The Success of McDonalds - Essay Example

Running Head MARKETING MARKETING The \success of MacDonald’s in 2007 is caused by its new policy in marketing and management aimed to improve the quality of food and service delivery. The main strategies which helped MacDonald’s to achieve success are the reuse of materials and fast service over the peak times (a restaurant prepares the food before a customer came into a restaurant). Source reduction helps Macdonald’s to save millions of dollars on packaging and shipping. The recycling policy was aimed to reduce waste and introduce a new understanding of products and waste management.

The company launched the so-called McRecycle Program (Macdonald’s Home Page 2009). Conformity may engender a force that in itself threatens to destroy the essence of competition. The competition requires the creation of a differential advantage. But competing institutions have a tendency to become alike and to imitate each other, and thereby eradicate the differences that comprise the essence of competition The main opportunities are reduced prices and increased international operations, improved service quality, and low barriers to trade.

Thus, the main threat is negative publicity and critique of the fast-food industry and obesity problems caused by restaurants like MacDonald’s (Macdonald’s Home Page 2009). Modern technology is the necessary and sufficient condition for the creation of mass culture. Our society with its mass culture emphasizes higher standards of living and expanding expectations. But this massification has been assailed. Ours has been termed the homogenized, Philistine society. The mass media, television, movies, newspapers, and magazines, which are among the tools of market communication, have been proclaimed the purveyors of a mass culture that has a relatively low common denominator.

The tendency to conformity is tempered by dynamism and change. Marketing analysts should be well aware of the significance of sociological factors; they have been described as socio-graphics. Predictions of them give indications of the dimensions of future markets. 2. VALS typology is an interesting and useful tool to analyze customer-based strategies and evaluate their strengths and drawbacks. Thus, this typology is not accurate and objective as it describes only eight types of buyers and market segments.

Buyer behavior is more complex than it is described by VALS typology. Economists and marketing people seem to have differing perspectives on the value of lifestyle concepts and findings. In most economic studies (although these are exceptions), the lifestyle of a society is usually assumed or ignored. It is part of the "state of the art" and "other things being equal" statements. In marketing, by contrast, it is not income alone but lifestyle factors that are viewed as among the most important forces influencing and shaping economic activity.

They are the very focus of a major part of marketing. Studies of human behavior reveal that people act and react the way their associates and fellow members of organizations do. Individuals are members of a number of groups -- the family, business associations, and religious and social organizations -- all of which affect their buying behavior (VALS Typology 2009). Products are purchased not merely for the inherent functional benefits but for their social utilities as well. A typology is an effective tool used in addition to buyer behavior analysis and socio-economic analysis.

Opinion leadership is regular, informal, and casual. This is particularly true in marketing, for the buying process is virtually a continuous routine, involving more than habit. Purchasers change products, brands, and stores, and opinions are influential in these changes. Determining the flow of influence of purchasing situations is indeed difficult. First, the flow of influence in a particular consumer setting is not clearly defined. Group memberships, interactions, and impact are very complex.

Opinion leaders in marketing are more socially active and gregarious than those who are not. Highly gregarious women who have a large number of friends and belong to several organizations are more likely to be marketing leaders.