ClassicColumns / Burger king, competitive advantage, innovation, Marketing Mix, marketing strategy of mcdonald, McDonald's, McDonalds new product development, Mohamed Ogbi, Price, product, Proimpact, Proimpact Marketing Consultancy, promotion / April 5, 2015
mcdonald’s new product development
Innovative ideas for marketing strategies play a significant role in developing any development-oriented business
McDonalds new product development & Marketing Mix
McDonald’s opened their first restaurant chain in San Bernadio dating back to the 1940’s. From these modest begging, McDonald’s has grown to a multi-billion fast food franchise selling quality products fast and at very low costs. McDonald’s, from the invention of franchising and creative marketing strategies, has grown to be a well-known brand worldwide and a major shareholder in the fast foods market. Serving over 45-47 million customers daily, it operates in more than 117 countries globally reaching an estimated 31000 location worldwide. (Vignalli 2001, 97-111)
Over the years, McDonalds new product development has experienced exponential growth especially in the promotion and development of new products; meals and customer oriented menus. McDonald’s continues investing in product development and enhancing the quality of service offered. (Vignalli 2001, 97-111) A lot of creative n\business marketing strategies go into the McDonald’s franchises to sustain its market and maintain customer loyalty.
Innovative ideas for marketing strategies play a significant role in developing any development-oriented business, or in this case a franchise such as McDonald’s. Without a proper marketing strategy, all hard work and efforts plowed into the company would deliver average results or returns to the enterprise. This would be contrary to the amount of resources and investments in terms of time; money and human labor put into the sales operations. The essential objective of developing a marketing strategy is to ensure that the company’s products meet the consumers at their point of need. The product meets the consumer’s demands and maintain a long lasting relationship with the consumer such that the user is more likely to make a repeat purchase; thus customer loyalty.
It is essential that in a limited market, a business should retain people once they become customers. Customers will include a heterogeneous lot of varied and different tastes and preferences. For example, when a child visits the franchise, they will want to visit McDonald’s as a fun place to eat. Or a businessperson who visits the McDonald’s for their fast service, great tasting food and food that can be eaten anywhere, at work or in the car. (Vignalli 2001, 97-111) This will represent a few of the consumer profile McDonald’s will encounter.
McDonald’s can then custom tailor their communication needs for the various patterns.
The employed marketing strategy has to be flexible in order to keep up with and respond to the consumers change in habits, perception, and demand. It will also create a band for the business in order for the company, to enable it get into markets that would otherwise be hard to penetrate. The initial purpose of any marketing strategy is to identify of the consumer is satisfied with the businesses’ products and services.
McDonald’s, by continually listening to its customers and creating a brand relatable to everyone has created a niche for themselves. Branding creates personality for the organisation concurrently the created brand image will represent how consumers view the body. Consistency is essential to creating a reputable brand. Marketing methods such as promotions and advertising, giving McDonald’s its recognisable face. (Tybout, Bobby & Brian 1981, 73-79)
Marketing in face value involves identifying consumer needs and meeting these needs in a better and more professional way than the competitors. It is an activity of setting institutions and processes of creating communication channels, exchanging and delivering products or services of value to consumers, customers, and potential customers.
Marketing Strategy involves describing objectives and planning which aims at satisfying customer needs in a particular market. They are a set of policies implied by an organisation to increase developmental growth. These procedures will identify the needs and wants of the customer and provide a means of utilising the businesses resources towards fulfilling these needs. McDonald’s provided a unique service where people would get food on the go. (Vignalli 2001, 97-111) Coupled with excellent customer service and facilitated by their fast growth. McDonald’s organisational vision was to be the world’s best fast food service restaurant experience. This was by providing quality and outstanding services.
Franchise Model
The model employed by McDonald’s, they only own 15% while the rest 85% is the property by franchisees. The other franchisees undergo a rigours framework of monitoring and training by the mother franchise to ensure quality service, value and hygiene offered to the customers. Product consistency is paramount in creating such a model. Sophisticated distribution and supplier network development is paramount to ensure quality and timely materials are delivered as expected. (Tybout, Bobby & Brian 1981, 73-79)
Re-engineering of the McDonald’s menu.
Thinking in accordance to the consumer needs, lifestyle, value systems, social interactions and perception are also a very creative strategy in the marketing mix that McDonald’s uses to dominate the market. The franchise is globally known for its hamburgers made from pork and beef. When they penetrated the Indian Market, which consumption of beef and pork is not allowed, they had to develop an ingenious way to handle the problem at hand. (Tybout, Bobby & Brian 1981, 73-79) In order to satisfy this demand, they introduce fish, lamb and chicken hamburgers. It takes innovation to meet customer requirements in an otherwise hard market. Vegan hamburgers were also introduced, for example, The McVeggie.
Mcdonald’s targeting strategy
Segmentation plays a significant role in identifying the type of marketing strategy to use. McDonald’s main target customers are children youth and young adults. Taking this kind of demographic segmentation into consideration, children and youth will be more attracted to delicious meals, toys and places of entertainment. McDonald’s made places of eating a fun place to be. Attracting young families who wanted to bond and spend time with their families. Targeting the youth, McDonald’s added facilities such as free Wi-Fi attracting students. (Tybout, Bobby & Brian 1981, 73-79)
Product
McDonald’s new product development has kept its product depth and width limited. By keenly studying the needs of their Indian market vs. their international market, they were able to come up with a personalized menu by serving vegetables. McDonald is continually bringing innovation to the products and services they offer and changing tastes and preferences according to the customer needs.
The franchise provides value in relation to the needs expressed by the client. Providing hygienic, good ambiance and quality services are all in the provision of the product by McDonald’s. Therefore, McDonald’s places significant importance on developing menus that reflect what the customer want. Market research institutes what this is.
Place
Place as part of the marketing mix will consist of distribution channels and outlets. This is vital because the product, to the customer, must be in the right place, right time, and quality. It is not all just about the physical location of the many franchise outlets or distribution points for products and services offered. It includes the management of all the processes tasked in bringing products, services, and other goods to the consumer and ensuring they are done with the utmost professionalism. (Vignalli 2001, 97-111)
Price
Customers will draw mental pictures of how much the product is worth. Depending on the products presentation and the kind of service offered, they will judge the products face value. The danger of using low pricing will imply to the consumer that the product being offered is of sub-par quality. (Tybout, Bobby & Brian 1981, 73-79)It is important when conducting the pricing of the product or service being delivered, to be fully aware of the brand, product, and its integrity
Promotions
This aspect of the marketing mix covers all aspects of marketing communications. This includes advertising in mass media, point of sale display, telemarketing, etc. The skill in marketing communications is to cultivate a campaign that uses several of these methods in a way that will give positive results. The more the McDonald’s franchise knows about is customers; it will be in a position to deliver well-placed communication messages that will appeal to the consumers.
Once the marketing strategy is adopted, various responsibilities are given to different systems in the organisation so that the plan and strategy can be implemented. Systems are put in place to get market feedback that will be a measure of success against short-term targets.
