Dayan V Mcdonald\'s Social Cultural Factors Affected

¶ … Dayan v McDonald's social cultural factors affected McDonald's marketing Paris? How McDonald's exercised

Even a cursory analysis of the facts pertinent to the court case of Dyan v. McDonald's indicates that there were certain social and cultural factors that played a substantial part in the way that the McDonald's franchise was marketed in Paris. Analysts of this particular aspect of this court case must remember that the culture that created the convention of McDonald's food -- hamburgers, so called French fries, milkshakes and the plethora of expansion into breakfast foods and other types of food -- is distinguishably American. Moreover, France and other countries in Europe are noted for a degree of sophistication and old world charm that pervades their lives and their foods, and which widely allows those from such areas to regard American conventions as unpolished eccentricities -- largely unbefitting of their superior tastes and conceptions.

It is due to these reasons that McDonald's, both as a restaurant and a brand, took so long to catch on in France. Dayan spent the better part of the 1970's trying to market decidedly utilitarian and American concepts of food to a people who preferred escargot to egg McMuffin's (Star, 1981). Still, it can just as easily -- and convincingly -- be argued that it was due to these cultural limitations that Duran was forced to resort to such aggressive marketing methods that finally captivated the French nation in 1976. It the nation as a whole were already prepared for the surrounding culture of everyday, quick and convenience that McDonald's food has made a sizeable fortune selling, there would not have been a need for such aggressive marketing campaigns. The fact that Duran was forced to essentially infiltrate a foreign culture while propagating that of his own (and that of McDonald's) is evidence of the fact that it was due to the efforts of his marketing that McDonald's has gone on to become such an international success in France and in other parts of the continent, as well.

In attempting to discern in what sort of ways McDonald's could have kept greater control over Duran and his franchise in France, it is first important to elucidate what sort of control the company did exert over Duran, which was essentially little to none. At the time that Duran obtained permission from the owner of the McDonald's franchise, Ray Kroc, to begin an enterprise in France, France was not nearly the burgeoning market that it is today. In that respect, the owner of McDonald's had little reason to place any more restraints on Duran and his business ventures there. In hindsight, however, McDonald's could have done a lot more to exert control over Duran's venture.

One of the most eminent ways McDonald's could have done so would be to have a higher percentage in the revenues that Duran earns in France. At present McDonald's gets a mere one percent of the revenues Duran generates, while some domestic McDonald's are forced to pay upwards of 12% of their revenues to the franchise (Star, 1981). Were Duran held accountable to pay more revenues to McDonald's, he would have considerably less autonomy in the daily control and operations of the foreign fast food restaurants.