MBA Project Proposal

Strategic Marketing at McDonald 's

2005

Strategic Marketing at McDonald 's

Abstract

In the success-oriented company marketing serves as one of the tools of company 's strategy realization . McDonald 's has to constantly change its marketing strategy because public opinion of fast food can be radically different during different decades , and thus different products on the menu are popular at different times . With the help of primary and secondary research tools , the seeks to investigate and evaluate the marketing strategies which McDonald 's has used in to target customers

seeking to consume only healthy ' products and those who do not mind consuming fat foods . The describes consumer perceptions of healthy ' and unhealthy ' foods , critically analyzes the development of McDonald 's marketing strategy in relation to changes in public opinion and provides recommendations for further adjustments of the company 's strategy

Introduction and relation to previous work

McDonald 's has remained the leader of the fast-food market for many years . The company currently operates 30 ,000 restaurants in 119 countries of the world and average annual sales of a McDonald 's restaurant have reached 1 .8 million . In 2004 , the company served additional 1 .6 million customers in comparison with 2003 . McDonald 's success might seem paradoxical to some extent , given the constantly changing attitude towards fast food

The opinion that fast food is not healthy has been expressed by many members of the society , particularly after many nutritionists published their findings about the disadvantages of fast food . Fast food commonly has a number of problems that were outlined in Fast Food Facts by registered dietician Marion J . Franz . A typical meal may contain half of the body 's daily caloric requirement as well as the entire daily sodium intake McDonald 's (Goldstein 2002 : 143 . Even though fast-food restaurants did introduce their own interpretation of healthy options ' in to attract customers looking for healthy ' choices they failed to meet healthy ' standards despite all of their efforts As research has shown , so-called healthy options in fast food restaurants contain more salt than many burgers , it is revealed today (Salads in Fast-Food Chains Contain More Salt Than the Burgers 2005 :13

University of Liverpool study has found that people in the US are mostly supporting healthy lifestyles and that the perception of overweight people in the society is negative . The researchers gave the picture of a guy standing next to a large woman to a number of respondents and the picture of the same guy standing next to a thin woman to others . The results proved that the guy was not generally considered attractive by the first group of respondents , while his rating was much higher among the respondents in the second group . The results of the investigations indicated that just standing next to a large woman can be bad for a guy 's image (The Americans are more accepting of heavier bodies Fewer people say overweight people are less attractive , survey finds Associated Press . 4 :05

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