McDonald’s is the leading corporation in the sphere of fast food restaurant business at the global level. In order to understand why the business is successful, it is necessary to focus on evaluating the specific strategy followed in the company. However, it is also important to pay attention to the strategy of such a competitor of McDonald’s as the Yum! brands in order to conclude about the effectiveness of the strategy developed for McDonald’s.
McDonald’s Business Strategy
The business strategy of McDonald’s is based on proposing the standard set of products and services in each restaurant of the chain around the globe. As a result, it is possible to control the quality of products and services, to propose low-cost products, and to promote the brand’s image. Nevertheless, McDonald’s also proposes franchises, licenses, and company-owned restaurants in different regions of the globe to adapt the strategy to the local culture within the proposed limits. However, recently, the company leaders have chosen to revise the strategy because the decreases in revenues for the year of 2014 are more than 10% (McDonald’s Corporation, 2015).
The problem is in the decreases in the quality of the provided services. In this case, the company chose to close stores that could be threatening to the brand’s reputation. The other strategic response to the problem is the changes in a menu in order to improve the quality and speed of services provided for customers. Moreover, changes in the sphere of marketing also include focusing on healthy campaigns supported by McDonald’s. As a result, McDonald’s is still discussed as the most profitable food restaurant business in the world.
Yum! Business Strategy
The Yum! brands are direct competitors of McDonald’s. Focusing on the corporations’ strategies, it is possible to state that they are similar in most aspects. Differences are observed only in detail. Yum! orients to competing in those regions where the positions of McDonald’s are rather weak. Such Yum! Brands as Taco Bell and KFC are more popular in the Eastern region, for instance, in China. Thus, the Yum! sales are most remarkable in this region.
However, imitating the business strategy of McDonald’s, the Yum! Brands develop their competitive advantage while addressing the customers’ individual tastes in different parts of the world. As a result, the successful marketing approach leads to increased profitability, and the company’s revenues in the USA increased by more than 15% during the last year (Finance: MCD competitors, 2015).
Conclusion
Discussing the perspectives for the progress and success of McDonald’s in comparison with the Yum! brands, it is relevant to note that McDonald’s can compete while paying more attention to differentiation. Having consistent strategies and focusing on the aspect of feasibility, McDonald’s has many chances to be the leading company in the market for a long period of time because of the brand’s reputation.
However, concentrating on the competitive advantage, it is important to state that the approaches followed by the Yum! brands are also working to address more customers and to increase sales. Therefore, the focus should be on developing more customer-oriented strategies for different regions of the world where McDonald’s competes. In addition, it is possible to gain success while promoting such effective strategies as the campaigns associated with healthy eating and children’s health. From this point, the strategy followed by McDonald’s is successful, but it needs certain revisions because of the latest market trends and changes in the overall quality of offered services.
References
Finance: MCD competitors. (2015). Web.
McDonald’s Corporation. (2015). Web.