald's has made many strategies and already planning to launch new
product so that it does not have to face the declining stage.
P.4 Evaluate which appropriate product line management choices are required for individual
products or services.
To develop a new product proper analyses and choices are required to be made, there are
two ways which are described below
Standardisation: It says that use the same products, same pricing, no other promotional
strategies will be developed under this and location strategies will also be the existing one. It will
save the cost if McDonald's is following the policy of standardisation (Clauss, 2017).
McDonald's has got many benefits of building trust of people and they can also get the same
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taste and services in all over the world. It helps in increasing sales and reducing cost per unit
hence profits can be increased.
Adaptation: It is a policy where products and services are modified and changed as per the
needs and wants of the customers. This policy says that products should be designed as per the
geographical regions, demands, taste and preference of the customer. This will help in satisfying
customers and covering maximum targeted market. In context to McDonald's it has also adopted
this policy of adaptation as McDonald's have different taste of its fast food in different nation
(Golder and Mitra, 2018). Company has made its product by considering taste and preferences of
the consumers.
Conclusion
From the above report it has been summarised that there are four stages of product life
cycle. McDonald's is at this stage where it has achieved higher profits from its existing product
and now the organisation is planning to grow more by way of introducing new food in its menu
as per the needs of customers. In addition to this, To develop a new product proper analyses and
choices are required to be made for its successful launch. Furthermore, Adaptation is a policy
where products and services are modified and changed as per the needs and wants of the
customers.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Tukker, A. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. New business for old Europe: product-service
development, competitiveness and sustainability. Routledge.
Charter, M. and Tischner, U., 2017. Sustainable product design. In Sustainable Solutions (pp.
118-138). Routledge.
Karlsson, A., Larsson, L. and Öhrwall Rönnbäck, A., 2018. Product-service system innovation
capabilities: linkages between the fuzzy front end and subsequent development phases.
International Journal of Production Research, 56(6), pp.2218-2232.
Clauss, T., 2017. Measuring business model innovation: conceptualization, scale development,
and proof of performance. R&D Management, 47(3), pp.385-403.
Golder, P.N. and Mitra, D., 2018. New product development research: consolidating the present
and guiding the future. In Handbook of Research on New Product Development. Edward
Elgar Publishing.
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