Although it is the world's largest fast food chain , McDonald's currently faces many problems. In particular, its performance in the UK is a troubling, due to a recent "slump in sales" .
It is clear that the McDonald's brand needs to be revitalised in order to engage UK consumers effectively again, but the British market appears to be a bleak landscape for McDonald's considering the challenges which will be discussed.
There is a staggering amount of protest against McDonald's, from many standpoints. There are objections about the company from the perspectives of protecting the environment, preserving public health, and preventing damage to society.
Environmental issues were brought to the public's attention when Greenpeace marched into McDonald's restaurants claiming that the chain's "purchasing decisions contributed to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest" .
As far as health is concerned, McDonald's has faced criticisms on many fronts. A key challenge in the UK market is the power of such opinion leaders as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. Celebrity chefs such as Oliver and Ramsay have a great deal of popularity and credibility with the public, which is shown by the way their campaigns against unhealthy eating have dramatically shifted British attitudes towards fast food . Interestingly, this can almost be seen as the opposite to celebrity brand endorsement.
[...] These issues could prove very harmful to McDonald's in its attempts to revitalise its brand in the UK. Furthermore, it is not only TV personalities who have attacked the fast food industry. Academics have also had their say, one noteworthy mention being Richards and Padilla. They argue that fast food companies such as McDonald's use the reasoning that fast food promotion strategies are only part of a zero-sum game (redistributing a fixed market share) in order to avoid sanctions or bans against their advertisements[7]. [...]
[...] Marketing Week. Mar pg.9 Vignali, C. (2001). McDonald's: "think global, act local". British Food Journal .Vol.103, Iss pg.97 Wright, O., Frazer, L., Merrilees, B. (2007). McCafe: The McDonald ' s co- branding experience. Journal of Brand Management. Vol No pg.442- 457 Anonymous. (2008). Here comes a whopper; Fast food in China. Turner, C. (2006). Cracks begin to show in McDonald's golden arches. pg Anonymous. (2007). It's all McChange at McDonald's Turner, C. (2006). Cracks begin to show in McDonald's golden arches. [...]
[...] Whether or not this is ethical is not a discussion for this essay, but it is certainly a conflicting brand message. The marketing executives of McDonald's should ask themselves, a brand truly a ‘global' brand if it has polar opposite positioning in two different countries?” This certainly does not fit with Riesenbeck and Freeling's assumption that positioning and branding are elements of the marketing mix most likely to be standardised across countries[24]. A flexible multi-local strategy goes against Levitt's “Homogenisation of tastes”[25] paradigm which asserts that products should not be changed across countries, because standardised products at low price will eventually shape local tastes; Levitt considers consumer preferences to be unfixed, and open to change, whereas he believes companies try too hard to cater to local needs[26]. [...]
[...] Overall, it appears that the burger is incongruent with McDonald's desired positioning, does not fit well into the World Cup theme, and has the potential to cause confusion to customers' perceptions of McDonald's. References Adamy, J. (2008). McDonald's Coffee Strategy Is Tough Sell. Wall Street Journal. Oct Adamy, J. (2008). McDonald's Creates Asian-Inspired Versions of Food as Part of Olympics Blitz. Wall Street Journal. Jul Adamy, J. (2008). McDonald's Loses Its Trans Fats. Wall Street Journal. May Anonymous. Repositioning McDonalds. Case study handed out in class Anonymous. (2008). Here comes a whopper; Fast food in China. The Economist. Vol Iss Anonymous. (2007). [...]
[...] (2001). McDonald's: "think global, act local". Adamy, J. (2008). McDonald's Creates Asian-Inspired Versions of Food as Part of Olympics Blitz. Gumbel, P. (2008). Big Mac's Local Flavor. Smith, G. (2008). McDonald's Taiwan drops 'one price fits all' strategy. Ibid. Anonymous. (2007). It's all McChange at McDonald's. Ibid. Vignali, C. (2001). McDonald's: "think global, act local". Riesenbeck, H., Freeling, A. (1991), "How global are global brands?” Levitt, T. (1983). The Globalization of markets. Levitt, T. (1983). The Globalization of markets. pg97 Wright, O., Frazer, L., Merrilees, B. [...]
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