The marketing strategies of organic fast food

Thèmes abordés

McDonald's, mcdo, mcdonalds, mc donalds, mc donald's, mc do, organic, bio, fast food, restauration, marketing, strategie

Résumé du document

This paper focuses on the recent changes encountered in the fast food industry. Fast food restaurants are slowly changing their marketing strategies in order to meet new consumer attitudes and behaviors. The recent environmental issues and obesity problems are worrying consumers and therefore, fast food organizations are feeling more concerned.

However, we can wonder whether the contradictory association of health food with fast food will attract more consumers and change their frequency of eating at "healthier fast food restaurants". McDonald's new idea has attracted a lot of people. This famous brand has clearly shown in its recent marketing strategies, its willingness to be greener and to propose healthier foods to its customers. The red color has been replaced by the green color on its logo, some sandwiches and the milk proposed by the brand are now organic and advertisements focus on a healthy range of products such as fruits and salads.

By taking all these facts into account, we propose two hypotheses in this study:
H1: Fast food restaurants that offer organic and healthier food see an increase in the number of customers.
H2: Fast food restaurants' image is improving because of their association with organic food.

Extraits

[...] (1998), Explaining the Choice of Organic Produce: Cosmetics Defects, Prices and Consumer Preferences, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, May 1998, pp. 277-287 Websites Anonymous (2007), KFC removes trans fats from products sold in KFC stores in the UK and Ireland, [Online] Available: http://www.kfc.co.uk/about-kfc/news-and-pr/1023/kfc-removes-trans-fats-from- products-sold-in-kfc-stores-in-the-uk-and-ireland/ [Accessed 4th April 2010] Department of Health (2010) A Day Health Benefits, [Online] Available: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/FiveADay/FiveADaygene ralinformation/DH_4002343 [Accessed 1st April 2010] Finance at McDonald's (2008) McDonald's Corporation, [Online] Available: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/static/pdf/aboutus/education/mcd_finance.pdf [Accessed 1st April 2010] Galbraith, K. (2006) Fast food goes organic and natural [online], Available: http://www.grist.org/article/galbraith1 [Accessed 1st December 2009] IFOAM (2009) Definition of Organic Agriculture, [Online] Available: http://www.ifoam.org/growing_organic/definitions/doa/index.html [Accessed 31st March 2010] Mintel Data Base (2005) Effects of Healthy Eating on the Eating Out Market - UK - June 2005 [Online] Available: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/disp lay/id=143713/display/id=168004/display/id=143713/display/id=167947?select_s ection=143713 [Accessed 1st April 2010] Rosenwald, M. [...]

[...] The famous brand has clearly shown in its recent marketing strategies its willingness to be greener and to propose healthier foods to its customers. The red colour has been replaced by the green colour on its logo, some sandwiches and the milk proposed by the brand are now organic, and advertisements are more and more focused on a new healthy range of products such as fruits and salads. By taken all these facts into account, we propose two hypotheses to test in this study: H1: Fast food restaurants that go organic and healthier see an increase in their customer frequency H2: Fast food restaurants' image is improving thanks to its association with organic food 2. [...]

[...] These results were quite obvious, as these answers were the main characteristics of organic foods. However, the rest of the questions and their answers are more interesting to analyse. Indeed of the respondents believe that organic food have a better taste than conventional food, and 66% that they have better nutritional quality. It is important to notice that the nutritional quality and taste of organic food have never been proven as being better than the ones concerning conventional food. Moreover of the respondents believe that organic foods are fat free and 37% were unable to say whether organic foods were fat free or not. [...]

[...] Shanahan, H. & Jonsson, L. (2008), Food Processing: Barriers to, or opportunities for, organic foods in the catering sector?, British Food Journal, Vol pp. 160-173 Richards, T. & Padilla, L. (2009), Promotion and Fast Food Demand, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, February 2009, pp. 168-183 Richardson, J. (2004), Consumer Change in Fast Food Preference, Royal Agricultural College, London Swann, C. (2003), Healthier Options Are in Demand: Fast Food, Financial Times, June p Tilling, J. [...]

[...] Do you think that you may change your frequency of eating fast foods if they go organic? Appendix UK consumers' behaviours concerning food Source : Cooper, J. & Niggli, U. (2007), Handbook of Organic Food Safety and Quality, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, England Appendix UK organic food market segmentation by type of products (2008) Source: Anonymous (2009) Organic Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix UK organic food market segmentation by country (2008) Source: Anonymous (2009) Organic Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix UK organic food market value forecast (2008-2013) Source: Anonymous (2009) Organic Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix UK fast food market value (2004-2008) Source: Anonymous (2009) Fast Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix UK fast food market segmentation by country (2008) Source: Anonymous (2009) Fast Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix UK fast food market value forecast (2008-2013) Source: Anonymous (2009) Fast Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix UK fast food market volume forecast (2008-2013) Source: Anonymous (2009) Fast Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix 10: McDonald's Corporation's key facts Source: Anonymous (2009) Fast Food Industry Profile: United Kingdom, Datamonitor Appendix 11 : McDonald's before and after Source: Finance at McDonald's (2008) McDonald's Corporation, [Online] Available: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/static/pdf/aboutus/education/mcd_finance.pdf [Accessed 1st April 2010] Bibliography Books Cooper, J. [...]