The Marketing Components of McDonald's

The Marketing Components of McDonald's

Introduction

McDonald's Corporation serves nearly 64 million customers daily in 119 different countries. Their logo, the Golden Arches is recognized by people of nearly every age globally. This catchy logo represents style and a strong corporate identity. McDonald's has managed to become the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants during the course of the past 60 plus years. They offer a variety of high quality products quickly at competitively low prices. Implementing foundational components of marketing was a necessity and enabled McDonald's to expand exponentially internationally and nationwide. These foundational components of marketing can be grouped externally and internally. External factors consist of environment, competition, market/customer, and organizational fit. Internal factors include a marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) and a target market.

External Factors: Environment

Two important environmental elements are economic and technological factors. Even during pressing economic times, McDonald's experienced another banner year in 2010. Global sales increased in 2010 by 5% and operating income grew 9%. McDonald's was able to be successful financially by offering a wide variety of products for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks at low, affordable costs. They returned $5.1 billion to their shareholders through share repurchases and dividends paid. Also, they provided a 27% return to investors for the year, which ranks third among companies comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In the U.S. sales increased 3.8% and a record number of customers visited their restaurants across the nation. Internationally, sales growth occurred in Europe, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Revenues in 2010 exceeded $24 billion and their operating income exceeded $7.5 billion. From a technological standpoint McDonald's continues to implement new technology in order to satisfy and appropriately achieve the needs of their customers accurately and efficiently. For example, European McDonald's restaurants are preparing to replace cashiers with touch screen computers. This will help to improve efficiency and make the average transaction three to four seconds faster for each customer according to Steve Easterbrook, president of the European branch of McDonald's. Also, McDonald's locations are now offering free Wi-Fi at more than 11,500 participating restaurants. This enables college students, business people, or the just the average person the convenience and ability to check emails and surf the Internet.

External Factors: Competition

It is clear that McDonald's has many competitors throughout the United States and internationally. Other fast