Table of contentsStrengthsWeaknessesOpportunitiesRecommendationsMcDonald's is the undisputed king of hamburgers. This has been the trend in the fast food industry since its inception in the 1960s to its massive growth in the 70s, 80s, 90s and now the new millennium. Over the past forty years, McDonald's has fully exploited its strengths, but due to the maturity of the fast food industry, more focus will be required on opportunities, weaknesses and threats. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayStrengthsMcDonald's first strength was its product strategy. For the past three decades, they have simply been a burger and fries restaurant. The growing wants and needs of customers along with increased competition have forced them to modify and improve their menu to better fit the environment. Factors such as increasing competition and increasingly health-conscious consumers have forced them to make these changes. Today, McDonald's offers a wide variety of products consisting of 26 items. Breakfast items include Biscuit Sandwiches, Egg McMuffin, Hot Rolls and Sausage, Sausage McMuffin with Eggs, and Scrambled Eggs. Sandwiches include the Big Mac, Cheeseburger, Crispy Chicken Deluxe, Filet-O-Fish, Grilled Chicken Deluxe, Grilled Chicken Salad Deluxe, Hamburger, Quarter Pounder and Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Desserts include baked apple pies, chocolate chip cookies, hot fudge sundaes, ice cream cones, McFlurry and milkshakes. Other menu items include the Apple Bran Muffin, Chicken McNuggets, French Fries, Garden Salad, Happy Meals, soft drinks and other beverages. The promotion was also a strong point for McDonald's. They have always focused their promotion on good food, friendly people and fun. They also spent considerable amounts of money on promotional programs such as Monopoly, Happy Meals and Big Mac. In addition to these promotions, McDonald's signed a ten-year contract with Disney combining food promotions with Disney films. They also continue the successful promotion of Beanie Baby, considered the company's most successful promotion ever. On October 25, they introduced Beanie Babies' American Trio collection which celebrates the American political process. In addition to the promotion, McDonald's also managed to place restaurants in all available positions. The increase in the number of outlets per year has remained at 5% over the past two decades despite a decline in sales. In 1988, they had 10,167 restaurants, including 7,567 in the United States. Throughout the 1990s, this number increased to 28,454 restaurants in approximately 120 countries. The table below gives the number of restaurants and sales by geographic region as of September 2000: Location # Restaurants Sales (in millions) United States $12,703 5,051.4 Asia/Pacific 5,989 1,820.2 Europe 5,243 2,449.9 Latin America 1,983,456.2 Other regions 2,536,734.7 Total 28,454 10.512.4 By Rapidly expanding into international markets, McDonald's was able to arrive before the competition and establish a plan for future growth opportunities . They recognized that the fast food industry was becoming diluted and began expanding into international markets before anyone else. Be first on the marketsinternational brands places them first in the minds of international consumers. This is obviously important now that sales are increasing in decline in the United States. Chairman and CEO Jack M. Greenberg said of their expansion, “Going forward, we will continue our growth by intensifying our efforts on sales development at existing restaurants. » Along with its international expansion, McDonald's is branching out into other food and restaurant brands. . They acquired Chipotle Mexican Grill, Aroma Ltd., a chain of cafes in the United Kingdom, Donatos Pizza and an Internet food delivery service.service Food.com. These acquisitions will allow McDonald's to expand into growing markets other than hamburgers while increasing product selection. Weaknesses Even though McDonald's has experienced tremendous success, some weaknesses still exist within the company. These weaknesses include old product and promotion concepts, performance of international divisions, and US expansion strategy. For McDonald's, it costs millions of dollars to create and implement new products. These millions of dollars were spent on products like Arch Deluxe and McPizza, which no longer exist. Added to failing products is the constant changing of promotions and slogans. Recently, McDonald's launched its Made For You food preparation system, designed to allow franchisees to serve fresher food with less waste. The problem is that customers are complaining about longer lines. This absolutely does not correspond to the image of fast food. The new cooking system is being introduced as part of McDonald's $500 million "We Love to See You Smile" advertising campaign. Another weakness of McDonald's has been its expansion into the United States. By the early 1990s, they were expanding into airports, shopping malls and hospitals. It was an effort to move away from already saturated cities and suburbs. These new businesses proved unsuccessful and many closed their doors due to low profitability. Along with expansion in the United States, some international markets have not been as successful as expected. Weak foreign currencies impacted the profitability of international divisions. For example, European operating profit fell to $313.5 million from $324.8 million a year ago. This is a drastic decrease from the decline in sales, which fell slightly from $2.46 million to $2.45 billion. Fortunately for McDonald's, the weaker international performance was offset by domestic sales. Opportunities The two biggest opportunities for McDonald's are its expansion into other brands and international markets. First, expanding into markets like Mexican entrees and pizza delivery allows them to tap into the fastest-growing restaurant segments. This will allow them to have a better selection of products and ensure future national growth. Internationally, McDonald's has the opportunity to enter other markets before the competition. Their plan is to add about five restaurants each day, as the new restaurants show good initial results and returns on investment. Another opportunity lies in concept testing at domestic McDonald's restaurants. The most recent are new restaurant and deli concepts to be tested in the Western United States. They will open three restaurant-style restaurants after January 1, 2001. The prototype will be..