McDonalds CorporationMcDonald'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 taken full advantage of its strengths, but due to the maturity of the fast food industry, more focus will be required on opportunities, weaknesses and threats.Strengths.The first strength of McDonald's was his 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 opportunities per year has re...... middle of paper ......ket. These restaurants have the ability to expand across the United States and achieve a significant volume of sales nationally. This will become increasingly important as sales at current McDonald's restaurants stagnate. These restaurant chains could also have the ability to expand internationally based on their success in the United States. One opportunity that McDonald's has not taken advantage of is their environmental concerns. Recently, McDonald's was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its conservation and recycling efforts. The EPA cited McDonald's as the industry leader because of its ongoing review and evaluation of packaging materials. This is something that could be used in a promotional effort to improve their image in the minds of consumers. It could be positioned directly in front of its competitors to show that McDonald's cares about the environment. McDonald's has done a good job of establishing a plan for future growth and expansion. As long as they..