General Environment Analysis of McDonalds - Case Study Example

The paper "General Environment Analysis of McDonald's" is a perfect example of a management case study. This report has been designed to provide readers with in-depth knowledge of the marketing research case analysis of McDonald's. The report summarizes the general environment analysis which includes a detailed description of the border situation affecting the company including demographics, innovation, technology, etc. The report then highlights the internal environment analysis along with the attractiveness of industry with a detailed study on the competitor environment analysis of McDonald’s in today’s business scenario and internal analysis of McDonald’s highlighting its capabilities, core competencies, value chain analysis, etc. The report also evaluates a SWOT analysis of the company to find its internal strengths and weaknesses along with future potential opportunities and threats. Further recommendations are provided on the basis of alternative strategies specifically for both long term and short term strategies can McDonald’s can look to draw upon for ensuring long term sustainable growth of the company. Finally, a conclusion is provided to ensure both theoretical and practical knowledge is enhanced by the readers of the entire topic under study.

McDonald’s is a well-known brand and has been serving customers with high customer satisfaction for over half a century. The company focuses on maximal customer satisfaction with the best quality food at competitive pricing. McDonald’s is the world’s best fast-food company in terms of its sales with more than 30,000 flagships serving the best quality burgers and fries in over 100 countries with its presence all across the globe. The company serves millions of consumers with over 31000 restaurants worldwide and employing over 1.5 million employees. It follows a franchise system of business model with around 70% business run on the franchisee and around 30% the corporation owns to others. The greatest concern for the company is rising competition both from large giants like Burger King, Subway, Yum, Wendy’s, etc along with small domestic fast food centers. Operating on a global scale with employees from different cultures and ethnicity attracts the risk of cultural differences within the organization. Further, the company strictly needs to adhere to various changing rules and regulations of the different countries and has to maintain strict rules of food and security reasons. The economic slowdown has its own negative impact on the disposable income of consumers who as a result of the same spends less on fast-food, however, McDonald’s need to ensure that sales in no means are comprised along with its quality food and the company can look to reducing prices of its products to maintain an equilibrium in its sales figures. Further, the company still has immense opportunity to set up its business in emerging economies of the world as market research in those emerging economies shows promising signs of the huge demand of fast-food in such regions and McDonald’s through its greater brand loyalty and promotional activities can take advantage of the same. It is to be further noted that there is no switching cost for the consumers in the fast-food industry, however, McDonald’s has been very successful in ensuring a large portfolio of loyal customers who are more attracted to the products and services offered by McDonald’s then its existing and potential rivals.