> Today, the best selling types of food in the fast foods market, according to Markintel Research Reports are, by percentage of goods sold:
Continuing with the Markintel survey, of the hamburger market, the following shares are owned.
McDonalds, whose Golden Arches are one of the world's most recognized brand symbols, has more than 15,000 locations in 79 countries and a new McDonald's restaurant opens every 4.2 hours (Mcfacts web Page, 2000). On the other hand, this success is a double-edged sword for the company. Even though it can claim supremacy in the "Fast Food" niche, as we shall see shortly, that fame is not always well-received in the foreign countries that the company builds in.
Serwer (1994) quoted one company official as saying:
McDonald's is not just the American leader, it's the global leader. This simply means that our business knows no national boundaries. Capital and work--your work! -- can go anywhere on earth. The consequence of all this is painfully simple: If the world operates as one big market, every employee will compete with every person in the world who is capable of doing the same job. There are a lot of them, and many of them are very hungry. Another consequence also follows: When products and services become largely indistinguishable, time becomes the only competitive advantage (Serwer, 1994, 111).
Ray Kroc, the founder, said in his 1977 autobiography "Our success came from knowing what the American customer wanted and giving it to them in a way they wanted: good, fast, efficient, clean and friendly. That's the whole secret" (Kroc, 1977, 24). The key word in that quote that is open for debate in this strategic paper is the word "American." Can a series of strategies that have created success in America automatically guarantee success in a foreign country?
In marketing discussions, positioning is usually considered to be the skillful manipulation of the con
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