Mcdonalds Has Been Able to Remain Market

¶ … McDonalds has been able to remain Market Leader

Fast food industry is one of the fasting growing industries in the world. The reason for its success actually lies in driving the subliminal needs of the consumer and fulfilling it in such a way that the consumers are not only satisfied but they are delighted. In the global arena where the consumer loyalty is the most non-loyal thing the top three brands that have been able to generate highest customer loyalty are McDonalds, Coke and Disney.

With the passage of time, fast food industry and McDonalds have been able to grow themselves and now McDonalds has become the world's largest fast food restaurant as it serves more than 58 million people every day (FAQs).

Despite several allegations and discussions over the healthiness of fast food, the convenience and value it provides to the customer outclasses every problem and hurdle. People in the modern world have very limited time to cook, eat and to look after themselves hence they want high convenience, quick service and good taste even if they have to comprise on health and proper diet. The reasons why McDonalds have been able to gain and retain competitive advantage over other fast food providers in the industry are that the company has always kept its focus on providing quality, convenience, cost effective strategies and healthy food to its consumers. McDonalds while serving the purpose of quickly cooked foods to its consumer, it also focuses on coming up with innovative ways that can optimize the internal business processes and with that it can bring more value to the consumer. Fast food was considered to be as unhealthy food; however McDonalds has changed the trend as it offers high quality food.

McDonalds has always kept innovation as their primary tool to retain competitive advantage. Its unique selling proposition is related to happiness that the restaurant provides whenever a customer comes to McDonalds. The restaurant not only innovates to expand its products but it also innovates in business processes and techniques that are used. There are several menus and deals that McDonalds has come up with, only to satisfy its customers (Muller, 1991).

There are several reasons why McDonalds has become the market leader in fast food industry. The most important competitive advantage that McDonalds has over other giants in the industry like KFC, Burger King and Subway are:

High quality food

Exceptional customer service

Strong business processes

Products offered at low prices to attract more customers

Strong brand name -- renowned in 119 countries of the world

Always ready to upgrade technology

High customer loyalty

McDonalds has always considered the problem of its customers and this is also one of the competitive advantages that the company has over others. By collecting the data and what people are looking for from McDonalds, the world's largest fast food restaurant has been able to analyze the needs of the customers better than any other fast food company in the world. By making the most of technology, McDonalds have built an effective CRM system and database through which it analyzes what customers want and therefore they are able to come up with strategies to meet their needs. This is one of the strategies company has adopted to retain customers and make them highly satisfied. The restaurant aims to offer exceptional quality products with excellent customer service and they handle the complaints of the client effectively (Dietz, 2006).

Distribution Strategy of McDonalds

McDonalds has been able to spread its operations worldwide with a smart strategy of franchising the outlets. The restaurant has the largest chain of outlets in the world that operates simultaneously in 119 countries with same dedication and compassion (FAQs). While opening a new outlet anywhere in the world, the restaurant conducts considerable research about the person or company that is willing to work with McDonalds and after thorough research, it approves and gives the rights to become a franchise of McDonalds. Until the end of 2010, McDonalds has been able to reach a mark of 31,377 McDonald's restaurants all over the world, where the company's directly operated restaurants are only 6,906 which is 22% of the total restaurants. The highest ratio of McDonalds operation is through franchises with is 65% comprising 20,505 restaurants.

In some countries where McDonalds had to encounter political and legal problems in opening new restaurants, the company came up with affiliation strategy, where the company affiliated with any local restaurants and started its operation. The company manages a total of 1.5 million employees worldwide through strategic human resource management. And most importantly what has been a remarkable progress of McDonalds is consistency in quality of service and product even in such a large scale.

Quality Consistency

The reason why McDonalds has gained the highest market share of 19% among the several fast food industry players in the world is that it has been able to retain a specific consistency in quality and standard of services throughout the world. McDonalds, initially communicates mission and vision statement to every outlet owner, operator and staff. Moreover it periodically conducts training for its employees so that they all are synchronized with the kind of treatment they need to offer to the customers. Even while moving in multicultural environment McDonalds has not changed its brand propositions and has been able to retain its focus on inexpensive and quick food with fastest possible services. Even in under developed and developing countries where economy plays a very important role McDonalds has been able to retain competitive advantage through its strong brand image and reputation and concentric customer focus.

Dealing with Innovation and Globalization

McDonalds while keeping its core business values in mind has innovatively experiment with the latest technology into its business operations. McDonalds uses hi-tech plants for its food manufacturing and uses hi-end technology to integrate its supplier and customers within McDonalds' network. McDonalds comes up with innovative products and deals that are focused on driving the consumer need. However, its main revenue generator such as BigMac and Happy Meals remain intact, whereas customers can also try new flavors and augmentations such as slush, juices and ice cream when they visit McDonalds' outlet.