The Essay On Strategic Management For Customer Retention At McDonald's Is Effective.

Background of McDonald's

Analyse the effectiveness of strategic management in the development of customer retention, Mcdonalds?

This research project is comprised with strategic management of McDonalds. Strategic management is a planning of business by which the business can conduct and develop for achieving the object (Bell, 2010). The planning of business is implemented with the help of management of that particular organization. In case of every business strategy, there are two types of business environment like external as well as internal business environment can create. In case of external business management the customer and there maintainer are the main factors. On the other hand in the internal business management system, the management of organization, workers are related.

In this research project, the researcher analyse a California originated fast food organization, name, McDonalds. However, now McDonalds conduct their business in all over the world. There are 35000 branches are located in 119 countries and those branches serve around 70 million customers daily. Today, McDonalds Corporation is one of the world’s largest chains of restaurant for Hamburger fast food and the main key of success behind this organization’s success is their strategic management planning (McDonald's UK, 2015).

Customer retention is the biggest default that acts as the company assets and liabilities too (Bell, 2010). In context of the KFC, now a days it is found that KFC is not able to satisfy its customers as due to the humour of its dead chicken. Due to this reason, KFC loose 73% of customers in 2009. For balancing this figure it would be effective if KFC can adopt some customer retention scheme. By the help of this research topic, researcher will show how the implementation of customer retention is helping business to meet with the demand of its customers.

The aim of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of management strategy for conducting the business and implementing the object of the business.

For analysing the research project, the researcher has to follow some objects. On the basis of that objects, the researcher can reach to the goal. Those objects are,

• To analyse the effectiveness of strategic management in McDonalds
  
  
• To understand the need of customer retention in business
  
  
• To access the barriers that McDonalds facing the implementation of strategic management
  
  
• To make some recommendation that might helps McDonalds in context of McDonalds.

• What are the approaches of strategic management that helps McDonalds in customer relation?
  
  
• How customer retention is an advantage in implementation of strategic management?
  
  
• What are the issues that McDonalds is facing in customer retention?
  
  
• What are the possible ways in which strategic management enhance the customer retention policies of McDonalds?

For implementing this research in practically, the researcher will first gather data about the entire topic and concerned organization. To solving some question and with the help of some objectives, the researcher will implement the research. For describing about the entire topic, the researcher will use some models or theories. After that in the data collection method, the researcher will collect data with the help of quantitative as well as qualitative data collection method. If that process will complete, the researcher will analyse the entire data by some statistical expression. Finally, after conducting all the processes, the researcher will give the conclusion and suggestion about the strategic management to the concerned organization.

The topic is comprised with the effectiveness of strategic management in the development of customer retention, with the special aspect of McDonalds. There are two parameters of this research subject, strategic management as well as customer retention. The researcher will analyse the both topic with the help of some models or theories. For understanding the strategic management process, the researcher will use four basic elemental model of strategic management. On the other hand, for evaluating the customer retention, the researcher will use customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and customer loyalty theory.

Rationale of the research

Strategic management is a way of planning of the management of the particular organization, by which the business development process can implement. The strategic management process is mainly based on two concepts, strategic planning and strategic thinking (Bertocci, Parrinello and Vital, 2013). Strategic planning is one type of calculation, thus it is analytic in nature. After the completion this analysis, the result is used in strategic thinking.

There are four basic elements of strategic management. Those are environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, evaluation and control etc.

Environmental scanning: It is the process, where the information is monitored, evaluate and disseminate from the external as well as internal environments to key customers within the company. The main purpose of environmental scanning is to identify the external as well as internal elements, which will determine the future of the company (Flick, 2011). External environment consists of some variables, which are outside of the company. It is related with the opportunities and threats of the business. Internal environment consists of those types of variables, which are within the company itself. These internal as well as external environments are the strength and also weakness of the company.

Strategy formulation: Strategy formulation is the development of a long range plans. In this part includes specification of achievable objectives, definition of company’s mission, setting policy guidelines and development strategies also (Harmsen and Proper, 2013). According to the strategic formulation, it is known that the main reason or purpose for the company’s existence. The strategic formulation helps to know whether the organization is providing for the society or not. Moreover, this process also describes by which method the organization will achieve their objectives and missions.

Strategy implementation: Strategy implementation is a process by which some policies or strategies are put into action for developing the programme. For this reason, sometimes the strategy implementation is referred to as operational planning.

Evaluation and control: In case of evaluation and control model, the corporate activities and the result of performance are monitored. For that reason, the actual performances can be compared with the desired performances (Gustavsson and Hallin, 2014). It is the end result of activities. The original outcomes of the strategic management process are also included in the evaluation and control process.

Customer retention is a process or strategy by which the product disposing process is done. As opined by Lynch (2012), there are 50% advertising process and product disposing is implemented by the customer retention process. Due to the other customer’s view, many people daily switch from one brand to other brand. With the help of this aspect, the customer retention process is very significant for implementing the strategic management in every organisation.

There are various steps, by which the customer retention can achieve. Such as:

As suggested by Rothaermel (2013), for achieving the customer retention, the organization should have to build employee loyalty first. If an organization does not take care to their employers, then the employer will not take care the customers.

For creating customer retention, the customer satisfaction is very significant. If the customers are not satisfied after using a particular product, they switch to other brand (Kisielnicki, 2014). The customer satisfaction is created due to the brand loyalty, brand image, cost factor etc.

Aim of the research

In case of competitive marketing or relational marketing, for achieving customer retention and disposing a particular brand or product, the brand loyalty is very significant (Evans, 2013). Brand loyalty can describe with the help of three ways. Such as:

Hard core Loyal: Some aristocrat customers, who buy a particular brand in all time.

Split Loyal: Customers, who buy two different types of brands’ product.

Shifting Loyal: Customers that switch from one brand to another

Switchers: No loyalty about any brand to the customers.

Customer loyalty can be described as the result of brand loyalty as well as strategic management and it is also a part of customer retention. According to Hanisch and Wald (2012), a company can achieve huge revenue by increasing their customer loyalty. If the customer loyalty can create, the brand image will also grow up and for that reason customer retention is also created. The customer loyalty as well as customer retention is mainly depending on the customers’ mind and the satisfaction. A Loyal customer is an asset for a organization. If customers give continuous support to the organization, the strategic management will succeed as well as business of organization will develop. Moreover, with the dependence of the customer loyalty, the management of the company can introduce a new product in the market.

Strategic management is a type of planning by which the business of an organization can develop. With the special aspect of it, customer retention is one of the planning of strategic management (Kisielnicki, 2014). For developing the McDonalds Company’s business, the customer retention planning strategy is mainly maintained by this company. There are several types of strategic management process; the customer retention is one of the best strategies among them.

The research topic is comprised with the effectiveness of strategic management, with the special reference of McDonald Company. After gaining the knowledge about the research topic, the researcher will choose some methodological tools, by which the research procedure will implement.

For conducting the research, the researcher will use several types of research strategies. For gathering knowledge about the company’s present scenario, the researcher will select survey process (Flick, 2011). The researcher will use some methods, like, quantitative data collection method and qualitative data collection method for conducting the survey process.

The data collection method is the main key for achieving the success of the research by the researcher. In data collection method course the researcher will gain knowledge regarding with the current research topic. There are two ways, by which the data collection method will implement (Creswell and John, 2014). Those are primary data collection method and secondary data collection method. In case of secondary data collection method, the researcher will gain knowledge about the research and the concern company from some previous published sources, like magazines, books, journals, web pages etc. On the other hand, for gaining idea about the present scenario of the organization and creating relation about the research subject, the researcher will select primary data collection method. In this method, the researcher will collect data directly from the organization’s documents or managers’ opinions in the qualitative data collection method. Moreover for gaining idea about the organization’s reputation, the researcher will also take interview of some customers of this organization in quantitative data collection method.

Research object

In this process the researcher will design the work with the close ended survey process and will distribute those with the help of social media. For conducting the quantitative data collection method, the researcher will select 35 customers of the McDonalds Company. By asking some questions, the researcher will analyse those data in finding and analysis method (Nijhuis et al. 2012).

For accumulating comprehensive and describe information about the concern company, the researcher will create many questions according to the subject for taking the managers’ realisation about the companies present condition. According to this plan, the researcher will select 3 branch managers on the basis of non-probability sampling process.

Before conducting the research, the researcher will gain knowledge about the rules and regulation firstly. Without following these rules and regulation, if the researcher will want to conduct this research, then he or she will surely face some ethical issues (Kou and Gang, 2013). There are some examples of ethical issues given below:

Approval: When the research will conduct about the McDonalds Company, the researcher will has to collect the consent letter from the management of the organization. Otherwise, the organization cannot give approval to the managers of their company for participating in data collection method.

Data protection and confidentiality: The researcher will gather the data by following the Data Protection Act 1998 and after accumulating the data, the researcher will has to keep that data confidential.

After accumulating 35 customers’ statement about the organization’s product, the researcher will use this data with the some statistical methods and evaluate those. On the other hand from the 3 branch’s realization, the researcher will describe the present scenario of the company.

After conducting the research project, the researcher will conclude that in case of strategic management, the customer retention strategy is very significant for developing the business. If the entire research will conduct, the organization will get help from this research.

As usually, when the research procedure will conducting, there are two types of limitation will face by the researcher. The limited financial budget allocation as well as short time period are the most two limitation of this research. Due to the short period of time, the researcher has to overlook some methods, which can take place more important part with this research. Instead of it, due to the limited financial budget allocation, the researcher cannot able to do all correct after understanding the wrong procedure of this research. Instead of it, for not disclosing the business policy or other secret documentary file, for that reason the managers of the organization will avoid to express some answers. For implementing the research process, these limitations are mainly founded by the researcher.

The researcher will implement the research process and gaining knowledge or gather information from primary sources like books, journals, magazine, websites, customer’s view and realization of manager’s realization of the concern company. After implementing this research, it will publish as a dissertation. By using this research dissertation as a secondary source, the future researcher will get help in future. As the research topic is comprised on the impact of strategic management in the development of customer retention, with the special reference of McDonalds. According to this prospect, this effect will may be same for several industries. On that case, this dissertation will help to the future researcher as a huge support. Apart from this, due to including the various limitations of this research, there is a chance for enriching this research more correctly in future.

The entire dissertation structure is created by four steps, like Introduction, Literature review, Research methodology, Data collection and conclusion or giving researchers own suggestion. For conducting the research, all these parts are very significant. The introduction part is related with the aim and objectives of the research and the researcher gives a brief idea about the concerned company, which is related with this topic (in this research McDonalds Company). For giving conclusion of this research, the researcher has to gather knowledge about the company. Second chapter is literature review. This chapter is accumulated with information, models and theories of this particular topic, which helps the researcher for implementing the research. Research methodology is the third chapter. This chapter deals with the way by which the researcher conducts the research. The fourth chapter is collection and conclusion, where the researcher gathers and analyses data. After analysing data, the researcher gives his or her personal opinion, by using which strategy; the company will get success in future.

References list:

Books:

Bell, J. (2010). Doing your research project. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press.

Bertocci, S., Parrinello, S. and Vital, R. (2013). Masada notebooks. Firenze: Edifir.

Creswell, John W. Research Design. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, 2014. Print.

Flick, U. (2011). Introducing research methodology. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Harmsen, F. and Proper, H. (2013). Practice-driven research on enterprise transformation. Berlin: Springer.

Kou, Gang. Data Processing For The AHP/ANP. Berlin: Springer, 2013. Print.

Lynch, R. (2012). Strategic management. Harlow, England: Pearson.

Mitchell, Mark L, and Janina M Jolley. Research Design Explained. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.

Rothaermel, F. (2013). Strategic management. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Sharp, J. (2012). Success with your education research project. Exeter: Learning Matters.

Walker, R. and Solvason, C. (2014). Success with your Early Years Research Project. London: SAGE Publications

Journals:

Evans, R. (2013). “Doing Your Research Project in SportDoing Your Research Project in Sport”. Nursing Standard, 27(20), pp.31-31.

Hanisch, B. and Wald, A. (2012). “A Bibliometric View on the Use of Contingency Theory in Project Management Research”. Project Management Journal, 43(3), pp.4-23.

Karrbom Gustavsson, T. and Hallin, A. (2014). “Rethinking dichotomization: A critical perspective on the use of “hardâ€Â and “softâ€Â in project management research”. International Journal of Project Management, 32(4), pp.568-577.

Kisielnicki, J. (2014). “Project Management in Research and Development”. Foundations of Management, 6(3), pp. 147-159

Lieberman, M. (2014). “The Project Conundrum”. Research World, 2014(45), pp.40-43.

Marchessault, J. and Prokopow, M. (2011). “The Leona Drive Project: A Public Access + L.O.T. Project”. Performance Research, 16(2), pp.164-169.

Nijhuis, Steffen, and Inge Bobbink (2012). “Design-Related Research In Landscape Architecture”. J. of Design Research 10(4): 239.

Petit, Y. (2012). Advancing project and portfolio management research: applying strategic management theories. Strategic Direction, 28(9), pp. 47

Steeper, T. (2013). “CO2CRC Otway Project Social Research: Assessing CCS Community Consultation”. Energy Procedia, 37, pp.7454-7461.

Websites:

McDonald's UK, (2015). Great Tastes of America. Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome.html [Accessed 11 May 2015].