Essay: Marketing Plan For McDonalds" (45 Characters)

For this assignment, select a real company in the fast food industry.

You have just been hired by (your selected company) as its new vice president of strategic planning. The corporation’s performance in recent years as well as the changes with business and economic conditions will be a central focus of your new job.

Given the size of the corporation and the fact that it is in a highly competitive industry, the chief executive officer (CEO) to whom you report has already given you permission to hire a staff of recent Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduates to assist you in your efforts. You recently completed the interviewing and hired four people with minimal real business experience.

In coming months, you and your team will be creating a completely new—and, presumably, more effective—strategic plan. You plan to begin by holding a kick-off meeting with your team

To feel confident that all of the employees in your strategic planning team understand all that you have taught them, you require each to prepare a streamlined version of the key elements of a strategic plan. You require each employee to prepare the following sections of a strategic plan for the corporation's next 3-5 years:

1.Mission and Vision Statements (Simply copying from an existing real company is unacceptable.)
2.Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound (SMART) Goals and Objectives
3.Industry Analysis
4.Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, and Trends (SWOTT) Analysis

5.A Perceptual Map

Choose any criteria that you think are important to plot.

1.Explain why you picked the criteria.
2.Your task is to create a plan, following the same parameters, which will be the sample standard that your employees' submissions should match.

Mission and Vision Statement of McDonalds

McDonalds is an American organization which operates in the fast food based industry of the country. The organization was established in the year 1940 and operated as a restaurant under Richard McDonald and Maurice McDonald in California. The business of McDonalds was further redeveloped as a stand which offered hamburgers. The organization later started growing with a huge pace and had developed franchises all over the country and other areas of the world as well. The present logo which is used by McDonalds had been introduced in the year 1953 (Mcdonalds.com, 2018).

The analysis in the essay will be based on the development of a marketing plan for McDonalds which will be able to develop effective objectives for the company. The changes which take place on a continuous basis in the highly competitive industry are able to affect the products which are offered by the company to its customers.

As discussed by Barros, Hernangómez and Martin-Cruz (2016), the mission statement which has been developed by McDonalds is based on making the restaurant a favourite place for the customers to eat and drink. The statement is thereby able to highlight the significance which is provided to the customers which is considered to be the major focus of the business. The company is able to maintain an influence in the decisions related to beverage and food purchase based decisions. The mission statement of the organization thereby consists of two major components which include, the favourite place for customers to drink and eat and favourite way of customers to drink and eat. The organization aims at becoming the first choice of the consumers.

The vision statement of the company is based on the speed of growth in order to become profitable in the fast food based industry. The organization further aims at serving delicious food to all the customers. This statement was included in growth of the company in the year 2017.

The snacks and fast food based industry of the United States has been able to show high levels of growth from the year 2011. The growth has been experienced on the retail sales and the volume sales of the company as well. The changes which have occurred on the household based size and preference levels of the new products can be considered to be a major reason behind the growth of fast food industry. The major factor which is able to drive the levels of growth is related to the levels of convenience related to different food products. The young consumers have been able to impact the innovation levels which have occurred in the fast food industry of the country (Daspit et al., 2017).

SMART Objectives for McDonalds

Strengths – McDonalds has been operating as the second biggest network of restaurants in the world based on its operations in the year 2018. The company operates more than 37,000 restaurants in about 120 countries. McDonalds has also been able to develop a recognition of its brand in the industry with the help of its products and services (Demir, Wennberg & McKelvie, 2017).

Weaknesses – The decline in the market share of McDonalds is based on the unhealthy image of the food products. The quality of the products has also faced major questions during the years of operations of McDonalds (Durand, Grant & Madsen, 2017).

Opportunities – International expansion can be considered to be an important opportunity for McDonalds. The growth of the food industry and number of consumers can also help in increasing the revenues of the organization. The value proposition of McDonalds can be strengthened with the help of encouragement provided to the customers (Dyer et al., 2015).

Threats – The high levels of competition in food industry has posed a threat towards the growth based opportunities of McDonalds. The changes which have been experienced in the demographics of consumers can also be considered to be a major threat to the revenue levels of the organization (Engert, Rauter & Baumgartner, 2016).

Figure 1 – Perceptual Map

Source – Created by author

The positioning map which has been developed for the operations of McDonalds is based on the price based levels and the choice of consumers as well. The consumers form an important part of the operations and profitability levels of the organizations in fast food industry. The fast food organizations which are able to provide high levels of competition to McDonalds based on price are Burger King and Subway. On the other hand, the high priced competition of McDonalds is Starbucks (Ethiraj, Gambardella & Helfat, 2018).

Conclusion

The essay can be concluded by stating that McDonalds has been able to develop its position as a profitable organization in the food industry with the help of effective levels of brand recognition. However, the current position of the food industry demands the introduction of healthier variants of the products which are offered by the company to its customers. The objectives stated in the marketing plan are based on the changing consumer needs.

References

Barros, I., Hernangómez, J. & Martin-Cruz, N. (2016). A theoretical model of strategic management of family firms. A dynamic capabilities approach. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 7(3), pp.149-159.

Daspit, J.J., Chrisman, J.J., Sharma, P., Pearson, A.W. & Long, R.G. (2017). A strategic management perspective of the family firm: Past trends, new insights, and future directions. Journal of Managerial Issues, 29(1), p.6.

Demir, R., Wennberg, K. & McKelvie, A. (2017). The strategic management of high-growth firms: a review and theoretical conceptualization. Long Range Planning, 50(4), pp.431-456.

Durand, R., Grant, R.M. & Madsen, T.L. (2017). The expanding domain of strategic management research and the quest for integration. Strategic Management Journal, 38(1), pp.4-16.

Dyer, J.H., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R. & Bryce, D. (2015). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. Wiley Global Education.

Engert, S., Rauter, R. & Baumgartner, R.J. (2016). Exploring the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management: a literature review. Journal of cleaner production, 112, pp.2833-2850.

Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. & Helfat, C.E. (2018). Theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 39(6), pp.1529-1529.

Mcdonalds.com (2018). McDonald's: Burgers, Fries & More. Quality Ingredients.. [online] Mcdonalds.com. Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html [Accessed 26 Oct. 2018].