The McDonalds Company or rather stretch of restaurants is a well-known and leading provider of fast food and among other delicacies in the world today. Statistics showing that the California based company has the highest number of employees and makes the most amount of money per day (Ray and Anderson, 56). This company acts as a reference point when it comes to success in business. The company that started in California has open branches worldwide in almost all the continents, and it boasts for the highest number of customers it serves with regard to the fast food business.
Well as anyone would expect, the company has its own flukes and that is what makes the company vulnerable to its competitors. It is clear that most people complain about prices of goods in the market. The fact that there are substitute goods for a cheaper price makes the situation even worse. A recommendation to McDonalds would be reducing their prices a little bit or being creative enough to come up with food that cost much less than the main food that they sell. For example, they could come up with variable prices for burgers that clearly differentiate it from other restaurants. This would give them an opportunity to defend themselves whenever they are questioned about the high prices that they charge on their food.
In addition, to defend their prices and show no intentions of reducing the prices, McDonalds should consider coming up with intermediate packing of almost all their products. Despite having, the large and small packs there should be an intermediate one that displays a bit of consideration when it comes to pricing. On the other hand, the company should also reduce its prices since there are many players in the market providing fast food. Charging high prices will automatically affect their business.
Another area that McDonalds need to perfect is the customers satisfaction bit. Since the company knows that it has numerous customers, which is a good thing, they should implement other mechanism that will enable them to serve their customers as fast as possible to avoid wasting time. For example, in areas where there is a high demand and customers flock the restaurant, the management should consider hiring many employees to serve the customers. I would suggest that they maintain a ratio of one employee to six customers for efficiency in the restaurants. On the other hand, if McDonalds apply these changes and employ more employees, they are likely to incur losses in the end.
Besides the weaknesses that McDonalds has, there are strengths that make it stand out in the market. This includes the recent upgrades that the company is making in their restaurants for the sake of aesthetic value and pleasing the eyes of the customers at the same time making them more comfortable (Ray and Anderson, 137). Since the statistics shows that, the highest numbers of customers that visit McDonalds are children these upgrades should be made and a lot of consideration made that will attract more and more of their strongest customer base. The graphics and the whole new look that every time the McDonalds tries to embrace should not be too old or mature to scare away the children. The mood that the new look portrays should be vibrant and welcoming to any child passing outside the restaurant. Bright colors mostly would work out this puzzle.
On the other side, McDonald restaurants should not be turned into a circus where pictures of clowns are distributed everywhere. However, the restaurants should display some level of maturity not to chase the adults away. The management should come to a middle ground when suggesting the changes that are to be made to have everyone irrespective of the age included and satisfied in the end.
Among other strengths that McDonalds has the ability to adapt to the current health situation where the doctors are linking obesity to the consumption of plenty of fast foods.
McDonalds came up with the idea of selling mashed potatoes instead of fried potatoes that I can say made their customers trust their products more as far as health issues are concerned (Wiley,120). A recommendation to McDonalds would be to carry out this campaign of producing and selling healthy meals is part of their advertising budget. The company should be on the forefront to fight obesity and maybe in future reduce the amount of deep fried products that they sell and substitute them with boiled or roasted food. This will make their customers trust their products more and more as they advocated for healthy eating.
When it comes to advertising, we can conclude that the company is doing a good job and constantly being ahead of everyone. Since everyone is now on social media networks, I think the company could now invest more in this platform. Here they are assured to reach out to even more people. As more scholars now recommend internet marketing and predict that this cost effective marketing scheme will soon be the most efficient (Jen, 57)
McDonalds should invest more in using children in most of their advertisement as a way of showing appreciation to their largest customer age grade. Whether it is in radio or television commercials that the company decide to come up with. The billboards that the company erects should also show some improvement in the number of children that participate in advertising their products to the world. As one would say using a child for an advertisement popularizes the product more than using an adult (Jen, 38).
Work cited
Green, Jen. Advertising. New York: Rosen Central, 2012. Print.
Kroc, Ray, and RobertAnderson.GrindingIt Out: The Making of Mcdonald's. New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1987. Print.
