Wireless Internet at McDonalds – marketing/demographic Essay Example

location; cryptographic variables such as lifestyle, activities, and interests; opinions; product use patterns; and product benefits (Thornton, 1989).Demographics, geographical studies, and cryptographic profiles are important in identifying proper promotional channels, locating outlets likely to use Wife services, and understanding consumer jobs, interests, and cultural distinctions. The product relationship helps in targeting consumer wants and expectations. Buying situations, such as the types of stores where McDonald's offers the service, inform expected service uptake based on customer awareness and intentions. Customer behavior and involvement with the service are also considered. By consolidating these observations, McDonald's can determine if market segmentation aligns with its targeting criteria and focus on segments that best fit its objectives. Table 1.1 presents a 5-tier criteria for determining target market viability, including size and growth. Urban/downtown markets in the top 50 national markets for Phase I of roll-out can justify pursuing the business. The trend toward increasing business use of hotshots in 2004 indicates a ready market for the service.Competition: The market becomes more appealing when there is limited competition, particularly from high-priced companies like Struck/T Mobile. This presents a promising opportunity for Mecca.

Cost: McDonald's needs a market that allows for effective marketing strategies and won't involve high implementation costs.

Compatibility: The market segment must align with Mecca's high-end services, such as Wi-Fi, which matches their positioning.

Consumer Analysis: The consumer analysis aims to analyze the current situation regarding the buying decision and the behavior of participants. For Mecca, the target markets can be divided into two categories: students and professionals.

Students: This segment consists of single men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 who attend educational institutions. They are sociable

individuals who prefer social environments like coffee shops for chatting, studying, and using wireless devices instead of quiet places like libraries. These students frequently use the internet for both personal and educational purposes.Behaviors: The purchasing behavior of students can be categorized into two groups: those who have restricted spending plans or financial aid restrictions, and those with limited disposable income. Both groups typically prefer to eat meals and have coffee and snacks outside of institutional areas, but they are price sensitive. Geographical considerations are also important. McDonald's should aim to locate its establishments within walking distance of educational institutions to attract students.

Professionals often need to access the Internet while on the go. The convenience of public WI-FI service locations combined with fast food and beverage offerings is an attractive option for many professionals who share certain traits. Demographically, potential professional segment customers include individuals aged 23 to 50 in mid- to upper-level corporate positions or mobile professions such as sales or real estate. In terms of their consumer profile, potential professional segment customers are individuals who value material goods, particularly trendy or "hot" new products, especially in the technology sector.

This segment is heavily influenced by corporate pressures and values behaviors that lead to greater income and status. They increasingly carry and use laptops or pads. Their purchasing behaviors involve a desire for quality coffee and snacks, or a preference for fast food menus over sit-down restaurants during the workday.The text discusses the factors that influence consumer purchase decisions for WI-FL services and the requirements for offering wireless internet service at McDonald's locations. The first paragraph emphasizes the importance of pricing the service appropriately

to attract both students and professionals, as well as the need for convenient and comfortable locations that promote social interaction and individual concentration. The second paragraph addresses the need to define the product, place, and price requirements for the hotshot service in order to avoid difficulties post-implementation. Six key requirements for the hotshot service are listed, including facility selection, supported services and applications, user requirements, security, funding requirements and deployment schedule, and service pricing.The Mecca store concept is an excellent choice for the wireless hotshot service, as proven by Struck's partnership with T-Mobile. This specific store subset targets consumers interested in wireless Internet options, helping to reduce overall costs for the test deployment. However, when selecting a location within these facilities, considerations of the building's layout, construction type, and Seibel locations for mounting access points are crucial. This is especially important as wireless Internet service relies on a limited range REF signal, which can be affected by floors, walls, and other wireless services in urban areas. Failing to strategically place the access points could result in low customer satisfaction and subpar service levels. To avoid this, McDonald's must meticulously conduct a site survey before deployment, including reviewing the facility layout and floor plan.The company should conduct a site survey of REF signals in addition to visually inspecting the locations for access points and identifying potential sources of interference. This thorough inspection is important to ensure that each store provides a quality signal for its Internet access customers. Defining the services and applications supported by the network is another key factor in the success of the hotshot service. This decision not only impacts the product itself

but also determines the price that McDonald's can charge. The number of supported applications affects how much users will pay for the service. Competitors like T-Mobile, CBS, and Boning do not place restrictions on the types of applications or services available on their networks. In order to compete, McDonald's must offer a network that allows users to use data, voice, and video services without any restrictions, similar to their standard wired connections at home or work. However, opening the network to all types of services also opens it up to other issues. One issue that competitive services struggle with is sharing bandwidth between users. While McDonald's service will also support any IP-enabled application or service like its competitors, one area where it can differentiate itself is in providing a higher quality of service.

Unlike typical networks that do not prioritize different applications or classes of service, McDonald's will implement a comprehensive quality of service package to manage fairness on their network. This ensures that all users have equal access to services with minimal impact on others (Has, 2004). The quality of service implementation will have five classes: 1. Voice (low latency), 2. Network management (for McDonald's network administrators), 3. General traffic (Web, VPN, etc.), 4. Best-effort (no delivery guarantee; Internet e-mail, unspecified traffic), and 5. Low priority (less than best effort services, including Anapest, Aziza, other peer-to-peer APS). The cost of implementing quality of service is negligible, as it saves bandwidth by reorganizing and proportioning traffic and provides an advantage over competitors in terms of service level.

Each network should be designed to support 10 to 20 simultaneous users, depending on the restaurant's size. A

standard 3 Mbps DSL connection, along with a low-cost wireless access point and hotspot, should provide sufficient bandwidth for normal usage patterns of up to 20 users (Has, 2004). Since not all users will have wireless-enabled devices, McDonald's can offer standalone PCs in each store.This service will not initially debut with the standard hotshot service, as purchasing and maintaining a public access PC incurs higher costs. However, it will be added later in a second phase of the project. Security is critical, especially for transmitting sensitive information like credit card numbers. Standard wireless hotshots offer encryption during user sign-up and when users sign in to their accounts for the wireless service. The end-user agreement of the service will inform users about the potential sensitivity of their stored and sent information over the wireless network, and customers will be responsible for personal firewalls or other security applications. The complete hotshot system with user access validation and 2-3 wireless access points at each store location will cost approximately $400. Additional access points may be needed for individual stores based on coverage requirements, adding $100 per access point. These costs should not pose a financial burden for McDonald's when opening new Mecca locations. A site survey for a new location typically takes about 1-2 hours.Actual installation of equipment will vary from store-to-store, but should require less than one day in all cases (Has, 2003). Assuming the use of a trained professional, McDonald's can expect to spend between $1,000 and $1,500 total for the site survey, equipment and Internet service installation (Has, 2003). The company should plan to deploy 2-3 stores per day during subsequent phases with more significant

numbers of stores than in the first phase trial.

Service Pricing and Name Cost ranks high among complaints about the hotshot service offered by competitor T-Mobile at Struck stores. While the service does generate foot traffic and added sales, the costs prevent significant uptake by customers (Longing, 2004). McDonald's, as it does in other market segments, should compete on price. A service subscription is time-based and good at any Mecca location regardless of where the user originally purchased the subscription.

Table 1.2 below compares the T-Mobile service pricing and the proposed McDonald's pricing (T-Mobile, 2004):

Table 1. Service T-Mobile as of August 2004 Mecca Proposed Price
Unlimited Monthly Access (Annual) $29.99 $16.67
Unlimited Monthly Access (Month-to-Month) $39.99 $19.95
1 Day $9.99 $4.95
1 Hour $6.00 NONE

Naming the service is critically important as well.Fancy brand names have the potential to confuse consumers, while product names containing "Mac" may not appeal to business customers seeking a professional, high-value wireless Internet access option. In order to avoid such issues, the company will promote the new service as Mecca High Speed Internet Access. This name effectively combines the Mecca brand name with the service itself, making it easily recognizable and instantly associated with a desirable service for customers in the store or walking by. By positioning Mecca as a more affordable alternative to Struck, the primary advantage of the wireless service will be its competitive pricing. With low costs per site and a high-quality implementation of service, this proposed offering should yield a satisfactory return on investment and differentiate itself significantly from the main competitor in the market.

In conclusion, Phase II of the marketing plan

has successfully completed the market segmentation process, identified key market segments, and outlined the wireless service and its delivery within Mecca stores. This analysis enables McDonald's to create a marketing mix that targets the appropriate services to the right consumers, sells them at attractive prices, and distributes them in the most suitable locations.The variables are crucial for a successful marketing plan, where the combination of the four Up's must align with consumers' wants and desires in the target market.