Muddled McDonald's can't keep up

Muddled McDonald’s can’t keep up

RitsonM.Marketing 7 June 2006, Start page: 19, No. of pages: 1

Purpose – to assess US fast-food chain McDonald’s marketing strategy. Design/methodology/approach – lists the marketing strategies used by McDonald’s and explains why they have not been successful. Findings– McDonald’s first attempted to go upmarket, then shifted in focus to 30-something women, followed by a health kick and then bling, its latest manifestation being the enormous junk food of all football fans by offering a World Cup burger which is 40 percnet bigger than the Big Mac and featuring a whopping 660 calories. States that the problem for McDonald’s is that it was born 50 years ago into a very different era, an age of consumerism, whereas now UK consumers look for low-carb, handmade, organic food from brands that stand for something. Although management textbooks claim that the brand can reposition itself, argues that repositioning is a managerial myth and that McDonald’s is failing to keep pace and beginning to die. Originality/value– contends that McDonald’s has started the slow, inexorable decline of a fading icon.ISSN: 0025-3650Reference: 35AR271

Keywords: Brands, Marketing strategy