Marketing Management

Final Exam

Muhammad Haroon Zahid

18U00454
Section F

1. The basic core value of McDonald’s is to place the customer experience at their
utmost priority. They are committed to their customers, they operate their business
ethically, they grow their business profitably and they continually strive to improve.
Acknowledging the importance of the needs and preferences of the customers is
highly valued at McDonald’s. The company also encourages respect for people, the
brand of the company and a call to always operate in a justified manner. By weaving
the needs of the communities with those of the business, McDonald’s has created an
environment where all partners thrive. The company aims to influence how people
eat and drink. This point presents challenges to the business in terms of effectively
influencing people’s behavior.
They put a lot of emphasis on the importance of cleanliness, quality, service and
value. McDonald's is one of the best known brands worldwide. They conduct
research on what the customers want and need and they try to give them that. This
shows how McDonald's aims to continually build its brand by listening to its
customers. Branding develops a personality for an organization, product or service.
The brand image represents how consumers view the organization. Branding only
works when an organization behaves and presents itself in a consistent way.
McDonald’s develops its menu and recipes to satisfy consumers’ preferences with
regard to fast food products like burgers and fries.
McDonald’s expanded their menu during the 1960s and 1970s. McDonald’s knew
that their core audience consisted of children and families so they focused their
advertising efforts on these groups and introduced Ronald McDonald during a 60
second commercial. They know that children like cartoon characters so over the
years they have introduced a lot of cartoon characters like Hamburger and Mayor
McCheese. This strategy has helped them to in building their brand equity. Another
core brand value of McDonald’s is that it strives to improve the lives of children and
so that’s why the introduced Ronald Mcdonald House Charities that strives to
improve children’s lives, health and well-being. This has played a major role in the
creating brand equity.

2. As mentioned in the case study McDonalds did really well even during the recession
in 2000s. They expanded throughout the world into multiple countries and
continents like Asia, Europe, middle East including countries like Philippines and
Malaysia. McDonald’s adjusts product offerings to fill unmet needs – like relatively
lower cost, healthy alternatives for moms when the recession affected people’s
ability to eat out at restaurants and various menu options for middle income
consumers. It also redesigned restaurants with consumer needs in mind. It also
expands its consumer base through product offerings like McCafe and via global
growth. It has changed slightly in different economic times or in different parts of the
world. McDonald’s did exceptionally well during the recession in the late 2000s
 compared to its peers. It has also allowed it local restaurants to adapt to different
environments and cultures. Prices also varied slightly across the globe to better
reflect different regional states. For instance, it introduced a bacon roll breakfast
sandwich in UK, a premium burger in France, and an egg, tomato, and pepper
McPuff in China.
McDonald's is one of the most successful companies in the world during this
recession. A few reasons about why the company did very well during the recession
in the late 2000s are listed below. The company created a more affordable menu for
people who were affected by economic downturn, the company has definitely stick
with their strategy even now because if it has done well in financially trying times, it
is favored to do well when the situation eases.
During 2000s McDonald’s did very well in the recession period but failed to acquire
profit so later it applied the “Plan to win” strategy and again McDonald’s was on
track. McDonald’s changed its menu and strategy plans after a documentary
“SuperSize Me” targeted McDonald’s for its unhealthy obese foods. It also put effort
in new packaging, which included bold text, and full color photographs of real
ingredients. The company created a consciousness about its strategy focused on
being cheap and healthy. Therefore, it should not change its strategies about price.
If the company changes its focus and increases the price, it can lose the loyalty of
the customers. Nevertheless, the company can enhance its strategies and increase
the quality of services and products. After the financial downturn, the customers
remained loyal to the company, because of the strategy of the company focused on
being cheap and quality. It can be changed at a certain point. Changes can be made
to leverage on improved economic conditions of the global market to maintain their
edge among their competitors.

3. Brand resonance is how well a customer relates to a branded element, such as a

retail product. It is how someone perceives a brand and their values or goals. Brand
resonance models are used to help build relationships with customers. A brand
resonance model details each necessary branding step required in order to reach
resonance.
Salience is simply referring to how transparent a brand is to a customer.
Brand salience deals with how knowledgeable a customer is about a branded
product or service.
Similarly, each time a customer decides to make a purchase from a brand, salience is
how clearly they can recall different factors such as values.
McDonald’s is the world’s leading hamburger fast-food chain, with over 32,000
restaurants in 118 countries. More than 75 percent of McDonald’s restaurants are
owned and operated by franchisees, which decreases the risk associated with
expansion and ensures long-term tenants for the company. McDonald’s serves 58
million people each day and promises a simple, easy, and enjoyable food experience
for its customers.
Imagery, in this model, refers to how the customer perceives a brand. Don’t confuse
imagery with things like logos and fonts, though these may be a part of it. Instead,
consider imagery to be more about customer perception and brand image. Brand
image deals with the types of feelings a customer has about a brand. In order to
create a positive brand image, Learn more about your audience. McDonald’s also
launched a worldwide repackaging effort as a result of intense consumer research. It
included bold text and full-color photographs of real ingredients like potatoes on
French fry packaging and vegetables, cheese, and cooking utensils on hamburger
packaging.
Judgments in this respect refers to a group of thoughts and decisions a customer
makes concerning a brand’s product or service. Judgments refer to how customers
feel about a product’s quality and ability to outperform other brand’s products. In
order to influence customers to hold positive judgments about your brand,
determine new and unique ways to improve the performance and quality of your
products. The new packaging aimed to accomplish several tasks, including teaching
consumers about McDonald’s health consciousness and building
awareness of its use of locally grown produce.
A resonance model helps brands pinpoint their current location, making it clear what
they need to do next to move up the ‘rungs’. Once you become aware of a stage and
the branding objectives required, the rest of the process is easy.