If someone offers you the best burgers and fries from a place, most probably McDonald’s will come to your mind as a top choice. This company has made a revolution in the fast-food industry. This American company is considered one of the largest food chains around the world, which has made people of almost 100 countries go crazy over their hamburgers. As a franchising business, it has nearly 37,000 shops all over the world run by local businessperson as well as women. Since 1940, this fast-food chain has been stealing people’s hearts from generation to generation no matter how many other food chains have entered into the market. And all of this happened because of the powerful marketing mix strategy of McDonald’s.
Product Strategy of McDonald’s
Products offer values that can satisfy a person’s demands. Marketing ensures that the right product goes to the right person, and both the parties get benefited.
McDonald’s specialty is burgers, though it has added lots of other varieties to its menu over the years. As a result, this company now has a broad range of food and drinks for its customers. McDonald’s popular meals are Big Mac, French fries, McNuggets, Egg McMuffin, Double cheeseburger, Mac spicy burger, and many more. It sells salads, sandwiches, and different types of smoothies and shakes as well. To capture the kids’ market, this company introduced a special category named “Happy Meal”, which contained burger and fries and a little toy hidden in the box as a surprise. And the most fantastic part is, this strategy became popular among not only kids but also people of all ages due to the unique packaging. McDonald’s has divided their menu so that from breakfast to lunch, people can find their suitable food and drinks according to their taste. It provides veggie burgers and sandwiches also so that no person can find scope to avoid their burgers.
Price Strategy of McDonald’s
Price is the negotiable value of a product or service between a buyer and a seller. Marketing ensures that people can find their desired product at an acceptable cost in the market.
McDonald’s uses various price techniques to ensure ideal pricing all over the world. Depending on the situation, this company uses value pricing, cost-plus pricing, going rate, etc. strategies. But their two main pricing strategies are bundle pricing strategy and psychological pricing strategy. Bundle pricing means people will buy a package of different foods that may cost more if purchased separately. On the other hand, psychological pricing strategy means the price should be in a way that people find affordable, such as offering the cost of $2.99 instead of $3.00. McDonald’s also set its product’s price based on the local demand and competition of the market under the famous “Think Global, Act Local” pricing approach of this brand. As a result, you’ll find the different prices of the same burger in different countries. This company’s pricing strategy also decided based on the target market. McDonald’s doesn’t aim to serve a premium section of society. Mostly lower to upper class and especially students and teenagers are their biggest market. That’s why this company’s food items are quite affordable to the general mass.
Place/Distribution Strategy of McDonald’s
Place or distribution refers to how much available business is in terms of its products and services. Marketing ensures the proper distribution and placement of the product based on the demand.
With one of the largest franchising businesses and extensive distribution networks around the world, McDonald’s makes sure people can always find its stores the moment it enters into a market. This company ensures that people can find their store almost everywhere, no matter where they go. In the US, McDonald’s stores are situated after every three-minute distance. To make the restaurant experience more unique, it has designed the stores in different themes, such as Mc Express, Mc Drive, Mc Next, Mc Café, etc. Though it’s a food chain, and people may expect the internal environment to be messy, the case is the opposite. It ensures maximum hygiene around each corner of the store and even banned smoking inside the restaurants. This business is also popular for its fast serving system. Its “Factory Line” design on the kitchen helps it cut 20-30 seconds per serving period. This brand provides drive-thru services to its customers to enjoy their favorite burger and shake from an outside counter. MacDonald’s also offers an online delivery system through its website and mobile app, which has added another dimension to its sales and profit margin.
Promotion Strategy of McDonald’s
Promotion indicates to make people know about a business and its products and pushing an urge on their mind to buy that product. Marketing ensures that a target market won’t stay unknown of something that can satisfy their needs.
The strong global presence and the brand image itself is a major promotional strength of McDonald’s. Before the hype of online promotion McDonald’s used to put big billboards or big icons of their burgers and fries on streets. Before entering a market and before each new product launch, it creates advertisements with different messages and themes. But after analyzing the current trend of online promotion, McDonald’s has shifted a significant portion of their promotional activities online since 2014. And the result is impressive. This brand uses its products to match every event and celebrations and promotes social media. Creative comebacks of Pop cultures, using artworks, hashtags are their regular promotional activities to make people connected with their brand. Ronald McDonald’s charity program is under one of its green environmental activities. It also gives constant discounts, coupons to its customers, and free treats to people who buy a specific amount of their products.
In Summary
McDonald’s has positioned itself in a way that people consider it as their favorite. Their products are in a way that those suits people with different age, preference, and taste buds. Though it has strict franchising policies for quality maintenance, there are still some cases of misusing the brand’s name and serving mediocre quality food. There’re also new concerns that have arisen due to the increasing consumption of fast food, which harms people’s health, especially children. It’s up to McDonald’s to tackle these issues and maintain their popularity among people.
Related: SWOT Analysis of McDonalds Corporation
References
- https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-154/insights-inspiration/case-studies/mcdonalds-uses-youtube-deliver-sales-and-brand-affection/
- https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html
- https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11528855
- https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/mcdonalds-most-popular-items
- https://mpk732t12016clusterb.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/mcdonalds-think-global-act-local-pricing-approach/
- https://digitalagencynetwork.com/all-we-need-to-know-about-mcdonalds-digital-marketing-strategy/
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