Branding McDonald´s

Branding

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Abstract

In this research the authors will identify, analyze and compare the brand identity of the McDonald’s in USA and compare it with the McDonald’s brand identity in India by using the brand identity prism. The brand identity prism has been introduced in the theoretical framework where authors also discussed more about culture. Since, the project concerns the perceptions, values and attitude of people towards the McDonald´s therefore; the researchers used the secondary data, specifically the qualitative data. Finally, to assess the symbolic content of all forms of recorded communication, the content analysis method used in the methodology. In the empirical investigation the authors collected all relevant information about the brand identity prism concerning India and USA. The analysis was done based on the empirical data gathered. The authors concluded the comparison of the brand identity of India and USA in the conclusion part. There are lots of similarities found about brand identity between India and USA. Both of the countries has cultural connection in relation to family values; to peaceful and friendly atmosphere as well as to high quality food for low price. However, there are some major differences for instance the menus. In India all the menus exclude beef and pork on the other hand in the USA´s menus are no food restrictions. In the reflection, Indian people think of themselves as more modern and westernized when consuming McDonald´s products but Americans use it just for functional use in order to satisfy their basic needs.

Table of content

1.        Introduction        1

1.1.        Problem discussion        2

1.2.        Purpose        3

1.3.        Research question        3

2.        Theoretical Framework        4

2.1.        Brand identity prism        4

3.        Methodology        6

3.1.        Operationalization        7

4.        Empirical investigation        8

4.1.        McDonald´s in India        8

4.1.1.        McDonald´s first contact in India        8

4.1.2.        McDonald’s in general and culture in India        8

4.1.3.        Positioning of McDonald’s and its target group        9

4.1.4.        Indian self-image connected to McDonald´s brand        10

4.1.5.        Perception in India        10

4.1.6.        Providing the best value in India        10

4.1.7.        McDonald’s supporting environment in India        11

4.1.8.        McDonald’s localization in India        11

4.2.        McDonald´s in USA        12

4.2.1.        McDonald´s in USA and culture        12

4.2.2.        Perception in USA        12

4.2.3.        Environmental Strategy in USA        12

4.2.4.        McDonald´s strategy in USA        13

4.2.5.        Providing the value in the USA        13

4.2.6.        Target group in USA        14

4.2.7.        Promotion Strategies        14

4.2.8.        Giving back to communities        15

5.        Analysis        16

5.1.        Brand Identity in India        16

5.2.        Brand Identity in USA        18

6.        Conclusion        20

6.1.        McDonald’s brand identity in India        20

6.2.        McDonald´s brand identity in USA        20

6.3.        Overall differences in McDonald´s brand identity in USA comparing to McDonald´s brand identity in India?        21

7.        Reflection over the work process        22

8.        Reference Lists:        23

1. Introduction

Nowadays it is really important for a company to do a successful brand managing. Brand managing is a process of making a brand more popular within consumers, making it more well-known and strong. Good management of a brand will lead to further growth of power, profits and increase of a market share.

Brand is companies’ name, symbol, image, design or combination of these, which help the consumers to have feelings and overall evaluations towards its value by having experiences and associations with it. Good branding is very important for companies, who want to grow and be successful, since cultures, values, attitudes and perceptions are diverse in different countries as well as all people. It is highly connected to the brand identity prism which helps to identify how exactly companies achieve their goals in different countries and manage their business.

A lot of new companies are beginning their businesses each day, but just a small amount of them are becoming successful.  All of them want to have a big share of consumers in the market for their product and services. To be successful, companies mainly should set their goals, pick markets for their products, raise capital, build a strong team within the company, gain share and be adaptable to changes (Cohan, 2013). It is quite hard for a business to follow all these rules, but still there are some companies, which became more than successful. They became megacorporations. This project will focus on one of them and the name of this company is McDonald’s (AboutMcDonald´s, 2015).

Nowadays the process of globalization is unstoppable, since companies want to enter new markets and gain more profits. Because of that it is very important for these companies to know as much as they can about how consumers see their brand in different countries and later to create or adapt their strategies accordingly. McDonald’s is such a brand, where these studies should be made especially accurate. It is justified by knowing that different cultures can have unique food preferences.

This project will be about identifying the difference between McDonald’s in USA and India. McDonald´s itself is a really successful company and it is well known all over the world. Two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald, found McDonald’s in 1940 as a BBQ restaurant in California. This restaurant was closed in 1948 and after 3 months it was reopened with a totally changed menu, which included their famous hamburgers and cheeseburgers. So 1948 is called an official year when McDonald´s was founded. Since 1955 McDonald brothers started to open new McDonald’s all over the USA and since 1967 all over the world. Nowadays McDonald’s restaurants are in 119 countries of the world (AboutMcDonald´s, 2015). Within years, it became one of the biggest food corporations and one of the richest companies in the world with 1.07 billion of profits in 2014 (Gensler, 2014).