McDonald is a known brand all over the world together with its counterpart Burger King. The two brands are best known for dealing with fast foods. They have opened branches all over the world to handle the sale of products of such kind including chips, crisps, chicken, burgers, meat-pie and many other niceties developed along the same line. Since they are companies in the same line of production and service, they each have to employ tactics in the market to outdo each other. At times companies use similar strategies in their competition with one another. The reason for this is based on the fact that some companies have the capacity to phase others in the same line out of the market to remain afloat as the sole dealer. Comparison and contrast of two different things involve threading the similarities that exist between them and drawing the line of differences that they have between each other.
McDonald and Burger King make use of 4Ps to develop their marketing strategy (McDonald). The method of using these two principles is what begets the difference. 4Ps stands for the four main tools that are used in marketing. The four tools that are used for marketing include the product in question, the price that the product goes for and the place that provides space to sell the products in question to their respective customers.
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The Marketing Department that is under McDonald works by making a detailed analysis of the market created by the customers it has. The aim is to ensure that the market mix established is the correct one. Regarding the products, the department determines the kind of goods that the market considers as worthy of receiving better market reception. After determining the type of product well received by the market, the department goes further to determine the price that consumers consider acceptable to them followed by a determination of the kind of Television shows, newspapers and advertisings consumers consider as being worth their time. They also conduct a search of the kind of restaurants visited.
In considering the product, one of the most important aspects that McDonald’s establishes is the image conveyed by a particular product to consumers and the feeling attained by the customer when buying such a product.
McDonald tailors its informational base to suit the groups that exist as its customer bases.
The Marketing Department concerned with running the affairs at Burger King also conducts a similar kind of analysis but with a different kind of focus (Greenspan). Burger King considers the most profitable products that the market can accept to venture in distributing them. This means that the kind of analysis focuses on which venture would be more profitable, the price to be charged for it to make the most from the market, and the kind of viewership that consumers accord to various platforms that present an avenue to conduct business (Kanagal).
Burger King prefers offering quick restaurant services with a focus on burgers as the main product. The other products that are a focus include chicken and fish, sides, salads and veggies, beverages, and desserts.
The areas that Burger King makes use of in its deliveries include restaurants where they are served first-hand, mobile apps, and websites which provide information on doorstep deliveries. Mobile apps provide an opportunity to check up things like coupons.
Promotion of the products is done through activities such as advertising, promotion of sales, engaging in public relations and conducting personal selling exercises.
The kind of pricing that Burger King uses is two-fold. The organization makes use of market-oriented pricing strategies which base decisions on what goes on in the market and also bundle pricing.
The strategies applied when considering what is to be done to ensure customer satisfaction can either be static or dynamic (Matri, Jemaa and Tournoise). Dynamic strategies change with various shifts which may occur in the market while considering such things as preferences, fashion, seasons etcetera. On the other hand, static strategies do not have a changing structure but instead remain the same through the period it is being applied.
McDonald works by changing the kind of products it deals with over time to be on par with the changes that occur in the market environment. The requirements that customers have with regard to products have a tendency to change as time goes by. This situation necessitates McDonald to monitor closely the kind of preferences that customers have to be in line with the changes that take place and not be met off-guard. Introducing new products is an affair that needs careful application because an existing product may be affected adversely by having a new product introduced. The potential that a new product has is that it may cannibalize the sales of the old product. Products have variations in the cycle of the sales made out of them (Czarniewski).
Burger King applies a generic strategy in which the company seeks to use the economies of scale presented by large scale production to produce a limited number of the lines of products that are needed by the market. The products produced by a company are either referred to as value meals or kid’s meals. The limitation of the kind of the products manufactured makes the strategy that Burger King applies be very static. The production emphasis is on the kind of economies of scale that are acquired in the production process. The whole reason for bundle pricing is to encourage individuals to buy products in bulk considering that buying products individually tends to be more expensive when the two are brought to the comparison table.
McDonald and Burger King deal with fast food lines in the kind of business they handle. Fast food lines deal with foods such as chips and chicken, burger, desserts such as cakes, beverages etcetera. Fast foods are usually light meals which are prepared in the least amount of time possible. To ensure that proper strategies are laid out, consideration is done for what is known as the 4Ps. The 4Ps include aspects such as the Product, the Price charged on it, the places used to sell the product or to transact with it, and promotion of the product to the prospective customers. Burger King applies two pricing strategies when presenting its products to the market. The pricing strategies are market-oriented approach in pricing and the bundle pricing method. Market-oriented pricing considers market behavior with certain prices while bundle pricing is setting of prices to a collection of products which in most cases becomes cheaper than buying products separately.
References
Czarniewski, Slawomir. Building Customer Value in Relationship Marketing. 2014. 15 November 2016 <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=2B6FD3C073464DDDD4CDAC82719709C7?doi=10.1.1.677.7887&rep=rep1&type=pdf>.
Greenspan, Roberta. "Burger King's Marketing Mix (4Ps) Analysis." 2015. Pan More. 4 November 2016 <http://panmore.com/burger-king-marketing-mix-4ps-analysis>.
Kanagal, Nagasimba. Role of Relationship Marketing in Competitive Marketing Strategy. 2014. 4 November 2016 <http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/09204.pdf>.
Matri, Aida, Ben Jemaa and Nadine Tournoise. Relationship Marketing Key Concepts as Relationship Value Determinant. 2014. 4 November 2016 <http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/JMRCS/2014/201710/201710.pdf>.
McDonald. "Marketing at McDonald's." 2008. McDonald. 4 November 2016 <http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/dam/McDonaldsUK/People/Schools-and-students/mcd_marketing.pdf>.
