STPD Analysis

BRAND POSITIONING OF MCDONALD’S

Understanding the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of McDonald’s

McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with a presence in

over 35,000 locations and serving over 70 million customers in over 100 countries
every day.

Known for its delicious hamburgers, McDonald’s also offers different types of
chicken and beef sandwiches, French fries, breakfast items etc. McDonald’s modify
its menu and offerings basis the region they are operating in, so as to suit the regional
customers taste and needs.

E.g. In India, McDonald’s does not serve beef products and lay equal emphasis in
promoting their non-veg (chicken) burgers and Veg burgers. In USA, McDonald’s
is famous for its Beef burgers.

In order to develop a marketing strategy, it is very important for company to

understand its target customers. If the company can understand its customer then it
can communicate itself to their customer market. Better you know about your
consumers, more effectively you could communicate and market them.
SEGMENTATION:

Market segmentation is the process of dividing up mass markets into different groups
of similar needs and wants. The motive behind segmentation is get to know the
customer in a much more detailed manner, gain a competitive advantage and be able
to serve the customers’ needs and wants in a better way. McDonald’s uses different
types of segmentation to break a bigger market into small customer groups.

Geographic Segmentation:

Geographic segmentation divides markets according to geographic criteria.

McDonald’s breaks its business into different geographical segments like

 America
 Europe
 Asia/Pacific, Middle East, and Africa
 Other Countries (like Canada, Latin America)

Basis their geographic segmentation, McDonald’s optimizes its Menu and food
offerings to suit the regional tastes and needs.

Demographic Segmentation:

Segmentation according to demography is based on consumer- demographic

variables such as age, income, family size, socio-economic status, etc. McDonald’s
mainly segments the market in below demographics:

 Children: McDonald’s offer a lot of goodies, toys, happy meals etc to attract
this younger segment audience.
 Young Adults (Age group between 18-29): Without much thinking, this
segment is the main source of income for any business, let alone McDonald’s.
This market segment may be having a disposable income which is lower than
the average, their consumption patterns are far much more than old the other
market segments.
 Adults: The third segment is the adults’ segment, in order to target this
segment, McDonald’s tweaked its menu and made its offering less in calories
and healthy.
TARGETING:

After segmentation, the company needs to decide on the Targeting strategy.

Companies need to select the market segments that they want to focus on and put in
their future business strategy. The marketer faces a number of important decisions:

 What criteria should be used to evaluate markets?

 How many markets to enter (one, two or more)?
 Which market segments are the most valuable?

Below are three factors that are essential for evaluating a potential market segment.

 Segment size and growth

 Segment structural attractiveness
 Company objectives and resources.

Above mentioned are the few potential market segments that McDonald’s chooses
to target for driving their business strategy, sales and marketing activities.
POSITIONING:

Positioning is the final step in the S-T-P planning approach;

Segmentation→ Targeting → Positioning; a core framework for developing

marketing plans and setting objectives.

On finalizing the market segments that the company wants to target, the marketer’s
next step is to design a marketing program (also known as the marketing mix) that
will resonate with the target market or markets.

In depth knowledge of the key market segments like their buying behaviour, their
likes, spending patterns, purchase drivers, media habits, etc are required before
devising the marketing strategy or programs.

Developing customers personas is one step that marketers follow while creating
profiles for customers in their target market segments.

Positioning refers to decisions about how to present the offer in a way that resonates
with the target market.

In order to position its products correctly in the target markets, McDonald’s uses
segment insights or information about the consumer behavior that are developed
through market research.

The insights focus on the values, needs and lifestyle of each segment.

Using these insights, McDonald’s create a positioning profile for every product and
then the creative team uses these profiles to create ads targeted to relevant segments
as well as to the general population.

This concludes the positioning of McDonald’s.