Business Marketing

This chapter explained business marketing. Business marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption. For example a company selling a studio Dre Beats for the studio's use so they can use it to record. The Dre Beats are now considered business products. Business products are those that are used to manufacture other products, become part of another product, or aid the normal operations of an organization. A consumer product is one that is purchased for personal or family consumption or as a gift. For example, someone buys you Dre Beats for your own recreational use. The Dre Beats now switch from being a business product to a consumer product.

McDonald's isn't really a business marketing type of company since they don't have any products that falls under the category of a business product. However do have many products that they use as business products. For example, they have cash registers, soda machines, refrigerators, and etc. The only way I see McDonald's can have a business market is unless they open a McDonald's based cafeteria in other companies place of domain. Which I don't think will ever happen.

Segmenting and Targeting Markets

This chapter focused a lot on market segmenting. A market segment is a subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product needs. We get these market segments from the process of dividing a market into meaningful relatively similar and identifiable segments or group. This is known as market segmentation. This is important because it helps marketers define customer need sand wants more precisely. According to this chapter market segmentation plays a key role in the marketing strategy for almost all major organizations. I believe this because to sell well you have to communicate with your customers and you can't do that if you don't them. That's why market segmentation is so essential; it helps you to know your customers better.

There are five types of segments to categorize people in known as the segmentation bases. The first is geographic segmentation which is segmenting by region of the world, market size, market density or climate. The next is benefit segmentation. This is the process of grouping customers into market segments according to the benefits they seek from products. The third is Usage-Rate segmentation which is dividing a market by the amount of product bought or consumed. To bring McDonald's back into relevance I will explain the next two with my company because those are the two types it uses.


                                    Psychographic segmentation

Psychograpchic segmentation is based on personality, motives, lifestyles, and geodemographics. McDonald's shows that they really care and know their customers because, they even went as far to this in another country. McDonald's has adopted itself according to the convenience and lifestyle of the Indian consumers, as India has a huge vegetarian population so McDonald's came up with a different and new product line which includes items like Mc Veggie burger and Mc Aloo tikki Burger. They also made McDonald's as a place to relax and even for entertainment. 

                                     Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation is segmenting markets by age, gender, income, ethnic background, and family life cycle. "McDonald's offers different products like Happy Meal which includes a free toy for kids. For families it has made different outlets and meals which are suitable for takeaways and drive-thru. McDonald's has made its environment which is suitable for students of school to hang out with their friends and can get their lunch at McDonald's."

Developing and Managing Products

No one wants to to have the same thing constantly over and over again. So a company cannot last that long without innovation. Over the years from when they were first established back in 1940 McDonald's has come a long way. McDonald’s  menu is more than just (delicious) burgers and (outstanding) fries. From Snack Wraps to McCafé to Premium Salads, they proudly offer variety, quality and fun-filled value in all of our restaurants. This is definitely a step up from when they used to just sell burgers and fries. Their innovation goes beyond just products. They just recently started changing the look of most McDonald's within the United States and I have to say the new look is absolutely appealing. 

But with products, they just recently started using new more sophisticated soda machines. 
These machines allows the company to put many different drinks in one machine and they all come out of one place. It saves a lot of money and satisfies the customers greatly.

Also McDonald's just recently released a new burger. It is called the Cheddar bacon onion burger. Now while I haven't tried it yet I heard that it has been selling well and McDonald's profits have increased. Definitely sounds like something that I have to try very soon. 

Since I've started this blog I must have said this more than a million times but McDonald's is number in it's industry and there are many reasons to why that is. But I know one reason for sure is that it continues to change every year. It bombards customers with new products all the time that we can't help but try. McDonald's is truly and innovative company.

Intergrated Marketing Communications

Promotion is a an attempt of marketers trying to inform persuade and remind potential buyers of their product to influence an opinion or elicit a response. No company can really survive in the market without promotion. That is why they all work on promotional strategies. A promotional strategy is finding optimal uses for the elements of promotion which are: advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. Also these are known as the promotional mix.  

Advertising is impersonal, one-way mass communication about a product or organization that is paid for by a marketer. McDonald's advertising is one of the best in it's industry. I don't really have to prove this because it speaks for itself. There are not much places in the America you can go without seeing A McDonald's. They have many billboards all over the country and their commercials are expected for daily television. 

Public Relations is the marketing function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies areas within the organization the public may be interested in, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. Recently this year, McDonald's paid to get it's name on the trending list for twitter. Which lead to people watching their commercials about farmers who supply them. That made McDonald's image increasingly better. 
 
Sales promotion is marketing communication activities other than advertising, personal selling and public relations that motivates consumers to go buy a product. McDonald's uses this several ways. One way is through coupons which are certificates that allows you to buy a product for a cheaper price. Another way is through sweepstakes and and contests. One more is through premiums. A premium is getting another item offered after proof of buying the original item that was being promoted or sometimes it's the same product you get free.

Promotional strategy is close to the process of communication. Communication is the process by which meanings are exchanged or shared through a common set of symbols. A company cannot survive as well without selling it's message through communication to potential buyers. Which now takes us to Integrated Marketing Communications. This is the careful coordination of all promotional messages for a product or service to assure the consistency of messages at every contact point where a company meets the customer. This is a concept many companies have adopted to try to keep it's message the same.

Product Concept

                                             


                                            Product

Everything favorable and unfavorable, that a person receives in an exchange.

  McDonald's sells many different products to it's customers and ingredients that come in that product whether they want it or not.


                                  Types of Consumer Products

There are four different types of consumer products convenience products, shopping products, specialty products, and unsought products.

convenience products- its inexpensive and has little shopping efforts.

shopping products- more expensive and in few stores.

specialty products- a buyer spends a lot of time looking for a certain item and wont except any thing other product to replace it.

unsought products- a product that no ones much about or a product buyers don't look for as much.

The consumer product McDonald's sells is a convenience product because the products they sell are not expensive and are very easy to get because there is a McDonald's on almost every corner.

                                        Product Mix

All the products that an organization sells.

When McDonald's first started it sold only about 6 items. Its main focus was on burgers. As they grew and expanded nationally and globally in the 1960s they had to expand their menu. Now they have about  90 different items on their menu.

Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales promotion is marketing communication activities other than advertising, personal selling and public relations that motivates consumers to go buy a product. For example, coupons are considered as a sales promotion. Coupons are certificates that allows you to buy a product for a cheaper price. I don't know about anyone else but coupons definitely work on me. Coupons allows me to buy products i normally wouldn't buy or to eat at restaurants I normally wouldn't eat at. I would like to shake the hand of the person who thought of that idea because it has helped many get many things for a very cheaper price. This is probably my favorite type of sales promotion. Sales promotion is a good form of marketing as compared to advertising and other types because it is much much cheaper and you can, also, tally how many people actually bought your product due to the promotion because you can track coupons.

McDonald's every few months sends out a little coupon book to promote its food. Some times you can find them in newspapers, other stores that are partners with them, go in to a store and ask if they are handing out coupon books, or even now just recently they have been giving coupons out on the back of receipts.

One more type of sales promotion is sweepstakes and and contests. This doesn't every really motivate me to buy anything because I usually never win. The feeling of getting excited that you might win a lot of money a very cool prize is good and all, however, when you see that you didn't win the feeling just turns to anger and disappointment every single time. So I always say to myself why even go through the unnecessary space. Fortunately, I did win once but you have to continue reading to find what it was.

McDonald's does the monopoly sweepstakes. The sweepstakes allows the customers to collect tokens which are given on certain items in the menu. In order to win a customers has to collect all the tokens of a certain property of that color and they win the prize.

Another form of sales promotion is premium. Premium is getting another item offered after proof of buying the original item that was being promoted or sometimes it's the same product you get free. Once again I don't know about anyone else but I am always encouraged to buy an item if I am getting another one free. It's products for the price of one, what a good deal. A premium that McDonald's does is with their happy meals. You buy it and get a toy as a little some thing extra. Another premium they offer is sometimes they'll give you two burgers for $4 or $5.

As you can tell McDonald's does a lot of sales promotion, even their promotion goes on 24/7. I guess that is why McDonald's is dominating it's industry. Well I told you I would tell what I won, now is that time. As i mentioned McDonald's sweepstakes monopoly earlier, well due to that I won medium French fries. I know it's much but hey, it was free food from the place that makes the best French fries.

Personal selling is a purchase situation involving a personal, paid-for communication between two people in an attempt to influence each other. Everyone does personal selling because to get a job we all have to sell ourselves. Personal can be better than other types of promotions depending on the characteristics of the consumer and the product.

Advertising and Public Relations

Advertising is impersonal, one-way mass communication about a product or organization that is paid for by a marketer. Judging by the fact that McDonald's is the leading company in it's industry it must doing very good in the advertising department. McDonald's is one of the strongest brands in the world, and one of its key elements is that it's omnipresent. Everywhere you go in America, you see McDonald's. And it's not just the sheer amount of stores themselves — its highway billboard signs are ubiquitous for road-trippers, the bright Golden Arches are instantly recognizable to every passerby and its TV commercials are an expected part of people's daily programming. 

McDonald's spends almost a billion every year on advertising. Luckily for them it is not a advertising response function. They always make their money back. They especially advertise a lot through sponsorship. They sponsor little leagues around the country of America, Hockey in Canada and even the Olympics. Also, they have spokespeople to represent them. Mostly athletes such as Lebron James, Patrick Chan, and Cassie Campbell. 

In my opinion I feel McDonald's over advertises. They are just all over the place. Regardless of anything they are going to sell because they have stores in so many different locations. It's at the point that they are the only food option in some areas. But of course as a McDonald's customer I am not complaining. 

Retailing

If you ask most people regardless of where in the world to name fast food restaurants I can almost guarantee that McDonald's will be in the first three that call. That is because McDonald's has 33,000 different locations spread out across the world that spans across 119 countries. Franchising plays a big role in McDonald's growth and success. Almost eighty percent of McDonald's stores are owned by independent people. That means the big boys at top don't really do much work but sit back and watch the money come in as random people all over the world do all the work. Must be hard work too,seeing that McDonald's is at the top of it's industry and one of the biggest franchises in the world.

However they are not that lazy. The success of a franchise also depends on the amount of support it gets from the parent company. In this particular area McDonald's is second to none.  Owner/operators of McDonald's franchises receive their initial training and support during the first year, and then ongoing support throughout their ownership with newsletters, cooperative purchasing, 24-hour telephone support, and field operations.

I recently visited a McDonald's location at 57 Empire Boulevard in Brooklyn. I've been there before and it is generally a good place to go, sometimes. But if I was to judge the store off that one experience,  I probably would never go back. It was super packed and they had the audacity to only have two registers open. I mean your billions of dollars rich and you can't afford to have another worker on the pay roll. The line was moving so slow.


The worst part was that when i finally got to the register that's when they wanted to start rushing, I didn't even get my exact order because the lady at the counter was very intimidating. Their lucky I know that it is usually not that crazy otherwise I would not be going back.

Consumer Decision Making

Many is very well advertised. It has many commercials on television, handing out coupons on the streets, and it has many posters and billboards. This is the reason why many people choose to eat there. McDonald's isn't promoted in it's home country but all over the world. There is more than one in almost every major city in the world. McDonald's advertising catches the attention of everyone, from kids to adults of all races. McDonald's is now selling selling other items to compete with other stores. For example coffee to compete with starbucks. Now its easier for a customer to get a quick bite to eat with coffee withot having to make two stops in two different stores. McDonald's even its internationally store changes it menu to have some special dish in the country its in. Theses are just a few things it does to influences it customer to buy their products.

Developing A Global Vision

McDonald's is the leading global food service retailer with more than 32,000 local restaurants serving more than 60 million people in 119 countries each day. More than 75% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women. Many McDonald's around the world have made minor or many changes to the menu or store decoration. Theses changes were made so McDonald's would become popular in the country it was in. They wanted to show the customer that they could adapt to their culture.

In India, there are no Big Macs because the Hindu people don't eat beef. However, they have the Maharaja Mac, which is a Big Mac made of lamb or chicken meat. There is also a vegetarian burger called the McAloo Tikki.

The Marketing Environment

McDonald's has been able to survive for so many years because it always finds a way to adapt to the changing marketing environment. With the down fall of the stock markets, McDonald's still manage to attract customers. They know there are many unemployed people and with the dollar menu it will attract them many new customers as well. In order to compete in this economy they have expanded their dollar menu and have done many promotions on there burger like the big mac 2 for 5$ and coupons for the mccafe drinks and value meals. Also in part of its success has to do with its. many locations. There is almost no neighborhood that doesn't have a McDonald's in walking distance.

Ethics and Social Resposibilty

Ethics is referred to as the moral principles or value that generally govern the conduct of an individual or a group. Social responsibility  is the concern for society's welfare. Both ethics and social responsibility play big roles in business and marketing. It isn't ethical the companies lie about their products just for the sake of selling and it is expected that corporations do their best to help society anyway they can. For example, they can go green, or use less waste etc.

McDonald's, despite the fact that many say it is only promoting unhealthy products are actually more ethical and society responsible than people know. They now have added more healthy items to the menu. To the  current items they have found ways to make them with less chemicals and calories. Also, they use less plastic in their packaging and they have dedicated themselves to energy conservation in order to use less money decrease their impact on the environment.

However, all of that was just the tip of the iceberg. McDonald's practices sustainability. Sustainability is the idea that socially responsible companies will outperform their peers by focusing on the world's social problems and viewing them as opportunities to build profits and help the world at the same time. One way they practice this is the Green restaurant design. This is to enhance their strict building standards to incorporate further opportunities for environmental efficiencies and innovation in the design and construction of their restaurants. Another way is through sustainable packaging and waste management. They continue exploring ways to reduce the environmental impacts of our consumer packaging and waste in our restaurant operations.

On all of these priorities and more they continue to engage with experts and NGOs like World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, the U.S. Green Building Council and similar organizations around the world to get their best thinking on how they can improve their environmental performance. I guess sustainability does work because they are the leading company within their industry.

Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

                  Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage is when a company has unique features and products that consumers believe to be than it's competition. Their are currently three types of competitive advantages, niche, cost and product/service orientation. Performing a SWOT analysis helps firms to identify their competitive advantage.


McDonald's has done many things over the years to give itself a competitive advantage over the competition. For example, it has started to sell more salads and other food products that are more healthy. Just recently they decided to open veggie only restaurants in India and other countries.

They even decided to renovate every single franchise within the United States by 2015 to make it more people friendly. They've even changed the packaging to make it more environment friendly. McDonald's really has some competitive advantages going for them.

History and Mission Statement

                            History
McDonald's is the world's largest chain of  hamburger fast food restaurants. It was originally established as a barbecue restaurant in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald. They later recognized it as a hamburger stand eight years later but it was bought from them in 1955 by Ray Kroc.

Thanks to him McDonald's became worldwide. It now serves 68 million customers 119 countries. As opposed to around the time McDonald's first started it now serves more than hamburgers. The menu includes wraps, dessert, salads, breakfast items and etc.

                                        Mission Statement
McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favorite place and way to eat. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which center on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers experiences.