Among the fast food chains across the world, McDonald's is quite popular . Started in the early 1950s, the chain has grown regularly until the late 1980s with more than 5200 restaurants in the United States. At present, there are more than 30 000 restaurants located in about 110 countries. McDonald's serves more than 48 millions of meals every day. Thus, it would be interesting to study the CRM strategy of one of the biggest companies in the world.
During the last 50 years, the strategy of McDonalds has evolved considerably. They have evolved from being a basic fast-food joint to a fast-food chain and are also provide plenty of add-ons as well. Hence, I wanted to choose McDonald's as an example of a company that has a good CRM. Additionally, it would be interesting to study and analyze a company whose primary concept was to have the least relationship with the customer and a company that now wants to retain them for as long as they can in their facilities.
McDonald's CRM objectives and strategy
a.General strategy
First of all, we shall study about the general strategy of McDonald's. This will allow us to precisely understand as to how they work and react to the market.
McDonald's have developed a price-slashing and low volumes policy; and comprise the main components of its competitive advantage. Prices have to be affordable in order to deliver a variety of meals everyday. McDonald's is not a regular restaurant. They want to attract the customer as regularly as possible, and thus, the prices of the meals cannot be too expensive. The prices are not the same in every country and they can vary in a country depending on the city or the restaurant.
Moreover, about 70 % of the sales at McDonald's are conducted within four hours. Hence, they decided to try and change the dietary behaviour in order to attract more customers during the off-hours. For example, if you buy a meal at lunch, you have a discount on a second meal which is bought before six in the evening.
[...] Mc Donald's also takes into account the specificities of each country. For example, in China, TV has not had the same impact on customers as in France, and they focus more on newspapers in these countries. The communication at Mc Donald's is running smoothly and does not need to be often changed. Of course, they regularly adjust to the new trends and interests of their customers, but their basis is still the same. b. The feels-like-home concept One of the new concepts they had developed in the past years is the feels-like-home concept. [...]
[...] - Diversification of the services: It is not only about food in a McDonald's as there are many other services that are added to this. In some restaurants in the US, you can now also rent DVDs, for instance. b. Interaction with the customer Another important point of the strategy of McDonald's revolves around its interaction with the customer. The objective of the company is not to know about the customer, but to study about the market they are in. [...]
[...] Mc Donald's and they might have to adapt its strategy to cater to the tastes of the customers. b. Controversy Mc Donald's also had to face many controversies which was not very good for its image. They focus on two main points: the child advertising and the health issue. The main targets of Mc Donald's are children; it can be seen through the advertising and the facilities put in place in the restaurants (playgrounds for example). It has been seen as unethical by many associations, because young children are attracted by Mc Donald's aggressive advertising. [...]
[...] There is no regular loyalty program, as is the case with other restaurants: there are no loyalty cards; but they identify their target and are doing their best to forecast its needs through many different partnerships: for example, as one of their targets is children, they offer the “Happy Meal” package or the meal for children and this includes several presents that are associated with comics or movies that children prefer. They adapt their offers to the latest trends that their customers are interested in. [...]
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