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Most people can find a McDonald’s in any city in the world. The overall success of this franchise can be attributed to the McDonald’s objectives. And at the end of 2007, they operated 31,377 restaurants in 118 countries around the world, serving more than 50 million consumers a year. When consumers are aware of the goals of the famous fast food chain, they also understand the value of a large, global company that invests in communities while offering a cheap and sustainable product to its consumers.
Does the company have the sole objective of obtaining great profitability?
According to a study by Universidad del Pacifico (Peru) in 2016, McDonald’s has reached the 318th position in the ranking of global companies, with annual revenues of up to more than 22,000 million dollars. These famous restaurants are actually a large corporation and therefore they must remain profitable to stay in business.
One of the ways they can achieve this is by integrating themselves into the geographical space where they are located, appropriating local ingredients and cultural aspects that are consumed in each country. In this way, they manage to adapt to the consumer’s expectations and create food that gives the customer confidence.
Their products are promoted as quality foods at a price that satisfies the demands of the consumer. Ironically, the franchise has remained profitable even during global recessions, by offering a cheap alternative to regular lunches, as it gains relevance in value for money, which makes its products very competitive.
| Name | McDonald’s Corporation |
| Logo |
 |
| Industries served | Restaurants, Food |
| Geographic areas served | Worldwide |
| Headquarters | U.S. |
| Current CEO | Don Thompson |
| Revenue | $ 27.56 billion (2012) |
| Profit | $ 5.46 billion (2012) |
| Employees | 1,800,000 (2013) |
| Main Competitors | Burger King Worldwide,Inc., Yum! Brand Inc., Subway, Wendy’s Company and many other companies. |
What do consumers think about the quality of their products and services?
This American franchise not only offers rich and emblematic hamburgers at a reasonable price, but also McDonald’s strives to sensitize its consumers about proper nutrition. Therefore, these restaurants emphasize food safety from their official website, where they explain they have developed this factor thanks to other leading food companies, universities and agencies that regulate the practices they perform. In addition, they belong to international bodies such as the Global Healthy Food Initiative since 2008.
The food safety culture involves the CEO and all team members, who develop programs for employees, suppliers and restaurant operators. Therefore, there are continuous trainings that provide uniformity of information to all the stores in the chain. In addition, they have quality control centers that ensure the standards of the hamburgers they sell, as well as a supply chain that, in addition to being innovative, is sustainable.
In the quality control centers, they have created areas of Good Agricultural Practices, Safety of the Food Supplier, Quality Management Systems and the Distribution Center of the Quality Management Program. These three systems are verified by external auditors and then the authorship observations are answered internally.
What place does customer satisfaction have in the business philosophy?
The research of the Universidad del Pacifico (Peru) describes that its consumers are divided into three groups: children between 6 to 14 years old; people from 14 to 27 that make up the adolescent public, and people between 27 and 66 years old. So it attracts different profiles with its advertising campaigns of “I’m loving it” and “Forever Young”, which has maintained a clear context of corporate social responsibility and sustainability plans for its proposal in quality products.
Customer loyalty is an important goal of this fast food chain. Without this point, there would be a decrease in consumers, which would mean fewer positive testimonials from clients to friends and family. The majority chooses McDonald’s due to its attractive and friendly atmosphere, in its facilities there are usually comfortable seats, televisions and play areas for children. Convenience is also important, as customers want their food prepared quickly and efficiently.
How important is this chain to your reputation before customers?
McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in 1954. By 2011 The franchise operated more than 32,000 restaurants serving more than 60 million people a day in more than 100 countries. The company aims for uniformity. If you are in Paris, you will find that their burgers are the same as those sold in restaurants located in New York. In addition, he seeks to continually improve his image as a career trainer, rather than just a provider of low-wage and no-fry jobs.
As discussed above, this fast-food business belongs to the Global Food Security Initiative, which claims to bring together the leading players in the industry to create improvements in food safety systems around the world. In this way, their research and conferences lead to solutions of collective concerns, such as the duplication of audits and costs, constituting an international platform that provides knowledge exchange and collaboration among allies.
What else does this business offer to the community?
This chain of restaurants attracts the attention of the consumer and also new public by initiating advertising campaigns based on social, environmental and animal welfare policies. In this way, franchises have been inserted into the educational system of some countries, community organizations and non-profit organizations that benefit citizens of communities around the world.
However, they also carry out their own projects, such as the construction of environmentally friendly infrastructures, which have started in Europe since 2009, and have generated construction standards for other regions of the world. In this way, they manage to minimize the environmental impact through a comfortable access to consumers with disabilities, cyclists and pedestrians; the use of natural light and the location near other services to reduce traffic; the reduction of waste and drainage; the conservation of wildlife and local habitat; among others.
This famous fast food chain mentions as example its premises in the United Kingdom, where all restaurants have LED lighting. After the case in that country, the project was carried out on a global scale with an investment of 5 million dollars in LED technology, in order to save 14.3 million dollars a year. So the political decisions are also motivated by the financial.
Regarding its packaging, it is estimated that in 2017 50% of the packaging came from renewable, recycled or certified sources. They have also carried out recycling activities with consumers living in communities with local regulations concerning the subject. While in some communities with infrastructure and recycling regulations, these famous restaurants offered recycling activities to customers, such as separating trash bins and collecting waste and then placing them properly behind the counter. Many of these businesses offer messages about the environment in their facilities, in this way, it projects its concern in the salvation of the planet to its millions of consumers.