Daniel Job M.

Vallejos
MADFUND - K85

Reflection Paper
The Founder

Guide Questions:
What strategies did the founder create for the business?
What is the importance of branding in this movie?
How does the founder adapt to the changes in the context consumer behaviour?

The film entitled The Founder portrayed how a small business could lead into
a successful franchise through marketing tactics and strategies. In the film's case, it
portrayed how a businessman established a well-known fast food chain that would
dominate the food chain industry through a shop owned by two brothers. After watching
The Founder, I have noticed the different strategies by the McDonald Corporation to be
successful with the McDonald stores as Raymond Alber Kroc, also known as Ray Kroc,
was inspired by the system of the McDonald's brothers. One noticeable strategy that
many food businesses were inspired by was the concept of fast food. Fast food was an
innovative strategy that the McDonald's brother created which Ray was drawn into. It
was effective and efficient for the business and customers as time consumed for
preparing meals was quick. This improved the time management of the business
compared to other restaurants at that time that consumers waited at least 10 minutes
upto 1 hour, unlike McDonald's 10 second preparation during the 1950's. While this was
not created by Ray, it served as an inspiration to him to market the business using the
next strategies. Another strategy I found effective for the business of McDonald's was
the simplification of the food menu by the brothers. What made this effective was the
limited yet easy choices of food to the buyers. There may be less opportunity for the
business to showcase many dishes but it makes less time for consumers to order, which
leads to more customers that businesses could cater to. Many restaurants during the
1950's featured many items in their menu to lure customers to buy more dishes, yet in
exchange were the number and security of goods to be ordered by the business.
McDonald's, on the other hand, prioritize limiting their menu which leads to the store
securing goods such as hamburgers, fries, shakes, and other similar products. What
also made it effective was how the food and beverages are a perfect combo for eating
meals. Another strategy that Ray Kroc implemented was the franchising of the
business. The McDonald's brothers tried franchising their business before but
unfortunately failed to dominate the market, leading them to scrap the idea of
franchising the business. Despite the failure of franchising the business, Ray Kroc was
determined to pitch the innovative business to wealthy partners. Eventually, he
persuaded his wealthy friends to support the franchise by becoming a franchise owner.
This became a starting point of the domination of McDonalds in parts of United States,
unfortunately Kroc's friends added more items that were against the idea of Kroc, which
is the next strategy. The next strategy that was also part of the concern of Dick was the
standardization of other branches. Mentioned the additional items of Kroc's friends, Kroc
took an action to remove them from their titles and reorganized the business by hiring
other people he believes could manage with the standardization of McDonald's food and
service to other branches. This in turn established the business to many consumers.
This strategy helped the business grow and have a larger grasp of consumers
throughout the state and eventually other parts of the world. Last strategy that relates to
our marketing topic is the branding of McDonald's. By knowing what their target market
and their advantages were from other competitors, they had the opportunities to
establish their brand. This resulted in customers loving their brand even more, which
still holds up to this time period.

In relation to branding, the Founder showed how important branding is to a

business. In McDonald's case, it was their unique name, famous golden arches, and
their strategies, which became their foundation of the business. Near the end of the film,
Dick McDonald asked Ray why he didn't just copy the idea and started a new
restaurant. Ray responded that he would fail just by starting his own restaurant with the
strategies used by the brothers. Ray added that it wasn't their service and product
system that they had set in motion that had caught his attention but the uniqueness of
the name McDonald's. He mentioned that McDonald's sounded like America. This was
evident as many consumers were fascinated by McDonald's not only because of its
uniqueness but its comfort in hearing the brand 'McDonald's'. This supports the idea by
relating McDonald's to Jollibee. Jollibee is well-known for its connection with its
customers. Jollibee portrays the welcoming presence of us Filipinos and the happiness
we bring to our neighbors. Furthermore, the golden arches were also eye-catching to
consumers, which they easily identified with McDonald's. These arches was pitched by
the brothers that eventually Kroc used in advertising the McDonald's logo. These arches
was an inspiration from the architectural structure of the first ever McDonald's in the
world.

In terms of adaptability of McDonald's to the United States, it did well in

responding to the changing consumer behavior. One notable implementation that the
founder adopted to the business was known as the Speedee Service System. This
system was what mentioned earlier with the fast routine in cooking and delivering the
orders of customers at the cashier or claiming area of the shop. It helped the business
adapt as customers, including Ray Kroc based on his experience from the first part of
the film, had shorter patience and wanted their food at the convenience of time.
Additionally, this benefited the customers to receive their cravings in just a matter of 10
seconds through this system. Another reason how McDonald’s adapted is through
simplifying their menu, as mentioned earlier. By simplifying their menu, it helped the
consumers to have less time in choosing their desired food in the Cashier Area. It is
noticeable that in that time period, restaurants also took plenty of time consumed by
customers ordering their meal due to plenty of meals indicated in their menus. Today,
McDonald’s have adapted with the consumer behavior today by adding more foods that
are also a hit in specific areas such as Chicken Spaghetti, which contrast to their menu
but shows how McDonalds adapted. Lastly would be the expansion of McDonald’s.
After establishing multiple branches of McDonald’s within parts of America, its popularity
spread like wildfire within other states due to its branding also. As a response of the
fast-food shop to the demand, it expanded its coverage of places to others, until it
expanded to other countries all throughout the world. In 2022, McDonald’s had a
number of 40,273 restaurants all over the world, which surpassed its previous number
of 40,031 restaurants in 2021 (Statista Research Department, 2023). It clearly shows
that branding and strategies to implement in a business is important for the success of
it. Despite the controversies and cruelty act surrounding the ownership of Raymond
Kroc to the shop of the McDonald’s brothers, he succeeded in establishing an ideal
fast-food restaurant that eventually many copied the idea.

References:
Hancock, J. L. (2016). The Founder. The Weinstein Company.
Statista Research Department. (2023, March 22). McDonald’s restaurant count 2022 |

Statista. Statista.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/219454/mcdonalds-restaurants-worldwide/#:~:t

ext=Number%20of%20McDonald's%20restaurants%20worldwide%202005%2D2

022&text=Global%20foodservice%20retailer%20McDonald's%20operated,from%

2040%2C031%20restaurants%20in%202021.