McDonald’s primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. In response to changing consumer tastes, the company has expanded its menu to include salads, fish, wraps, smoothies, and many other varieties (Wisped, 2015). My case study is McDonald’s in India. McDonald’s entered India in the year 1996 when the fast food retail market in India was at a nascent stage.
Encountered with several challenges in the beginning in terms of adapting to the tastes, preferences and culture of the local customers, changing the perception of Indian consumers towards American food habits, obstruction from political parties, issues with distribution, designing a roper supply chain to training the employees on McDonald’s standards, the fast food giant emerged to be the market leader by 2011.
Though McDonald’s commands the leadership position in the Indian fast food market their exists stiff competition from the local traditional fast food retailers as well as other multinational firms which entered the fast growing. Market Environment Impacts on McDonald’s in India Calculators forces: Culture and society has a big impact on any organization sales. McDonald’s. Culture is very much simple. But in India society is very versatile.
Though India is evilly populated but still Hindus don’t eat meat, Muslim only eat Hall (Accepted by Islam religion) and they don’t eat pork. In India religion has a very big impact on society. For McDonald it is a big concern. But in India life style is changing, earning power is increasing, middle class is getting bigger in its size and people like to eat outside in restaurants this has a very good impact on society (McDonald’s Essay , 2012).
Due to the change of culture and society beliefs such as the Hindu who don’t eat meat, McDonald’s had to change its menu to satisfy the target market by introducing a new menu that is suitable for sectarians such as veggie burgers, spicy kind of burgers and sandwiches that the Indians are used to eating As for the Muslim target market who are mostly after hall (Accepted by Islam religion) food, McDonald’s had to make sure its products were verified as hall to make sure Muslim customers were catered for. Marketing Strategy and the target market: Price, Product, Place, Promotion are collectively called as Marketing mix.
In order to meet organizational objectives product mix is considered to be very vital. It should be viewed as coordinated and integrated package of benefits that shows he characteristics of customers and related place. If was a marketing manager at McDonald’s, I would view use the marketing strategy to the target market in these ways as divided in the Marketing mix of the up’s to make a marketing strategy to reach our target market. Product: Product is the physical product or service that is offered to a customer. As we know that McDonald’s is very customer oriented and all their products are customized according to the local community. N order to succeed in market research has suggested that customers are always looking for innovation and ewe products. McDonald’s is famous for its product innovation. McDonald’s has introduced new products, removed old products and always looking for the better products so that customers are satisfied. McDonald’s India majority of products are vegetarian products. The global chain, whose best-known product is the Big Mac burger in a bun, says it will be its first vegetarian outlet. McDonald’s, the world’s second biggest food outlet after Subway, increasingly adapts its range to local demand.
Both Indian’s Hindu majority and Muslims can eat the same meat-free dishes. Religiously observant Hindus see cows as sacred and avoid beef, while Muslims view pigs as unclean and avoid pork. According to the APP news agency, McDonald’s will open the outlet in the middle of next year, near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Marital in northern India. Religious authorities forbid consumption of meat at the shrine. A spokesman for McDonald’s in northern India, Rashes Kumar Main, told the news agency: “There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants as many Indians are vegetarian. ” (BBC, 2012).
With this information knowing that India is country full f vegetarians then I would make a market strategy for the product to be purely suitable for vegetarians for example veggie burgers and as well those who are not vegetarians but eat Hall then would make sure they get Hall products for example chicken burgers which are verified by the law as Hall. Price: Price is a very important tools which identifies how reliable and qualitative a product is. When a customer is buying something He/she first draw in his/her own mind of what the product is worth of. If the price off product is very low customer think quality is being promised.
Price should really reflect brand and its integrity and due to the fact Indian economy is not all that strong where there are many people in need and unemployed then prices should be considerable to make sure customers do Knowing the price range for Indian economy then I would recommend a considerate price for the products but as well thinking on making a profit at the end of the day. Promotion: Promotion is a way by which company tries to communicate with public and make them aware of what the company is offering. One of the method is Advertisement. Advertisement is conducted on TV, Cinema, Internet, magazines, Poster site, press and radio.
Other ways of promotion includes direct mail, loyalty scheme, door drops and merchandising. As a marketing manager, I would budget some money for promotion of the product so as to reach the target market Place: Place plays very important role in launching a product and making it successful. McDonald’s has expanded throughout in India Urban areas. McDonald is currently targeting urban areas as we know that big part of population is living in urban areas. Place doesn’t only include physical location but it is includes all the processes that eventually leads to product ending in customers hand.
Place plays very important role in getting priority over the rivals and place should be selected after research on the local demography, income level and customers preferences. McDonald’s in India chooses a particular place after long research and checking local area’s demographic characteristics, income level etc. This is the reason McDonald’s is very successful in India (McDonald’s Essay , 2012). As a marketing manager, I would take advantage of urban centers following the big population as the target market to set up the restaurants so as to be convenient o the target market.
