Marketing in McDonalds

Marketing

What is Marketing?

Marketing is the activities of a company, which are associated with buying and selling a product or service. Marketing is a range of activities, which include advertising, selling and delivering products to people. The People who work in marketing departments of companies are called marketers these employees try to get the attention of target audiences by using slogans, packaging design, and celebrity endorsements. They also try to identify the wants and needs of customers. When they have this information they make as many possible changes that they can to make the product more successful and more important better then its competitors products. The four 'Ps' of marketing are product, place, price and promotion.

Why is Marketing Important?

Marketing is an ongoing process. This means that the market tends to change, and what customers want today is not necessarily what they want tomorrow. For example, sales of beef are declining in the UK because consumers have become health oriented, and want in return the sales of organic food is dramatically increasing. So if marketers from McDonalds used market research to acknowledge this information, then they could decrease the production of Beef Burgers and increase the non beef products, in return McDonalds will meet there customer needs and this will increasing sales. Always marketing helps makes customers aware of the products available to them. For example, there is no point McDonalds producing millions and millions of newly developed McFlurrys if its hidden away on the menu. They need posters and images of the delicious new product around the store and ideally advertised on TV, billboards and other forms of media.

Market research

The term market research encompasses a number of activities that are designed to connect marketers to consumers through information gathering and evaluation. Market research provides businesses with information about their customers, their competitors, and their overall industry. It is commonly used to identify marketing problems and opportunities, as well as to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of marketing strategies

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Market research

Market research is the form in which businesses and organizations conduct research into consumers in order to find out what their needs are, and what benefits could be meet in order to improve the current product or service. McDonalds have used this marketing tool by conducting market researches throughout their trading years. For example after a series of market research on McDonalds products, it was clearly established that 65% of customers prefer to eat sandwiches at lunchtime. This shows us that McDonalds have found a way to meet the needs of the customers; they can use this information to produce more sandwiches at lunchtime and emphasis on promotion of Deli sandwiches, which are the number one sandwich product, that McDonalds sell. In return McDonalds will see a huge increase in sales during these periods of the day and this will contribute towards McDonalds becoming more profitable, which is one of the aims McDonalds look to achieve. These are the benefits towards McDonalds using market research as a marketing tool, however to frequently perform these researches, can become costly over time. They will often cost up to £100 per hour to conduct and only so much information can be gained in such little time. However the benefits are clearly visible, and if McDonalds employ professional researcher they will find they can produce more innovating idea’s to boost their financial performances.

Marketers help design products, finding out what customers want and what can practically be made available given the current technology and price constraints. They must find efficient ways to get the products from the factory to the end-consumer, reducing the overall price of the product and making the product more competitive.

Marketers also promote products, and this is perhaps what we tend to think of first when we think of marketing. Promotion mainly involves advertising, however other tools to promote products include trade promotion, which can be found in the form of store sales, coupons, and endorsements, obtaining favorable and visible shelf-space, and obtaining favorable press coverage.

Marketer needs to price the product to maximize profit, which is one of McDonalds key aims, and communicate a desired image of the product. Both these outcomes have been clearly achieved as McDonalds are the leading fast food brand in the UK, and they couldn’t of progressed to that level with out increasing profitability and meeting customer needs so that consumers will always want McDonalds products.