McDonald's International Marketing Strategy
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest seller of hamburgers and other fast foods. Although basically an American operation, and one of the best known American symbols, most of its revenues come from operations in foreign countries. In its Annual Report for 2000, the company states that 62 percent of its annual revenues are attributed to operations on foreign soil.
This presents an interesting situation for the company that built its first era of profitability from the act of making all the food the same. The hamburgers were a precise size, the same amount of pickles was put on each bun, and milkshakes were measured with laboratory precision. Usually when an American company franchises outside the United States, there are certain modifications that must be made.
In the case of McDonald's however, the business model is basically the same no matter what country it goes into. What varies from location to location is the food. For example, according to the country locator on the company's web site, where you can find fascinating information about the company's International restaurants, in Argentina, instead of the Big Mac, the most favorite sandwich is the McNiffica, (patty, cheese, tomato) while in Japan, it's a McTeryaki, and in India, McDonald's serves no beef in its burgers, which are made of tofu.
In countries where chicken is too expensive, Veggie McNuggets, (a non-chicken version of the popular Chicken McNugget product line) and are available in such diverse nations as England, Spain, Japan and Indonesia. Germany and the Netherlands focus on the "Grooenteburger" (a vegetable burger) while Canadians seem delighted by the McPizza, a vegetarian dish created just for that country.
The Big Mac, which has become a company icon as well as benchmark product is made in substantially the same style and with the same ingredients around the world, carries a diverse pric...