McDonalds entered the Japanese market in 1971 and it immediately went into a stark cultural contrast with the Japanese culture on many fronts. The cultural difference between Japanese conventionalism and Western liberated viewpoint. Apart from these difference, the McDonalds’ culture which reflected American ideologies in its setup and menu offerings posed huge challenges for them initially (Koetse 1). There are a number of aspects like product composition,marketing communication, and table manners which impacted McDonalds’ presence in Japan.
Cutural differences and their impact
Firstly, McDonalds lacked on products offered via its menu which lacked any rice dish and seemed misfit into Japanese definition of prime composition of lunch or dinner related food items.Secondly, Japanese cultural was not used to the combination of meat and bread as their meals were not including meat in any form by then (Koetse 1). Finally, the Japanese cultural values of sitting in groups and sharing the meals were not in sync with McDonalds’ American culture of standing while eating and not having even a single item on the menu which could be shared with others (Koetse 1). Apart from all above factors, even the McDonalds advertisement was developed with its native American approach of using clown Ronald (Koetse 1). Therefore, in order to steam ahead with its globalization related strategic objectives, McDonalds tweaked its approach and ultimately won over Japanese market.
Mcdonalds’s adaptation with Japanese culture
Mcdonald’s started with introducing typical Japanese version of its burger including the Teriyaki Burger, the Rice Burger, and conventional Japanese dessert of Green Tea ice-cream. They reformed their table manners by including Japanese elements of food related spices and positioned the meals to involve soda and ice creams (Koetse 1). Further, they introduced Japanese beverages like Oolong tea and introduced the local information related Japanese McJoy magazine. They also tweaked their advertisement approach to include a Japanese female model in their commercial instead of traditional clown ‘Ronald’ (Koetse 1). All these efforts made McDonadls a new trend in Japan and paved the way for its success in Japanese markets.
Annexure- McDonalds’ New menu and new Advertisement
Works Cited
Koetse, Manya. From Big Mac to Rice Burger — Globalization: McDonald’s in Japan.2012. Web. March 04, 2016.
