Global and Cross cultural Marketing

Introduction

Marketing strategic planning is appropriate for the multinational corporations to develop appropriate strategic planning to establish the organisation in the market. The organisations in the recent era of globalisation try to expand their business through developing effective marketing mix strategic planning, so that, it would be possible for the firms to expand the business and penetrate the new international market for gaining high competitive advantage (Hollensen, 2019). The study focuses on analysing the marketing strategic planning of the organisation McDonald’s in order to identify the tactics of the firm to sustain in the market and secure future sustainable development. The study also aims at discussing the marketing environment and cross cultural activities through which the organisation can target the audiences in the market. The diversity and inclusion method of the firms as well as product design and pricing are effective under marketing planning, through which the organisation aims at penetrating in the new international market to enhance their performance worldwide. Through this study, the marketing plan of McDonald’s will be evaluated as well as lastly it provides a scope to recommend some suitable suggestions for the organisation to improve their marketing tactics for gaining high competitive advantage in the market.

Organisational background

McDonald’s is a famous food chain, headquartered is at USA, the organisation provides quality products including soft drinks, hamburgers, French fries, salads, milkshakes, chickens, wraps, desserts, coffee and breakfasts. The organisation is successful to diversify their product portfolio to attract the customers across the globe. The organisation is successful to expand their business worldwide where recently the organisations operate their restaurant chains across 37855 restaurants. The franchisee and the largest food supply chain of McDonald’s are the major success factors of the brand where the organisation is efficient to gain high competitive advantage in the market (McDonald's, 2020a).

McDonald’s is the second largest private employers with 1.7 million employees. In 2018, there were more than 210000 employees. The organisation is also efficient to generate revenue and in the previous year, the revenue was US$21.076 billion and US$9.070 billion operating income. The cash flows and the operating income further enhance the brand financial position in the global food and restaurant industry, where the customer base of the organisation is also strong. The organisation is successful to create values for the stakeholders where the brand values are such as inclusiveness, responsible leadership, local integration, progressiveness and respect and loyalty. The organisation focuses on marketing strategic planning and develops appropriate tactics to penetrate new market and target the audiences for better sales volume and generating long run profitability (McDonald's, 2020b).

Marketing environment analysis

As per the marketing environment, there are technological advancement and the social media advertisement which provide a scope to the organisations to promote their brand across the international markets. The organisations recently focuses on utilising latest technology and promote the products through social media such as Facebook, Instagram post, YouTube and also by the organisational website., the organisation McDonald’s also focuses on Facebook media and other social media advertisement for expanding their business. The organisation McDonald’s also creates the company website efficiently to attract more audiences and place orders as per their choice and preferences (Sood, 2017). Hereby, the marketing environment is flourishing with technological advancement and other rules and legislations. The authenticity of the data and information through marketing campaign are mandatory to be maintained and this is also considered as positive impacts on the organisation like McDonald’s to promote the products securely. The marketing environment becomes competitive, where majority of the multinational corporations invest a huge amount of capital for better marketing activities so that the customers can access the information and make effective purchase decision. The technological advancement, social development towards access of internet and online activities, economic growth and political stability influence the firm McDonald’s to promote their products by utilising the environment. Additionally, the environmental protection laws, maintaining animal welfare standard as well as legal protections such as authenticity of the information, data protection and copyrights are also influencing the company’s marketing activities in the recent era of globalisation (Thrassou, Vrontis and Bresciani, 2018).

These have crucial impacts on the organisations where the firms are able to expand their business efficiently by attracting more audiences and strengthening their customer’s base in near future. On the other hand, the firms focus on cross cultural marketing, where the organisations promote the firms without hurting anyone’s culture across the globe (Chernev, 2018). There are diverse customers where there are differences in language, race ethnicity, preferences and economic class. Hence, cross cultural marketing is mandatory for the organisations to be adopted properly in order to mitigate the issues in promoting their business (Alsem, 2019). The major cross cultural marketing issues are such as new marketing trends, changing demand of the customers, experiences to tackle the customer demand, changing preferences due to cross cultural customers, lack of communication and lack of understanding about the customer’s values. These are the major risk factors in the context of cross cultural marketing, where the organisation McDonald’s also needs to restructure their strategy for expanding the business by prompting efficiently across the international countries worldwide.

Market competitiveness

As per the competitive analysis, here is intense competition in the food and beverage industry where the restaurants are efficient to serve their customers with diversity products and services. the organisation McDonald’s also faces high competitive threats due to existing competitors which are Pizza Hut, Subway, KFC, Dominos Pizza, Burger King, Wendy’s and Chow King. These are the major competitors, who are also providing almost same products such as hamburgers, pizzas, soft drinks and snacks. The company McDonald’s needs to gain high competitive advantage by developing effective marketing promotional activities so that it would be possible for the organisation to strengthen their customer’s base on long run. The company McDonald’s faces high threat of having substitute products where the competitive brands are also efficient to serve the customers with huge variety of products and satisfy them with their taste and product quality (McDonald, and Wilson, 2016). In this regard, McDonald’s also faces the issue of high bargaining power of the customers and moderate bargaining power of the suppliers as there are other options available in the market from where the customers can purchase the best quality products as per their preferences. Hence, the market is highly competitive due to existing competitors and it is necessary for McDonald’s to develop strong marketing planning with product design, pricing, placing and promotional activities so that McDonald’s would be able to establish the brand innovatively and secure future sustainable development (McDonald's, 2020c).

Targeting and segmentation

Segmentation and targeting are effective planning in developing proper marketing strategy where the companies try to segment the consumers market as well as target the potential business where there is high chance to make effective purchase decision for the organisational products and services. In this regard, the organisation McDonald’s segments the market in terms of demographic factors including age, life style income, occupation, geographical region including rural and urban, behavioural such as loyalty, user status and personality and psychographic such as social lass and lifestyle. In this regard, the target audiences of McDonald’s can be evaluated in the basis of these segments. McDonald’s targets domestic and international region including rural and urban areas to enlarge the customer’s base and it further helps the company to develop cross cultural marketing planning in future. The age group 8 years to 45 years are targeted by McDonald’s as well as it targets both the genders, male and female. As per the life style, the organisation targets the bachelor stage, young people, as well as newly married couples and young generation where the purchase intension for the products of McDonald’s is high. Apart from that, low and middle class group are targeted where the organisation is successful to retain them for long run. The customers who are loyal and having high preferences towards the eating habit of hamburgers pizzas are targeted by McDonald’s. These are the major target customers, where the organisation is able to strengthen their customer’s base and expand the business successfully (McDonald's, 2020d).

Brand positioning

Positioning strategy refers to strong marketing mix strategic planning of the organisation, where the brands can establish their business in the market successfully. McDonald’s also focuses on products positioning by strong promotional activities as well as effective product design and service efficiency where it is successful to satisfy he customers across the international markets with high quality products at lower price (McDonald, and Rogers, 2017). This is possible as the company focuses on cost leadership strategy, which further helps the firm to set competitive price to attract more audiences and retain them for long run. The restaurant chain and franchisee is the major business model, through which the organisation establishes their business and ensure successful positioning of the brand in the market. The suppliers are dedicated to the highest level of quality and safety and there is the spirit of entrepreneurship and commitment to the communities which are also helpful for McDonald’s to provide positive brand image in the international market and it further provide an opportunity to the firm to ensure good positioning of the products.

Value proposition

Value proposition can be evaluated through customer’s perceived value, where the organisational activities can be analysed for identifying the ways the company creates values for their customers. McDonald’s is efficient to maximise customer’s values, as they focus on treating the customers as a major stakeholder of the business to be sustainable in future. The customers are the major focus where McDonald’s provides high quality products to each customer. This is the major factors that create values for the customers where the consumers can get the best quality products from the company. The service efficiency is another one, where the sales representatives are efficient to serve the customers in a better way. They try to help the customers to choose the best products as per their choice and preferences as well as budget constraint. Apart from that, McDonald’s also focuses on providing quick services to each customer so that they can enjoy the best quality products within effective time. Accessibility of the products in the market due to large and strong supply chain is also another success factors through which it is possible for McDonald’s to maximise customers values. Fast service and convince are hereby the major reasons of creating values for the consumers. Additionally, low price is another factor that maximise values where the customers can make effective purchase decision for their products where McDonald’s is successful to deliver quality products at competitive price which would be affordable by the consumers across the international markets. Apart from that, great taste of the food is also one of the crucial factors that maximise customer’s values in long run. Home delivery services and respect to each customers as well as empowerment of the customers in the business through customer feedback form are there which are also great initiatives of McDonald’s to create values for all the customers worldwide (McDonald's, 2020c).

Market entry strategies

The market entry strategic planning is appropriate for the multinational corporations to penetrate new market and gain high competitive advantage. In this regard, the organisation McDonald’s also focuses on market expansion in order to develop cross cultural marketing tactics to target the diverse customers for the benefits of the firm. In this regard, as per the Ansoff’s matrix, the organisation tries to penetrate new market and in this regard larger supply chain and the strong base of franchisee are the major strategic planning of the organisation to penetrate the new international markets across the globe (Abratt and Bendixen, 2018). The organisation focuses on strengthening the supply chain and distribution network for ensuring fast service delivery where the customers can access the organisational products successfully in the market. Hence, franchisee is one of the major internationalisation strategy of McDonald’s through which it aims at establishing the business in the international markets. For successful market entry, the organisation is also efficient to follow the government rules and maintain copyright to manage authenticity of the products. Strong franchisee and the supply chain are the major success factors for successful internationalisation of the business (Sahaf, 2019). Apart from market penetration through enlarging the supply chain and franchisee, the organisation also focuses on opening up new restaurants and this is also another successful strategy of expanding the business across the international markets and recently the organisation has more than 37855 restaurants worldwide. Hence, the market penetration strategy through opening up new restaurants in the international markets, strengthening the supply chain as well as the strategy of opening franchisee is successful for McDonald’s to expand the business and gain high market share in the global food and beverage industry (McDonald's, 2020f).

Product

Product is one of the major marketing tactics of the organisation and in this regard McDonald’s focuses on cross cultural marketing by diversifying the products. There are different products such as snacks, soft drinks, desserts, coffee and beverages, hamburgers and other chicken and French fries. The company provides both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items which further creates values for the diverse customers. The organisation also focuses on product quality to meet the customer’s expectations and in this regard quality and quantity of the products are successful to satisfy the consumers across the international markets (McDonald's, 2020e).

Price

Pricing is another major factor of marketing and in this regard, McDonald’s focuses on setting appropriate price that represents the quality and quantity of the products. Cost leadership strategy of McDonald’s is successful where it is efficient to manage the cost of the production and operations and thus the firm is able to set competitive price and attract different segment of customers in the market (Varadarajan, 2019). Apart from that, the organisation focuses on providing seasonal offers and give discounts on frequent purchase which are effective for the firm to attract more audiences and retain them for long run. There is the offers such as buy one get one which also attracts the audiences for the products and services of McDonald’s (McDonald's, 2020f).

Promotion

Promotional activities of McDonald’s is also attractive where the tagline of McDonald’s is suitable and influencing the customers to make effective purchase decision. The pictures of the available products at McDonald’s are promoted through social media marketing as well as the organisation also develops the organisational website from where the customers can access the information and avail the products successfully. The mobile application of McDonald’s is another great innovation of the company which is also effective to retain the long run buyers where the customers are willing to place their orders through the app easily. Word of mouth as well as email marketing are also the promotional activities that McDonald’s chooses for improving customer’s loyalty and retain them successfully. These are the major promotional activities which enhances the sales volume of McDonald’s in long run (McDonald's, 2020g).

Place

Placing the products depends on the supply chain and distribution network and in this regard, McDonald’s is efficient to manage the strong supply chain where the experienced suppliers and distributors are able to handle the product stock and deliver it to the customers. Additionally, the large supply chain and restaurant network of McDonald’s are also efficient to place their products in the international markets.

People

People management is great in v where it is the second largest private employer with 210000 employees across the globe. They provide performance related ay and structured salary to the staff as well as health and safety measures at the workplace and work life balance of the employees further improves the management of human resource (McDonald's, 2020h).

Process

Technological advancement and firm infrastructure of McDonald’s are strong to enhance the process innovation to serve the customers efficiently. The company is successful to provide fast services to the customers as well as through email and telephonic conversation, they are efficient to support the customers and provide them services according to the requirements of the consumers in the market (Josephson, Johnson and Mariadoss, 2016). The Information and Telecommunication Technology of the firm is also strong which improves internal and external communities for better performance of the brand as a whole.

Physical evidence

The decoration of the physical stores of McDonald’s is good, where the customers can spend quality time as well as enjoy with their friends and family. The environment of the restaurants is hereby suitable to create values for the customers. The facilities at the stores as well as the service efficiency are hereby effective for the brand to strategise their business and expand it successfully (McDonald's, 2020i).

Conclusion and recommendations

As per the market analysis, there is increasing activities of cross cultural marketing where the organisations try to restructure the marketing tactics for better expansion of the organisations. McDonald’s is also efficient to restructure their activities for successful expansion of the business across the globe in order to gain high competitive advantage and market share. The target market is appropriate where the company McDonald’s is successful to retain the buyers and strengthen their customer’s base in long run. Moreover, the market expansion strategy such as franchisee, supply chain management and operational efficiency are also beneficial for the brand to improve market presence in the international markets. The strategic planning of McDonald’s is hereby successful to achieve high market share and retains the old and new customers across the markets. In the recent era of mobilisation, there is intense competition in the market and it is important for the organisation McDonald’s to improve their marketing tactics more efficiently for gaining high market share in such competitive edge. McDonald’s in this regard needs to develop the products more efficiently by acknowledging the customers changing preferences and actual needs. The product diversification strategy must be incorporate apart from the cost leadership strategy.

The firm is successful to minimise their cost of production and operation which is good for market expansion and strengthening their customers by providing high quality products at affordable price, but McDonald’s needs to diversify the products for maintaining good product portfolio. The company should introduce new products and variety of items including snacks and desserts so that it can attract more diverse customers with different needs and preferences. The vegetarian food menu must be increased as in the recent years, there are many communities who prefer vegetarian food items and this strategy would be effective for McDonald’s to target the societies where there is high demand for vegetarian menu. On the other hand, the organisation McDonald’s can diversify the products with organic product range, where organic vegetables and ingredients are utilised to produce the products, this is one of the latest innovation through which the company would be able to gain high competitive advantage. McDonald’s would be a successful one to adopt this strategy and retain the buyers as there is increasing numbers of people who are concerned about health and wellbeing and recently the demand for the organic vegetables and ingredients is increasing at a rapid rate, hence the company can attract the audiences with the new range of organic products in the market. In addition to this, the organisation is also capable of replacing all the plastic packaging system towards paper packaging and it is also efficient strategy for future where McDonald’s can secure future sustainable development by acting responsibly towards the environmental protection and mitigating pollution.

Waste management is another tactic which must be incorporated in the organisation, and in this context, the organisation needs to open a free refrigerator on the road, and store the excess food items daily and this is effective for helping the needy people in the society who can access the food items at free of cost. This is also another major innovative strategy to invest in social development and serve the people who need food. The company is already doing charitable investment trough social development projects, but it is one of the effective initiatives through which the organisation can serve the people who are in need and also manage the waste of food items on a daily basis. In such a pandemic era due to COVID 19, the firm may invest in social heath campaign where arranging the health campaign and investing in disaster fund are helpful for the organisation to provide positive brand image and secure future sustainable development. additionally, McDonald’s must focus on placing the products to satisfy the customers in long and in this regard green supply chain management must be developed by the firm and for this, the company should focus on utilising electric cars for distributing the food items and this further helps the firm to reduce greenhouse gas emission and make positive contribution in the society. These are the major strategic recommendations through which McDonald’s would be able to raise their market share and strengthen their position in the international market by retaining more loyal and long run consumers across the globe.

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Reference List

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