McDonalds' Strategy

Introduction

Two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald came to make a career in Hollywood and sadly ended up as owners of a drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino of Los Angeles.

In the year 1954, a milk-shake machine salesman, Raymond Kroc found that one of his clients the McDonald’s had purchased eight multimixers! This was quite astonishing as each mixer had the capacity to mix five shakes in one go. Curiosity got the better of him and he trekked to San Bernardino to see the people who needed forty shakes all in a go. He was amazed to see that large number of people were being served their orders of packaged foods in less than 60 seconds! This efficiency set him thinking about a chain of restaurants. The next day Kroc talked the brothers into a deal which allowed him to sell McDonald’s franchises for a price of $950. Soon the first link in the McDonald's chain was born in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15, 1955. At an age when most people are looking ahead to retirement and a relaxed life, Ray Kroc looked for opportunities, took risks and worked towards success.

Think Global, Act Local

Internationalization involves customizing marketing strategies for different regions of the world according to cultural, regional and national differences to serve specific target markets. In order to standardize the marketing mix, strategy needs to group countries by social, cultural technological, political and economic similarities.

7 Ps to analyze McDonald’s:

1. Product: features, quality, quantity

2. Place: location, number of outlets

3. Price: strategy, determinants, levels

4. Promotion: advertising, sales promotions, PR

5. People: quantity, quality, training, promotion

6. Process: blueprinting, control