In-Depth SWOT Analysis of McDonald | Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities & Threats

History of McDonald’s

McDonald’s is a fast-food restaurant corporation located in the United States. It was founded in 1940 in California by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald.

Ray Kroc, a multimixer salesman, visited a restaurant operated by the McDonald brothers in 1954 and was fascinated by their pace of operation and menu, which, although small, concentrated on burgers, drinks, and fries.

Ray Kroc assisted in creating the McDonald’s restaurants we know today when the McDonald brothers were searching for an agent to help them grow their business.

It was eventually replaced by a production line system that rolled out burgers in a fast service format. This marked the beginning of the company’s “McDonaldization,” a term coined by sociologist George Ritzer to describe the company’s emphasis on performance, calculability, predictability, standardization, and control.

This form of the framework is now used in many Quick Service Restaurants and a wide range of other institutions and organizations. Finally, this mode of operation has made McDonald’s golden arches a popular sight in towns and cities all over the world.

In 2019, there were about 38,700 McDonald’s restaurants worldwide, a number that has increased year over year for the past decade.  It is present in 119 countries, serving 68 million customers per day. It primarily operates in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Americas.

In terms of sales, the United States is one of McDonald’s most important markets. In 2019, the United States accounted for almost $8 billion in sales in McDonald’s geographic revenue breakdown. Meanwhile, foreign markets such as Australia, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom contributed the most to McDonald’s total sales, totaling $11.4 billion. In 2019, McDonald’s sales totaled $21.08 billion.

SWOT Analysis of McDonald

McDonald’s strengths:

#1 Great-tasting food. The food at McDonald’s’ is always of high quality, and the products they sell will never fail to meet your expectations. The company has perfected the techniques that they use in order to provide you with quality and quantity at all times.

#2 Low Prices. There are many fast-food restaurants out there, but you have to admit that McDonald’s’ is the most affordable fast-food restaurant out there. You can’t even get a meal for less than $10 at other restaurants, and when you go to McDonald’s, you will see that you can get a lot of food for your money.

McDonald’s is seen as an affordable option for families when eating out and is seen as cheap compared to many other restaurants.

#3 Great Locations. You can find McDonald’s in almost every city and state. The company has been around for decades, and they have always worked hard to find new locations. There are more than 36,000 restaurants worldwide

#4 Large variety of menu items. When you go to McDonald’s you will be able to get anything that you want, from the regular sandwiches that customers have grown to know and love to even the occasional new items that are introduced from time to time. The company has been able to keep the menu fresh for so many years.

#5 Great customer service. There is hardly a person out there who doesn’t like coming into McDonald’s and getting great customer service at all times. The company has worked hard to make sure that each customer is taken care of.

#6 Long and successful history. McDonald’s has a long and successful history in the fast-food industry.

#7 Different promotions.  McDonald’s offers many different promotions on certain days of the week, such as “Breakfast for Dinner,” which boosts their sales.

#8 Advertising Budget. There isn’t a business out there that doesn’t use advertising, and Mcdonald’s is no different. With a huge advertising budget, they have been able to spread their name all over the world.

Even when you’re in another country, it’s not far-fetched that you will find yourself at a Mcdonald’s. You can take your family out for breakfast, and everyone will be happy. This is the kind of advertising that has worked for decades and hopefully will continue to work for years to come.

#9 Management. The management at Mcdonald’s has been in the industry for a long time, and they know what it takes to be successful. They have put a lot of effort into training new employees and having them be able to deal with customers.

#10 Efficiency. The other advantage that Mcdonald’s has is that they are incredibly efficient. They spend large amounts of money keeping their restaurants well maintained so that they can continue to serve people efficiently and effectively.

#11 Mcdonald’s has successfully expanded to other countries and operates in a variety of different languages, even though Mcdonald’s is not a product that can be easily translated into other languages.

McDonald’s weaknesses:

#1 Fat Content. Although there isn’t much fat in the food, there are a lot of calories. This means that you could get a heart attack if you eat too much at any time. Many people have started to become more health-conscious and have noticed these issues with changing their eating habits.

#2 Poor cleanliness in some locations. Customers often report that Mcdonald’s always looks dirty or requires remodeling, even though various remodeling projects are going on at any given time.

For instance, you might find that the floors and tables are dirty in certain locations. It is up to each location manager to keep things clean, but sometimes they don’t do a good enough job.

#3 Lack of customer service in some locations. You might find that there are times where your order is late, or you get charged for something else when you didn’t want it or need it. This has happened to me before, and I was not happy about it at all.

#4 High prices at some locations. The prices at the basic restaurants may be higher than you would expect them to be. For instance, the Whopper is a little more expensive in some locations than it is at other locations.

You have to make sure that you compare apples to apples when you are looking in different locations, but you might find that the hamburger costs more if you’re just looking at one food chain.

#5 The need for change and the fact that they can’t seem to keep up with it. McDonald’s is a company that many people enjoy, but they can’t keep up with changing times. The competition is too stiff for them not to have changed at all times. This means that the company might have to go out of business if it doesn’t start making some changes in order to adapt to the new times.

#6 Low wages and poor working conditions. McDonald’s has had many different accusations related to low wages and poor working conditions for their employees.

#7 New employees are not always well trained. The kitchen is often crowded, and new employees are not always well trained, leading to low-quality food or undercooked meat and other ingredients.

#8 Temporary workers. McDonald’s has hired many temporary workers as a way to avoid paying benefits to their employees. McDonald’s has also been criticized for not paying employees enough overtime pay.

#9 Food Quality. Depending on the location, you might get a burger with old meat. The food can sit around all day at some locations because not enough people go there to buy food at once for it all to go bad. You can even get a small amount of meat and cheese on your burger. The company needs to work on their food quality, or they will continue to lose business.

#10 Delivery Service. McDonald says that they will deliver your order to you at no extra charge, but I have yet to see this happen. They say that they will deliver your order, but you don’t get it until the day after. In some cases, the delivery drivers do not know what to do with your food. If they don’t know how to give you a hamburger or a French fry, then McDonald’s has a problem.

McDonald’s Opportunities:

#1 Sales Volume and Profit Margin. McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast-food company. They have been around for nearly thirty years, and with the changes in the fast-food industry, they continue to thrive.

#2 Low Labor Cost. The labor cost is low at Mcdonald’s, but they get a bulk of their customers from college students and part-time workers. They can go out for lunch with their friends, or even late at night when everyone else has left for home. With the low labor cost comes a high-profit margin, and this has been proven over multiple years.

#3 Customer Service. McDonald’s has been around for so long it feels like there’s actually a Mcdonald’s on every corner, but in reality, there are few. When you walk into a Mcdonald’s, you get pretty much the same thing each time, and that is what you expect.

They provide great customer service; they make sure every part of your meal is of top quality. If they don’t have something available, they will make something special for you off the menu at no extra charge.

#4 Brand Recognition. When you look at the McDonalds brand, you see what the company is all about. You see the fast-food restaurant that provides great service and quality food. It’s a family-friendly place where you can bring kids for a day out with their friends. The place maintains the same look and feels, even if it is located in a rundown building or an expensive city.

#5 Worldwide Franchise. The company also has over 36,000 franchises worldwide; therefore, it is easy to find a Mcdonald’s location close to where you live or work. Though McDonald’s is the largest hamburger chain globally, they are known for their signature French fries, Big Mac, and Coca-Cola products.

#6 Competitive advantage. McDonald’s has a competitive advantage because of its low-cost business model that includes inexpensive ingredients and assembly-line style production processes that provide service at an affordable price. They have the ability to produce large quantities of food at once, which allows them to keep costs down.

#7 Burger Price. The price for their burger is second to none compared to the other fast-food restaurants out there. You can get a good-sized meal for under $5. Unfortunately, the price increases as the location are less popular. The bund burger is a great product, and I do not believe that any other burger chain could hope to compete with it.

#7 Loyalty. McDonald’s has some of the most loyal customers that you could find in any industry out there. They will travel way out of the way to get a Big Mac or a $1 happy meal. The company says that they have over 30,000,000 happy meals sold each year, and that is just in the United States.

McDonald’s has a great company with many loyal customers. They have put in a lot of time and effort into their marketing campaigns in order to try to keep their customers coming back.

McDonald’s Threats:

#1 One of the major Mcdonald’s threats is that people are moving more and more away from fast foods like McDonald’s because they are becoming more and more aware of the dangers of eating it often.

#2 New competition McDonald’s also has to worry about the new competition. Chik-fil-a, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Sonic are all trying to get a bigger slice of the pie that Mcdonald’s has made for themselves.

#3 Cleanliness. If you happen to go into a Mcdonald’s during the week around lunchtime, you might find trash lying around at certain locations. This is a threat to chasing customers away from the shop.

They need more workers cleaning up after the customers that come in, and they need to have better trash cans in there for people to put their garbage in.

#4 Mcdonald’s has had many health risks associated with their food, such as the E. coli outbreaks, resulting in many customers getting sick.

#5 Mcdonald’s has temporary workers who are often not well trained in the kitchen, resulting in quality problems with the food.

#6 If a customer has a bad experience at Mcdonald’s, such as poorly prepared food or a dirty environment, they are not likely to return to the restaurant.

#7 Lawsuits could be filed if unhealthy foods with allegedly addictive chemicals added to the food

As a multinational brand, #8 McDonald’s activities can be influenced by recessions and fluctuating economies.

#Other rivals, such as dining eateries, pose a threat to McDonald’s market share.

McDonald’s future: The future for Mcdonald’s looks very bright, but it is going to depend on how much more competition they can handle before they start losing customers like never before.