International Corporation

Political

Be an international corporation, McDonald’s must face up with the different state policies in each government. For Europe and USA, because some certain groups protested against state actions involved in the health implications of eating fast food (Floyd, 2004). They have showed some harmful elements such as cholesterol and its effects like obesity when eating fast food products. Hence, on January 6, 2004 McDonald’s “Real Life Choices” program is launched in New York to help their customers following diets while eating fast foods by selecting food based on the calorie, fat, or carbohydrate content as well as discontinuing its “supersize” products to reduce fat in its menu and bring awareness about obesity for their customers in March, 2004 (libraryindex, 2012)

Economic

In six years, the fluctuated economic growth has affected on purchasing power remarkably in the EU and USA. Sufferring from the 2008 global financial and economic crisis, two larger markets has recovery in 2010 with real GDP increased by 1.8 % in the EU-27 and 3.0 % in the United States (European Commission, 2011). This positive signal brings hope for McDonald’s about consumer spending on fast food industry and ability to get higher revenue in next years when economic situation is gradually stable.

Social

Fast food industry is developed market in USA and Europe but it still is potential market in Asia. To expand scale and get high sale from the largest population area in the world, McDonald’s need have flexibility and diversification in menu to suit change of customers’ taste as well as hobbies, religion, etc. For example, to support change in consumer’s attitude about obesity, a new “Go Active” meal is designed for adults that consisted of a salad, a pedometer to count steps, and a bottle of water in several test markets throughout the country