Question

McDonald’s is a well-known fast food chain throughout the world. In recent years, it has worked hard to broaden its menu offering and try to broaden its food appeal. It has introduced some healthier options and has also added higher quality food and coffee as well.

In addition to having thousands of locations throughout the world, McDonald’s also has very strong brand equity and is generally considered one of the top 10 most valuable brands in the world. This has been achieved over many years through a combination of store locations, media attention, advertising and other forms of promotion, including sponsorships.

McDonald’s is a significant user of sponsorship as a key form of promotion. Because of McDonald’s long history in fast food offerings, there is a proportion of consumers that have a strong negative attitude towards McDonald’s – because they perceive McDonald’s as primarily selling “junk” food. And McDonald’s uses sponsorships in order to counteract this and create positive view of the company by doing good things in the community and for local groups.

For example, for many years, McDonald’s have been involved in Ronald McDonald house and various other related health sponsorships. In many countries, they also are sponsors of sport and children’s activities. However, critics argue that McDonald’s should not be associated with anything regarding health or sport.

Discussion Questions

    What is your current perception of McDonald’s in terms of their food offerings? Do you think that they have worked hard enough to broaden and diversified their product offering or are they still primarily a fast food chain?

    Do you think that McDonald’s is acting as a “good corporate citizen” in their sponsorship activities, or do you think that they are primarily interested in associating their brand with food and health?

    Referring to the question above, provided that McDonald’s is supporting worthwhile causes, does it really matter what McDonald’s intentions and goals are?

    Marlboro (cigarettes) is still one of the strongest brands in the world, despite not being able to advertise in many countries for decades. They are still allowed sponsorship of Formula One racing – do you think that is a suitable arrangement? And do you think it is conceptually different to the McDonald’s and health and sport sponsorships?

Answer 1

1. What is your current perception of McDonald’s in terms of their food offerings? Do you think that they have worked hard enough to broaden and diversified their product offering or are they still primarily a fast food chain?

In terms of food offerings, I feel McDonald's has diversified very. They have covered almost all the food groups in junk and in some parts of the world they have salads, yogurts and fruits. Starting right from their original burgers to desserts they've kind of covered a lot. The breakfast menu of McDonalds has also appealed many customers. Not just in offering different food groups, McDonald's has also spread its dominance in the world by culturally curating their products. Like the very famous McAloo Tikki in India, as Aloo Tikki is a staple in many places in the country, or healthy salads in France. Through their breakfast meals, value meals and happy meals they might have diversified their product offerings but they are still considered a fast food chain. People would eat McDonalds only when they crave junk or they are looking at quick and cheap options, hence rests the case.
Having said that, it is stated that McDonald's sells 75 burgers worldwide every second and around 1% of the world's population eats at McDonald's everyday.

2. Do you think that McDonald’s is acting as a “good corporate citizen” in their sponsorship activities, or do you think that they are primarily interested in associating their brand with food and health?

Because McDonald's joints have this impression of being very unhealthy, they might only be interested in associating their brand with food and health, rather than acting as responsible chain. They are also very interestingly seen sponsoring spots where they would sell quick, like Olympics. McDonalds is only trying to change people's perception about their food and not actually making it healthier. Contrary to belief, McDonalds has many competitors and people who believe it is unhealthy, hence the strategies.

3. Referring to the question above, provided that McDonald’s is supporting worthwhile causes, does it really matter what McDonald’s intentions and goals are?

I believe for any organization, supporting any cause that does not go with their goals/ intentions can be completely fine as long as it is done with dignity. Also understanding that McDonald's is only trying to expand their consumer base through the associations may not be taken wrongly. People who would want to refrain from unhealthy fast food still will, and people who want quick, cheap solution will always look up to McDonalds, doesn't matter if it is healthy.

4. Marlboro (cigarettes) is still one of the strongest brands in the world, despite not being able to advertise in many countries for decades. They are still allowed sponsorship of Formula One racing – do you think that is a suitable arrangement? And do you think it is conceptually different to the McDonald’s and health and sport sponsorships?

Marlboro sponsoring Formula One racing is definitely different than McDonald's taking up health and sport sponsorship. It could be said that they are conceptually the same if Marlboro was sponsoring a Health Centre, let us say a cardiovascular or pulmonology centre (lung diseases specialist). Here, the later has tried to have a diversified menu, so they are capable of catering to customers with different tastes. But the former one will still remain unhealthy for any life.