Compare the effectiveness of the use of the marketing mix by both McDonalds and Prt A Manger

by sc_shivatsal (student)

Unit 3: Introduction to Marketing M1

Compare the effectiveness of the use of the marketing mix by both McDonalds and Prêt A Manger, including:

How they meet the expectations of the target customer

The expectations of McDonald’s customers are to receive a fast, efficient service for an ‘on the go’ lifestyle. They want a clear menu with many meal deals already to go for a quicker exchange at the till. They expect the food to be cheap in price and also filling to satisfy their hunger. Prêt’s customer’s expectations are quite different as they expect to receive a welcoming environment where each customer is valued; this means that Prêt wants to keep them coming back unlike McDonalds which is a ‘grab and go’ restaurant. The staff are trained to a high standard and enjoy their job so that the happy energy is transferred to customers when they come in. The customers of Prêt also expect fresh food made from scratch every day with no preservatives or additives added which is one of Prêt’s main policies. Going back to the expectation of Pret being a welcoming place, the design of all the stores comes into play and they try and make it as casual and relaxing as possible with sofas, lighting and appropriate posters.

How the elements of the marketing mix are integrated and how they relate to each other.

McDonalds uses the marketing mix in their operations a lot. They start with designing a Product, for example the Big Mac. For this product to sell well they need to look at the Place they are going to be selling in, if it is a high end area then not many people will be buying burgers as it is seen to be for the lower class. Also if it was to be sold in a different country McDonalds would have to make sure that the people there are allowed to eat that kind of meat (beef). Leading on from the Place McDonalds will then have to look at the Physical Evidence of what they offer. This is the surroundings, the furniture, the packaging or anything you can physically touch. This decision of what Physical Evidence to have will go hand in hand with the Place that they chose and will be dependent on what types of people live there. If they are upper class they will be expecting spacious layouts with elegant wallpaper and posters or if it was a rundown area then they wouldn’t care as much as to what the walls looked like. After analysing the Physical Evidence McDonalds then look at the people who they have chosen as their customers, they find out information about them by doing primary research or sometimes secondary research off of government data. This helps them structure the next few P’s and the first of them is Price. The data collected by McDonalds is then used to calculate the price of the products in store, if the research shows that the people enjoy fast food and like to eat on the go then they could maybe up their prices a little but if the research shows that local people don’t actually enjoy fast food then they could decrease the price to encourage purchase. Another way McDonalds encourage their customers to purchase their products is to use Promotion; this is linked with price, product and place. This is linked because if McDonalds was located near a high student populated area they would have to adapt that to their choice of promotions, so maybe a student discount or what they do in Welwyn is a free mcflurry with every meal (providing you show student ID). Promoting their products is when they offer a ‘buy one get one free’ or a ‘hamburgers half price’ on the condition you buy a product in store, this way McDonalds can sell more and still make a small profit off of the extra promoted products sold. The final P from the marketing mix used in McDonalds is Process, this is important especially for McDonalds as they are renown for their fast order system. The process is how quickly the food ordered gets to the customer. Having a slow process can set customers off of coming back to the store again as the wait was maybe too long, McDonalds uses the process with thought of the previous P physical evidence. They make sure there is enough room for an orderly queue behind each till in order for customers to see where to go for service. The products are cooked previously before the orders were placed, again thinking back to physical evidence of fast grills to speed up the process. (McDonalds cook burgers and have chips ready before any orders are in as they are always so busy and want to offer a fast service instead of waiting around for a meal to finish cooking). The process is linked to product because, say for example we were McDonalds; we would need to have a fast process due to the product provided which is fast food. It wouldn’t make sense if the process was really slow but all they got at the end was a cold burger and chips with a Pepsi that had all its ice melted.

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Prêt A Manger is also a food retail store and uses the marketing mix as well. They produce a Product such as their Prêt Sausage Roll. Once it is made and all staff know how to make them up to a high standard then it is ready to be sold in store. The Place that they sell the product in is of high importance as Prêt can’t sell their Sausage Roll to people who can’t it for religious reasons, if they chose somewhere of strict religious rules like not being able to eat sausage then it would be a fatal choice to sell their product there. Prêt need to look for the correct place where they can get enough of the correct style of customers, these would be people who want fresh products and are willing to pay more for a higher standard of food. Once Prêt has determined a sustainable place to locate their store to sell their product they need to take into consideration the Physical Evidence of the in store decorations and layout. Assuming that they have gone for a middle class area to sell their Sausage Roll they will have to make sure the store represents a middle class standard when you walk in. This could be anything from the standard of the menu layout to the type of furniture used. The Physical Evidence is influenced by the Place and has to be on the same lines. Once the physical evidence of the store is decided Prêt need to analyse the People they are targeting as their customers to ensure they achieve what is expected of them. To do this they will often send out researchers to ask the people in the area certain personal questions. With this information to hand Prêt can now start pricing up their products, with a middle class segment of the market Prêt can afford to price the products at a slightly more expensive figure in order to cover their middle class branding. They can also apply Promotions to their products in order to sell more of the maybe ‘unpopular’ products. Then the final part of the marketing mix is the Process, this has to be efficient as to not upset the people who are buying the products from the store.

Taking a look at both of McDonalds and Prêt A Manger’s use of the marketing mix, they both use the 7P’s co-ordinately with each other. This means that when they pick a price for their product they take into account the place and physical evidence to offer a fair deal on what they are paying for. If you take the marketing mix apart and look separately at the 7P’s between both companies you will see this:

Price: Their prices are very different, McDonalds is cheaper and Prêt A Manger is exceedingly more expensive. This is reflected in their service.

Promotion: McDonalds seem to offer more promotions such as student discounts, 30p upgrades and numerous vouchers. Prêt do still offer promotions, like free delivery locally, but not as much as McDonalds. The promotion of products for both companies costs an enormous amount and they have to make sure that they cover this in their price, making the price of the food higher or, in McDonald’s case, selling loads of cheap priced food. Either way they have to gain back the money that they spent on promotion.

Product: The product ranges themselves are quite different as Prêt A Manger is more into sandwiches than burgers but McDonalds seem to be expanding into wraps and maybe, in the future, they will offer sandwiches. The qualities of the products are the main difference between the two organisations. McDonald’s products are fast food made with no real attention whilst Prêts menu is fresh, wholesome and honest. The products for both company’s links into people and what they expect from the organisation for the price they paid. They want to be satisfied and have their expectations met, for Prêt A Manger this would be fresh food made from scratch every day and with McDonalds it would be fast food for people on the go.

Place: McDonald outlets are mainly based on motorways to catch people looking for fast food meanwhile Prêt A Manger is mainly based in London to aim at the upper market and the populated areas.

Physical Evidence: Prêt A Manger’s standards of service and restaurants are much cleaner, calmer and more chilled than McDonald’s fast, chaotic, long ques. They seem to be more formal in their designs unlike McDonald who have gone for modern and in some cases retro. This reflects the different markets they are targeting. Physical Evidence ties into the place, where it is set and what kind of interior have they chosen for this place. It must match the chosen area otherwise you could stand out like a saw thumb, say for example McDonalds set up a store on Bond Street. They wouldn’t fit in that type of market and the physical evidence inside that store wouldn’t be up to standards.

People: Both organisations employ many people and train them to a high standard however McDonalds has its own university which is good for people to understand its workplace. This could be something Prêt A Manger could maybe look into if they have the funding. The people who consume the food from both companies must be happy with the process that they take to get the food and how staff greets them. A good, efficient experience will mean they will come back and eat again.

Process: McDonalds process is fast, easy and somewhat expects you to know what you’re ordering already. Prêt on the other hand is relaxed and provides you with a menu to choose from and to order when you are ready.

After looking at all the seven Ps of McDonalds and Prêt separately you can see that they are very different organisations and serve different markets but still apply a good method of the marketing mix.

How the integrated marketing mix is used to support branding

When trying to create a brand the marketing mix comes into play a lot. It helps breakdown and segment different aspects of peoples lives and link them together to form a better understanding on who the business’ customers are and what they are like. Once they have established what they are like through primary and secondary research they can acknowledge what they expect the business to provide and what standard of service to offer. Satisfying customer needs will increase the branding plan and will reflect positively across the whole business. Without the marketing mix to determine who they are dealing with then business would find it much harder to learn from their customers and therefore find it harder to offer exactly what they want.