Global expansion and marketing strategies in the restaurant retail sector

¶ … technology has evolved a great deal, thus resulting in an increase in media freedom and globalization. Moreover, human life in the post information technology has become much faster pace than ever before. Ever since the human civilizations had established, man is looking for ways to relax one physically and mentally. Over a period of time the market for leisure and tourism had gain much strength due to increasing demand of travel and tourism and the need to maintaining a quality life. The primary reason for this increasing trend of travelling, both international and domestic, originates to the increase in globalization (Grant, 2005).

As civilizations have evolved and technology has made human lives faster, man has started to value quality of life more and more. This has resulted in increased demand of leisure activities (Hitt,, Ireland, & Hoskisson 2009). One important form of leisure activity is dining out. Dining out is a regular part of lives of most people.

While globalization triggered the growth of corporate sector around the world triggering multinational companies to grow beyond geographical regions, it has also helped in growth of retail chain stores. Retail sector is a tertiary sector business, the success of which lies in providing optimum levels of customer satisfaction. The market environment, in which a retail business traditionally operates, is one where the retailer enjoys the demand for the goods that the retailer is offering and can attract enough customers. When a chain of restaurant franchise grows out of its home region and expands into a new geographical market, the business environment may not necessarily remain the same and therefore it requires flexibility in the way the company's marketing strategy is designed. This is due to difference in the demographics of the new society which might force the company to segment the targeted market in an entirely different manner.

Over the years, telecommunication technology has improved and progressed rapidly all around the globe. Not only developed but the less economically developed countries are also now enjoying the accessibility to the World Wide Web. This has resulted in the increase in globalization and in turn, paved way for the advent of E-commerce (Lauden & Traver, 2008).

When Ecommerce came took over, there was a notion that it is only going to benefit the B2B sector (Plant, 2000). However, proving the myth wrong, it went on to target the mass consumer market. This became evident when huge online shopping arenas started to spring up all over the internet. From groceries to garments to holiday trips, everything can now be purchased from anywhere in the world in one click. Initially, people were still reluctant to freely give their payment details. Credit card thefts were a serious issue. Then came more secure websites that ensured never like before secured payment options. With Verisign and PayPal entering the cyberspace, online shopping has seen a phenomenal growth.

While marketing has always been a backbone component of any business plan, marketing methods have also evolved over a period of time. The basic idea behind marketing remains to convince a customer to make a purchasing decision and satisfy his/her want. This involves effective communication of message. The methods of this communication, however, have rapidly changed with the changes in technology. Marketing was once only restricted to print and electronic media. The advent of E-commerce changed the way marketing was done. The evolution though did not stop at the computers. The new advent of smart phones has now added another dimension to how marketing is done.

One of the most elaborate areas of leisure and entertainment today is the dining and restaurant sector. When a person plans to go and dine out, the primary concern is comfort, ambience and food quality as the primary idea behind dining out is mental relaxation. Restaurant industry today, is much more beyond merely providing quality food services. It is about catering to customer's tastes and preferences in terms of food quality, ambience and comfort.

Like any other business, the restaurant and dining industry has also evolved over a period of time. Dining businesses have gone through various changes and today, innovation is one of the major success factors in the dining business (Fleisher, 2008). These innovations may be in terms of recipes, ambience, restaurant themes, interior or all at the same time. There are different types of dining places that exist which include sophisticated restaurants targeted at corporate diners, cafes, pizza parlours, food courts and various other types of restaurants. However the phenomenon of fast food chains is getting increasingly popular around the world. The concept of coffee house was first brought in by Starbucks. However, with the passage of time newer entrepreneurs entered the industry and brought in a significant degree of innovation. Today, fast food chains are not merely treated as a roadside coffee place but many fast food chains today are an interesting combination of a restaurants walled environment and a cafe's casual ambience serving a range of products and having a potential of targeting a diverse market sector.

Talking about the global restaurant sector, one major name in the field of fast food chains is Mc Donald's. Mc Donald's was established in the United States of America as a small burger joint. Today it has expanded and branched out in various parts of the world and is still in the continuous process of growth and expansion. Unlike conventional fast food chains, whose general idea is to provide a casual eatery spot, Mc Donald's has changed the overall conventional casual dining place. It can be easily said that Mc Donald's has fused in the sophistication of restaurant with casual atmosphere of a cafe and has come up with a service that has something to offer for any and everyone. Mc Donald's is an affordable eatery that provides a comfortable and casual environment to the diners. Moreover, the menu, unlike conventional fast food chains is not just restricted to certain snacks, but it offers a full fledged extended menu. This is one of the reasons why Mc Donald's is one of the favourite spot from everyone ranging from high school kids to office going people. For a high school student it Mc Donald's is happening place to hang out with friends while for someone working in a corporate environment, it is a perfect place to have coffee with colleagues during lunch hours. For many housewives, it is an ideal dining spot to stop over while on a shopping spree with friends or family.

Over a period of time, Mc Donald's has strongly positioned itself as one of the best casual dining place around the world. Despite of the fact that there are other strong competitors in the industry, Mc Donald's has managed to maintain a strong brand loyalty. The success factor of any brand immensely lies in an aggressive marketing strategy. While marketing as a whole is a complex system with lots of active players, in this day and age of technology, communicating the message and getting the message across to the right group of people, with the right content, at the right time, through the right media and at the right cost is very important. Moreover, for a firm as transnational as Mc Donald's it is also important to take factors such as economical factors, technological factors, social and cultural factors and legal factors especially those pertaining to consumer protection into account.

Mc Donald's has based its business on certain principles that give importance to the 'people'. The 'people' in case of Mc Donald's are the company's customers as well as the employees (Schoemaker 1992). The business well understands the dynamics of being in a customer oriented service sector business and understands the need of employee satisfaction in order to guarantee customer satisfaction which is the ultimate key to profitability and success (Murray, 1999). Mc Donald's has therefore built its business on the pillars of teamwork, accountability, satisfaction of customers, promoting stronger relationships with customers and employees and to ensure that it remains in the continuous cycle of improvement in terms of both quality and uniqueness (Akhter, 2003).

Although Mc Donald's is unique in its own way, nevertheless due to some kind of availability of substitutes in terms of products, like any other business, Mc Donald's face competitive pressures. However, due to its unique services and brand image Mc Donald's has been quite successful in maintaining a consumer loyalty that helps the business combating these competitive pressures. Mc Donald's does not face any competition from smaller roadside cafes as their business idea is much different from that of Mc Donald's. However, they also tend to target one of the market segments of Mc Donald's that is the students and youngsters. Having said that, due to affordable pricing strategy and the unique ambience provided by Mc Donald's, many youngsters prefer Mc Donald's over smaller cafe's. Among the more mainstream market players, the main competitive pressures come from Burger King, Hardees and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), an almost equally large fast food chain primarily specializing in chicken oriented meals. Again, Mc Donald's has managed to deal with competitive threats posed by both these market players due to the fact that the prices that Burger King, Starbucks and Costa Coffee charge are much higher than that charged by Mc Donald's. The primary reason behind higher prices of Costa Coffee and Starbucks is the fact that their target market is much stronger and niche as compared to that of Mc Donald's. The recent economic crunch however, has benefitted Mc Donald's as many people who prefer sophisticated ambience, due to their lower purchasing power and increased inflationary pressures now prefer Mc Donald's over the likes of Starbucks and Costa Coffee. As a result, Mc Donald's is the strongest market player in the Global region today.

Mc Donald's target market includes all the people who travel for leisure and/or business purposes and prefer to have a luxurious accommodation. The cafe provides best possible services for corporate guests such as, Wi-Fi connections Besides that, all cafe locations are one of the finest in the country that are known to attract high number of tourists and local diners. Mc Donald's provides its guests, a huge variety of eating options and offers dining services for luncheons, dinner or snacks.

Mc Donald's is also one of the preferred eateries for international tourists who find one of a kind experience at Mc Donald's at an affordable price. Due to the variety of service hours and the relaxing atmosphere many tourists prefer to drop in Mc Donald's after or during their tourist activities

Marketing Variables

Mc Donald's is a chain of cafes, primarily specializing in the area of casual dining. The major locations of the cafe include various urban regions, shopping malls, food courts, airport lounges and many busy commercial centres. Mc Donald's has also. Apart from that Mc Donald's also has expanded its presence in not only many of the world's leading urban centers such as London, United Kingdom, New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong (Keegan 2002). The wide and unique range of services offered by the cafe includes a cafe bar restaurant that offers a varied, unique and extended menu with full table services, a club store and the kiosks.

The market for Mc Donald's is a very competitive one (Kapferer 2008). Mc Donald's stiff competition from world's leading cafe chains operating in United Kingdom such as Starbucks. The major competitors include Starbucks, The Coffee Club and Costa Coffee which not only target leisure tourists but also corporate diners. Besides that, Mc Donald's also faces competition from smaller roadside cafes that are attracting greater number of customers due to lower prices in the current economic crisis. Most of the diners such as students are cutting down on their leisure expenses by choosing cheaper cafes over the luxurious ones. However, Mc Donald's uniquely sophisticated ambience along with affordable pricing strategy helps the company to combat the competitive pressures posed by those smaller cafes.

Mc Donald's pursues an aggressive marketing strategy which is based on an amalgamation of diverse marketing variables (Jack, 2004). The marketing strategy aims at developing a brand image that creates customer loyalty for the business. The marketing objectives that Mc Donald's plans to achieve from its marketing strategy are mentioned as follows:

Mc Donald's wants to develop an image of hospitality providers and will provide information that so far no other cafe does (Silk, 2006).

The cafe aims at triggering sales revenue by providing special online promotional services and loyalty memberships.

The cafe aims at maximizing its marketing share and become a pioneer in unique interactive marketing mechanisms and eliminates competition in the market.

The cafe aims at triggering purchase decisions and repeated purchases as the recent economic crunch has resulted in a decline of diners and leisure activities around the globe.

The cafe aims at ensuring that the marketing strategy works in such a way that it assists the cafe management in serving its customers better.

The cafe aims to increase its customer knowledge base regarding the unique services that the cafe provides to its customers.

According to Copley (2004), the cafe aims to communicate its brand value, develop close working relationships with its customers and to identify their needs in an effective manner.

The cafe aims to continue to differentiate from its competition and offering added value to its guests.

The cafe aims at retaining its current levels of repeat business and developing further customer loyalty in a competitive market (Mercer, 1996).

The cafe aims at attracting new market sectors such as multinational companies from the use of its above mentioned marketing strategy.

The cafe aims at providing a positive cafe experience to all guests.

Market Segmentation

As stated earlier, an important part of communications is getting the message across to the right group of people. For that purpose segmenting a market is essential. This is because researches have established it that despite of the fact that a product is targeted towards a number of age groups and cultures, the reasons for each of those groups to make a purchasing decision would be different. Therefore, in most cases, the way children would be communicated a message would be different from the way adult would be targeted.

Mc Donald's target market includes all the people that enjoy fast food. The overall target market is a middle income group who prefer going to restaurants that are affordable and provide quality service. The market is segmented into age groups. One is leisure diners and the other one includes corporate diners. Corporate diners are usually an age group of 28 years old and above and they include a large number of corporate clients as well.

Market segmenting would enable Mc Donald's to identify groups of customers who share a similar set of wants / needs. Mc Donald's segmentation below would consider geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural factors.

Targeting is carried out based on market size, access, and brand equity, and ability to communicate in local languages Therefore, considering the attractiveness of identified segments and Mc Donald's business strengths, focus would be primarily on customer segments from English speaking countries.

The overall marketing campaign of Mc Donald's is focused on three distinct targets namely, co-creation, brand loyalty and consumer food trends. With an effective integration of these three factors, a strong marketing strategy can be devised that will help in attracting newer customer segments and will also help removing the negative perceptions that have been associated with brand.

Co Creation

Co creation is a tool that is relatively new concept in the field of marketing and is highly consumer for products that are market oriented. Co Creation basically allows a consumer and the firm to work in partnership in order to design and produce the product. The consumer however is not directly part of the production process.

Mc Donald's will implement the Co Creation tool through smartphone applications and social networking pages such as Facebook. Under this scheme, consumers will be allowed to 'design' a burger of their choice, using their choice of ingredients and name the burger of their choice. The best burger, which can also be selected through public votes will be made a part of Mc Donald's permanent menu.

The biggest plus point of this strategy is the fact that when consumers will be creating burgers of their choice, they will be well aware of the ingredients used and preparation methods, therefore it will be easier for Mc Donald's to refute negative perceptions such as it adheres to unhealthy production methods. Moreover, Co creation strategy will also help at strengthening the notion that Mc Donald's values the preferences and choices of its consumers. This will also in turn help triggering brand loyalty, which is another important aspect of the campaign.

The new strategy proposed by the Mc Donald's cafes is focused on the integrated marketing strategy. The marketing mix for this kind of strategy is more based on the four Cs rather than the conventional four Ps of a marketing mix (Klopper, 2006). The marketing mix for Mc Donald's cafes is discussed under the following sections.

Mc Donald's cafe believes that the secret of a successful marketing and in turn, a successful business lies in the maximum satisfaction of consumers. Mc Donald's has build its brand image on its unique selling point that it has blended in the contemporary and casual dining trends with the sophisticated ambience. The overall ambience is mentally soothing and ideal for a relaxed dining experience. The cafe offers a unique menu that has options for different meal times including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The menu has a large variety which is why Mc Donald's does not only attract local diners but also a large number of international tourists as well. Co Creation will not allow adding newer variety to the menu, but also will bring in more innovation that will help fighting competition and add a new dimension to the fast food concept. It will also make dining more fun for the consumers.

While the overall product component is quite strong, it is recommended that Mc Donald's also includes 'Halaal' options on its menu. A significant number of tourists and local residents in United Kingdom include Muslim population. Moreover, there are very few eateries in United Kingdom that offers Halaal options as far as non-vegetarian dining is concerned. Introduction of Halaal options will therefore add to the Mc Donald's uniqueness and its brand image of customer care and will help increasing customer base (Afuah 2009). Co creation strategy would again give an opportunity to its muslim consumers, to participate in the creation contests and vote for burgers that are made using Halal ingredients and Halal methods of cooking. In locations where sufficient votes are earned by such burgers, Halal menus can be introduced. It must be noted that muslims are not alone to demand for Halal burgers but Jewish population prefers the same as well. Such a strategy is therefore likely to attract consumers from various factions of the target marjet and will help Mc Donald's explore newer target market.

Mc Donald's uses a wide range of promotional methods, some of which encourage interaction with consumers, which is necessary in case of service sector business. The advertising methods include television, magazines, newspapers and internet. For more interactive purposes, Mc Donald's has its presence on social networking websites such as Facebook through which it maintains a contact and takes feedback from its customers (Evans, 2008). Mc Donald's also uses its social networking forum as promotional tool by introducing interesting competitions and contestants are then awarded prices such as discounted vouchers at Mc Donald's (Kitchen & De Pelsmacker, 2004). This helps in building consumer loyalty and increasing consumer base. Another uniqueness about Mc Donald's is that its complete menu is available on the company's official website. Mc Donald's is known for its active role in corporate social responsibility. This act as a cause related marketing tool as customers also prefer Mc Donald's for being socially responsible (Cooper, 2004).

Use of Smart Phone Applications to Assist Co Creation

The business environment and the marketing strategy via smart phones for Mc Donald's is influenced by both internal and external forces. These forces include political, economical, technological, social, environmental and legal influences (Rose & Miller, 1994).

On the political front Mc Donald's is a feasible business. This is because the government of United Kingdom supports the hotel / restaurant and tourism industry. Global government has relaxed legislations pertaining to international chains entering the restaurant and tourism market in United Kingdom with an objective of increasing tourism. This is because tourism is United Kingdom's one of the major foreign exchange earning sector.

In context of using smart phone applications, so far there are only certain regions where Mc Donald's have been able to launch this facility as many regions around the world such as Saudi Arabia, government has restricted use of application on certain smart phones such as Blackberry phones. In United Kingdom however smart phone applications play an important role in assisting Mc Donald's to develop a more personalized communication with its consumers.

Communication Ethics

Ever since the information technology has had its advent in the world, telecommunications has been one of the most rapidly growing corporate sectors around the world. The use of cell phones is increasing at a rapid rate not only in the developed countries but also in the developing countries. The increasing competition in the telecommunications sector around the world has resulted in aggressive marketing strategies and price competition among the competing firms.

Advertisement of any form, whether, informative or persuasive aims at getting its message across the target audience. It aims at urging the target audience to take the desired action. It is beyond any doubt that the main purpose behind placing an advertisement is to capture the attention of the audience. On a broader level, advertisements are placed for a variety of reasons. These reasons may include legal notices, auction notices, announcements, recruitment advertisements and of course advertisements for sale of goods and services. While every advertisements is designed individually to suit the requirement of the nature and purpose of the individual advertisement, the bottom line of placing any advertisement is to capture the attention of the aimed audience and persuade them to take the desired action. For this reason, advertisement is something that attracts a lot of investment from people to place them. It incurs them huge costs but at the same time it earns them the fulfilment of their ultimate goal (Hood, 2005). For the viewer, the placement of an advertisement seems to be a fairly simple task. As a matter of fact, there are various factors that are required to be taken into consideration when designing an advertisement. Failure to take those factors into consideration may result in the purpose of the advertisement not being achieved. Under such circumstances, either the audience does not perform the desired action or in worst case the advertisement is ignored completely (Jenson, 1997). As mentioned earlier, organizations invest in a substantial amount of money in placement of these advertisements. When these advertisements fail to serve the purpose they are meant to serve, the whole strategy with which, or to serve which, they are designed and launched. In most cases a failed advertisement results in huge losses when firms spend a significant proportion of budget on advertising. The first element that is needed to be taken into account is that what kind of an audience is needed to be targeted. As stated earlier, the main purpose behind every advertisement is to grab the attention of the targeted audience and get the required message across to the audience. Every audience understands a different language, a different tone and there is a different communication method for each audience.

In simple terms, marketing, which is the backbone of a business survival and success, revolves around satisfying the needs and wants of the society in a profitable manner. However, while the definition might make the field seem too simplistic, the individual components involved in the function of marketing are much more complex with deeper implications. One important function of marketing involves communicating with the targeted consumers, which in the corporate field is commonly known as advertising. While the basic aim of advertising is to communicate with the targeted group, inform one about a product or service and persuade one to make a purchase decision, the implications of an advertisement message can go much beyond mere communication. The methods and mediums of advertising have changed phenomenally and the new methods of advertising include massive satellite media and the internet. It must be noted that through these medium, messages are transmitted to people other than the targeted audience. Moreover, since the corporate world is getting moire and more competitive each day, firms tend to make their advertising tactics very aggressive and 'attacking'. On the verge of increasing their stronghold and market share, firms end up ignoring the ethical and moral grounds that their advertising messages tend to ignore.

When it is said that advertising should be done the ethical way, it means that it must not effect the society in a negative way. This may include hurting cultural or religious sentiments, relaying advertisements which are not suitable for universal audience on channels of mass viewership or persuading the targeted consumer to take an unethical step or mislead and/or misinform the audience. All these activities go against the boundaries of ethical advertisements.

The problem of ethical advertisement is more persistent in organizations that have transnational presence. This is because these firms tend to use the advertisements used in one region in all the other regions without taking into account, the cultural and social differences between various geographical regions. This is important because the degree to which liberty is enjoyed in different social groups differs greatly and what is suitable for one group of audience may not necessarily be suitable for the other.

Cross culture communication also remains an important issue of concern when it comes to communicating with customers. Transnational organizations have their customer base spread across various geographical regions around the world. This means that the clientele would be diversified in terms of cultural values. This must be noted that communication with the customer is an essence of successful market where a customer is convinced to buy the product and then make repeated buying decisions. This is only possible when communication takes place efficiently. Generally this communication takes place via advertising and various different marketing strategies (Norris, 1999). When it comes to communicating with customers that belong to different cultural values, method of communication and the content of the message become highly essential for the success of marketing strategy (Jeneson, 1997). For example, 'The Body Shop', a multinational company that produces natural cosmetics, may use implied nudity in some of its advertising campaigns in United Kingdom in order to communicate 'nature' that is the main theme on which the product ideology is based. However, the company cannot use the same advertising strategy in other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, where although a strong potential customer base exists but cultural values are much more conservative. This means that in order to target customers of that particular culture, 'The Body Shop' will have to devise a completely different marketing strategy that coincides with their respective cultural values. Likewise, the advertising strategy that 'The Body Shop' uses in Saudi Arabia might not work in UK (Hood, 2005).

Similarly, and other important concern of ethical advertising is using sublime and sexual undertones in an advertising campaign that aims at targeting universal audience, or is potentially viewed by the universal audience. For example advertisements pertaining to contraception aired between air times which have young lids as their audience can make a negative impact on their minds. In the same way many social theorists consider public advertisements of liquor and cigarettes as unethical as both these substances have high negative externalities. Not only the consumer itself would suffer badly but the society at large suffers from vices generated as result of increased alcohol consumption. However, in developed countries where consumer protection laws are strong, firms cannot easily promote such harmful products easily and openly as strict laws are to be followed. Unfortunately in developing countries, where laws are not strong and implementation of laws is even more difficult, people are not protected from open promotion of such products. The issue of concern is that firms manufacturing substances such as cigarettes tend use strong athletes and celebrities as brand ambassador, and promote the idea that indulging into activities such as smoking would increase their social stature and will make them publicly appealing. This hazardously appeals young non-smokers to try smoking which actually decreases the physical strength in contrast to what is shown by the advertising messages.

It must be noted that advertisements or not all about selling products but are also used for other purposes such as informative advertising. Many pharmaceutical firms run campaigns against diseases such as HIV and AIDS. While, the intention of this kind of advertising is not wrong, and as a matter of fact such advertising is highly important, however, unintentionally, the campaign designers tend to ignore the moral grounds involved in relaying the content is a major concern of many social theorists. For example, advertisement, where although purpose is educating about sexually transmitted diseases but sexual activities are discussed in crude tones, and where such campaigns are relayed through mediums that have potential viewers below suitable age, the message tend to have more negative effect despite of the fact that the motif of advertising was not unethical.

Consumer Food Trends

Over a period of time, despite of its large scale and strong existence, Mc Donald's have seen a certain decline in market share, due to the negative publicity that it has earned due to a lot of negative press, Incidents have included use of mad cow beefs in their hamburgers, issues pertaining to greasing their food and use of artificial hormones in raw materials that triggers obesity, racial discrimination, use of non-halal meat in msulim countries. To top that all, certain groups started a series of messages that propagated people around the world to avoid eating Mc Donald's due to one reason or the other. Mc Donald's however denied many of such allegations that were pointed towards Mc Donalds through these meesages floating around in the electronic world, it seems to have little positive impact on Mc Donalds. One theory has it that the hoax messages were generated by one of the competitors, allegedly KFC. However, this theory can be refuted by the fact that Burger King and Hardees are much stronger competitors as the provide closer substitutes as compared to that of KFC as KFC has a different profuct line altogether.

Nevertheless, the newly emerging fast food options from around the world, the increasing trend if health consciousness and fitness maintenance among the primary target market of Mc Donald's along with the hype of negative publicity created an urgent need for Mc Donald's to revisit its marketing campign and come up with a much more aggressive strategy that addresses the core reasons behind the declining market share and helps bringing back the lost market segment.

With more and more accessibility to the internet and more and more exposure to media, people in general have become more health conscious than they were ever before. People are very particular about what they eat, the calories involved, the ingredients, cooking practices and the overall food quality not just in terms of taste but also in terms of health and hygiene. Many restaurants have only lost their consumer base due to the fact that they failed to maintain hygienic cooking practices.

As mentioned earlier in Mc Donald's vision statement, Mc Donald's has aspires to be a customer oriented business that looks forward to bring a strong relationship with its clientele. For this reason Mc Donald's will specifically focus on maintaining food quality and ensure that all health, hygiene and quality standards are met to the optimum levels.

Mc Donald's will have to be consistent with food and consumer safety laws in United Kingdom. Consumer protection laws are strict so Mc Donald's will have to take into account the kinds of ingredients, spices and marketing strategies that the restaurant will be using. In purely marketing terms certain advertising legislations are active where advertising that violates any consumer rights is considered subjected to legal action. This is taken into consideration by Mc Donald's while devising the marketing strategy

Personal Reflection

The dissertation study provided a deep insight into the complex system of integrated marketing communications, the large number of playing components involved in a seemingly simple process and how each of the component has its own unique role to play in the effectiveness of the overall communication and marketing process.

Mc Donald's is one of the leading market players in the Global food retailing market. Mc Donald's unique blend of marketing variables, quality management, and unique fusion of a contemporary coffee shop with a sophisticated restaurant ambience makes Mc Donald's stand out from its competitors. However, the fact that the threat of new entrants is inevitable considering the lack of barriers to entry, Mc Donald's has to ensure innovation not only in terms the services provided but also in terms of marketing strategy. The current marketing tools used by Mc Donald's are quite conventional and are used by most businesses in the industry. Therefore it is proposed that Mc Donald's introduces a unique marketing such as a smart phone application. However, since smart phone application has its own technicalities involved, it is also recommended that the business evaluates a thorough feasibility for the service.

Ever since the information technology has had its advent in the world, telecommunications has been one of the most rapidly growing corporate sectors around the world. The use of cell phones is increasing at a rapid rate not only in the developed countries but also in the developing countries. The increasing competition in the telecommunications sector around the world has resulted in aggressive marketing strategies and price competition among the competing firms.

The major problem with advertising messages is that they cannot be categorized as PG rated like movies and other such content. An advertisement message once released in the public is accessible by usually anyone. Therefore, it now becomes the responsibility of firms to ensure not to surpass ethical boundaries. In cases where use of explicit content is necessarily then advertising mediums must be taken care of. Moreover, it is highly important that firms take into account cultural norms of different social groups and avoid using content that are against cultural or religious sentiments of a particular group.

While making communication systems stronger in a cross cultural setting is essential, it might become very challenging for certain organizations. In order to avoid problems such as high employee turnover, declining employee productivity and limited demographic market, it is essential that organizations devise strategy which can accommodate stakeholders regardless of their cultural orientation

The significance of a marketing mix plan shall be understood before developing a marketing plan in order to understand the essence of any product's marketing mix. The significance of a marketing mix plan is the same as the significance of a dish is to its recipe. The marketing mix plan sets up a road map to market and develop a product in the correct way keeping in view the four P's of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Marketing plan is also important because it allows to well researching a product and assists in identifying its strengths and weaknesses regarding the four P's. What we may regard as a successful product might prove to be a disappointing one after a full fledge marketing plan addressing all the marketing issues has been prepared. The reason is that when research is done regarding a product taking into account the current and past statistics and the stage of product life cycle that the product is currently in, one may find that the product is not a worthwhile launch. An interesting thing about the marketing plan is that it helps one to well position its product in the market by going through a deep analysis of the four P's. No matter what type of market we are catering through our product, we find competition everywhere and customer's issues seem to be sensitive where there is competition. Such marketing plans help to keep the customers in a good mood regarding our products and assists in building reputation not only for the product but also for the company. The most important thing about any marketing plan is that it needs to be realistic as well as practical, in other words, it can be implemented easily. By realistic, it is meant that the marketing objectives are neither over estimated nor under estimated. The marketing plan shall be based upon the goals that needs to be achieved for example, if Cadbury USA aims to double its sales over a period of one year, it shall develop a marketing strategy that is not only practical but also achieves its sales target of increasing its sales by 100% within a period of one year.

Another positive point to note about a marketing plan is that it sets out crystal clear steps to be followed in order to achieve the target. It divides the overall marketing strategy into steps which can be followed one after another, to reach the final aim of the marketing department. Here we go towards developing a fully equipped marketing plan for foods which mainly includes fruit fast foods and energy drinks.

In order to develop an efficient marketing strategy for fast food, an extensive research of the market is required as fruit fast foods are a fast moving consumer good which have a consumer base of diverse market segments.

Analysis of the Fast food Market

Having a market analysis helps to define the adequate marketing strategies. If the market for the product shows great potential then this indicates that the forthcoming marketing strategies need to be aggressive. In other words market analysis provides a playground for the policy setters to act according to the market potential and the room for market penetration that exists.

The market for natural fruit fast foods have seen a significant increase in the past few years as awareness regarding healthy lifestyle have increased among the masses. People have become more health conscious over a period of time and many consumers now prefer using natural foods and foods over artificial ones after recent researches have proven the health hazards pertaining to use of artificial foods and foods. However, after the current economic downturn had hit the United Kingdom, the consumption of natural fruit fast foods saw a slight decline as the purchasing power of consumers decline.

Getting on with a past trend of the fast food market, although the market for fast foods has experienced an overall rise from 2005 to 2008 by almost 15%, but the severe global recession which also affected the markets for UNITED KINGDOM, leading to a fall in growth rate of the fast food market. The reasons to a fall in growth rates of fast food markets cannot be solely attributable to recession, rising prices due to increased packaging costs which lead to a shift by consumers to cheaper local options attributed to market decline.

As the economic downturn got worse in the UNITED KINGDOM the people turned more conscious about their finances and switched away from the premium fast food market, hitting the annual sales. When considering the overall market for fast foods and coffee shops from 2005 to 2009, it grew by 15% with total annual sales of 2979 million pounds in 2009 based in retail selling price. When analysing the volume trends of the past three years in the fast food and coffee shop market, they also experienced a decline with an annual volume of 2593 million litres in the year 2009 which was a 0.9% decline on a year on year basis.

The demand for healthier foods is primarily driven by the fact that people are getting more concerned about their diet and health. Consumer protection groups and other pressure groups campaigning about obesity triggered from consumption of Mc Donald's burgers and French fries in the recent past hit the business hard. Moreover Subway, a primarily sandwich brand, positioned itself aggressively as a healthy substitute for burgers and bit away a major market share.

In the past couple of years the most prosperous sector of health foods that gained consumer popularity was witnessed to be health drinks sector. There are two major reasons for this. Firstly, the NHS is carrying out campaigns to create awareness among people that they must adhere to self-care and healthy eating practices. Consumers are encouraged to move away from products that are low in natural content and nutrition value. Moreover, researches at an international level have also proven that consumption of foods and foods that use artificial additives and are low in natural content and have nutrition value pose severe health threats such as Cancer and Obesity. Secondly, consumers are not only become more health conscious, but it has also become a popular trend that consumption of healthy foods, salads and sandwiches have become a lifestyle and fashion symbol. This is particularly more popular among the younger generation.

In order to get a better idea of the marketing strategy to be adopted for fast foods, the accounting profession has gifted the marketing segment with ratios such as A/S ratios. The ratio is advertising total expenditure to sales at retail price to consumer. The A/S ratio is an effective tool in measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. It tells about the sales revenue that has been generated against the advertising expenditure over a given period of time. The lower the A/S ratio, the effective the advertising campaigns are, as higher sales revenue has been generated against a low value of advertising expenditure, thus decreasing the numerical value of the ratio. Advertising is important in the fast food market, due to increased competition in the market. The advertising expenditure report released in March,2010 shows that a total advertising expenditure of 21.7 million pounds was recorded on an annual basis, which is an increase compared to previous years due to increased competition and slow sales. The major companies in the United Kingdom with high budgeted advertising campaigns included Innocent brand with an advertising expense of around 3.2 million pounds, on the second was Britvic with an advertising expense of 2.81 million pounds, Tropicana took the third place with expenditure on advertising worth 2.71 million pounds.

Comparing the fast food marketing expense to other food sectors reveals that the A/S ratio of the market of fast food was poor compared to health food markets. The brands such as Subway and Nandos have advertising expense at 11.6 million pounds and 5.1 million pounds respectively, These figures show that A/S ratio in the energy drink sector was lower than that compared to fast food sectors, as the advertising expense in both the sectors differed by only 0.7 million pounds while the energy sector registered a growth in sales and as discussed earlier, the fast food market registered a declining growth rate.

The fast food are considered to have a premium market and they are tend to be sold in huge super markets such as Tesco. Coming on to the market trends for fruit fast foods, these are affected by weather and other environmental factors. As discussed before, the growth remained sluggish in 2009 due to the fact that the weather remained cold which showed a declining trend in the growth of the market. When considering the population segments which contribute more to the fast food market, the older population seem to be at the top due to health related problems. Many companies have also used advertising campaigns which outline the benefits of fast food which made them more popular among the older generation.

Brands such as Subway advertised to target the young generation. In order to target the young generation, advertising campaigns included scenes which showed bravery and passion of the youngsters when they consumed fast food. All these factors are taken into account by famous fast food manufacturers and suppliers when marketing for their products.

As the market for fast food tend to be slower, the fact that most of the UK population tends to be below the age of fifty five supports the sluggishness of the market as the target market for fast food remain to be the older population.

Currently, there are two key players in the fast food market. First is the Burger King and the second one is Hardees. The fast food market already faces a fierce competition from other options such as Pizza Hut and Subway, both of which provide a similar casual dining and take away concept. Burger King and Hardees are both a major player in the soft drink market both home and abroad. With the introduction of fast food by both these companies, it became more difficult for smaller firms to compete. However, the major competition that Mc Donald's face is from Burger King as Mc Donald's still has a larger market share compared to Hardees. The primary reason for this is that both Burger King and Hardees. Are well established and are strong multinational companies. They already have economies of scale and they can afford to spend huge amounts of money on their advertising. This extensive advertising creates a lot of barriers for new competitors to enter the market. Although in the past some smaller companies have succeeded in establishing their own brand and consumer loyalty, however, such brands were later taken over by these larger market players

The fast food market also faces a fierce competition from other foods such as pizzas, sandwiches and products like nachos. These wide varieties of foods available in the market allow consumers a much wider choice both in terms of taste and price, due to which consumers can easily switch away from one type of product to another in a situation of economic down turn.

The use of corporate social responsibility is being discussed on entrepreneur levels as a method to promote and market the business due to the belief that fulfilling the corporate social responsibility produces a sense of respect for the company or the enterprise as it markets itself of being courteous to its customers. Corporate social Responsibility is currently being used as a part of company policy in almost every multinational which intends to ensure that it produces or creates a sense of brand loyalty in its customers. Corporate Social Responsibility has been an important part of company policy. These companies include Nestle, Unilever, Glaxo Smith Kline, Pfizer and many other multinationals. Besides these prominent multinationals, various other local organizations across the globe are now also adopting the policy of Corporate Social Responsibility.

The trend towards Corporate Social Responsibility started to increase when a world-wide awareness was created by organizations such as United Nations for businesses to look towards the environmental aspects of their business and the harm that is being caused to the environment due to the smoke and other waste generated by industries. Consumers were also made aware of the effects that these industrial activities have on the environment which also affects them in a negative manner. This made consumers to think before they buy any company's products and to ensure that they do not finance pollution and environmental degradation. Therefore, all these steps and circumstances have lead a change in global trends towards industrial activities where companies are doing their best to ensure that they reduce the pollution generated from their industries to as low level possible.

However, it must be noted that corporate social responsibility is not just about protecting environment or preventing pollution. In essence, by being a socially responsible business, it means that the business ensures that it does not only comply with legislations and regulations pertaining to its business and the business environment, but also ensures adherence to ethical and moral standards. Many large organizations have gone a step ahead from restricting their social responsibility to pursuing environment friendly business activities, and are actively taking part in various philanthropic activities for example supporting sports, supporting cinema, health and education in poor countries etc.

Not only consumers have forced the companies to fulfil their corporate social responsibility but governments have also taken an active part in ensuring that business activities taking place under their authority are carried out in an environmental friendly manner. The question still arises from the fact that the rapid expansion of the industrial sector especially in South Asian countries such as India and Peoples Republic of China requires the use of methods that ensure a clean environment and satisfied consumers. Like most multinationals, Mc Donald's has incorporate its corporate social activities in its marketing campaign and have adhered to some degree of 'cause related marketing'.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Classical v/s Contemporary view

As mentioned earlier the notion of corporate social responsibility is spreading rapidly across the corporate world. However, during the past few years there has been an extensive debate about whether corporate sector organizations should be socially responsible or not. On that ground the corporate world and the academicians pertaining to the corporate world are divided into two schools of thoughts namely the contemporary view and the classical view.

The classical view believes that firms organizations do not need to be socially responsible. This school of thought firmly believes that it is not an organization's responsibility take care about the social problems as the ultimate goal of any private sector firm is maximization of profits and not social service. People belonging to the classical school of thought argue that private sector organizations must not indulge in provision of social services as this adds extra costs to business and as a result results in the fall of profit margins. The classical view also argues that since these organizations work and recruit employees that suit their corporate goals, such private sector corporate organizations do not have the required expertise for the said social services.

On contrary to the classical argument, the contemporary view argues that researches over the past few years have proven that organizations that are socially responsible end up generating higher revenues as compared to those which are not socially responsible. The contemporary school of thought introduced the concept of 'cause related marketing'. This concept suggests that the firms actually use their social responsiveness as a marketing tool. They inform customers about how they care about their society and how their business practices are contributing to the larger interest of the society and as a result more and more customers are attracted to buy their products. This results in an increase in the firm's revenue as well as the market share and in some cases, the firm's goodwill also. Although one classical view argument that the organizations do not have the required the expertise for social activities is hard to refute, the contemporary view argues that they could always outsource the work to an external expert. In the current scenario the contemporary view has clearly gained more popularity and more and more firms are adopting some sort of social activities.

Challenge for Managers

Discussing corporate social responsibility on a theoretical level is a long debate but the real challenge is being faced by managers who are under pressure not only to ensure good and positive economic performance of firms but also to fulfil their responsibilities on a corporate social level.

Such an example could be found in the pharmaceutical industry where the managers have been under pressure due to the fact that they tend to do good business in a field where the thinking of a consumer is that the company is earning on drugs that are meant to save the lives of the common people. Managers have been facing criticism in the pharmaceutical industry for fixing prices, selling drugs on an unaffordable price, High cost of investment and research passed on to consumers and cartels being formed in the industry.

The dimensions of the Corporate Social Responsibility

The theories regarding Corporate Social Responsibility have been subject to a long debate and have still lead to more and more complexity as each firm tries to fulfill its corporate social responsibilities in its own way depending on the industry in which it operates. The Corporate Social Responsibility is implemented by each business on different levels. The four common dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility include instrumental theories, political theories, integrative theories and ethical theories.

The instrumental theories define the organization as a means of economic returns and creation of wealth and its Corporate Social Responsibility policy focuses on the fact that it should be able to benefit economically by carrying out social activities. The second theory of politics relates itself to the organization's power in the political arena and how it uses this to fulfil its role in the society. The third theory of integrative approach could be seen as a fair one by consumers as its main focus is to fulfil the social needs of the society. The last approach which is purely based on ethics is mainly focused on the fulfilment of ethical responsibilities through the use of funding and donation and other forms of financing activities.

Mc Donald's is a new concept in Fast Food dining that features authentic Fast Food cuisine and seafood of all types. It is an alternative to continental at moderate prices. Mc Donald's will feature variety in their menu through offering both classic and unusual flavor combinations in their Fast Food cuisine with the classic Fast Food Sushi being the main focus. It will seek to build a brand based on the uniqueness of its menu and through offering a menu that will appeal to a variety of tastes and preferences. Through its careful attention to offering the moderate price-range dinner something different from other restaurants competing in this price range, Mc Donald's retains an 85% gross margin through its menu and unique dining experience.

Ansoff Matrix

Since the focus of discussion is the marketing performance of Mc Donald's in the existing market, without any further launches in the product line, according to the Ansoff Matrix, focus remains on market penetration. Market penetration strategies involve strengthening the foothold of the business in an existing market where completion generally exists. Mc Donald's exists in an area where a number of Fast Food restaurants are already present. This is because the popularity of Fast Food cuisine around the world and especially in the United States of America. A Fast Food cuisine is a whole lot of a different experience as compared to the conventional American cuisine. Having said that, as far as market penetration is concerned, Mc Donald's has an edge over other Fast Food restaurants due to the unique ambience that the restaurant provides. The restaurant however keeps its prices low in order to retain survival in the competitive environment.

Boston Matrix

The unique authentic Fast Food ambience which is a combination of both indoor and outdoor eating facility provided by the Mc Donald's and the it's competitively low pricing strategy has not only taken the business on a high market growth but also high has the highest market share in the region. This is mainly due to high competitive edge that Mc Donald's has over its rival businesses. By charging low prices, the restaurant does not compromise on its profit margins; instead it competes with its rivals without compromising on its profits by its high levels of cost efficiency. This enables the business to maintain its position as a 'Cash Cow' on the Boston Matrix.

The generic strategies for Mc Donald's are discussed under the following section.

Cost Leadership Strategies

Mc Donald's has maintained successful and consistent cost leadership in the industry particularly among Fast Food restaurants. Pricing makes a the restaurant affordable, as compared to direct competition and slightly below competition in the mid-level, ethnic cuisine category. Dishes with a varied price range are offered so that people with a diverse economic background can be covered. Combo meals and value meals are offered to increase the affordability of the restaurant, which further result in an increase in its consumer base. Promotional discounts are offered in off season and psychological pricing strategy may be adopted sometimes in order to encourage sales. The main reason why the restaurant has been able to maintain cost leadership is the fact that due to the scale of its operations, the business enjoys Economies of Scale which enables the business to have lower average costs thus it can charge low prices without compromising on its profit margins (Pareek & Moore, 2009).

Differentiation Strategy

Although by nature a simple Fast Food restaurant, however, the brand image of the restaurant is of not just another Fast Food restaurant in town. As a matter of fact it is considered as a very unique and one of its kind family restaurants as a whole.

Mc Donald's is positioned in the restaurant market by its unique selling point, which is a unique cuisine offered in a unique and culturally rich ambience. The restaurant offers dishes prepared in authentic, natural and traditional Fast Food spices and food can be enjoyed in a traditional Fast Food setting. Unlike other typical restaurants in the area, Mc Donald's offers the comfort of traditional Fast Food dining tables and an aroma of Fast Food fragrances. The restaurant not only offers indoor sitting, but also offers an open air area of the restaurant with couches placed under traditional Fast Food gardens.

Mc Donald's offers a wide variety of cuisine to suit diversified tastes. It offers beef, mutton, pork, vegetarian food as well as sea food. Considering the fact that a large number of Muslim tourists also reside in United Kingdom, the food (excluding pork) is using hundred percent Halaal ingredients and cooking practices. This allows the restaurant to accommodate Muslim population as well, this increasing the consumer base of the restaurant.

Focus Strategy

Although the focus strategy of the Porter's Generic Strategy focuses on specialized market segmentation, the policy of Mc Donald's is not very much aligned with this. Instead, the restaurant targets a wide range of diverse market segments in order to expand its market share (Kotler & Keller, 2008).. The restaurant also provides diverse range of services such as dine in, take away, home deliver and outdoor catering.

Mc Donald's has several key factors that might affect its ability to achieve its goals. The most important factor is the existence of two high-end restaurants in the area that are not totally Fast Food authentic but do offer a variety of Fast Food dishes. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the new business expected to face will be discussed in the following narrative.

The key opportunity that Mc Donald's has is that it offers a menu that is different from the two high-end competitors in the area. The dining experience offered by Mc Donald's is not only unique in terms of the cuisine it offers but also the overall ambience. It will let the diners enjoy a fresh change and make dining a more fun experience than a formal outing. The decor will be different from its competitors and the pricing will be more suitable for a family-style dining experience. One of the greatest strengths that Mc Donald's posses is the fact that the most popular restaurants in United Kingdom city are those that offer cultural, traditional and ethnic culinary. Mc Donald's highly skilled and qualified staff including from waiters to restaurant managers and its aim to provide supreme customer service will help in attract a large number of clientele. The restaurant staff will be dressed in traditional Fast Food dressings and will greet and serve the customers in authentic Fast Food mannerism (Czinkota, 2007). This will transport the customers in virtually in Fast Food environment thus giving them unique experience of fusion of western and traditional culture.

One of the key weaknesses of Mc Donald's is the existence of two competitors in the local area. This means that the market share will more than likely be divided among these three direct competitors. However, there is also other competition from other ethnic restaurants that target a similar market segment (Kerin, 2008). Several Greek, Spanish, and uniquely American restaurants in the area might further divide the market share, both from locals and from the tourism trade. The presence of local competition represents the greatest weakness that the restaurant has to face. However, considering the fact that Mc Donald's provides an ambience that will be as culturally rich as its food, there is a great scope to capture a larger market share of the competing restaurants.

Mc Donald's has many opportunities within the local area. The first opportunity is that the city has a large local Fast Food community that seeks and enjoys their native cuisine. This community also creates a local tourist attraction with many sites and events throughout the year. The presence of ample hotels in the area makes the local area a desirable tourist destination. At present, the Mc Donald's restaurant enjoys packed crowds every weekend and throughout the entire summer months. Mc Donald's also has opportunities to diversify its menu in future and incorporate other South Asian and International cuisines in its menu.

The primary threat that currently exists and that could affect the success of the restaurant does not stem from local competition, as one would suspect, but rather from instability in the overall economy. Although food is a commodity, economic downturns could mean that customers begin cooking at home more or forego their travel plans. Either of these activities could have a negative impact on the business However, it is expected that an economic downturn would affect high-end restaurants before it would affect mid to lower priced restaurants . Pricing in the mid range provides some insulation against the economic downturn. Brand differentiation will also serve as insulation against economic downturn. There is also a threat that new competitors will enter the market offering similar cuisine and ambience thus offering customers a substitute (Silk, 2006).