McDonalds - an Analysis on Food Company

McDonalds is one of the largest global corporations that lead the market in their industry. The food retailer has more than 36,000 restaurants in over 100 countries worldwide. Everywhere you go, you can find the golden arches. The company has created a restaurant that is a global brand leading in the fast food industry for many years. McDonalds offers a wide variety of food all day long with some restaurants even open 24 hours a day. Eighty percent of the company is also owned and operated by independent business men and women. The other twenty percent is both operated and owned by the corporation or an affiliate. Since it was founded in 1940, the company has changed and transformed tremendously. McDonalds has strived to become a leader in their specific industry by focusing on their marketing campaign. McDonalds president and CEO has put out a message in their 2014 annual report stating that they focus on marketing efforts to be more locally relevant to consumers in individual countries and regions. They are giving customers the flexibility to customize their orders as they create a platform that would allow them to create their own burgers. The global brand though sells itself. The marketing, promotional and public relations activities are always being redesigned to help promote the brand more and more and to make sure they differentiate from their competitors. Marketing and promotional efforts focus on the value, quality, taste of the food, menu choice, nutritional value, convenience to the customer, and customer experience. They also strive to become a leader in corporate social responsibility and environmental issues. Both of these leadership strategies help McDonalds benefit from long term sustainability and which help them serve the community they serve in. McDonalds has a company orientation of a marketing concept and the product concept. They also deal with many external environmental forces that McDonalds needs to be aware of as a part of their marketing management process. McDonalds also faces demand and supply situations from time to time that they must be mindful of at all times. Using a cost leadership and differentiation strategy, McDonalds is also able to capture their target market and keep up with the demand of their burgers and fries.

As mentioned, McDonalds adheres to customer tastes and considers everything that they have to say. Every company should do as McDonalds does and look at market research to understand what customers want and need. Based on this approach, it should design marketing strategies and tactics to meet the needs of the audience it is targeting. This approach is crucial because adapting to changes in the needs of customers allows companies to maintain their marketing orientation and stay aligned with the marketing concept. McDonalds does not participate in global marketing which would involve their burgers and sandwiches being treated as though the world is a single entity and they are marketing