Analysis Of The Article ' The Franchisees Are Not Lovin ' It

In the Fast Food Industry research task, I did an extensive comparative study on McDonalds and Burger King. Paying special attention to Marketing and Social Responsibility areas, I then came to a conclusion of which Fast Food franchise is more successful and made recommendations for the “unsuccessful” company on how they can improve on their current business model.

In 1940 two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald, formed a burger bar in California which would over time become the largest fast food restaurant chain in the world. In his famous book, George Ritzer defines McDonaldization as “the principles by which the fast-food restaurant[s] are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society and of the world” (Smith). Eric Schlosser, a prevalent author that writes about the fast food industry, reports a one hundred thousand dollar annual profit from McDonald’s towards the beginning of their establishment (Chew on This 30). With all the revenue and success McDonald’s has, it is rather surprising that they have made almost no efforts to improve the healthiness of their menu. A study done by

Looking at the future, McDonalds recognizes the fact that they need a reset in the business. While McDonald’s has had its share of criticisms, their board has also shown that it is willing to respond to shareholder and customer concerns. In its most recent

McDonald’s has been a staple in the restaurant business for as long as most of us can remember. It has achieve around the globe, but not without overcoming a fair amount of challenges in its pursuit of the title “King of Fast Food”.

McDonaldization effects all aspects of today’s society—even the venues we often overlook. Two examples of some commonly overlooked McDonaldized venues are the Kimmel Center and the Hard Rock Cafe. Both of these venues emphasize the McDonald elements of success according to George Ritzer: efficiency, Calculability, predictability, and control. (14, Ritzer). Although these places may feel like a luxurious break from the everyday fast food trip, they are not all that much different.

As claimed by George Ritzer in his article The McDonaldization of Society, “McDonald’s has succeeded because it offers consumers, workers, and managers efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control” (Ritzer, 12). These four dimensions are the major components of the model of McDonaldization, a term that Ritzer defines as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer, 1). The first component, efficiency, is the “optimum method for getting from one point to another” (Ritzer, 12). Efficiency focuses on creating the optimum method where the food is not only quickly prepared, but also quickly consumed. Calculability is the second component of the model of McDonaldization, which places emphasis on the quantity

The start, and subsequent meteoric rise of the fast food industry in the United States has begun a revolution that sociologists have dubbed “McDonaldization.” In his book The McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer defines McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer, 1). Fast food is founded on the desires to maximize production and profit margins by taking the assembly line mentality and applying it to the kitchen.

In his book entitled ‘The McDonaldization of Society’, George Ritzer nicely encompasses concepts from sociology, management, and economics to provide a profound understanding of our modern society. According to George Ritzer, McDonaldization is defined as the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world. Toys “R”Us, Wal-Mart, Gap, Jiffy Lube, and Home Depot are all examples of companies that want to become the McDonald’s of their industry. The success of McDonald’s is also evident worldwide as over half of the company’s revenue comes from overseas operations serving 50 million customers a day. Indeed, this

Many families depended on a quick meal in between parents working, kids going to football, band, and school activities. The solution was going through the McDonalds drive thru because it was cheap and it was everyone’s favorite meal. McDonald’s has “sold over a billion hamburgers” so they have claimed. McDonalds was one of the first fast food chain restaurants in the nation. They mass produced Hamburgers and French Fries for decades selling food at a cheap rate. In the past few years, the “Golden Arches” have lost a lot of customers due to the quality of food, and variety of food.

McDonalds has been around since 1940, when it was created by Nick and Mac McDonald in Bernardino, California. Since then McDonalds has only grown around the world in popularity and business. There are currently more than 33 thousand restaurants around the world in 119 countries. The chain has remarkably gone form offering just a few items on its menu to a wide range of over a 145 diverse items on its menu. Needless to say McDonalds has embedded itself within the world’s society. The way McDonalds runs its business has many different components. These different items include geography of a location, Weber’s model, development, and mass consumption.

McDonald's eateries face extreme rivalry from global, national, local and nearby retailers of sustenance items. The organization contends on the premise of value, accommodation, administration and nature of sustenance items. The organization's rival incorporates eateries, brisk administration eating foundations, pizza parlors, cafés, road sellers, accommodation nourishment stores, deli and markets.

McDonald’s Corporation operates and franchises restaurants all over the world. We are in competitive industry of quick service restaurants that is expected to grow 22% by 2017. We are the leading global food service retailer by means of over 34,000 restaurants in more than 118 countries, serving about 50 million people daily. Total revenue in 2012 was $27.8 billion, which is over 2% increase from 2011,yet McDonalds was struggling to drive sales. Net-Income dropped from $5.5 billion in 2011 to $5.47 billion in 2012. McDonald’s success in the fast food industry comes from their main success factors which are cost efficiency, product development, and marketing. Franchising plays a huge role in McDonald’s success, where each store can be expected to bring in $ 1.7 million in annual sales. Large portion of sales comes from international markets, earning 70% of total sales. Having to overcome the death of two new CEO’s, as well high employee turnover rate and a need to expand internationally and change menus due to changing world health view. McDonalds has sought to overcome these challenges with strategic focuses of a “being better, not just bigger” and “Plan to Win.”

McDonalds is the global organization that will be covered in my paper. According to McDonalds is the world largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Serving more than 58 million customers daily. Regardless of your position on wages and food that is provided the company has a successful business model, that has not been duplicated.

Despite some issues being raised against the company and the changing of marketing strategies, McDonald’s has remained in the status of being one the most successful big companies during this recession. On May 9, 2012, “the fast-food giant posted February sales results that most chains would envy” (Adamy, 2009). Even in this tough economy, McDonald’s was able to maintain profitability with it cheap dollar menu. Part of its business strategy is its plan to phase out certain items to try to create a healthier image for itself. The company is also planning other menu changes such as switching the size of some of its menu items. All of these changes in the menu are part of its strategy to provide a range of choices that supports a balanced lifestyle.

Beyond the cost strategy, McDonald’s uses the Differentiation as a secondary/supportive generic strategy (Gregory, 2017). Differentiation consists of creating differences in the firm’s product or service offering by creating something that is perceived industrywide as unique and valued by customers (Dess, McNamara, & Eisner, 2016). The firm’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience (McDonald 's, n.d.). To achieve this ambition, the company needs to provide outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value (McDonald 's, n.d.). In the beginning of the McDonald’s history, it is possible to identify these efforts in all restaurants; however, it seems that the company has lost its ability to create differentiation among its competitors, and, most important, customers have not perceived value in its experience. According to the last report regarding fast food industry developed by The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI’s), McDonald’s received a low score in customers satisfaction (69/100), falling behind several critical competitors (Cox, 2016).