Segmentation
Who eats at McDonald’s? In order to successfully market its enterprise and products, McDonald’s must use different segmentation strategies (geographic, socio-demographic, psychographic, and behavioral).
Geographic
Geographic segmentation relates to where in the world McDonald’s is focused on catering to. McDonald’s restaurants are located all around the world, spanning from the United States of America to Hong Kong to Nicaragua and many more. By having no specific areas to its locations, McDonalds in itself has created its own strategy of global expansion. In fact, there is a McDonald’s in every continent except Antarctica (Africano, 2010). In just the United States McDonald’s has racked up $14.8 billion in sales in 2016 (Peterson, 2017).
Psychographic
Psychographic segmentation relates to markets divided by personality characteristics and lifestyle. Most who go to McDonald’s are families, workers grabbing a quick lunch, or just people who want the wifi and a quick coffee. The main entity of McDonald’s is one of a fast-food facility, so people usually do not spend large amounts of time there. Psychographic segmentation is also related to the company itself, and is divided into five groups: Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. McDonald’s main point is high conscientiousness mainly because of it’s self-efficacy and its strive to always improve on itself. In any way possible it tries to cater to its customers and to provide the best fast-food service it can, while taking into consideration customer feedback.
Socio-Demographic
Socio-demographic segmentation relates to variables such as age, gender, income, etc. McDonald’s main socio-demographic segments are families with younger children, young adults, and adults (Heartofcodes, 2018). By catering to each group’s needs, McDonald’s is/has been able to retain its customers since its opening in 1955. Younger children are offered toys in their happy meals, young adults use McDonald’s primarily as a place to hang out, while more adults are being attracted to the newly introduced healthier options available such as salads and some of their sandwiches, like the chicken Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich (Weiss, 2019). Additionally, McDonald’s wants to cater to everyone, low and high income. As a result, menus such as the $1 $2 $3 menu have been created (McDonald’s, n.d.).
Behavioral
Behavioral segmentation is dividing consumers based on their behavioral patterns while they’re interacting with the company. For example, this form of segmentation can be used to analyze what consumers like or dislike, such as the Hula Burger, a vegetarian burger with grilled pineapple and covered with cheese, which was soon taken off the menu due to its unpopularity (Bhasin, 2011). Additionally, McDonald’s can survey its customers through its mobile application, which includes offers, coupons, and more. By analyzing the behavior of its customers, McDonald’s can make improvements and changes to better satisfy its customers.
Targeting
Through analyzing various segmentations that McDonald’s targets in order to attract customers in all these specific segments, McDonald’s has opted for the differentiated (segmented) targeting strategy.
As mentioned before, McDonald’s most prominent differentiated marketing lies in the large range of products they offer that targets different groups in the Socio-demographic segment. The price range of products that targets families, adults or young adults all varies and allows for better affordability and encourages different customers to purchase more. This also applies for income; not only does McDonald’s have the $1 $2 $3 menu to target lower income customers (McDonald’s, n.d.), they have also launched the Signature Crafted product line in order to attract more high-income customers with special premium ingredients. It is evident that McDonald’s is targeting a higher class and would like to portray a more luxurious image through the advertising for this specific Signature Crafted line with much more elegant pictures and lettering compared to the more colorful, eye-catching $1 $2 $3 value menu.
Furthermore, differentiated marketing is also done in different countries based on the Geographic segmentation. In order to adapt to different cultures, McDonald’s has widened its portfolio according to the popular or accepted cuisine of the country. For instance, despite the most famous products of McDonald’s being made by beef or pork, the decision to remove both of these essential ingredients in favor of chicken and vegetarian options has been the catalyst for McDonald’s’ success in India (Kannan, 2014). Not only so, but thanks to the differentiation of these products, the variety of McDonald’s items have long been a viral topic on social media as people try to explore as many options as they can in a new country, boosting McDonald’s visibility to the public without additional advertising costs.
Persona
Based on the factors above, an ideal McDonald’s customer can be someone similar to the profile of James listed below:
Citations
Africano, N. (2010, September 3). McDonald’s International: Top Ten Most Unusual Around the World. Retrieved from https://www.aol.com/2010/09/03/mcdonald-s-international-top-ten-most-unusual-around-the-world/.
Bhasin, K. (2011, August 30). 12 McDonald’s Menu Items That Failed Spectacularly. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/failed-mcdonalds-items-2011-8?r=US&IR=T#hula-burger-3.
Heartofcodes. (2018, August 22). Positioning of McDonald’s: STP Analysis of McDonald’s. Retrieved from http://heartofcodes.com/positioning-of-mcdonalds/.
Kannan, S. (2014, November 19). How McDonald’s conquered India. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-30115555.
$1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/full-menu/123dollarmenu.html.
Peterson, H. (2017, August 2). The most successful fast-food chains in America. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/most-successful-fast-food-chains-in-america-2017-8?r=US&IR=T#2-starbucks-19.
Weiss, J. (2019, March 20). The 7 Healthiest Things You Can Eat at McDonald’s. Retrieved from https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/healthiest-things-you-can-eat-at-mcdonalds/.
