Marketing Principles and Strategies

Discuss About The Journal Of The Marketing Academy Of Science.

Managing the marketing department is an important aspect of an organisation. Without proper marketing skills, organisations cannot continue to function in an efficient manner. According to Armstrong et al. (2015), marketing is essential so that a company can reach out to its target market and continue to develop business strategies that can help in gaining a competitive advantage. Marketing helps organisations to promote its products in the market and ensure that they gain proper exposure. The analysis of the internal and external factors can help in determining the longevity of a product or company in a business market. The report analyses the manner in which McDonald’s continue its production in the competitive business market. The theories related to the marketing principles are analysed along with the process and strategies needed for conducting an evaluation of the market. The marketing mix strategy of McDonald’s has been evaluated along with the models used for conducting an effective marketing mix. A SWOT analysis of the market has been analysed along the product life cycle of the business. At the same time, recommendations have been provided so that McDonald’s can improve its marketing opportunities and become the best fast food restaurant in the region.

McDonald’s is one of the best fast food companies established in 1940. Richard and Maurice McDonald’s founded the restaurant in California. In terms of revenue, McDonald’s is the world’s largest restaurant chain and serves more than 69 million customers all over the world on a daily basis. The franchise of McDonald’s has spread over 100 countries with a number of outlets being up to 36,900 (Mcdonalds.com 2018). The most famous product of McDonald’s is the hamburgers but in recent times, the company has managed to provide other products such as chicken items, cheeseburgers, soft drinks and desserts. This is mainly due to the response of the customers that stated that the restaurant provides monotonous and lack of choices in terms of products. Reports also claim that McDonald’s is the second largest private employer in the world behind Walmart. The number of people in the different stores of the restaurant is over 1.5 million (Mcdonalds.com 2018).

According to Hatch and Howland (2015), marketing strategy is required to develop any type of business. The lack of a proper marketing strategy can hamper the chances of a business to attract clients. The objectives of a marketing plan are to ensure that the products manufactured by a company fulfil the demands made by the customers. This can help in maintaining a long relationship with the clients. Hence, to ensure that an effective marketing strategy is made business need to maintain certain flexible techniques, which may be able to provide a response to the concerns of the customers (Huang and Sarigöllü 2014). Thus, a proper marketing strategy may help owners of business organisations to continue their business in an efficient manner. Hence, a reputed company like McDonald’s need to follow a systematic marketing process and strategy so that it can maintain its reputation in the organisations.

Marketing Strategies of McDonald’s

In the case of McDonald’s the restaurant had to undergo a huge struggle to reach the current stage of the market that it enjoys now. During its initial years, doubts were cast over the success of McDonald’s and the manners in which the business can grow develop. However, with the application of proper business models the restaurant has managed to continue its growth in the modern world. The introduction of the restaurant was in 1940 and the first major achievement in the marketing segment that the restaurant received was in 1970 after it had opened Happy Meal (Mcdonalds.com 2018). This led the restaurant to search new customers that can be attracted towards the products. According to Keegan and Green (2015), attracting and identifying customers is the first and foremost step that needs to be taken while developing a marketing strategy. Thus, McDonald’s developed a target market that can respond positively to the products sold by the restaurant.

 One of the target markets of McDonald’s were the young children. The introduction of the Happy Meal was a big step in developing the attraction of the children towards the restaurant. McDonald’s also incorporated toys for the children so that the sale of the products can be enhanced. The children were the main influencers for the development of strategies for the restaurant. The response of the children helped McDonald’s develop and improve the Happy Meal so that the concept attained longevity in the years to come. Currently, this marketing strategy is used to attract children by aligning it with famous movie franchises. For example, during the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the restaurant started providing free toys of actions figures and masks to attract the young people. As stated by Laszlo and Zhexembayeva (2017) one of the reasons for the success of the company is the fact that it provides emphasis on the satisfaction and retention of the customers.

Reports suggest that the investment of a proper marketing strategy of McDonald’s is mainly done in the advertising and franchising model. McDonald’s has been adopting the strategy since the 1960s during which the restaurant spent $2.3 million for its first national advertising campaign. According to Pavlou and Stewart (2015), such an investment was unheard of by any restaurant chain at the time. In the current period, the focus of marketing strategy is more on the advertisement of the products. It has been seen that McDonald’s believes in gaining the attraction of the people by using conventional advertisement methods. During its inception in the early days, an advertisement has played a key role in the promotion of McDonald’s and the products. As such, reports claim that McDonald’s spend about $2 billion in an advertisement of its product in order to attract its target market (Mcdonalds.com 2018).

The Franchising and Advertising Models

It has been seen that McDonald’s focuses on three objectives that can help it to gain customers by conducting good advertisement strategies. One such objective is to ensure that people feel good about the products that it manufactures. According to Wagner III and Hollenbeck (2014), the customers have linked McDonald’s to provide sub-standard quality of food. Issues have been identified that have made people lose faith in the quality of food of the restaurant. The issues consist of using un-fresh ingredients and monotonous nature of products. This led to the loss of the restaurant and to mitigate this threat, the advertisement campaign of McDonald’s is developed. The advertisement helps McDonald’s attain the remaining two objectives of remembering the items and making the customers aware of the items. At the same time, the franchising model of attracting customers is another important marketing strategy that the restaurant uses. This model provides an estimation of the number of restaurants that are owned by the restaurant (Caruana et al. 2015).

In order to understand the share it holds in the business, McDonald’s recently adopted the franchising business strategy. Reports claim that McDonald’s only owns 15% of the total number of restaurants. The remaining 85% has been owned by the franchises it conducts in different business markets (Mcdonalds.com 2018). The restaurant chain follows the framework in terms of training and monitoring of the employees that is conducted in the franchises it works in. This helps the restaurant achieve good quality service, cleanliness and value for the investments that it makes in the advertisements. The focus of this particular marketing model is to ensure that the restaurant chain does not receive a negative response due to the unhygienic environment. This particular strategy has helped McDonald’s to increase its customer base and establish a reputation in the market (Eisingerich et al. 2016). Hence, a marketing segmentation can be conducted.

Segmentation type	Segmentation criteria	Target segment of McDonald’s
Geographic	Region, density, age	The target customers of McDonald’s belong to both domestic and international market for its growth and profitability. The people residing in the urban and rural areas can enjoy the products as the positioning of McDonald’s is situated for the convenience of every people. Moreover, the restaurant also provides home delivery facilities for the convenience of the people. As stated by Han and Hyun (2015) the target customers of the restaurant range from 8 years of age to 45 years of age as it manufactures products enjoyable for all people.
Demographic	Gender, lifecycle stage, income, occupation	The demographic factors of McDonald’s target both the genders. This can open up opportunities for the restaurant to enhance their business and manufacture products that can be consumed by every member of a community. The life cycle stage is also targeted at different people enjoying different forms of life. As stated by Hill and Alexander (2017) since the restaurant targets people of both the rural and urban regions, the low and middle-income groups form the main demographic targets of the restaurant. Hence, the prices of McDonald’s are kept at a low range for the benefit of the customers. As such, people belonging to different occupations such as that of students or underpaid employees can also enjoy the products that are served by the restaurant.
Behavioural	Degree of loyalty, benefits, personality, the status of the users	The food served by McDonald’s used to be monotonous and thus, the loyalty of the customers was a doubtful factor for the restaurant. Hence, the restaurant targets the people that are loyal to the restaurant and does not switch readily from one branch to another. Kang, Alejandro and Groza (2015) stated that the biggest advantage of the restaurant is that it can provide time efficiency and cost benefit to the customers. The type of personality of the people that are targeted by McDonald’s are usually the easy going people that live life in a careless manner. Regular fast food consumers are the main target for the restaurant after segmenting them as pet their behaviour.
Psychographic	Social class, lifestyle	As observed in the demographic segmentation, McDonald’s target customers that belong to all classes in the society. This includes the lower class, middle class and the higher classes. It is for this reason that the restaurant maintains a low price for the product it sells to the customers. The lifestyle of the customers is analysed based on the regions to which they belong. For example, people having a high income belong to a different lifestyle and McDonald’s manufactures products based on such psychographic attribute of the people.

Table 1: Marketing segmentation

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The marketing mix is the analysis of the elements that exist in a business market and the manner in which organisations can use it to create effective marketing strategies. The strategies that are applied to each of the element of the marketing mix are indicative of the type of satisfaction customers receive while conducting a proper marketing scan (Kim, Vogt and Knutson 2015). In this regard, the marketing mix elements of McDonald’s can be evaluated.

Product: McDonald’s is one of the biggest leading fast food chains in the world and provides varieties of products. In the earlier days, the products of McDonald’s were restricted to only hamburgers that made it difficult to compete with other restaurant chains and similar franchise based restaurants. The products of the restaurant have improved and now a variety of products ranging from chicken to desserts is served by the restaurant. According to Pianroj (2018), it is seen that the products vary according to the location of the franchise. For example, McDonald’s in India serves burgers like the Aloo Tikka to appeal to the Indian customers that do not consume meat. At the same time, in the Middle East where eating pork is prohibited, the restaurant serves an alternative source of protein.  Apart from the products that are manufactured by the restaurant, Coca-Cola is the primary supplier of McDonald’s in the department of soft drinks (Mcdonalds.com 2018). This provides opportunities for the restaurant to maintain a collaborative strategy that appeals to the tastes and cultural strategies of the people in a region.

Segmentation Type and Criteria

Price: One of the strategies that McDonald’s undertake is the price bundling strategy. According to Blut et al. (2015), such a pricing strategy has been implemented by the restaurant since its inception in the 1940s. The introduction of Happy Meal gave rise to this type of strategy that continues to provide effective revenue for the restaurant. The strategy involves bundling products with meals and various other products to attract the customers. In order to ensure that the customers purchase more products, McDonald’s provides emphasis on psychological pricing strategies. This type of strategy is affordable for the customers and because of this person of all class can afford to purchase products of McDonald’s. Due to its competition in the market with KFC, Subway and Burger King, McDonald’s had reduced the prices of the products by 25%. McDonald’s also offer discounts on the bundling of the products as part of its pricing strategy. Bienstock, Mentzer and Kahn (2015) stated that pricing strategy provides opportunities for the lower and middle-class customers to purchase the products. The biggest reason for lowering of the price of the products is that the restaurant targets teenagers and young people that are mostly students.

Promotion: As stated earlier about $2 million is spent by McDonald’s in its advertising campaigns. The advertisements are provided in the form of billboards, newspapers, social media and signage. As stated by Johnson (2016) McDonald’s targets sporting events for the promotion of any new food that is introduced by the restaurant. Promotion of McDonald’s is seen during the FIFA world cup in 1994 or the Super Bowl Sundays so that customers can be made aware of the new products that are launched by the restaurant in the market. It has been seen that McDonald’s prefer to use an aggressive promotion strategy in its marketing mix. One of the strategic moves made by McDonald’s is the fact that it never uses any negative publicity against its competitors.  Apart from this, due to its vast revenue, McDonald’s can afford famous celebrities to act as the spokesperson for the restaurant chain (Kuratko, Hornsby and Covin 2014). Famous celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Venus Williams, Justin Timberlake and Kobe Bryant are some of the prominent names that provide McDonald’s with a proper promotional campaign.

Place: McDonald’s is located in over 110 countries and has over 36,000 stores. Therefore, the location of each of the stores needs to be placed in areas that are easily accessible by the people. According to Koh and Wong (2015), different forms of restaurants exist that provide an opportunity for the customers to get the taste of the store. For example, the existence of Mc Drive, Mc Cafe, Mc Express and McDonald’s Next provide various opportunities for the customers to gain the taste of the products served by the original store. It has been seen that McDonald’s stores provide drive-through service so that customers can enjoy the products both while sitting at the restaurant and while eating outside. The location of Mc Drive is placed near the highways so that people approaching the restaurant by cars can order food. These places do not provide opportunities to sit and eat. The place of the restaurant dictates the revenue it earns per year. For example, the introduction of Mc Cafe in Australia had raised the sales by 60%. At the same time, in order to remain updated with the technical competence, McDonald’s Next has offered digital ordering and free mobile charging in the places.

Target Segments of McDonald’s

People: According to Hill and Brierley (2017), possess a unique manner by which customer satisfaction is attained. McDonald’s focused on customer satisfaction and ensures that the services provided by the company are unique and genuine. Every McDonald’s outlet consists of a restaurant manager who undertakes the proceedings of the daily chores in the restaurant. The goal of the restaurant is to ensure that the customer satisfaction is maintained so that the revenue of the restaurant can increase. At the same time, McDonald’s also takes good care of the employees. Despite being the second highest private employer in the industry, the restaurant chain ensures that the employers working in the restaurant are motivated so that they can provide good service to the customers. The mood of employees reflects on the manner by which they behave with the customers (Kumar 2016). The employees are given appraisal every year so that monetary motivation can be provided. They are also given a high rating so that they remain encouraged to continue with their productivity and give good performance for the betterment of the restaurant. At the same time, the employees are involved in the decision-making activities as well.

Physical evidence: One of the most important strategies of McDonald’s is the fact that it leaves good impressions in the market with its physical evidence (Pye and Verba 2015). This creates a great impact on the customer’s mind and tempts them to visit the stores rather than order online at home.  Some of the attributes that McDonald’s have displayed as the physical evidence include the hygiene, quality and the speed at which they deliver their services. Most of the stores of McDonald’s attempts to create an atmosphere that family can visit the store and enjoy a good and surplus meal. The restaurant also remains concerned about the health and hygiene of the customers based on the food they consume and based on the behaviour they conduct within the restaurant. For example, the decision to ban smoking in the restaurant is a bold move that has helped in increasing the reputation of the restaurant. It also plays light background music so that customers feel welcomed and enjoy their meals in a homely atmosphere. Welch (2016) stated that the website of the company is also user-friendly and provide proper guidance to the people that visit it for the first time.

Process: Reports has it that the process by which McDonald’s manufactures the food has come under criticism most of the time. The quality of the ingredients and the food were brought into the limelight after rumours were spread about the use of harmful chemicals for the food (Mcdonalds.com 2018). However, with time McDonald’s have managed to improve the cooking methods and have started using sophisticated equipment for the cooking of the products. The packaging of food is also done in a new manner so that harmful substance is not present during its delivery. It has been reported that the restaurant has invested in improving the processes and have managed to update automation that is required for quality packaging. The distribution of the restaurant has been streamlined so that the value and culture of the restaurant are maintained. One of the greatest achievements of McDonald’s is the fact that it has excellent processes because the restaurant has less turnaround time and provides a fast home delivery service.

SWOT analysis

Strength ·         Well established ·         Reputed name ·         Standard quality of service ·         Socially responsible	Weakness ·         Sells junk food at a low price ·         Face quality issues as it is a franchise system ·         Many complaints ·         Expensive training of the employees
Opportunity ·         Provide organic food for people ·         Expansion of menu ·         Increase revenue by sponsorship ·         Use recycled material for sustainability	Threat ·         Sales depend on the economy ·         Huge competition from emerging markets ·         Health consciousness of the people ·         Competition from the local market

Table 2: SWOT analysis

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The SWOT analysis shows that McDonald’s faces various threats and weaknesses that may hinder the progress of the restaurant. The strength and opportunities provide a platform by which these threats can be mitigated. According to Orel and Kara (2014), the SWOT analysis provides an idea about the capabilities of a company and the strategies that need to be taken to ensure that these capabilities are fully utilised. The proper utilisation of the capabilities of an organisation can be utilised based on the assessment of the risks. After the analysis, it has been seen that the strength of McDonald’s lie in the fact that it is a well-established business.

The fact that it has been in operation for over 78 years have made it a household name and have contributed to the growth of the restaurant. Due to the experience of the company, the number of investors is at a high. Pérez and Rodriguez del Bosque (2015) is of the opinion that the investors are an important stakeholder of companies as their interest lies in the improvement of the companies. In the case of McDonald’s the restaurant can gain a competitive advantage after being assisted by the investors. The huge investment of McDonald’s helps in lowering the prices and still manages to gain profit. Other strengths of the restaurant are that it provides quality service and products. Although Shaw and Hamilton (2016) may present evidence of the poor quality of ingredients used for manufacturing, the fact that the restaurant serves high-quality food cannot be denied.

At the same time, due to its controversies, McDonald’s have managed to standardise its products and undertake certain quality measures (Mcdonalds.com 2018). The food products are made hygienic and high quality of products is served by maintaining the standards. At the same time, McDonald’s provide social responsibilities that can help the restaurant maintain good relations with the community people. McDonald’s take an active part in providing education to the people and making them aware of the social evils that may befall in the community. Thus, the strengths of the restaurant can help McDonald’s continue its competitive advantage in the market.

The analysis also shows the weakness of the restaurant that may hinder its progress and consequently may be the reason for its downfall. One of the biggest problems faced by the restaurant is the fact that it provides junk food. According to Watson et al. (2015), rumours have been spread against the restaurant that it serves junk food at a low cost. This provides problems for the restaurant as people like to spend on quality food instead of junk food. Although the price is low, the junk food of the restaurant is not well received by most people around the world. Apart from this, other weakness of the restaurant includes facing quality issues. The stores of McDonald’s are spread over 100 countries with more than 36,000 franchises. This makes it difficult for the managers to continue to provide good quality food on a consistent basis.

It is not always possible for the managers to analyse the quality of food in every restaurant and thus, the quality fluctuates from one location to another. This proves as a major weakness as people suffer from health issues across locations due to a variable in the quality. The fact that the restaurant targets kids make this particular weakness as a major concern for the restaurant. Zablah et al. (2016) are of the opinion that complaints regarding the use of inorganic materials hamper the reputation of the restaurant. In the countries situated in the Middle East, the restaurant faces criticism due to the application of inorganic materials for the manufacturing of products. This leads to the hamper of quality and significantly led to negative responses from the customers. Thus, the lack of quality of food and the use of inorganic materials provide the restaurant with a disadvantage in the market.

Zhang, van Doorn and Leeflang (2014) stated that the restaurant has a huge employee turnover rate and spend a lot of cost on training the employees. The training is required so that the efficiency of service is maintained. The excess financial requirement of the training programmes makes it difficult for the restaurant to spend finances on other important matters such as the introduction of different food items and maintaining the quality of the physical stores.

Despite the weakness, McDonald’s can convert the strengths into opportunities. As observed by Anton (2015) the uniqueness of the SWOT analysis is that it provides companies with an opportunity to expand in the business market. The opportunities present in the business market of McDonald’s can be attributed to the fact that despite its criticisms of producing inorganic food, the restaurant can utilise its strength to provide organic food to the customers. This is one of the opportunities that are received by the restaurant as the ingredients are sometimes manufactured by the restaurant. This normally proves as an advantage for the people that are health conscious as the organic food can help the restaurant gain the necessary advantage to expand in the market.

Reports suggest that one of the major expansions of McDonald’s have been the variety of products that it has developed (Mcdonalds.com 2018). Unlike in its initial days, McDonald’s have expanded the menu from just burgers and have included chicken, desserts and soft drinks. This can prove as an excellent opportunity for expansion of the restaurant as competition can be provided to other restaurants that provide similar food requirements. At the same time, McDonald’s is involved with various sponsorships. Dockalikova and Klozikova (2014) stated that sponsorship could help McDonald’s to continue its corporate social activities. It has been seen that one of the strengths of the restaurant is its responsibility towards the members of the society. The society can be improved by providing education and proper care services that initiates its developments.

McDonald’s can sponsor some of the events that the society undertakes for its improvement and increase its fan base. This is effective in collaborating with the society and understanding the requirements of the people. Dobbs (2014) is of the opinion that the sustainability of the environment is one of the major factors that need to be prioritised by most companies. In the case of McDonald’s the restaurant provides a takeaway option for the people and it can help if recyclable materials are used for this purpose. Thus, the restaurant can maintain a proper corporate social responsibility by adopting this particular method of sustainability of the environment.

The threats to the restaurant are that the sales are dependent on the economy of a country. According to Lamas Leite et al. (2017), the economies of the countries are unstable and it can be a huge threat to the restaurant, as the prices cannot be fixed. The restaurant needs to be specific about the prices of the products as based on it the target market can be acquired. With continuous fluctuations in the economy, this cannot be made possible as the income of the people to decrease. Therefore, in economics unstable countries, McDonald’s cannot attain success and the local restaurants may have a competitive edge over McDonald’s. This paves way for the emergence of competition. The threat can be received from the existing local restaurants as well as the reputed restaurants that provide similar food items at McDonald’s.

The threat can be mainly dependent on the type and quality of food, served by McDonald’s and the economic fluctuations that take place. Porter and Heppelmann (2014) opined that these are considered as threats to the restaurant as it may hamper its growth and a possibility of further expansion. The restaurants that provide organic food and the emerging business that meets the requirements of the customers in terms of quality can prevent McDonald’s from expanding further in a country or in other parts of the world. Another important threat that the restaurant needs to fend off is the health consciousness of the people. This is particularly an important threat in countries like Australia or the UK in which the people believe in the consumption of healthy food to stay fit.

The fact that rumours have spread about the junk food that is prepared by the restaurant, makes it difficult for it to continue its work in the business market (Rothaermel 2015). This again poses competition from the local market, as the local restaurants remain aware of the type of food that the people prefer. The cultural value of the locality is also upheld by the local markets in trying to outwit the competitiveness of McDonald’s.

According to Theaker (2017), product lifecycle is considered as an important concept in marketing. It helps in discussing the stages that a particular product goes through from its initial stage until its establishment in the market. However, it needs to be kept in mind that all the products do not reach the final stage of the product lifecycle as it fades away in the middle stages. In this regard, the product life cycle of McDonald’s can be analysed to understand the rate at which the restaurant has grown in the market and the current stage of its popularity. The four stages of the product lifecycle are analysed separately.

Introduction: At the introduction stage, McDonald’s have implemented frequent changes. The inception of the restaurant has been in the 1940s and since then with the growth of the population and the expansion of the business, McDonald’s have undergone several transformational changes. Zhao (2016) stated that these changes are attributed to the marketing mix elements, as based on the changes, the restaurant has managed to develop its existing brand image in the market. For example, the introduction of the Happy Meal is one change that has helped the restaurant attain a competitive edge over the rivals. The target of the children has helped in broadening the scope of the restaurant.

The decision to create a simple menu consisting of burgers, cheese fries and soft drinks have helped the restaurant to attract customers of all types as the food served is not as heavy as that in other restaurants. The price of the products has also changed significantly with the change in demography. For example, in the initial days, the price of a burger in McDonald’s was 15 cents, but during 1990, the price increased to 75 cents (Mcdonalds.com 2018). This signifies the change in focus of the restaurant as it shifted its focus to profit-making and becoming the best restaurant in the areas served.

Growth: The growth stage is the most important stage in the perspective of every company. Similarly, in the case of McDonald’s this stage is crucial as can help the restaurant to achieve organisational growth and expansion. As stated by Antonakis and Day (2017) the major changes that take place in an organisation usually occur at this stage. Innovation and other major changes in McDonald’s occur at this stage. The reputation of the restaurant along with its criticisms is mostly due to the changes and decisions that have been taken at this stage.

In this regard, some of the changes that McDonald’s have undertaken include the changing of the name in the initial years along with the introduction of the clown Ronald McDonald (Mcdonalds.com 2018). This particular strategy is helpful for attracting children, as the application of the clown is a wonderful strategy that is obtained by the restaurant. Apart from this the introduction of Egg McMuffin in 1972, was another strategic change that the restaurant had undertaken. This is mainly to serve quick breakfast to the people. After five years of the success of the strategy, the restaurant added a full breakfast menu to attract the customers. Apart from these promotional methods of the restaurant was changed with the introduction of slogans that attracted the customers.

For example, the slogan “You deserve a break” helped McDonald’s reach the customers of all 50 states in the United States. The introduction of toys with every happy meal helped in the further growth of the restaurant (Healy 2016). Promotion of the products such as Fry Kids Meal and Happy Meal helped McDonald’s to continuously innovate itself in the market and grow in the domestic and international market. Thus, these strategies have helped McDonald’s to attain the growth stage and implement changes that can help the restaurant to attain maturity in the market.

Maturity: During the maturity stage, most organisations look at opportunities to improve the products and make it more appealing to the customers (Meenaghan 2017). This signifies the level at which an organisation have evolved in the market. The changes made in the products can help the organisations to increase its market share and remain competitive in the business. In the case of McDonald’s the focus of the maturity stage mainly depends upon the ways by which the products have evolved. Reports suggest that McDonald’s have achieved significant maturity since its inception in 1940.

The number of items in the menu increased along with its varieties (Mcdonalds.com 2018). The evolution can be seen from the diversity of the menu that the restaurant provides to the customers. The introduction of chicken nuggets, ice cream and soft drinks has helped the restaurant be more competitive and gain increased revenue from the market. McDonald’s have managed to prove that the restaurant can satisfy the customers with the introduction of new products just like the success it had from that of old products. Another important maturity that has seen in the restaurant is the fact that the outlet of the restaurant has improved. During its initial days, McDonald’s only had a few stores that provided opportunities for sitting and dining. Other methods of ordering food or consuming food were not available. This evolved with time as the restaurant managed to introduce online ordering service and take-away for the customers (Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes 2015).

The establishment of McDrive has helped the restaurant to open up stores in the high ways that can assist people with cars to stop by the restaurant. This can be considered as innovative as well as the strategic approach of the restaurants in attracting customers from all over the place. Thus, the restaurant has matured mainly due to the growth that it had endorsed particularly in the past 25 years. The competitive attitude of the restaurant along with the strategic analysis of the market and the customers has helped in attaining the status for the restaurant.

Decline: Despite its success in most parts of the world, McDonald’s have seen a considerable decline in its popularity. Reports show that the factor that caused the decline of McDonald’s and its popularity in the market is due to the release of the documentary movie Super Size Me (Mcdonalds.com 2018). The director of the movie, Morgan Spurlock had directed the movie based on the food served by McDonald’s. However, the restaurant claimed that the scenes displayed in the movie are false and that the products served by McDonald’s attain the health of the customers. Apart from this, a couple of girls from New York tried to sue the restaurant because of their health condition. This led to the decline of the restaurant as the people became more conscious about the type of food that is served by McDonald’s. According to Narver and Slater (2014), this particular factor led to the threat from the competitors. However, after the release of the documentary McDonald’s tried to re-launch the products by adding more organic and healthy staffs in their menu such as milkshakes and grilled burgers.

Conclusion

After the analysis of the capabilities of the restaurant, it can be said that McDonald’s need to maintain certain changes, that can help it to remain afloat in the competitive business. One such recommendation that can be provided for the restaurant is based on the service differentiation. The restaurant needs to focus on the service differentiation so that the target marketing can perceive McDonald’s as a service restaurant. Superior services can be offered by the restaurant at each stage so that delivery of products can be done in a convenient manner. The availability of well-trained employees can help in achieving this target. It has been seen that the restaurant spends finances in training the employees. Thus, McDonald’s need to continue this investment so that the training and development of the employees are not compromised. Thus, it can be said that with the recommended changes McDonald’s can maintain their status in the business market and provide responses to the doubtful questions about the validity of the products.

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