The worldwide marketing strategy of McDonald's

Résumé du document

What difficulties do the cultural differences cause in enterprise management, and how can firms cope with these difficulties and reap benefits from cultural diversity? Intercultural management aims at improving intercultural interactions at work. These improvements are valued thanks to the technical and economic performance of multicultural teams, but the subjective experience is also important. Intercultural management consists in building articulations between people who have different cultures to play down the negative consequences of cultural differences and benefit from the resources offered by each culture. Intercultural management is also the study and the management of the international exchange of management tools. In fact, management tools are not universal and objective. They spread a specific conception of the company, so much so that there are as many tools as enterprises. Intercultural management must adapt modalities to localities, and make sure that the tools are understood and well-used by the people concerned.

Extraits

[...] Le verdict du procès est tombé en 1997 : 300.000 francs d'amendes pour avoir diffamé MacDo. Mais cette condamnation ne porte que sur deux des six points que comprenait le tract : les juges ont estimé que les militants n'ont pas réussi à prouver qu'il y a un lien entre la consommation de viande et la destruction des forêts tropicales ; par ailleurs, les militants accusaient MacDo de se vanter faussement d'utiliser du papier recyclé ; or même si l'utilisation est faible, elle existe toutefois. [...]

[...] Each area of the world has focused on increasing "operational excellence, leadership marketing and innovation" through a variety of global and regionally specific initiatives, officials say. Two years ago, McDonald's introduced its "Plan to Win" - a brand revitalization program built around five drivers of exceptional customer experiences: people, products, price, place and promotion. This plan has been globally embraced, but it's been brought to life locally in ways that are most relevant to customers in their particular parts of the world. [...]

[...] New Innovations Boost McDonald's Image in Europe Denis Hennequin, McDonald's executive vice president for Europe, hopes to inspire McDonald's operators worldwide with the food development and restaurant design initiatives now occurring at the chain's Europe division. "For the past 24 months we've been working a lot on a panEurope strategy," he says. The company created the European Food Studio, located in Paris, and appointed French chef Olivier Pichot to supervise food development. Recent developments coming from the Food Studio include the Mediterranean- inspired Pitamac, a square pita bread sandwich that is opened at top and filled with spiced beef, grilled vegetables or chicken. "We're developing the next generation of food ideas for McDonald's," Hennequin says. [...]

[...] What about McDonald's international marketing strategy? The international marketing of McDonald's is very interesting to study because it represents an important model that consists in providing the same offer throughout the world with an adaptation per country. Even if this model is sometimes questioned, it appears efficient considering the brand image of McDonald's, its worldwide commercial success, largely based on the spread of a value system: modernity, mobility, rapidity and ‘Americanism'. It is also linked to the phenomenon of individualism. [...]

[...] Where capitalism seems to succeed, McDonald's settles like a symbol of the victory of capitalism, in a context of Cold War. The first troubles began in the nineties with the MacLibel's trial: In 1986, a little group of Londoner conservationists wrote a paper against McDonald's: “what's wrong with McDonald's: Everything they don't want you to know They handed out tracks telling that its food was unhealthy and that the firm was using aggressive ads towards children. In 1990, McDonald's took 5 activists to court for libelling. [...]