Excellent Marketing Initiatives By McDonald's

Introduction

The fast-food industry is on the rise in today’s business era. There are multiple outlets opening to serve customers delicious food that can be prepared in minutes. This industry is booming because customers today do not have the time to cook a fresh meal at home, nor do they have the means to employ someone to do this for them. Both partners are working today, children have their own commitments relating to school, work, or college, there are only nuclear families, and then cooking a meal seems difficult.

McDonald’s as a brand understood this problem and the desire of the customers to get something at low prices, with good taste, and quickly. These three are the agendas of McDonald’s to date. Hence, it has become critical for us to understand McDonald’s as a brand.

In this article, we will learn the basics about McDonald’s as a brand and its excellent marketing initiatives.

The Birth of McDonald's

McDonald's was founded in 1955 by Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc was a multi-mixer salesman. Ray franchised a hamburger restaurant from Macdonald's brothers, named it Macdonald's, and started selling simple foods such as hamburgers for just 15 cents.

The motto of McDonald's as a brand is to provide the customers with a place for fun and great food that they can enjoy with their friends, and rightly so, the 3 F’s of McDonald's are fun, friends, and food. The major competitors of McDonald's today are Subway, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Big Plates, and others.

Excellent Marketing Initiatives by McDonald's

Some excellent marketing initiatives by McDonald’s are mentioned here.

Ronald Macdonald is the Ambassador of McDonald's

Image − Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's restaurant chain.

McDonald's wanted to portray its image as a fun place to hang out, and the majority of its consumers were teenagers and kids; hence, the brand came up with Ronald Macdonald. He is there outside every outlet and in many of McDonald's posters depicting the team of joy and happiness with tasty food.

Social Cause Marketing Efforts by McDonald's

McDonald's opened up charitable houses to help children with leukemia. The initiative was known as Ronald Macdonald House. Seeing the success of the Ronald Macdonald House, many other charitable programs were started, like the Ronald Macdonald Family Room and Ronald Macdonald Care Mobile.

Plan to Win Marketing Initiative by McDonald's

In 2003, McDonald's implemented the Plan to Win marketing strategy. The marketing campaign was brought in as a response to the wild and untamed expansion the company was going through. McDonald's was opening more than 2000 new outlets every year and introduced new products, and it was known as a cheap fast-food outlet.

With a plan to win, McDonald's decided to reposition itself and improve its image. McDonald's started portraying itself as a clean, value-for-meal, hot, and tasty fast-food outlet and also focused on enhancing the customer experience.

Macdonald's Response to the Super-Size Me Documentary

Super-size Me was a documentary that linked McDonald's with the prevalent obesity problems in the country and nations. McDonald's very well understands that it is a fast food outlet, and the impact of the documentary would be huge if McDonald's did not take action against it. In response to the documentary, McDonald's discontinued its Super Size meal offer started using apple slices instead of French fries in its happy meal offering, and introduced premium salads to its menu.

"I am lovin' it" marketing campaign

McDonald's understood that it had to continuously revamp its outlet as well as its product offering to stay relevant in the market and to retain its customers. McDonald's started the I am loving its campaign, in which different consumers from different age groups have different tastes in the menu and enjoy it.

When McDonald's saw the rising boom of coffee as a way to target its customers, it started with the McCafé range. This range gives heavy competition to Starbucks, Drunken Donuts, Café Coffee Day, and others.

Along with this, Macdonald's started painting its outlet’s warm colors and introduced three different zones for the different categories of customers walking in Macdonald's.

One was the teenager zone, in which there were relaxed sofas so that they could sit and have a good time with friends; the second was the family zone with chairs and tables; and the third was the convenient zone for the people who wanted to have their food quickly and leave. The driveway system was also improved to keep the customers happy.

Marketing Initiatives While Crossing the Borders

McDonald's as a brand understood that while entering different nations, it could not use or offer the same products to its customers. The franchise might fail and, hence, change a lot of factors about McDonald's. McDonald's, when entering the Indian market, replaced all its beef core products with chicken and paneer since cows are considered sacred animals in India.

When McDonald's entered the Nigerian market, it saw that importing chicken from other countries was banned and that the staple food of the Nigerian citizens was fish. A lot of fish-related products were added to the menu to cater to the Nigerian palate.

Along with this, when McDonald's entered Japan, it noticed that more than just cold drinks, people preferred tea, and hence tea with different flavors was introduced on the menu along with rice.

McDonald's also made arrangements in their outlets to serve the customers and respect the ethnicity and religion of different countries. When McDonald's entered Saudi Arabia, it saw that men and women could not sit together and have a meal, so the McDonald's outlet was divided into two different parts to serve its customers right.

Tapping into Different Occasions

McDonald’s understood while working in developing countries that families are nuclear and every birthday of any family member is an occasion that the family would want to celebrate. Hence, McDonald’s in many countries came up with a system in which, after results, students could come to McDonald’s, show their report card, and get a happy meal from the counter. The happy meal contained apples as desserts because the parents were concerned about the sugar intake of their children. The initiative was widely marketed and clearly shows signs of momentary marketing by McDonald's.

Conclusion

McDonald’s has the highest brand value, close to 155 billion dollars, and its next competitor is Starbucks. McDonald's is present in more than 114 countries and has more than 36,000 outlets worldwide.

The majority of outlets of Macdonald’s outside the United States are franchised. McDonald’s as a brand faced huge competition, not from its international competitors but from domestic and local players. As soon as McDonald’s enters the market, the local domestic players start copying its products and then start selling them at a lower cost with more local options. Despite all of it, McDonald’s today is a brand with great value and esteem because of its rigorous efforts to keep customers happy.