Summary of the Problem McDonald’s Great Britain experienced a lot of hardships and changes. McDonald’s US sales have steadily increased but Great Britain has not shown any significant increase. The reason for the sluggish sales is because of new chains such as Yo! sushi and Nando’s Chicken Restaurants which tickled the Great Britain’s taste. An issue in the fast food industry is the mad cow scare. There are some comments about McDonald’s Great Britain like a guy just go to McDonald’s for a last resort, the texture, the taste and the feel of the burger was different than before.
Also, people are becoming more health conscious. There was also a lawsuit with McDonald’s and two green peace activists. For teenagers, McDonald’s appeal to their taste that’s why McDonald’s UK profits 118 Million (in Euro). Lastly, the company monitors news articl
...es and television references. In Great Britain, they have been rated either as “negative” or “neutral”. They have taken these comments and developed steps to reverse the trend.
They developed new menus composed of salads, grilled chicken and fruits. Their burgers and original menus were improved to suit their audiences’ taste. They also developed new recipes. They informed people about their foods’ dietary information. They also got Destiny’s Child to advertise for the new salad line and they brewed coffee in response to the rising coffee house trend. CEO of McDonald’s UK has a vision for them.
They have to give more value to the customer in order to upgrade the McDonald’s experience. They should get back to the basics of service and cleanliness.They will re-invent their food with various changes in their ingredients to suit the taste of
the customers. The CEO wants McDonald’s to become breakfast restaurant because they have opportunities there.
Lastly, communication to staff, suppliers and owner-operators should be open to keep the wheel going.
Viewpoint
We take the viewpoint of CEO-McDonald’s UK.
Problem Statement
What can McDonald’s do to re-construct their relation with the public, gain their trust and at the same time satisfy their taste without sacrificing the McDonald’s character?
Statement of Objectives
- Get back to basics to a more service oriented and customer valued fast food chain through training and development to our employees in 6-months time.
- Keep each restaurant in tip-top shape by maintaining and cleaning every month through orienting and training our employees in 3-months time.
- Make a corporate strategy so we can have a clear view on where we want to go in 1-year time.
- Make a new public relations campaign in 1-year time.
- Research about our consumers’ preferences and make the data gathered into a reality in 1 to 2 years time.
Alternative courses of Action ACA1
Develop a whole new corporate strategy that will tackle their positioning, their food, employee recruitment, training and development, R&D and marketing. The food and their research must come hand in hand because of the changing trend of their consumers. Employees will have to undergo training because of the McDonald’s image towards a customer service and a value oriented dining experience.
The marketing part, they have to build a concrete strategy in where they want to position, who they want to target and how they will promote it.They can also evaluate their current strategies and from there, they can develop new strategies.
ACA2: Expand their umbrella of products to a more health driven menu and at the
same time their house originals are adjusted to the taste of the consumers with the reduced fat. The salads selection with a McDonald’s twist and fruit shakes with lots of health benefits. Their original burgers will have a healthy counterpart.
For example, the double cheeseburger will have a 100% pure beef but the consumers have a choice of a double veggie cheeseburger where the patty is made up of vegetables.
ACA3: Retain everything that they have with minor alterations. VII. Analysis ACA1: Develop new corporate, business-oriented and functional strategies or evaluate their current strategies Advantage:
- It will help them define who they are in the market and what they really want to do
- It will guide them to a more integrated and a more customer friendly fast food chain
- These strategies can be applied not only in McDonald’s Great Britain but also in other McDonald’s. Long term goals will be achieved and cost might be reduced with above average returns
- Overall “value for your money” experience and feel when they eat at McDonald’s.
- Evaluating current strategies will help them see where they are and what they are doing; from there they can already pull out some operations that will help them cut cost.
- Marketing campaigns/ strategies can be implemented with a clear view and hassle free process.
Disadvantage:
- Time-consuming
Changes in the workplace ACA2: Expanding menu umbrella
Advantage:
- More food offered to the consumers
- Can cater to all of their customers’ taste (healthy and non-healthy consumers)
Wide variety Disadvantage:
- Too many options can lead to confusion
- The company will incur more cost because of the variation of ingredients
- Exhaustion of employees leading to not uniform products
- McDonald’s image will be mixed
up and people will be confused on what really McDonald’s is ACA3: Retain with minor alterations
Advantage:
Image of McDonald’s will not be ruined Home originals will still be the same Disadvantage:
- McDonald’s will be stagnant and out of date
- Though little alterations is made, it will not still cover what their consumers want
- Consumers will think of them as not being creative and not being innovative
- They will incur more cost than profit
Recommendation and Conclusion
We recommend ACA1: Develop new corporate, business-oriented and functional strategies or evaluate their current strategies because with strategies, they can answer the problem.
Evaluating old/ current strategies is also a help because from there, they can pick up whatever findings they find and apply it to a new strategy or improve the old one. It will help them to see what they need to do and what they should do in order for them to be in on top of the industry and gaining above average returns. With this evaluating move, they can see if their strategy is a core competence or not. Evaluating and developing strategies can help them minimize cost, cater to their customer and at the same time, giving them profit.
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