Analyzing McDonald’s Strategic Management Essay In The Economy.

Analyze the strategic management activities that have been performed by McDonald’s restaurant in the entire economy.

The report helps in analysis of the current state of the marketing activities of the company named McDonald’s that is based in USA. The current marketing strategy has to be analysed effectively with the proposed marketing strategy that will be applied by the company in the future. Proper frameworks have to be analysed in an effectual manner wherein this will help in synthesizing the leadership strategies and policies that can be used by McDonald’s.

The main aim and purpose of the report is to understand the strategic marketing concept in McDonald’s as this will help in solving the different kind of difficulties in an effectual and appropriate manner. The proposed kind of marketing strategy is essential in nature to be adopted by McDonald’s in order to enhance their activities to provide the different kind of products and services to the customers in an effectual manner.

The structure of the report includes the analysis of the strategic management concepts along with other analysis that will help in analysing the marketing strategy that is helpful in attaining the proposed marketing strategy in an effectual manner. The different kind of leadership styles has to be discussed along with application of one of the concepts that will provide proper view on the marketing strategies that is used by McDonald’s.

McDonald’s is the American fast food Company that was founded in the year 1940 as the kind of restaurant that was operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald in United States of America("McDonald's: Burgers, Fries & More. Quality Ingredients.", 2018). It is one of the fast food restaurants that was founded 77 years ago and the company is located in more than more than 36,900 locations till December 2016 and the revenues that has been earned by the company is more than US$24.622 billion (2016).

McDonald’s is the world’s largest chain of restaurant in terms of the revenue and profit and this is helping them in gaining huge competitive advantage in the market as well. The number of employees who are being employed under McDonald’s is 375,000 and the operating income of the company is US$31.024 billion. McDonald’s is known as for the different kind of hamburgers along with cheeseburgers as this is making them more effective and there has been introduction of different kind of salad, smoothies along with fish items in their menu that has been able to attract different kind of customers in the market as well. Furthermore, it has been seen that McDonald’s revenues has been increased to a great extent and this is making them the second largest private employer in the entire market.

Marketing of the company

McDonald’s strategic marketing plays a major role in developing the business as without proper kind of marketing strategy this will not be possible to attract the clients and this is inefficient in nature (Järvinen & Karjaluoto, 2015). It was seen that greatest achievement of McDonald’s was the proper opening of Happy Meal to attract the children up-to the age of fourteen years. In the year 1970, McDonald’s was searching the new techniques to catch the attention of the different customers in the market. The study indicated that the little ones are the different kind of great influencers in the decision-making technique (Taiminen & Karjaluoto, 2014).

The efficient SIPOC (supplier-Input-Process-Outputs-customer) model helps McDonald’s in integrating the supplier, customer and organization to improve the quality level of the service is the strategic kind of advantage that will help in improving their business in an effectual manner (Rowley, 2016). The segmentation, positioning and targeting strategy that has been used by McDonald’s helped the company in increasing the profitability of the company as well (Baker &Saren, 2016).

It has been seen that McDonald’s uses the mix of demographics, psychographic and geographic variables that helps in segmenting the market and considering the different tastes and preferences of the customers. Due to the change in the pattern of the customer’s tastes and preferences, this will help them in increasing their profitability among the different age groups of the customers (Krajewski, Malhotra & Ritzman, 2015).

The present marketing mix of the Mac Donald company is as follows:

Product:

The company is a leading fast food company in the globe. Mc Donald’s primarily sells chicken products, hamburgers, cheese burgers, breakfast, soft drink and desserts. In lieu of taking up the healthy aspect of the target market, the company has also started marketing salads, smoothies, fish wraps and fruits. Although Mc Donald’s has tried to market various products and include wider menu options, the company is primarily famous for its burgers and French fries (Bhattacharya et al., 2017). The company customizes its products in various parts of the world according to the local taste.

Price

Mc Donald’s uses various pricing strategies to attract the crowds and offer them a good meal at affordable prices. Mc Donald’s makes use of price bundling strategy which offers bundling products with a happy meal offer for its customers. In order to ensure, that McDonalds is able to attract larger market, it has reduced its pricing offerings in various countries so as to ensure popularity; the company also gives additional offers and discounts to cater to the middle income group. The primary customers of Mc Donald are the group of people who want to enjoy a good meal at a genuine price.

Proposed Marketing Strategy

Promotion

Mc Donald’s spends a large amount of money on its various advertisement campaigns and takes the medium of various newspaper ads, billboards and sponsorship events like FIFA world cup, Little League and others to promote its products. The promotion style of Mc Donald’s can be described as an aggressive one. It engages in various Television advertisements on channels whose viewers are the younger crowd. It wants to promote itself as an adaptable brand which sells a wide variety of goods and changes its taste as per the requirement of the given country (Emeana, 2013). The `I`m lovin it` campaign is very famous and popular.

Place

Mc Donald’s restaurants are found in more than 110 countries in the globe with more than 36000 outlets worldwide. The company operates in various formats like Mc Drive, Mc Café, Next and Mc Express as well. The restaurant functions in a self service format whereby the customers are allowed to make their own meals and facilities (Deng, Kang & Low, 2013). The restaurants are located in various parts of the globe. Recently, Mc Donald’s has started mobile based application and ordering in order to access the e-commerce market.

IMC Strategy

The IMC strategy of Mc Donald’s involves Advertising using print media, TV Ads and others. It also uses various sales promotion activities like catering to the younger generation by aims of making their products even more popular. The restaurant has a well defined public relations plan which tends to offer help to the company in order to market its products.

The 12- month marketing strategy which has been proposed for the company has been given as follows:

Product

Mc Donald’s has been back slashed very often for making use of various unhealthy ingredients in its products. For this reason, it has been suggested that Mc Donald’s needs to revamp its market offering and indulge in a healthier meal option for the different customers. It can offer more vegetarian options for the various individuals as a majority of people all around have been planning to adopt a vegan way of life (Flammer, 2013).

Price

The company can also apply other pricing techniques apart from the present psychology pricing of using 9 in its price denominators (Saeidi et al., 2015). There are various online foods ordering applications available company can actually increase the prices of the products by observing the price of its competitors. This will ensure that the company is able to earn higher revenues.

Place

Although McDonalds has been successfully able to extend its operations in various parts of the globe, it is still not available widely on the digital platform. There is various online food ordering applications available like Zomato and UberEats where the customers tend to enjoy the experience at the comfort of their homes (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2013). Becoming more prominent on the online domain will go a long way in helping the company to ensure that it is successfully able to capture the larger market.

Promotion

The company needs to revamp its promotional activities. In order to attract a larger crowd, the company can aim to improve its promotion strategies and make use of social media marketing in making its products very popular among the larger audience.

As it can be observed that there exists a gap amongst the proposed plan for the next 12 months and the current market of the organization. The gap areas which need to fulfilled are as follows:

• The product offering- McDonalds needs to offer better vegetarian products for its markets as more and more customers are adopting for the vegan way of life.
• Place: The Company needs to be made available on the online food delivery applications to ensure it is able to cater to the needs of a larger crowd (Carroll, 2015).
• The company also needs to engage in social media marketing so that it is able to attract a larger audience. Social media marketing is one of the most used ways of promoting its products and it should be applied by the firm in order to ensure sustainable success.

Proper leadership is essential in the organizations as this helped them in providing high morale to the employees in the organizations. The leadership is essential and it plays a major role in motivating the employees to perform better in the organization as well. McDonald’s is one such companies that helps in looking into the different kind of principles that follows individualized store goals along with motivation to the employees who are performing in the organization (Baker & Saren, 2016).

McDonald’s treat all the employees in an equal manner wherein this helps them in providing them the morale to perform the different activities in the organization in an appropriate manner (Chaffey, 2016). Presently, in the current scenario, it has been seen that McDonald’s is using the creative problem-solving strategy in solving the different kind of issues with organizational resources and this helps them in accomplishing the different objectives of the organization as well. In McDonald’s, it has been seen that all the employees know the way they are heading to and the contribution of the individuals in the organization as well (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).

One of the most essential aspects of McDonald’s planning strategy is that proper effectiveness is required in the supply chain management strategies. Proper timely delivery and quality raw materials helps in establishment of good relations with supply chain partners of McDonald’s. Proper value-based leadership has been used by McDonald’s restaurant wherein it is seen that all the employees are valued in performing the different kind of activities that is helping them in reducing the communication gap between the higher and lower level officials. The mission, vision along with representation of the ethics and values of the leaders and employees are valued in an effectual manner and this is increasing in maintaining similar kind of culture effectively.

In McDonald’s, the different kind of values of the different employees are being valued in an effectual and appropriate manner wherein this will help them in connecting with the personal values of the employees and this focuses more on the flexible kind of organizational culture as well. The flexible kind of work schedule is provided to the employees who are working in McDonald’s and this has helped the entire organization in working in flexible working hours and this is helping them in performing in an effectual manner in the organization as well (Holliman& Rowley, 2014).

Furthermore, it has been seen that there are different kind of motivational tools that are used by the leaders of the organization wherein the employees work is motivated with the usage of such non-monetary and monetary rewards and this is helping the entire organization in solving the different kind of grievances of the employees in the organization in an appropriate manner (Spiller & Tuten, 2015). Different kind of training programs are performed and adopted by McDonald’s restaurant wherein it helps the company in making them effectual in nature to perform the different kind of tasks effectively (Charlesworth, 2018).

Lastly, it was seen that there are different kind of appraisal systems wherein this helps the employees in the organization to provide them motivated and this helped the employees in satisfying the requirements of the customers effectually as well (Kannan, 2017). the turnover rate of the employees at McDonald’s has been reduced to a great extent wherein it is seen that the employees are awarded for the best performance and this is increasing the morale of the employees as well (Shankar et al., 2016).

The Corporate Social Responsibility can be described as a form of self regulation program which is integrated into a business model. The Corporate social responsibility functions as a regulatory mechanism where the business has to ensure that it ensures that the company is able to monitor and act in compliance with the ethical standards (Ruggie, 2017). Apart from regulatory activities and statutory requirements, the company also needs to ensure that its actions are contributing to the success of the organization and contributes in making something good and valuable for the society at large (Schwartz, 2017). The various Corporate Social Responsibility strategies encourages a given company to make a positive impact on its stakeholders as well as the environment which comprises of various parties to the business like the employees, investors, communities and other related people in a business organization.

• Better overall market performance- The companies who are able to portray a better corporate social responsibility practice are generally able to perform better overall performance. This enables the firm to increase its profits and perform better.
• Better stock price recovery- The companies who have an extensive corporate social responsibility practice at work, tend to observe a considerable rise in their stock prices in the stock prices. This is because companies like to associate themselves with firms with a better corporate social responsibility as it reflects that the company cares for its users (Tai & Chuang, 2014).
• Better access to policy making and makers-The government is also supportive of those members who have a well defined corporate social responsibility plan at work (Clapp & Rowlands, 2014). This helps them to divide their duty and serve the society at large in a better manner. This is reflected by the fact at those companies who have a better corporate social responsibility plan tend to gain help from the government in form of grants and gains.
• Improved employee talent-The employees want to associate themselves with firms that are engaged in a proper corporate social responsibility system. This is because the corporate social responsibility adapted by the companies reflects their attitude towards the welfare of the society at large.
• Higher employee engagement-The employees tend to perform even better if they are generally made a part of these activities which involve the betterment of the society at large (Cheng, Ioannou & Serafeim, 2014). If the employees are involved in the development of the society it has proven to have increased their contribution towards productivity.

The CSR at Mc Donald’s involves ensuring that the company behaves in a socially ethical manner and deals ethically with the other parties who have been involved in the same. It involves activities like spreading public awareness and planning for future business operations (Takkar, 2015).

According to the company`s corporate social website, the company takes into account serious responsibilities and maintains an open lines of communication with the various stakeholders and customers (Khan, Muttakin & Siddiqui, 2013). The company has its own code of conduct for the different suppliers which set down various regulation acts for its relationship maintenance with the suppliers. The company is also working towards a sustainability project which aims to improve the conditions of the various farm workers in various underdeveloped nations.

Mc Donald’s is also engaged in various community base projects which are driven at becoming an important assistance among various companies. The company has made various contributions to the Flagship Farms Initiative which helps the farmers in showcasing various innovative farming techniques (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013).

The company is also engaged in a Sustainable Fisheries program for collaboration with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (Kilkenny, 2014). The company also donates a portion of its profits to the Ronald McDonald Housing Charities in particular to the care mobile attempts which aim to ensure that the various children in vulnerable communities to receive efficient medical health care facilities.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that McDonald’s is one of the largest food chains in the entire market and this has been able to attract the different customer base in the economy. It has been seen that there are different kind of positive approaches in the marketing strategy that has been used by the company, however there are different kind of issues in the organizational strategy wherein this is causing huge loss of profit in their business. The effective marketing strategy will help in embarking sustainability projects in an effectual manner and this created huge scope for them to promoting good environmental practices.

Furthermore, it has been seen that the current marketing strategy is essential and helpful in nature, however there can be different kind of technological advancements in the strategies of marketing 4Ps wherein they can introduce the different kind of effective strategic management activities wherein this includes inclusion of the food delivery applications along with inclusion of different other variety of the food items for the vegetarian individuals. It has been seen that the corporate social responsibility that has been performed by McDonald’s is huge in nature wherein they are performing different social activities that has helped the environment in overcoming the different challenges in an effectual manner.

It has been seen that the corporate social responsibility activities policy of McDonald’s is related to different kind of campaigns that has helped them in obtaining a competitive gain and advantage in the entire competitive market as well. The marketing strategy of McDonald’s has helped the company in including different age group of individuals who has helped the company in becoming the largest restaurants in the entire market. Lastly, it has been seen that there are different CSR activities with sustainable supply chain strategy and this will help the company in providing wider framework to them effectually.

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