Fundamental Marketing Research Paper

1. Identify and describe the major segments that exist in the product category or market within which your product competes?
McDonald’s is world’s largest fast food chain with presence in 119 countries serving more than 47 million customers through 31000 restaurants (Love, 1999). Simple and efficient business model is the key to success of the company. The major competition of the company is from the competitors from the fast food industry. McDonald’s has different product offerings catering to the different customers segments. For instance, the low cost food items in the menu attract the youngsters, young college goers and office goers, who looks for convenience foods in within limited budgets. Products like Happy Meals targets the kids who are fascinated with toys that comes with the burger and French fries. The company targets customers from across the globe. So, McDonald’s takes into consideration the different cultural aspects of different countries and offer the adapted products to the customers (Love, 1999).
2- List which segmentation bases your product uses to profile each of the key segments you have identified above. Which of the bases is the most important?
McDonald’s segment the customers based of geographic, demographic, and psychographic aspects. In demographic terms, the company segments the market based on age, nationality, family life cycle, etc. as these factors influence the tastes and preferences of the customers. Based on the geographical location of the customers, geographic segmentation is done based on which products are adapted. In psychographic aspect, the company takes in to consideration the interests, values, lifestyle of the customers to segment the markets as in case of targeting the kids with Happy Meals (Crittenden et.al. 2002). The most important bases of segmentation for McDonald’s are demographic and psychographic segmentation as the company’s marketing mix is developed based on the target customers in different demographic segments (e.g. kids, youngsters) and their interests and lifestyle (e.g. offering toys with happy meals, budget friendly menu).

3- Describe your product's positioning strategy?

Understanding the target market is important for the marketers in order to develop their marketing mix accordingly and ensure that the right set of potential customers are offered the appropriate products and services and they are positioned in a way that appeal to the target market by focusing on the target customer’s preferences and demands (Kotler and Keller, 2006). This is possible only when there is a well aligned marketing strategy. McDonald’s positions itself as a fun brand with food options for all, including children and families (Love, 1999). Thus, the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy plays in important role determining the marketing communication strategy and advertising strategy for the brand (Kotler and Keller, 2006). This helps form a strong level of positioning for the products of the organization as well as the brand that McDonald’s has been attempting to form. It is extremely essential that firms ensure alignment of their marketing strategies to the market requirements in order to ensure effective positioning (Vignali, 2001). McDonald’s adapts the strategy of Porter’s generic strategy of low cost strategy allows the company to position itself as an affordable brand that appeals to the target customer segments who prefer economic fast food options to fit their budgets (Love, 1999).

4- Describe the major elements of the tangible, extended and generic product?

The tangible product is the food, the extended product is the toys and the generic product is a restaurant or food outlet service It becomes crucial to ensure that there is an understanding of the needs and preferences of the consumer for a marketer to understand the different elements that need to be included in the marketing and promotion campaigns of the organization (Kotler and Keller, 2006). It helps understand and evaluate consumer buying decision making process to a large extent thus helping the marketer understand the gaps between the consumer needs and the actual product or service provided to the consumer (Vignali, 2001). It helps understand and evaluate consumer buying decision making process to a large extent thus helping the marketer understand the gaps between the consumer needs and the actual product or service provided to the consumer. This helps achieve better growth for the organization.

References

Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L., 2006, Marketing Management, 12th ed, Pearson Prentice Hall
Love, J., 1999, McDonald's: behind the arches, New York: Bantam Books.
Vignali, C., 2001, McDonald’s: “think global, act local” – the marketing mix. British Food Journal, 103 (2), pp. 97-111.