BEYOND THE GOLDEN ARCHES:

A McDonalds Marketing Breakdown

"That night in my motel room I did a lot of heavy thinking about what I’d seen during the day. Visions of McDonald’s restaurants dotting crossroads all over the country and world paraded through my brain." (Ray Kroc) Kroc’s aim for McDonalds was far more than fulfilled. Today, it is the leading global food service retailer with 34,000 local restaurants serving nearly 69 million people in 119 countries. There are 3 very important factors that have contributed to this monumental rise of McDonalds over the years: Brand Loyalty, Internationalism and localization and Marketing, It is both intriguing and gainful to delve deeper into each of these core issues
Pokémon games and McDonalds quizzes proved to be exceedingly popular. In order to promote this campaign, both the food giant and video-game giant used their already popular branding strategies and products to leverage the marketing. In several other countries too, McDonalds has been successful in adhering to the tastes of the consumers. Simply put, McDonalds aims to “brand globally, advertise locally” (Sandler and Shani 1991).

One of the greatest strengths of McDonalds marketing is its partnerships making them experts in public relations. Children and teenagers represent a large consumer demographic of the company. In January 1997, McDonald’s entered a global partnership with Walt Disney which allowed them to advocate exclusive marketing rights for absolutely every aspect from films to food. As a result, McDonalds produces toys from Disney’s A Bug’s Life, Toy Story and Tarzaan to be sold with their Happy Meals. Given Disney’s worldwide appeal and reach, McDonalds is not required to act locally in this instance. Similarly, McDonalds has, alond with Walt Disney and UNESCO proprieted The Millennium Dreamers Global Children’s recognition program where “Young people from all over the world have the opportunity to express their hopes, dreams and plans for the future.” (Claudio Vignali). Aside from aligning itself to social causes and children’s entertainment, sports alliances play a big part of their marketing