A STUDY OF THE MARKETING STRATEGIES OF McDonalds

Abstract

Established in California during the 1940s by two brothers, the McDonald’s restaurant became a popular teen hangout in the first flush of post-war affluence. To feed these youthful bodies, the brothers reduced the menu to the perennial favourite – hamburgers, applied assembly line techniques to food production and expanded to four restaurants by 1953. Taking note of the brothers’ success, in 1955, Entrepreneur Ray Kroc bought the right to franchise the McDonald’s System. Renamed the McDonald’s Corporation in 1960, Kroc focused his marketing effort on the family meal and children, spending heavily on television advertising which promoted the smiling clown face of its child-friendly brand mascot, Ronald McDonald. Today, the McDonald’s franchise exceeds 30,000 restaurants globally and serves over 50 million people in more than 121 countries each day. The business began in 1940, Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The original mascot of McDonald's was a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head whose name was "Speedee." Speedee was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald in 1963. Believing that the McDonald formula was a ticket to success, Kroc suggested that they franchise their restaurants throughout the country. When they hesitated to take on this additional burden, Kroc volunteered to do it for them. He returned to his home outside of Chicago with rights to set up McDonald's restaurants throughout the country, except in a handful of territories in California and Arizona already licensed by the McDonald brothers. Kroc's first McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, near Chicago, on April 15, 1955--the same year that Kroc incorporated his company as McDonald's Corporation. As with any new venture, Kroc encountered a number of hurdles. The first was adapting the McDonald's building design to a northern climate. A basement had to be installed to house a furnace, and adequate ventilation was difficult, as exhaust fans sucked out warm air in the winter and cool air in the summer