McDonalds Market Driving Strategy

Mc Donald's is the largest fast food Company serving billions of hamburgers and fries in more than 33,500 restaurants in 119 countries (1). McDonalds which well-known for its products such as Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, and Chicken McNuggets has more recently have ventured into the coffee segment with the McCafé product line. McDonalds is known for its innovative market positioning with novel products such as the "Happy Meal" pleasing young children. One can seldom argue that McDonalds does not understand its customers.

McDonalds has gained access to the market through dine-in and drive-through services at a variety of locations including free standing restaurants and other hotspots such as airports, retail areas and high traffic locations. Although McDonalds is an established market player with a significant market share in the fast food industry, they can employ certain market driving strategies by differentiating themselves and gaining access to untapped markets. Some of the differentiators that I believe will give McDonald's an edge for sustained future growth are value leadership, product leadership and convenience leadership.

Value Leadership: Through value leadership, McDonalds can appeal to certain ethnicities by identifying the brand with the particular market segment. Although, McDonalds actively advertises to the African American, Asian and Hispanic consumers, products that bear cultural value and significance to these consumers are not carried by McDonalds. Therefore McDonalds is not taking advantage of consumers association of food products to the cultural roots. In order to capitalize on this inherent association, McDonalds can introduce products with ethnic influence alongside its standard options. This will lead to a menu creation with regional focus, instead of a standardized product line. This idea is similar to retail food stores stocking up the ethnic isles based on demographics around that specific location. For instance McDonalds can offer the Big Mac with an Asian influence in a locality with dense Asian population. McDonalds has embraced the Far East by offering products with and Asian touch, however, such products are yet to be seen in the US market. Similarly, McDonalds can introduce a "Taco" product to attract Hispanic consumers. Helping consumers relate the food to their own culture will have a strong impact on McDonald's growth in the future.

Product Leadership: The US consumer base shows an emergence of a new health conscious market. McDonalds has caught drift of this growing trend and are now offering healthy choices that range below 500 calories. Almost all healthy choices offered by McDonalds are non- vegetarian foods. "Vegetarianism in America" study, published by Vegetarian Times (vegetariantimes.com), shows that 3.2 percent of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian-based diet. In addition, 10