Discuss about the Marketing and Management of McDonalds.
Management is important in terms of ensuring the smooth functioning of the business activities. The behavior of the managers is crucial in terms of tracking the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of the undertaken steps. Management includes the conscious approach towards all of the business issues including the effective use of the organizational resources by the employees (Armstrong et al., 2015). This report attempts to peek into the management techniques adopted by McDonalds in terms of attracting the customers. The product taken into consideration is barbeque bacon lovers. In this, the core marketing concepts like the target segment and marketing mix would be applied. This would be enriched with the application of marketing theories.
Market segmentation helps the personnel to increase the sales revenue and profit margin. There are certain criterias, which help the personnel in segmenting their market. Along with this, market segmentation acts as a cornerstone in terms of expanding the scope and arena of business. All these aspects also seem true for McDonalds (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018). They segment their market based on the specific tastes and preferences of the customers. Delving deep into the business of McDonalds, the market segmentation are of the following types: geographic, demographic, behavioral and psychographic.
Geographic segmentation is done based on the close proximity of the customers. Along with this, the density of population is taken into consideration for segmenting the market.
Demographic market segmentation involves the age of the customers and the lifestyles led by them. Along with this, the income and the occupation of the customers is important in terms of manufacturing customer centric products.
Behavioral segmentation includes the response of the customers towards the levied products. Typical components of this are degree of loyalty, personality and status (Menon et al., 2015). Psychographic segmentation consists of the social class and lifestyle of the customers.
McDonalds applies the demographic market segmentation. This is in terms of manufacturing the products according to the needs, demands and requirements of the customers. These offers cater to the appetite needs of all the customers.
The customers of McDonalds belong to the age group of 8-45. They are very passionate towards the products. This includes both the males and females. The children are also included in this age group. Narrowing down the search, the bachelors tend to spend quality time in the McDonald outlets. This is because they do not have any responsibilities to fulfill in the families. The newly married couples also visit the outlets of McDonalds to spending quality time with each other before engaging into the familial responsibilities (Mcdonalds.com., 2018). Most of the customers of McDonalds are office goers and students. This is the best place for them to hang out with friends. Catering to all of these customers helps the personnel to identify the prospective source for increasing the sales revenue and profit margin.
The age group of 8-45 goes through intense pressure and hard work. Therefore, they need high calorie foods, which are enriched in protein. As they experience drab monotony, they hardly get time for preparing healthy foods after returning from the workplace. This reflects their demands for readymade foods. As they are working, they seek such foods, which are within their budgets. However, sometimes they demand high priced food items. This reflects their spending capacity, enabling the personnel to assess the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of the identified targets (McDONALD, 2016). Apart from this, some of the customers demand oil free food items, as they are very much conscious towards their health.
McDonalds has achieved accolades and glory by catering to the appetite needs of the customers. The major drive behind this is quality and customer satisfaction. The organization has enough in store for all of the customers. The outlets of McDonalds in the neighboring countries report of the large-scale customer satisfaction. This is due to the introduction of fusion foods at cheap rates. Usage of social media acts assistance for McDonalds personnel in terms of informing the customers regarding the newly launched products. Bearing in mind the specific tastes and preferences of the customers, Mcdonalds introduces combo offers like Combos, Zunger Boxes and Happy Meals (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018). These offers add smiles into the faces of the customers especially the children. Mention can be made of the Burger business, which is also known as the Blitz Box. This was introduced to incorporate Kansas Chef Design into the initial stages of the NFL season. With a cheap rate of 15 dollars, the box consists of 2 quarter pounders with cheese, two medium fries and 20 pieces of chicken nuggets. These servings prove flexible in satisfying the hunger of the customers (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018).
McDonalds believes in providing value for money. This is through the means of ensuring that the quality is maintained within the food items. The attribute of quality satisfies the needs, demands and requirements of the customers. On the other hand, the viewpoints of the customers are valued and respected. Herein lays the appropriateness of the feedbacks provided by them in terms of upgrading the standards and quality of the products and services.
Values can also be related to the organizational values of honesty, integrity among others for the achievement of customer satisfaction. The personnel expose a conscious approach towards the preservation of these values in terms of bringing innovation and creativity within the products and services (Tzempelikos & Gounaris, 2015). Complying with the values provides the foreign investors a chance for expanding their business through prospective investments in organizations like McDonalds. This thought results in enhancement of the stability in the relationship between the personnel and the clients. The immediate outcome of this partnership is lucrative schemes, offers and discounts, which is one of an effective means for the achievement of large-scale customer satisfaction. Satisfaction of the clients and the customers adds value to the business activities of McDonalds (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018).
In order to expand the scope and arena of business, the companies and organizations need to indulge in partnership with the associate partners. This is also true for McDonalds, which engages in partnership with brands like Asian American Justice Centre, national Urban League, Organization of Chinese Americans among others. This partnership results in the excavation of lucrative offers, which can lure the customers towards the brand. These partnerships also assist in finding prospective sponsors, which can help McDonalds in the achievement of growth and development (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018).
One of the recent examples of innovation within McDonalds is the partnership with Disney. This is in terms of gaining profit through the means of doing something for adding happiness into the faces of children. As a matter of specification, this partnership merges the Happy Meal with the animation characters from the movies of Walt Disney. This was a part of the plan, where $1 billion was given to Disney. Capgemini is one of the other partners, which McDonalds patched up for upgrading the speed of the technologies. 100 employees from McDonalds switched into Capgemini (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018). The details of the agreement was not disclosed to the other associate brands, as it was a multiyear agreement. According to the statements of the CEO, moving with the competitive pace is vital. Therefore, they have taken this step The focus was on getting the staffs acquainted with the new systems, so that the productivity can be enhanced.
Barbeque bacon lovers is saucy, juicy and enriched with crispy bacon. The beef used in the item is 100% certified. It is high in energy, which is perfect for the office goers as well as the students. Along with this, it also possesses high protein, which would prove beneficial for the persons suffering from weakness. Presence of high saturated fat might compel the health conscious people to avoid such items (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018). The breads used for making the burgers is high in carbohydrate, which is one of the other reasons for low sales revenue of the product. The item has both vegetables and non-veg ingredients, which might make the customers concerned about the purity and freshness. However, the workers preparing the item need to adhere to the safety and hygiene measures while preparing the items. The veg and non-veg items need to be prepared through separate procedures.
The price of barbecue bacon lovers is $8.30. This includes the income and lifestyle of the customers. It might be difficult for the middle class customers to afford such items. Therefore, the personnel need to experiment with the price in order to assess its effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility. Delivering the customers with such products would make the personnel aware of the customer approaches towards the levied bacon (Mcdonalds.com.au, 2018). The members of the trade union can be consulted for averting the instances of fluctuation, high exchanges rates and inflation. Along with this, the partnership proves beneficial in setting the prices according to the purchasing power of the customers. Countering this, fluctuation in the prices of the raw materials would act as an obstacle in setting the prices of the products. The personnel need to review the financial condition before planning to launch such products in the market.
Products like barbecue bacon lovers can be brought before the customers through the means of street advertisements. If the advertisements are conducted in the close proximity to the customers, they would be interested to try the product. McDonalds can set up their outlets near the banks, parks and schools. This would be effective in terms of adding to the stock of customers (Luca, Hibbert & McDonald, 2016). Conducting door to door marketing for selling the leaflets would help the personnel in gaining an insight into the attitude of the customers. This assessment would be crucial in terms of estimating the future prospects of such products.
Promotion is one of an efficient means for achieving growth and development. This is true for all of the companies and organizations including McDonalds. Tie ups with the publishing companies would result in the supply of leaflets consisting of the details of Barbecue bacon lovers. Distributing these leaflets along with the newspaper would inform the customers about the latest offers, which the company is giving on the purchases (Baker, 2014). Social media is a modern means for promoting the services. Uploading the images of the barbecue bacon lovers on the websites and social networking sites would increase the trafficking of the audience to the brand. Giving certain discounts on online orders would enable the customers to get high support from the customers, who are tech savvy. Apart from this, providing access to the customers to make the payments through Paytm would enhance the financial parameter.
Sponsoring in the corporate, sports and other events would expand the scope and arena of McDonalds business. For this, the organization needs to maintain stable relationships with the associate partners. Merging bacon burgers into a complete meal and serving this as a complementary meal in the movies and sports would an innovative means for attracting the customers (Jaworski, 2018). Along with this, keeping options instead of bacon would help the customers who do prefer chicken. This would reflect the conscious approach of the personnel towards the specific tastes and preferences of the customers.
Skilled and efficient personnel are employed for handling the business of McDonalds. The research and development team is flexible enough in preparing the items according to the needs, demands and requirements of the customers. The employees are trained in terms of making effective use of the machines for preparing the items. They are given special training in terms of safety, hygiene measures. This is vital in terms of catering to the health needs of the customers (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015).
The vegetables and the non-veg items are brought fresh from the farms and poultry. After this, they are thoroughly washed for removing the bacterias. As a sequential step, the ingredients are mixed with the vegetables and the non-veg items. They are processed in the machines, which are regularly cleaned after finishing the production process. There are separate kitchens for preparing the veg and non-veg dishes. The production process is monitored by the line managers (Sheth & Sisodia, 2015). The defective items are kept aside instead of throwing. This reflects the conscious approach of the personnel towards the quality of the products. Along with this, it is also an indication of solid waste management technique for reducing the pollution and waste levels.
The customer feedbacks are evidence in terms of the growth and development, which McDonalds is achieving. Satisfaction of the customers is the means towards increasing the sales revenue and the profit margin. The reviews provided by the customers on the websites reflect their interest towards helping the organization in upgrading the standards and quality of their products and services (Lusch & Vargo, 2014). Adopting effective communication channels is the evidence towards enhancing the stability in the relationship with the clients. This stability is the keystone towards penetrating into the international markets.
Conclusion
This assignment proves successful in providing an insight into the marketing and management techniques adopted by companies and organizations like McDonalds. The aspect of market segmentation improves the focus of the personnel in terms of executing the marketing activities in an efficient and effective manner. Conducting market research through the means of marketing mix makes the personnel aware of the appropriateness of launching products like barbecue bacon lovers for the customers. The feedbacks provided by the customers are essential in terms of estimating the achievement of growth and development. This estimation includes the consideration of the recent market trends.
References and bibliography
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