The notion of fast food was not a commonly entertained matter by 1930’s and so far, the hamburger restaurant most associated by the public with the term fast food was created by two brothers originaly from Nashua, New Hampshire, Dick and MacMcDonald. In 1954, one businessman Mr. Ray Kroc visited their restaurant in San Bernardino, California and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation. They produced a limited menu, concertrating on just a few items – burgers, fries, and beverages – which allowed them to focus on quality and quick service. (OUR HISTORY, 2017)
First he joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955 and later he took over the rights from McDonald’s brothers and found the Corporation on 15th April 1955. Preserving McDonald broders layout, he added principles of ’’Quality , Service, Cleanliness’’ to perfect their business module, in addition to that, he opted for franchising instead of owning all the restaurants.
It is widely known that McDonald’s is one of the world’s leading food service retailer. Today nearly 2 milions of workers capacity and having brand mission of being their customer’s farourite place and way to eat and drink. This article will touch on McDonald’s strenghts followed by weakeness, opportunities and finally threats to the company not reaching their objectives by a SWOT analysis.
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In regards to strenghts could be a fact that McDonald’s is one of the largest restaurant networks serving customers in over 120 countries with more than 37,000 restaurants as of 2017, which provides the company a strong global presence. (MCDONALD’S CORPORATION,2017) In terms of sales,it ranks very high on food service companies and it is still one of the cheapest places to eat due to the fact that the company can share its fixed costs over many restaurants. On account od good innovation and product improvement, not only it constantly develops to hold clients in the business but also it appeals to the taste buds from variours cultures.
On the other hand, the company’s one of the biggest drawbacks is not making pizza which is another fast food product that is widely consumed thereby limiting their ability to incorporate the pizza eaters. Another weakeness could be due to the core product line they has, it falls out of the new trend of eating and livig healthily that capativates the world nowadays. Many people believe, that since the network is huge and there are way too many restaurants, it is very hard to check on the quality issues across the franchise network. There are also some concerns on customer service since there are several amateur cooking and service personnel that work mainly on burgers and grease fried foods.
There are three main areas of opportunities for McDonald’s.
Firstly, it can respond to social changes by innovation within healthier options in menus; for instance, adding fruits to the menus, writing calories on the products or promoting salads. They has also been recognized by FDA to be first QSR with very low calorie and fat hamburgers. (SWOT ANALYSIS FOR MCDONALD’S, 2011).
Secondly, opening more joint ventures withseveral different retailers, for instance supermarkets which will also bring better locations for franchisees, will consequently help expanding its business.
Thirdly, in technological matter, McDonald’s plan is to announce new setups as McCafé, hawing WI-FI internet services at branches. That will also attract the customers since most fast food eaters are youngsters.
That being said, social changes that have aroused from governments and customers groups which encourage people to adopt a healthier lifestyle thereby follow a balanced diet that contains friuts and vegetables whereas McDonald’shas a very minimal concentration on providing organic foods are the leading threat that they comes face to face. Moreover, lawsuits for offering unhealthy foods that have alleged addictive additives not only scare off the healthy eaters, but also damage the company’s reputation. Since McDonald’s limited menu concenrtates only on hamburgers, cheeseburgers and beverage; competitive pressures emerge as new competitions offering greater product ranges and healthier lifestyle choices. Economy wise, down turn in economy affecting the ability to eat out as much. (Broughton, 2011) As household budgets tighten, reducing spend and number of visitors also becomes evident.
In conclusion, if McDonald’s wants to convert its weakeness to strenghts, they must focus on their overall financial positions that includes Market Share, Profit, Sales, Budget and analysis of all divisions and departments (Ahmed, 2016). Besides they are able to launch new products and services as well as develop them by observing their worth. With the help of positive image that McDonald’s has created via its proactive approach to charities and sponsorships there is a common inclination bycustomers to associate it with a good reputation, so the company should continue to have a role on this matte. Rurthermore, given the importance of the well-trained staff for delivery of high-quality service to the customers, MCDonald’s should keep on putting resources into the training of its employees to guarantee high service quality.
