Marketing Plan Using PESTLE and Swot Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Marketing plan refers to the document that defines the marketing efforts and advertising for coming year. It also explains the activities that are involved in achieving the particular objectives of the company within a specific period (Risius and Aydin, 2018). McDonald's Corporation belongs to Restaurants industry. It was founded in year 1940 by Maurice and Richard McDonald. Headquarter of the organization is located in United States. It is the largest restaurant chain of the world in terms of revenue. It serves approximately 69 million consumers in approximately 100 countries across the globe. The products offered by McDonald's are chicken, soft drinks, hamburgers etc. Now, the firm is extending the existing brand into new category to meet out the changing requirements of the consumers. It will offer a new product that is Broiled Salmon with mayonnaise in UK. The Report will outline the macro environment analysis with the help of SWOT analysis and macro environment analysis with the help of PESTLE analysis. Further, it will explain segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies, marketing plan that involves marketing mix etc.

MAIN BODY

Environmental analysis.

It is defined as the process that helps to identify the internal and external factors that may impact the performance of the organization. The analysis helps to evaluate opportunities and threats that are present in the environment. The analysis will help McDonald's to determine the opportunity of offering new product in the market of UK.

Macro environment.

PESTLE analysis -

Political-

McDonald's is required to consider various political factors such as rules and regulations like food safety controls, labelling transparency controls etc. Political stability in UK will also impact the working of the firm. Further, it also requires complying various laws related with health and safety of consumers.

Economical-

There are various economic factors that will influence the sales and profitability of McDonald's. It includes purchasing power of people, rate of inflation, rate of interest etc. For Example – The purchasing power of people living in UK has increased by 0.7 % from year 2017 to 2018. This will provide an opportunity to firm to increase sales in UK.

Social-

It involve belief, attitude of people towards the company and its products. It will also influence the sales of company. While conducting marketing activities for promoting new product in UK, McDonald's should consider social and cultural norms of the people.

Technological-

It involves change in technology for producing and distributing the products to the target segment. McDonald's should make efforts for adopting and implementing new tools and technology for producing Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise. This will help firm to gain competitive advantage over other firms.

Legal-

There are various organizations in UK that are working for regulating the quality of food items offered by different organization. For Example – McDonald's have to comply the rules and regulations that are developed by Food Standards Agency in relation with maintaining food hygiene and safety.

Environmental-

The government has made different rules and regulations for minimizing the negative impact of the activities of businesses on environment. McDonald's is required to adopt practices promoting environmental sustainability. For Example – Company should comply laws of The Environmental Protection Act, 1990.

Micro environment.

SWOT analysis -

It is defined as a tool that help firms to identify the strengths and weaknesses that are present in internal environment as well as opportunities and threats that are existing in external environment.

Strengths -

• One of the major strength of the firm is that currently it is operating approximately 37,241 restaurants in nearly 120 countries (Kotler and et.al, 2017).
• Company is operating the business at large scale due to which it is able to exercise power over suppliers by purchasing raw material at lower price.

Weaknesses -

• One of the major weakness is that the organization has been criticized for continuing to serve high fat products (Rampal, 2018).
• Another weakness of the company is low product diversification.

Threats -

• The consistent concern of people in respect of obesity levels may lead to high level of taxation on fast food items that may reduce the profit margin of the company.

• Company faces tough competition from other firms like The Ledbury etc. that are offering high quality products at affordable price.

Opportunities -

• McDonald's is having an opportunity to enter into the market of UK by offering a new product that is Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise.
• It is having opportunity to adopt better technology for producing and distributing products to consumers (Rodrigues, Nikhil and Jacob, 2016).

Segmentation.

It refers to the process of dividing the whole market into different segments which are profitable, accessible and definable by the firm on the basis of various factors. For entering into the market of UK with new product McDonald's will segment the market on the basis of demographic factors, Psychographic and behavioural factors. On the basis of demographic factors, firm will segment the market on the basis of age, income etc (Wang, 2016). On the basis of behavioural factors, McDonald's will segment the market on the basis of usage rate, loyalty of consumers. For Example – Approximately 1 million salmon meals are consumed by people living in UK per year.

Targeting.

The term targeting refers to the process of targeting people on the basis of defined set of criteria. Target market means the ultimate consumers to which firm wants to offer the products. McDonald's will select a particular target market that will offer various opportunities to the company. On the basis of demographic factors company will target consumers on the basis of age group between 18-40 years (Westjohn and et.al, 2016). Further, it will also target people on the basis of lifestyle, frequency of buying fast food items etc. Moreover, under psycho graphic basis firm will target consumer’s on the basis of individuals who has adopted healthy life style or love to consume healthy food items.

Positioning.

It is described as the strategy adopted by the firm while choosing one or more than one important areas to focus on weaknesses and strengths of the company, need of market and consumer’s, position of the competitors etc. McDonald's will use different areas for creating the image of new product that is Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise in the minds of people living in UK (Mathur, 2017).

It will position the product on the basis of benefits offered by the product, pricing strategy used for determining the price of ultimate product etc. Further, it will also differentiate the new product from products offered by the competitors for effective positioning of the new product.

Marketing plan.

The term marketing plan is defined as the combined blueprint that describes the marketing efforts and advertising strategies and it also defines different types of activities that firm will perform for achieving specific aim and objectives (Kotler and et.al, 2017).

The 4 P's of marketing has been provided by E. Jerome McCarthy in year 1960. It includes product, price, place and promotion etc.

Product -

McDonald's will offer Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise to target segment of consumers in UK. The product contains only natural ingredients and no added preservatives. It will provide better consumption experience to the customers. Further, the product is a great source of protein, high in vitamins. It will also help consumer’s to control their weight (Brotspies and Weinstein, 2019).

Price -

The term price means compensation provided by one party to another in return for one unit of product or service. McDonald's will adopt competitor based pricing strategy to offer Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise to consumer’s. Under this strategy, firm will firstly consider the price at which other companies are offering their products to the customers. McDonald's will conduct extensive research to collect inferences regarding the pricing strategies adopted by the restaurants offering their products in UK. It will help company to gain competitive advantage over other firms.

Place -

The term place is defined as the procedure adopted by the company for distributing its products to ultimate consumers. McDonald's will adopt different methods for offering new product that is Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise to target segment. Company will sell the new product directly to consumers through physical stores. Further, it will also provide free home delivery service to the clients. The stores of firm will remain open 24 hours a day. Further, customers can also give order for the product with the help of online app.

Related Article :- Marketing Essentials on McDonalds

Promotion -

The strategy of promotion is an important part of marketing mix. It is the process of communicating the information regarding product or service to the target segment of buyers. To promote new product in UK company will use different types of promotional tools and techniques. It will advertise the new product on television. Further, it will also use online platforms like Facebook, Instagram etc. This will help McDonald's to create awareness reagrding new product among people.

Physical evidence -

The term physical evidence means each and everything that is visible to consumers when they are interacting with the company. It involves physical environment, layout, packaging and interior design of the outlet etc. The physical outlets of McDonald's are very attractive and hygienic that will help clients to purchase the product. This will help to create positive impression of the product on the minds of consumers. Moreover the packaging of new product is very attractive that will assist clients to differentiate the new product from products offered by the competitors (Al Badi, 2015).

Process -

It is defined as the set of different types of activities that are performed by company in order to attain something. For Example – Company will undertake different activities to offer the products to ultimate consumer’s. One of the major activity is the overall process of preparing Broiled Salmon with Mayonnaise. The whole procedure of preparing food item will be visible to buyers. Other aspects of the process includes the process for placing order for buying the product. Customers can also give order for new product through online channels. Further, McDonald's uses product line approach for maintaining the overall quality of food item.

People -

It refers to the people working in the organization that are responsible to perform different activities that helps to attain objectives of the company. Nearly 97000 individuals are working in McDonald's in Northern Ireland and UK. Further, firm will invest huge amount of funds for conducting training and development programmes for employee’s. Moreover, company will also recruit skilled workers for delivering the product, for maintaining better relationship with the clients etc.

CONCLUSION

The above Report has outlined that environmental analysis helps company to evaluate both macro and micro environment factors that may affect the working of the company. PESTLE analysis is an effective tool that assist McDonald's to evaluate factors that are existing in macro environment that cannot be completely controlled by the firm. Further, the Report has explained that SWOT analysis is an important framework that helps organization to analyse internal strengths that can be used to overcome threats that are existing in external business environment. Moreover, it has been concluded that McDonald's will segment whole market of UK on the basis of demographic, Psychographic and behavioural factors. It has targeted people belonging to the age group between 18 – 40 years.

Further, it has been analysed that company adopts different strategies for creating the image of new product in the minds of consumer’s such as pricing strategy etc. It has been concluded that new product offered by McDonald's offer various advantages such as it contains all natural ingredients. McDonald's has adopted competitor based pricing strategy for offering new product to the target segment. The above Report has outlined that company offers the product directly to ultimate consumer’s through physical stores, free home delivery service, online channels etc. Moreover, the firm uses different tools and techniques for promoting new product in UK such as social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram etc. that helps to create awareness of new product. It helps to improve sales and profitability of the company.

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