Strengthen its value proposition and offering, to encourage customers who visit coffee shops into McDonalds.
The new “formats”, McCafe, having Wi-Fi internet links should help in attracting segments. Also installing children’s play-parks and its focus on educating consumers about health, fitness.
International expansion into emerging markets of China and India. This will offer a lot of business due to the dense population.
Threats
Social changes - Government, consumer groups encouraging balanced meals, 5 a day fruit and vegetables.
Focus by consumers on nutrition and healthier lifestyles.
Competitive pressures on the high street as new entrants offering value and greater product ranges and healthier lifestyles products. E.g. subway, supermarkets, M&S.
Recession or down turn in economy may affect the retailer sales, as household budgets tighten reducing spend and number of visitors.
McDonalds PESTLE analysis
Political
The political issues are probably the most important to McDonald’s market environment. The leaders of a certain countries that McDonalds are looking to invest in might not be well managed and it may not be safe. McDonalds would need to research the taxation system and investigate whether they are encouraged to invest (will they receive grants for example).
Economic
The economy is also important because if the country McDonalds are looking to invest in has a low GDP then they might have to compromise on the pricing and offers. They will also have to research how much of the population is employed, this will tie in to having money but the more people un-employed the less they can boost up the pricing.
Social
The social research will cover almost everything from what music the country likes to what the dress code is. McDonalds need to focus on researching how much people go out and eat in their specific country, how much food they normally consume in a normal working day and how religions will affect their food is produced.
Technological
The technological research of a company is important as a lot of activities rely on technology. McDonalds needs to research whether they have appropriate internet and what the maximum speeds are to see if it is fast enough to complete their needs. They also need to check whether the country they are looking to invest in use mobile phones a lot and where the signal is good or bad. Having poor internet and mobile signal will destroy the communication of McDonalds and will result in poor customer service. They use technology in their ordering systems, distribution systems, tills, websites and e-business. An example of one of their ordering systems is the drive thru where the order is stored on a display screen for restaurant staff to see and process.
Legal
McDonalds must research the laws of the country they are going to invest in and see whether they benefit them or vice versa. Ignorance is no excuse and if they do not do sufficient research then they could be sewed or prosecuted.
Environmental
This is a growing factor for every business and needs a lot of research into how people respond to the environment in their specific country. McDonalds needs to find out if the communities care for nature and if they are really bothered about how their food is produced. Some people may be organic and not want additives in their food; some people may want to know where the food is sourced from.
Which of these factors has the biggest impact on marketing decisions and in what way?
There are many factors that have a big impact on McDonalds marketing decisions but there are three that I have selected:
Opportunities
Opportunities bring large decisions that change the McDonalds Company quickly; these opportunities could include things such as partnerships with other companies and networking with similar outlets. These decisions have a very large impact on McDonalds because if they ere to join a partnership other companies that they joined with would get a say in what they think should happen. Changes could be made that the original McDonalds Company wouldn’t agree with.
Technological
Technological factors also bring large decisions such as whether to get new servers for databases, invest in new means of communication, develop new systems for in-store processes and essentially stay ahead of competitors in the IT world. These decisions could work really well but if they were to fail then it would be a public embarrassment for McDonalds and could loose them a lot of money, this is why it is such a big marketing decision.
Environmental
Investigating the environment is also a big decision as you need to know what type of questions to ask for primary research as to not offend the public and gain their respect. Questionnaires must be designed carefully and they must include every religion or background into their questioning for a more relevant and shared service in store which will keep everyone happy. Say for example they did a research on jews and found out that most of them do not eat pork. They could then adapt this information and put it into action in stores to have a service that doesn’t handle pork or just take pork out of the burger. This is a big decision because if they offend any religion or if people do not think that they are being treated fairly then there will be a lot of public criticism and the McDonalds brand might take a knock.
Reference
Unit 3: Introduction to Marketing Assignment 1 P4