McDonald's Marketing Strategy

McDonald's: An Analytical Report

Zhanhao Li

Siyuan Cheng

Sheng Hong

Songwen Hu

Moonhyun Hwang

Hongye Wang

Helen Khau

GMGT 2010

Section A01

Dr. Rakesh Mittoo

May 27, 2015

Executive Summary

McDonald’s was founded in 1940 and has been around for longer than anyone can remember. As one of the oldest burger chains, they are internationally recognized. Anyone growing up in the world inherits this knowledge as it has become a part of human history. McDonald’s uses franchises as its main business model and operates in over 100 countries with the objective of offering food of high and stable quality. They have a variety of products and are always adapting with consumer requests, hence they have different menus in every country to cater to the tastes of different people, as well as offer more health conscious options to cater to the diet craze of the twenty-first century. They also offer a variety of services including free Wi-Fi, discounts, services for children and elderly people, as well as making charitable donations. The general population, particularly children, teenagers, seniors, students, and urban families are targeted as a whole with regards to product and price that is deemed suitable to meet the market’s needs. Many advertising outlets are used and vast amounts of money are put into marketing such as Super-Bowl ads for example. They are very proactive in world events as they sponsor many different organizations such as the World Cup and Nascar. McDonald’s has reached a very mature stage of their business cycle and grow on a smaller scale through consistent monitoring. Key ideologies they maintain are the fast rate of production and low cost to consumer, though they would benefit as a whole by making efforts to remove the misconception and attached negative connotations of fast food in relations to the public’s health that the general population has of them.

Date:         May 27, 2015

To:                Dr. Rakesh Mittoo

From:         Zhanhao Li, Siyuan Cheng, Sheng Hong, Songwen Hu,    ffffffffffffffffffMoonhyun Hwang, Hongye Wang, Helen Khau

Subject:         A Research Report on McDonald’s Marketing Strategies

Introduction

Background

McDonald’s had become one of the largest fast food chain restaurants in the world. According to McDonald’s Corporation, their restaurants primarily offer quick and easy to serve food, such as hamburgers, fillets, french fries, and pop drinks in over 36,000 restaurants in 121 countries. Statistically, around 69 million people are served every day worldwide. In 1954, Ray Kroc, one of the founders of McDonald’s, popularized the franchising business strategy. Up to the end of 2014, “approximately 80% of McDonald’s restaurants were franchised, of which around 57% are conventional franchisees, 24% are licensed to foreign affiliates or developmental licensees, and over 18% are company operated.” The main goals of McDonald’s is to provide high and stable quality food while, “modernizing the customer experience” worldwide.