In her article, Visard (2020) discusses the current position of McDonald’s in the international fast food market and the food chain’s most recent attempts to adapt its resource spending and product positioning strategies during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company is willing to increase expenditures on marketing activities. McDonald’s is going to focus on promoting the existing core menu items rather than introducing new products. It will also emphasize services for customers that increase safety and convenience, including digital and online ordering and order delivery. In the second half of 2020, the corporation is planning to spend an extra $200,000,000 on advertising activities in the United States and international markets.
The main points of the article referring to the plans of McDonald’s on how to accelerate its recovery from COVID-19 shed light on multiple international marketing issues. For instance, in terms of product positioning, the ongoing pandemic and the resulting decreases in sales have encouraged McDonald’s to critically analyze its previous priority-setting practices. Particularly, due to its financial capabilities and the current situation in the international market, McDonald’s reports the need to shift the target audience’s attention from the constantly updated menu and regularly appearing innovative products. Instead, as it follows from its money spending plans, McDonald’s is going to position the brand as the provider of the well-known fast-food menu items that everybody knows and enjoys. By emphasizing its digital services, McDonald’s will also become more recognized as a business that puts the absence of health risks for customers and customer service speed at the heart of its business activities all over the world. Moreover, the company’s rather substantial investments in advertising in the United States and abroad will probably improve its international market targeting strategies due to new opportunities to identify and address customers’ nation-specific needs.
Reference
Visard, S. (2020). McDonald’s prepares to spend marketing ‘war chest’ to boost recovery from Covid. Marketing Week. Web.