Mc Donald Case Study

Q1. Identify the key elements in McDonald's global marketing strategy (GMS). In particular, how does McDonald's approach the issue of standardization?

McDonald's global marketing strategy is based on combination of global and local marketing mix elements. For the first elements in McDonald's global marketing strategy (GMS) is a vital elements in McDonald's business model restaurants system that can be set up virtually anywhere in the world and the restaurants themselves offer the consumers a chance to experience for themselves a fast food legend. Second elements are McDonald's offers core menu items like hamburgers, French fries and soft drinks in most countries. The popularity of American-style hamburgers, fries, and soft drinks is growing around the world, supporting Levitt's view of the global village. For the price, the average price of Big Mac in the United States is $3.54.

Globalization involves developing marketing strategies as though the world is a single entity, marketing standardized products in the same way everywhere. Globalised organizations employ standardized products, promotional campaigns, prices and distribution channels for all markets. Brand name, product characteristics, packaging and labeling are the easiest of the marketing mix variables to standardize. One of the aims of McDonald's is to create a standardized set of items that taste the same whether in India, China or South Africa. McDonald's seeks to serve its customers with the same quality product and experience, whether that restaurant is located in Moscow, Idaho or Moscow, Russia. This requires standardized processes and similar quality ingredients.

Q2. Do you think government officials in developing countries such as Russia, China, and India welcome McDonald's? Do consumers in these countries welcome McDonald's? Why or why not?

Despite concerns by governments and citizens in some countries about "cultural imperialism," McDonald's and other franchises with well-known brand names are generally welcome. Such businesses provide both much-needed jobs and employee training.

McDonald's does a good job of earning the support of local authorities and the local population by working with agricultural producers to develop local supply sources for beef, potatoes, and dairy products. Finally, thanks to changing lifestyles around the globe, more people are embracing the whole concept of fast food.

When we look at McDonalds, we see they have adapted their products according to all the different cultures and backgrounds. For example according to Trifter.com, "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, the McAloo Tikki. "No beef or beef products sold here," but the doubts raised by the controversy kept many potential customers away.

China is currently home to the world's largest McDonald's. The first Chinese location opened in mid-1992 in central Beijing, a few blocks from Tiananmen Square. Despite having a 20-year lease for its first store, McDonald's found itself in the middle of a dispute between the central government and Beijing's city government. City officials decided to build a new $1.2 billion commercial complex in the city center and demanded that McDonald's vacate the site. However, central government officials had not approved the city's plans. McDonald's was forced to abandon the location; despite the turbulent start, McDonald's now has more than 800 restaurants in China. The restaurants purchase 95 percent of their supplies, including lettuce, from local sources.

On January 31, 1990, after 14 years of negotiation and preparation, the first Bolshoi Mac went on sale in what was then the Soviet Union; by the end of the decade, there were more than two dozen McDonald's restaurants in Russia. The first Moscow McDonald's was built on Pushkin Square, near a major metro station just a few blocks from the Kremlin. It has 700 indoor seats and another 200 outside. It boasts 800 employees and features a 70-foot counter with 27 cash registers, equivalent to 20 ordinary McDonald's rolled into one. At present, there are more than 180 McDonald's locations in 40 Russian cities, and the original

The turmoil stemming from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Russia's sometimes tortuous journey toward a market economy during the 1990s has presented the management of McDonald's Russia with a number of challenges. Although massive public demonstrations followed a failed coup attempt in August 1991, the protesters did not target McDonald's. Perhaps management's biggest challenge to date was the currency crisis that began in the summer of 1998 when the Russian