McDonald’s Statement of the Problem or Opportunity
There is lack of proper management of resources within McDonald restaurants and this has led to tremendous drop in sales over the years. Most of the stores in the Far East have closed due to economic downturn. At the same time consumers are shifting their tastes and preferences from hamburgers to other types of food. This has contributed to low sales since the number of people visiting the stores decreased over the years.
The number of prospective franchisees has also decreased attributing their exit to poor customer turnout owing to cheap brand that McDonald has exposed itself to by offering too much discounts on its products. The firm is also experiencing poor quality services and uncleanliness; this is due to laxity by the top management making them not to inspect the franchises. There is also lack of skilled manpower due to postponement of training sessions that were once used to equip employees.
McDonald’s Problem Statement: Alternatives
The company need to work out on their business models through appropriate segmentation to enable them work comfortably with the changing market economy. Professional training of the employees on the marketing and sales strategies needs to be resumed. The firm at the same time need to diversify its sales in order to catch up with the consumers changing trends on tastes.
These other food products must be accompanied by quality services including reasonable prices. McDonalds should also improve on the quality of their burgers by inventing new and unique recipe. This can only be achieved by utilizing the most creative franchisees having high skilled employees (McDonald et al 335-352).
There is need to recruit managers who are capable of implementing the firms marketing programs and at the same time have the ability of building internal cohesion (Johlke and Duhan 265-267). The manager must have the ability to motivate and unite employees from the franchises to the head office.
The managers must possess the ability to control and cope with major changes and challenges within the market. The managers need to acquire valuable information on the current market trends without relying so much on their past performances. They need to improve on their level of interaction and communication with their franchisee.
McDonald’s Problem: Analysis of the Alternatives
Making training mandatory for every employee on a regular basis might see an improvement in the level of skilled manpower. This can be used to enhance marketing effectiveness as well as the level of performance. Recruiting experienced managers will ensure that proper tactics are implemented to regain the control of the market.
This will also ensure that the human resource have the right people for right duties (Cravens and Piercy 2009). McDonalds have kept on changing its managers due to poor performances and inability to implement quality strategies for quality services. Like in this case, poor management led to McDonalds closing over seven hundred restaurants (Gogoi and Michael 281-284).
Looking for the alternative food stuff for consumers might not look effective at the start since there are many consumers who are now used to the supplies from other potential competitors. Improving the recipe will not also realize much change because according to research ratings, the consumers prefer being served with firms that offer better quality services.
According to the research carried out, companies like Wendy and Chick-fill-A Inc were ranked a head of McDonald. McDonald’s competitors offer far better quality food stuff than them and this might mean that McDonald will really have to improve on their sales and marketing tactics in order to convince consumers (Kohli 53-8).
Recommendation
There is need to analyze other competitors intentions and strategies in order to find the best counteractive approach. The need for good management team will enhance the provision of good brand and articulation of all the elements that comprise marketing mix. The products, pricing and the way of marketing must change for growth and improvement to be realised.
Works Cited
Cravens, David and Piercy, Nigel. “Strategic Marketing”. McGraw Hill. 9th edition. 2009.
Gogoi, Pallovi and Michael, Arndt. “McDonald’s Corporation”. Business week, New York, (2003): 281-284.
Johlke, Mark and Dale Duhan. “Testing Competing Models of Sales Force Communication”. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. USA Vol. 21 (4), (2000): 265-277.
Kohli, Jaworski. “Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences”. Journal of Marketing; New York 57, (3) (1993): 53-81.
McDonald, Malcolm et al. “Corporate Marketing and Service Brands—Moving Beyond the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Model.” European Journal of Marketing; London. Vol. 35 (3/4), (2001):335-352.