The fast food industry has been dominated by five main fast-food franchises, Mcdonald's, Wendy’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), and Taco Bell. All these restaurants are known for their low prices, services, variety in the menu, and extremely low prices. Burger King is well known for its burgers. Wendy’s is known for their mostly Asian Influenced menu. Taco Bell is best known for its menu including Mexican Food KFC is known for its mascot Colonel Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and McDonald's is known for their familiar mascot Ronald McDonald, Kids Meal, simple menu, different locations around the world, and accessibility. Mcdonald's has been dominating the fast food industry for decades and is known as the most successful fast food franchise in the world (Forbes, 2016). McDonald’s Corporation, the American fast-food chain is one of the largest in the world, best known for its hamburgers. Mcdonald's is the leading fast food restaurant in the world leaving their customers with a little less in their wallets and a smile across their faces. The restaurant serves a wide variety of customers estimated at around 70 million every year The success of McDonald’s brought a lot of criticism to the table, much of which was concerned for its indicated association with the global increase in obesity due to the nature of their food. McDonald’s responded by adding a healthy selection of items to its menu. Some items include the P.L.T. and the veggie burger but that discussion is reserved for another paragraph down below. As one of the largest food chains in the world, without a doubt that is why Mcdonald’s food is so popular. The fast food industry has been booming for years and continues to supply different foods and services every year. Mcdonald's provides low prices and quality food which already sets the business up for success. Mcdonald's start in the fast food community was a success from the beginning.
The first McDonald’s restaurant was started in 1948 by brothers Maurice, also known as Mac, and Richard McDonald in San Bernardino, California. They bought the appliances for their hamburger restaurant from a salesman named Ray Kroc, who was fascinated by their need for eight malts and shake blenders, known as mixers at the time. When Kroc would visit the brothers in 1954, he saw how a small shop could sell so many milk shakes, he discovered an easy, sturdy presentation that allowed the McDonald’s brothers to produce huge quantities of food at low prices and shorter times than the average burger joint. A standard hamburger costs roughly 15 cents at this time, about half the price charged by other competing restaurants. The “DIY” counter eliminated the need for waiters and waitresses to service customers and instead created an easy “come and go” method. Customers received their food quickly because the hamburgers were cooked ahead of time, pre-wrapped, and warmed under heat lamps to ensure their quality. What started as a one-hit wonder, shifted into McDonald's the leading fast food restaurant on the planet with its cheap prices, great customer service, and timing for order processing.
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Due to the increasing amount of controversy surrounding McDonald’s with rumors implicating that the fast-food chain promoted obesity, the restaurant came up with a solution. McDonald’s responded by adding a healthy selection of items to its menu. In 2017, McDonald’s released McVegan, a plant-based hamburger, which was limited to certain restaurants across the globe. Moreover, two years later, the fast-food restaurant began testing another vegan hamburger, the P.L.T. During this time McDonald’s also eliminated supersized portions, and its U.S. and Canadian restaurants stopped using trans-fat oil in a number of items. The concept of fast food started during the terrible time of the great depression when the majority of people wanted to have something cheap and fast, and Howard Johnson, a very well-known figure in American culture, introduced the concept of 'food that is meant to be on the go' in the 1930s, within a year the idea was so successful that he also started the concept of the famed 'Drive Through' which brought significant growth to a booming business and has since stayed a major concept in fast-food restaurants for decades. The concept of fast food was so victorious that around 1951 the word 'fast food' was even added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. But, as time flew by, McDonald's changed the meaning of fast food by continuously influencing the public and putting forth research in order to transform consumer behavior and overall ideas about food in general. Mcdonald's is by far the only franchise in the fast food industry that targeted consumers by using different marketing factors and techniques such as cultural, social, subcultural, economic, international, and overall essential marketing techniques to draw more customers to their restaurants compared to the methods other fast-food chains were using at the time. Due to the booming of McDonald’s restaurants, they were able to purchase several other companies. In the late 20th century, McDonald’s moved beyond the hamburger business by purchasing Donatos Pizza (1999), Boston Market (2000), and Chipotle Mexican Grill (1998) in the United States. In the United Kingdom, McDonald’s purchased Pret A Manger (2001), a sandwich shop, and Aroma Cafe (1999). Sadly, by 2008 McDonald’s no longer owned or had any sort of stake in any of those companies, instead they concentrated on their own brand. McDonald’s turned to charitable work. In 1974 Mcdonald's joined the Philadelphia Eagles football player Fred Hill, whose daughter was suffering from leukemia at the time, in releasing the Ronald McDonald House charity in Philadelphia. The residence of this charity allowed families to live near the hospital where their children were receiving treatment for their illnesses. By the early 21st century more than 360 Ronald McDonald Houses existed around the world. The Ronald McDonald House Charities, which was established in 1987, supported other various efforts as well.
Health was a major problem and still is to this day. The average amount of Americans who are obese today is 42.4%. The American family has transformed over the past decade. Whether someone may live with two parents or one parent they are more than likely to be working full-time jobs to provide for their family. Moreover, outside their jobs they have the responsibility of raising the children, helping with doing their homework, doing chores around the house, and providing 3 meals a day to properly nourish their children. Due to the events of what the parents may perceive as their everyday life, the temptation is the winner, and the family gorges on a Mcdonald's meal almost 3-4 days a week due to the parent's overbearing schedule. Awesome, the family is “properly” fed, but how will the long-term effects set in after each meal of fast food when ingested several times a month? To many, Planning nutritious meals in advance is a hassle and would promote a healthier lifestyle for the American family but there is not enough time to do that. Many Americans are defined as obese by these unmet prerequisites and thus setting a downfall for their health. McDonald’s has been around for a long time and had smaller portions many years ago. Now a meal can be considered much longer for an extra dollar or even less. Sizes are increasing with a small charge, making it seem affordable for the working class. McDonald’s restaurants are located all over the world and are easily found throughout the city, pretty much on every corner. Hunger can be easily relinquished by stopping by the nearest McDonald's restaurant. A surprisingly fast food restaurant operating whether as an organization or an individual business is aimed at creating a new wave in performance; all aimed towards implementing and sustaining the brand quality and the innovation of the business plan. Many fast food restaurants in the UK continue to analyze external as well as internal business opportunities and therefore develop marketing plans that see them with major market shares. These make the food chain industry a very competitive industry in the UK. According to Hetrick et al (2006), Mcdonald's appreciates that competition in the marketplace is stiff and has tasked its management to constantly communicate, compare their services with those of other fast food restaurants and finally improve on their service delivery and incorporate the developments of technology such as the internet to basically motivate their clients and improve on the overall center performance.
From the above discussion, it is evident that the strategic management plan of Mcdonald's has positioned it as the largest fast food corporation in the UK. This means that its business model is evidently different from other fast food chains. . Part of the strategic drive of Mcdonald's to increase its competitive edge has been to overhaul the system of food preparation and as evidenced in its recent food preparation system dubbed “Made For You” McDonald's developed a mutual relationship with its customers since fresher as well as hotter food was delivered to customers; an aspect that led to more consumption of McDonald's food. The overall point in the strategic thinking and management of Mcdonald's rests on the enhanced flexibility of its customer service, and business model and analyzing the strategic edge in light of competitive advantage, and business level strategies among others.
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