Marketing Strategy for Mc Donald Plc

Introduction

Marketing strategy is essential for the success of a product in a
target market as argued by Philip Kotler (1988). This is mainly because
of the increasing diversity in the nature of the customers and the
stiff competition in the market. In this essay the marketing strategy
of Mc Donald the leading conglomerate in the fast food restaurants and
services industry on selling vegetarian burger in the UK. Furthermore,
the consumer behaviour for vegetarian burger in the UK is critically
analysed in order to justify the approach of Mc Donald’s approach to
deploy the identified strategy.

Marketing Strategy for Vegetarian Burger by Mc Donald Plc

The company under debate: Mc Donald Plc in the UK is the subsidiary
of the American conglomerate Mc Donald Inc who specialise in fast food
(burgers and fries) restaurants across the globe. The company is well
established across the west and has a wide range of fast food products
to cater the customer requirements and the market demand.

The vegetarian burger is a key product for the company in the UK
(Company Profile, 2005). It is further interesting to note that the
company promotes vegetarian burger as its key product mainly in the UK
among the western countries apart from its operations in the Far
Eastern countries like India where the company pioneers in vegetarian
range of burgers and fast food products.

The marketing strategy for any product comprises of three key
elements as argued by Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettit (2003)

• Product: The product in this essay is vegetarian
  burger. The key features of the product include low fat, high level of
  carbohydrates and above all the use of quality ingredients to prepare
  the product. The fact that the burger meals are under fast food
  category and that its sales is predominantly high during the lunch
  hours makes it critical that the quality of the product and its
  ingredients are of high standards in order to achieve customer
  satisfaction. The deployment of best practises like washing the hands
  and the worktop before preparing the vegetarian burger every time in
  the kitchen of all the retail outlets (company profile, 2005) and the
  use of fresh ingredients to prepare the filling for the burger are the
  key features that distinguish the product from its competitors in the
  market. Also, the bran Mc Donald that is famous for its adherence to
  strict quality principles in preparation of the products as well as the
  procurement of the ingredients is an accelerating force for the
  promotion of the vegetarian burger in the retail outlets of Mc Donald
  Plc across the UK.
• Price: Philip Kotler (1988) further argues that
  price is the ultimate decision making factor for purchasing a product
  by the customer. Even though food is n the bas of the Maslow’s
  hierarchy of needs making it an essential element for survival, the
  argument of Malcolm McDonald (1996) that the customers prioritise their
  needs not only based upon their requirements but also based upon the
  price of the product they are intending to purchase. The approach of Mc
  Donald Plc to sell its products at a relatively lower price to its high
  street competitors like burger King Plc makes it evident that the
  pricing of the product is an essential element for the growth in its
  sales. Alongside, the pricing of the products in Mc Donald not only at
  a lower level but at a competitive level to reflect upon its quality
  further justifies the pricing strategy of the company with respect to
  the vegetarian Burgers sales in the UK.
• Promotion: The advertising and promotion
  initiative of an organization to increase the sales of a product play a
  critical part in the marketing strategy s argued by Frances Brassington
  and Stephen Pettit (2003). This is evident from the company’s
  investment in advertising its products and the launch of promotion
  campaigns reflecting upon the social and national events like football
  premiership, health awareness initiative of the government etc.
  Furthermore, the promotion of the vegetarian burger as a corn burger
  and not just a vegetarian burger emphasises upon the company’s strategy
  in distinguishing its vegetarian burger from that of its competitors.
  This is because it is universally known that corn is low in fat and is
  a healthy diet in the UK, which was forgotten with the increase in the
  fast food culture (Simon Taylor, 2001). This approach of the company to
  promote its vegetarian burger has not only increased its sales but also
  accomplished the process of establishing the product as a unique item
  in the category of vegetarian burgers in fast food.

The above three elements mentioned might appear to embrace the 4Ps
of the marketing mix without the Place facto in the scene. This is
mainly because of the fact that the marketing mix is the heart of the
overall marketing strategy for any product in an organization as argued
by Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettit (2003). Since the ‘Place’
factor is analysed under consumer behaviour in next section, the other
three elements that form the marketing strategy were discussed in this
section.

Consumer Behaviour Analysis

Philip Kotler (1988) argues that the consumer behaviour plays a
vital role in the designing of the marketing strategy by an
organization to either promote the sales of an existing product or for
launching an existing product. This is clear in the case under debate
where the company has devised its marketing strategy to reflect upon
the consumer behaviour in the UK food market.

Simon Taylor (2001) argues that the increase in the awareness for
vegetarian diet as an alternative in the UK meals is evident since the
late years of the 1990s itself. The fact that the consumers for
vegetarian food not only in the fast food industry but also in the
overall consumer food industry right from the supermarkets up to
restaurants since the dawn of the twenty-first century (Simon Taylor,
2004) further justifies that the consumer behaviour towards the
vegetarian food in the UK has been increasingly positive. The major
driving factors for this state in the target market are identified by
Simon Taylor (2004) as mentioned below

Awareness: The increase in the awareness among the general public
who comprise the consumers in the food industry that the vegetarian
diet is a healthy option for overcoming obesity and other health
problems is the primary element for the drive of the consumers towards
vegetarian range of food products.

Scientific developments: The continuous research on meat based food
products and the establishment of the fact that the animals (pig, cow
etc) that are slaughtered for producing meat can carry germs that cause
diseases like the transfer of malarial bacteria from the female
anopheles mosquitoes into pigs eventually transferring into human
beings causing malaria to the consumers has increased the pre-caution
among the consumers to avoid meat products in their food. The above
argument might appear weak since the strict adherence of the quality
and hygiene standards laid by the government among the meat retailers
might contradict the above statement. But the fact that the transfer of
disease causing germs can grow in meat faster than in vegetables as
argued by Simon Taylor (2001) supports the argument.

Government and Media:

The strive of the government to encourage the vegetarian food in the
diet among the UK general public is the major cause for the consumer
behaviour towards the vegetarian foods. The fat nation campaign by the
BBC in 2004 is a classical example for the support of the media towards
eliminating obesity through encouraging the general public to change
towards vegetarian diet.

Furthermore, Isla Gower (2004) argues that the fast food retailing
in the UK has grown tremendously with the increase in the retail parks
in the geography. This is mainly because of the fact that the general
public or the consumers are increasingly treating the process of
shopping as a outing event with the family rather than perceiving it in
the generic form of buying essentials. This attitude of the consumers
has increased the sales in the fast food centres like Mc Donald Plc
that is present in the retail parks or in the cit centres where the
public gather to spend their time in leisure. The above scenario with
the arguments on the increase in the awareness on the vegetarian diet
apparently increases the demand for vegetarian range of fast food.

The above arguments justify the consumer behaviour elements that
attribute to the marketing strategy of Mc Donald Plc in promoting the
Vegetarian burgers in the fast food industry. The fact that the
awareness among the consumers that the fast food products are rich in
fat and are not healthy were the major elements that contribute to the
customisation of the vegetarian burger as Corn burger since corn is
very low in fat making the vegetarian burger as a healthy alternative
fast food.

Also, the customised range of vegetarian meals apart from burgers
with the salads as option to fries in the retail outlets of Mc Donald
justifies that the above mentioned arguments on the consumer behaviour
towards vegetarian diet and obesity are the driving factors for the
marketing strategy of the company.

Conclusion

The discussion on the marketing strategy of Mc Donald Plc for
vegetarian burgers makes it clear that the company is dynamic in nature
to respond to the changes in the market. Alongside, it is also clear
that the design of the marketing mix which is the heart of the
marketing strategy should reflect upon the target market demand in
order to increase the sales proving the arguments of the academic
authors mentioned in this essay. The analysis on the consumer behaviour
has also revealed that the consumer behaviour in the UK fast food
market was the major element for the marketing strategy of Mc Donald
Plc in selling vegetarian burger. Alongside, the insight into the
company’s strive towards increasing sales through a range of products
in vegetarian fast foods further justifies that the consumer behaviour
is the key to design the marketing strategy for any product in an
organization.

References

Johnson and Johnson SWOT analysis

Johnson and Johnson

Strengths

• Worldwide sales have grown 14% indicating a strong position for the global group.
• The business model adapted by Johnson and Johnson fundamentally
  uses the adaptation of entrepreneurial values in order to retain an
  edge within the market place.
• Working with intensive scientific notions Johnson and Johnson
  utilise a varied expanse of problem solving techniques in order to
  challenge the standard practice and capitalise on growth through
  emerging markets which enables associated growth.
• The use of independent offices working as standalone units
  provides the opportunity to develop concepts with cultural
  considerations which can prove important when taking a product to
  global markets.

Weaknesses

• There is increasing pressure within pharmaceutical markets to
  reduce prices in line with medical budgets and maintain patent
  expirations to ensure generic programmes are updated within critical
  path movements.
• Challenges have been faced within Johnson and Johnson where a
  reduction in the market demand for key products has been identified;
  some of these products were branded and have been replaced by generic
  programmes at the end of patent time lines.
• Internal weakness across the industry and not isolated to Johnson
  and Johnson would be the level of theft and counterfeiting of drugs
  managed through internal personnel.

Opportunity

• Whilst the recent acquisition of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare will
  act as an opportunity in its own right to promote growth for the
  organisation through alternative routes there is the added value
  capitalised through the return on investment which will be realised 12
  months before plan releasing funds back into the bottom line.
• Johnson and Johnson have highlighted new developments in pharma
  products with five undergoing regulatory review which provides the
  opportunity to grow the existing product portfolio.
• Development into new functions of medical devices and diagnostics
  will provide new markets to entry which will result in business growth.
• With the development of WTO rules to prevent the availability of
  cheap generic drugs there is the opportunity to reduce the level of
  lost profit due to generic introduction as patents run out. Whilst this
  will aid Johnson and Johnson where they own the brand where they are
  looking to capitalise on introducing generic drugs to market this
  ruling will become a hindrance.

Threats

• Generally within the main pharmaceutical companies there is a high
  level of competition for the generics markets where patents finish and
  it is the first to entry where success will generally be determined.
• Technological developments with bio-tech concepts will potentially
  move the traditional pharmaceutical methods out of the market place in
  the long term although there is an economical argument that this form
  of development can be segregated to run alongside traditional methods
  and complement as opposed to replace.