McDonalds Canada Case Study

Situational Analysis – Strengths

In Canada, McDonalds has grown to become one of the leading fast food restaurants of the country. From the first McDonalds opened in Canada in Richmond BC, 1967, the franchise has now spread to over 1400 locations across Canada. The success McDonalds has had in establishing itself as one of the leading companies in the Canadian fast food industry can be attributed to several factors; some including the company’s strong international brand awareness, its ability to offer culturally diverse menu options, its superior workplace efficiency structure and much more.

McDonald’s, being a globally renown fast food restaurant provides it a major strength in brand recognition that its competitors just cannot compete against them on. This strong sense of brand recognition possessed by the Golden Arches of McDonalds grants them the ability to reach out to customers where its competitors would struggle. As well as instilling upon them a strong sense of brand loyalty which brings customers back to them on a regular basis, serving over 2.5 million customers every day in Canada alone (Gavronski, 2017). This strength of McDonalds is what allows them to stay at the top of the fast food game in the country, and it is showing no signs of going anywhere anytime soon.

McDonalds has restaurants in over 119 countries worldwide, and every different country has its own unique cultures and foods in which they eat. This results in some places such as India where cows are holy, to create a sticky situation for McDonalds as it is most well-known for its beef burgers. To compensate, McDonalds India has a wide array of chicken items available including curry flavored dishes. This is where McDonalds strength comes in, it can diversify its menu to suit local demands, a prospect most its competitors could not wish to compete against. This aspect is also seen in McDonalds across Canada in which you can purchase the Canadian favorite, poutine at any of its thousands of locations. This strength allows for McDonalds to be much more diverse in its options than its competitors, a strength it should utilize for years to come.

The strengths of McDonald’s does not only lie within its name and menu, but as well as the structured workplace and optimized food preparation systems in which the brand offers. It takes, on average 3 minutes from the time you order to receive your food from McDonalds (QSR Magazine), this type of efficiency is why McDonalds ever even became relevant in the first place. McDonalds, being as large as it is, is constantly discovering new and improved methods of cutting down the processes that it takes from when customers order to the time they receive their food, then implementing them across other viable restaurants ensuring that the workplace is as productive as possible. The sheer size of McDonalds allows it to try and test these new processes on a small scale