McDonald's Case Study Company overview McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast-food restaurants, primarily selling hamburgers, chicken, french fries, breakfasts and soft drinks. More recently, it also offers salads, fruit, snack wraps, and carrot sticks. The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The present corporation dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15, 1955, the ninth McDonald's restaurant overall. Kroc later purchased the McDonald brothers' equity in the company and led its worldwide expansion. With the successful expansion of McDonald's into many international markets, the company has become a symbol of globalization and the spread of the American way of life. Its prominence has also made it a frequent topic of public debates about obesity, corporate ethics and consumer responsibility. McDonald's restaurants are found in 120 countries and territories around the world and serve nearly 54 million customers each day. The company also operates other restaurant brands, such as Piles Café and Boston Market, and has a minority stake in Pret a Manger. In addition, McDonald's opens a new restaurant every three hours. Also, McDonald's has twice the market share of its closest U.S. competitor, Burger King, representing 7% of total U.S. eating-out sales. Similarly, McDonald's serves about 1% of the world's population on any given day through its 23,000 restaurants internationally. Big Mac, the world's most sold hamburger was developed by... ... middle of paper ... ... a sponsorship deal involving the pop star Justin Timberlake. He will appear in five advertisements throughout the English-speaking world, promoting the company's products. The company also will sponsor the singer's world tour, but refuse to say how much they are paying him although some experts suggest it's in the region of $6 million (£3.6 million). The marketing campaign will be entitled 'I'm Lovin' It' and the associated tour of 35 European cities is entitled the "McDonald's Presents Justin Timberlake 'Justified' World Tour 'lovin' it' live". References: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, accessed 08.10.07 2. Merriam-Webster: 'McJob' is here to stay". The Associated Press. November 11, 2003. 3. www.mcdonalds.com/facts, accessed 09.10.07 4. http://www.transnationale.org/companies/mcdonald_s.php, accessed 09.10.07
The broad issue facing McDonald’s U.K is the current attitude toward rising obesity, The Company seems to have tried many different approaches to deal with the problem, but the problem persists. List all the problems facing McDonald’s and critique its various approaches to solve the
McDonald's current customer environment is people on the go or people who don't want to spend a lot while going out and need something quick and good to eat. It is best stated in McDonald's mission statement that they want to be the world's best quick service restaurant experience. As stated before, McDonald's has restaurants in 121 countries and has extensive global experience in customer service and satisfaction. McDonald's is excellent at researching an international area before building restaurant there. For example, in India McDonald's realized that the majority of the population was Hindu and vegetarian, they therefore, did not even bother to put beef or any other red meat on the menu.
It has been noticed throughout the running of McDonald’s that they tend to market to the eyes of children with Ronald McDonald as their notorious “spokesclown” that is recognized by 96% of American children. Also, in 1998, McDonald’s signed a long-term deal with the Walt Disney Company to include Disney merchandise as giveaways in its Happy Meals.
A world without the Big Mac, Happy Meals, Chicken McNuggets, and the phrase “I’m lovin’ it,” is almost inconceivable. People around the globe have become accustomed to the high gleaming golden arches that make up the famous emblem for McDonald’s. McDonald’s has grasped the concept that culture flows from power. In this case, the American culture flows through the veins of this fast-food giant and the more that is supplied, the greater the demand. It is no secret that McDonald’s has become one of the world’s largest fast-food retailers. It has become a well known icon that has played a huge part in globalization, with chains located in many different countries… transforming the meaning of fast-food all around the world.
According to Royle (1999) McDonald’s is a very large multinational enterprise (MNE) and the largest food service operation in the world. Currently the company has 1.5 million workers with 23,500 stores in over 110 countries with the United Kingdom and Germany amongst the corporation’s six biggest markets, and over 12,000 restaurants in the United States. In 1974 the United Kingdom corporation was established and in 1971 the Germany corporation was established, currently the combined corporation has over 900 restaurants and close to 50,000 employees in each of these countries (Royle, 1999).
STRENGTHS: Jim Skinner had to clean up a big mess after the 2003 slump, and did so by coming up with a strategy to turn everything around. His strategy had to consist of staying competitive with the numerous other fast-food restaurants popping up all over the world. In order to maintain this, they had to reorganize the way they presented themselves to the community. Jim Skinner did so by cleaning up the customer service, cleaning up and modernizing the physical buildings, and changing the menu to the changing tastes of their customers. McDonald’s also introduced their slogan “I’m Loving It” to reach out to the younger customers. The advertising is very much targeted toward teens and young adults. (Dess, Case 40)
McDonald's Corporation is the largest fast-food operator in the World and was originally formed in 1955 after Ray Kroc pitched the idea of opening up several restaurants based on the original owned by Dick and Mac McDonald. McDonald's went public in 1965 and introduced its flagship product, the Big Mac, in 1968. Today, McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and have one of the world's most widely known brand names. McDonald's sales hit $57 billion company-wide and over $25 billion in the United States in 2006 (S&P).
Vignali, C. (2001). McDonald’s: “think global, act local”--the marketing mix. British Food Journal, 103(2), pp.97--111.
McDonald’s has the largest fast food market share in the world. As mentioned, it serves 68 million customers every day in 119 countries, allowing it to be the second largest outlet operator with more than 34,000 outlets.
He saw how much potential the restaurant has, so he bought it out and opened one of the first franchises. Within the first year of Ray Kroc buying it, there were one hundred and two locations all around the world. McDonalds currently is one of the largest fast food restaurants in the world and currently has served over sixty four million customers through one of their thirty two thousand sites. It has almost become a way of life for America. Though, McDonalds started off as a small business between two brothers, it grew into one of the largest restaurant franchises in the world and greatly affects our society and how we eat our food.
At the time, Ray Kroc was selling multi-mixer machines for milkshakes and McDonald’s had already purchased eight of his machines. Wondering why this restaurant was using eight of his machines, he decided to visit the restaurant and was really taken back by how efficient the restaurant was being operated. Being a businessman himself, Krock eagerly spoke with the McDonald brothers about expanding their operations towards Chicago and the east coast where Kroc was from. Reluctant at first, the brothers eventually agreed to let Kroc handle all operations of franchising and in return Ray Kroc would give the McDonald brothers half of the sales. Kroc had a bigger vision of expanding all over the states, and becoming the number one fast-food chain in America. He wanted to perfect the production side of the operation and offer the same consistency in the food that McDonald 's offers anywhere in the states. In 1955 Kroc opened McDonald’s System, Inc. Now Kroc was able to not only run his own restaurant but also find other franchisees and expand the business even
Headquartered in the United States Of America, the McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. It is serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across 35,000outlets. The company began in 1940 as a barbeque restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald. In 1948, they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand using production line principles. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased the chain from the McDonald brothers and oversaw its worldwide growth.
In today’s market, McDonalds faces numerous challenges such as fierce competition, a more health conscious customer, and the continual need for improved customer satisfaction and menu. McDonalds needs to go through some changes in order to remain ahead in the fast-food industry.
McDonald’s has proven over time that the business practices they utilize work well and have led them to obtaining the title of the largest food retailer in the world. The founder of the company made a tactical decision in franchising the idea of providing fast food at a cheap price. Today, fast food has become a staple of not only American life but a viable food option all over the world. For McDonald’s a critical factor in them reaching the level of growth they currently experience has been franchising. It can be assured that McDonald’s will continue to grow through the usage of the franchising techniques as new food markets continue to develop all over the world.
Overall, McDonalds are able to reach customers all around the globe and they market their products inexpensively. According to Naim (2001, p. 1) it is acknowledged that, “McDonald 's is a global brand, but we run our business in a fundamentally different way that ought to appeal to some critics of globalization. We are a decentralized entrepreneurial network of locally owned stores that is very flexible and adapts very well to local conditions. We offer an opportunity to entrepreneurs to run a local business with local people supplied by a local infrastructure. Each creates a lot of small businesses around