McDonald’s
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Introduction:
This report discuss the market strategy of McDonald’s, also looking six competitors of
McDonald’s and plotting them in a perceptual map and finally assessing the McDonald’s
attempt to reposition it’s brand.
Marketing strategy:
(Lancaster & Reynolds 1998, p.11) suggest that
marketing strategy is a process of “planning and executing
the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of
ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organisational objectives.”
(Kotler & Armstrong 2001, p.266) believes that
“company have to decide which and how many segments
to serve, which is the problem of target market selection.
The firm can adopt one of four target market coverage
strategies, Undifferentiated Marketing, Differentiated
Marketing, focused marketing and customized marketing”
McDonald’s is basically focusing on differentiated strategy as they target their customers
according to their need of that product, like: for vegetarians there is a vegan burgers, for
children there is happy meal and a toy within it, for busy people like who are working in
offices and have short break time they have quick service burgers, french-fries and take away,
for people who want to have breakfast McDonalds also offer breakfast and more importantly
they are going globally and targeting different cultures according to their tastes. Jing, H
(2008) “The Business Strategy of McDonalds” ccse, vol 3. However McDonald is using
differentiated marketing strategy as well as undifferentiated, in the sense, first it’s targeting
every age group and secondly globally targeting every cultural group, so in this sense its
targeting masses.
Perceptual Map:
Key Terms:
BK = Burger King
McD = McDonald’s
PzH = Pizza Hut
Dom = Dominos
SB = Subway
Source: Adopted from: Well, 2010
Well, R (2010) lecture 5: segmentation November. MSc Marketing UHBS
Justification:
As Compared to most of them McDonalds has more verities
and is likely to me more cheap but Sam’s on the other hand is
rated as the most cheapest in terms of pricing but having narrow
range of products, and KFC comes next in terms of pricing as
low but having narrow product range as compared to
McDonalds. However pizza hut and Dominos has somehow
same price range but having narrow product range, Burger King
comes at equal level of McDonald’s when talking about range
of products but as in comparison of price it is higher. In the last
Subway is more expensive than McDonald’s having narrow
range of products. (Source: Websites of Each company mentioned above)
Assessing the McDonald’s attempt to reposition its brand:
According to kapferer (2008) the “Immediate actions are taken when a firm’s market
position is eroded due to an outdated image or reputation problem. A current major trend,
altering consumer attitude and values, is the growing worry about the environment and social
impact of modern lifestyle.” (kapferer, 2008: 262, 263; muzellec and lambkin, 2006;
trout, 1995: 51-52, 54)
When the downfall of McDonalds arises because people were becoming more health
concerned and such diseases as bird flu had a deep impact on McDonald’s sale, so
McDonalds plan to change its brand perception by developing new strategies and creating a
new slogan i.e. “I am Lovin’ it” and also by redeveloping its health and safety policies,
McDonalds came back into market once again and with increase share price and growing
globally and making huge profits. (Source: Jobber, D “McDonald’s repositioning the
golden arches” case 16 p: 297-299)
Conclusion:
“To sum up, there is a strong possibility that if the company fails to recognize the new
competitions, shifting of consumer interests, and the social trends or innovative technologies,
it will lose its market share. For achieving their objectives, the McDonald’s strategy should
be attract more new customers, encourage existing customers to visit McDonald’s more
often, build brand loyalty and, ultimately, create enduring profitable growth for the
company.” Jing (2008)
References:
Jing, H (2008) “The Business Strategy of McDonalds” ccse, vol 3
kapferer, 2008: 262, 263; muzellec and lambkin, 2006; trout, 1995: 51-52, 54
Kotler & Armstrong 2001, p.266
Lancaster & Reynolds 1998, p.11
Jobber, D “McDonald’s repositioning the golden arches” case 16 p: 297-299
