McDonald’s
Introduction
McDonald’s is a franchise that is globally known for as a drive-in restaurant with well-known burgers and it is estimated to serve millions of the customers daily. In addition, to this, McDonald’s has been ranked as one of the private employers with the largest number of employees. The company was established by the McDonald brothers in 1940, as a stand which mainly dealt with the sale of hamburgers. The restaurant was officially registered as a drive-in restaurant in 1967. All through this period, McDonald’s changed its logo to the renowned double-arched M which has been their logo from the late 1960’s. Although the company has been realized to be a drive-in restaurant, the company has shifted from this culture and hence the store has over the years started offering the counter service.
Problem Faced by the McDonald’s Restaurants
Even though these stores were established with the aim of supplying burgers to their customers, it has over the years been able to diversify the products that it serves to its customers. For example, over the years, it started supplying to its customers soft drinks, desserts, hamburgers and have gone a step further to sell salads, smoothies, and even fish wraps. Even though they diversified what they sell to their customers, McDonalds has been realized to still suffer from a problem of not meeting the needs of the younger generation who are deemed to be their largest target market.
This inability of them being able to be the best preference for generation Y is seen to be among the major problems that the restaurant may be faced with. This, in turn, has been realized to be the major cause of the losses to their competitors. This is since Generation Y prefers the services that are offered by McDonald’s competitors for example Starbucks and Chipotle. This has been an issue that has been realized to be due to the wrong perception of the stores as a whole. This is since, most of the young people are of the opinion that the stores are old fashioned and hence the other new stores are a better choice as compared to the McDonald restaurants.
This has been an issue that the store has been able to try to combat with coming up with strategies in order to be able to address it. For example, the restaurant came with the strategy of coming up with ‘make-your-own’ burgers strategy, that was aimed at ensuring that more of Generation Y visit the restaurants. This is mainly due to the fact that it was rumored that generation Y was more interested in customizing their products and hence this would meet their preference. In addition, to this, McDonald’s was forced to have to introduce healthier foods to their menu, for example, the introduction of salads to their menu, in order to continue having the younger generation as part of their markets. This was meant to curb the change in preference of the younger generation which was always attributed to the change in lifestyles of this generation which was shifting from the YOLO(You Only Live Once) mentality to the healthy lifestyles.
In addition, to this, the restaurant had to ensure that it has a change in its rather typical food programs when it was forced to introduce the brunch menu in order to cater for the needs of the younger generation who are believed to highly prefer brunch over the other contemporary meals. This in turn shows that McDonalds is forced to have to shift in its sales culture in order to be able to meet the needs of the 80 Million young generations.
Change in Taste and Preference
Method of Collecting this Information
In order for them to be able to collect this vital information, the restaurant can be able to consider various platforms. One of the methods that they may use would be the use of questionnaires which they may decide to give to their young generation in order to enable them to be able to air out their views of the food and go further to understand their constant change in preferences. However, this use of questionnaires may be deemed to clearly prove that the restaurant is for the older generation. This would then require that they consider the various online platforms.
The restaurant can decide to carry out a survey on the social media site which is used more by the generation Y and hence use this finding to come up with various strategies that will allow them to not only advertise their products to this particular generation, but further ensure that they provide a platform for their customers to be able to exchange thoughts with their teams and be able to report the problems and seek clarification if need be. Research has been able to show that Generation Y has tended to be more comfortable to trade with companies and organizations which have an online platform from which, they are able to seek clarification and make reports easily. With this simple discovery, it is clear that this generation has not only shifted in their taste and preferences in terms of their foods but further, it has changed how they communicate.
As they carry out this survey, it is important for the restaurant to have to consider making the process as small as possible and an easy to fill questionnaire in order to ensure that the survey does not have to be a tiresome action. This is mainly, due to the fact that, a huge percentage of generation Y would always prefer small and easy to understand activities rather than going ahead come with volumes and volumes of questionnaires in the name of a survey. This issue of voluminous papers as been among the problems that McDonalds’ facing. This is seen with how big the menu is and this in turn undermines it fast-trait.
Validation of the effectiveness of the data
Once this information pertaining to their taste and preferences, it is important for the company to see how they can incorporate these findings into their functioning. This is a method that may be of use in a bid to compare whether the findings are reliable. This is due to the fact that if they are able to follow these strategies, then the next visible action will be the fact that there would be an increase in the number younger generation who visit the stores. So the store can compare the number of the younger customers who visit their restaurant as compared to the prior years. If there’s an increase, then it would be clear that the finding was reliable.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that even though McDonald’s is among the major food restaurants globally, it has tried to be able to come up with strategies that would enable it to meet the constant needs and preferences of their market, it is clear that further steps must be met in order for it to increase its sales and attract more of generation Y.
References
Lewitinn, L. (2014). Millennials could be just the start of McDonald's problems. Retrieved from CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/28/millennials-could-be-just-the-start-of-mcdonalds-problems.html
Shaughnessy, B. (2014). McDonald’s Super Sized Problems with Millennials. Retrieved from Millennial Marketing: http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2014/12/mcdonalds-super-sized-problems-with-millennials/
Tuttle, B. (2015). 5 Problems That’ll Challenge McDonald’s No Matter Who’s CEO. Retrieved from Everyday Money: http://time.com/money/3687899/mcdonalds-problems-new-ceo/
