The American fast-food company McDonald’s has over 39,000 locations in 120 countries around the world. The largest restaurant in the world is known for its hamburgers. Here, we’ll know McDonald’s SWOT Analysis and competitors.
McDonald’s, like any other brand, product, or company has its own set of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This is called the SWOT analysis. By analyzing McDonald’s, we realize its strengths but also its weaknesses to address the issue and fix it. Opportunities and threats allow the company to see who they are competing with and what they can do to get ahead.
Strengths
McDonald’s strengths are based on its revenue and growth. The way this company has lasted so long and is still a runner-up in the fast-food category. Its revenue and survival account for it too especially with all the competition there is. Its strengths are listed below.
- Good Tasting Food
The quality of food is good and the company ensures you have a great time.
- Affordable
This company has one of the most affordable fast-food restaurants. Most restaurants have meals that are always above $10 but McDonald’s can provide a lot for however much you’re willing to spend.
- Largest Fast Food Restaurant Chains
This company’s corporation has one of the world’s largest fast-food restaurant chains.
- Best Known for
McDonald’s has made a name for itself with various products that it sells and introduces into its menu. It’s known for its breakfast items, milkshakes, hamburgers, desserts, cheeseburgers, French fries, and wraps.
The products are adored and loved by many!
- Variety in Menu
McDonald’s is known for a lot of its products but mainly for its burgers. However, along with introducing new burgers, their menu has other categories too. They have drinks, desserts, and salads that they also work on. They keep their menu fresh and updated.
- 2nd Largest Private Employer
The second-largest private employer on the planet is McDonald’s. It’s second to Walmart.
- Over 39,000 Restaurants
It has opened over 39,000 restaurants in around 120 countries. Moreover, there’s a McDonald’s branch available in almost every city and state.
- Employed many personnel
Since McDonald’s has food chains all over the globe, its restaurants are a source of employment for the locals. They have hired over 4,020,000 employees.
- Great Customer Service
The company works hard to make sure all its customers are taken care of. McDonald’s provides their customers with a great service.
- Management
Their management has been in this industry for a long time. As a result, they’ve learned a lot and know what it takes to be successful. They know to put in effort when it comes to training new employees. They should be able to handle customers.
- Advertising
They have a huge advertising budget which allows them to spread their name and brand all over the world. This has resulted in families commonly heading over to McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or whenever and for any occasion. This product isn’t easily translated to other languages but is still a major success in other countries.
Weaknesses
There’s always room for improvement which is what almost every product, brand, or company has to look into. How can they make it better? What do they lack? The following list explains their shortcomings.
- Unhealthy food
Fast food isn’t supposed to be healthy but it is still dangerous to people’s health. McDonald’s food has fat in it but more than that, it has calories. This can lead to a heart attack if too much is eaten.
Moreover, people nowadays have become health conscious. They’ve noticed these issues and are changing their eating habits so McDonald’s may lose customers.
- Issues faced in some locations
Some branches face problems that others don’t. The famous or bigger branches bring in more customers and usually keep everything clean and proper.
However, some branches that are out of the spotlight have many weaknesses.
- Lack of cleanliness
Some of McDonald’s locations have been reported to look dirty. The floors and tables are dirty. It’s the manager’s job to keep those clean but they aren’t up to the task.
- Customer service is lacking
This happens in locations that mess up frequently. Either the order is late or the wrong order is brought to you. It’s very irritating, especially to hungry customers.
- High prices
Some locations price the products higher than what they’re supposed to be. Some food chains may sell the same thing cheaper so you may have to look accordingly.
- Food Quality
Depending on the branch, you could get a burger with old, undercooked meat or even a burger with a bite taken out of it (when being delivered to your home). Some locations don’t get so many customers in a day which results in food sitting around. Sometimes they sell small portions or forget the cheese and just deviate from the standard good burger.
The company needs to make sure all their locations sell good quality food.
- Poor Working Conditions and low wages
Employees have gone on strikes demanding an increase in wages. There have been accusations regarding a poor working environment as well.
- Employees aren’t trained well
Often, the kitchen is crowded and the new employees aren’t trained well. This leads to the food quality dropping food or not being able to handle customers.
- Temporary employment
To avoid paying benefits to their employees, temporary workers are hired. Additionally, they’ve been criticized for not paying their employees enough for overtime.
- Not Eco friendly
The company uses HCFC-22 to make polystyrene. However, this contributes to ozone reduction and they should try to find an alternate eco-friendly way of doing this. Otherwise, they will be criticized.
- Relies more on Western Markets
It has been noted that Mcdonald’s mainly depends on its western markets rather than other areas like Malaysia, China, Singapore, and India. These areas don’t bring in as much revenue as the UK, US, France, and Canada which is why the company relies on them more.
Maybe by focusing and changing their strategies in the other regions, they can profit there too.
Opportunities
McDonald’s has a chance to increase its sales revenue since it’s been around for many decades. The company continues to thrive even as things are changing in the fast-food industry. Listed below are McDonald’s opportunities.
- Healthy Food Route
Since people are more cautious about what they eat, McDonald’s can introduce products that fit a healthy food and low-calorie diet. They can extend their menu and this would increase their customer base.
- Partnership with food delivery services
McDonald’s partnered up with Uber Eats and Door Dash to deliver their products in the US. These apps and home delivery initiatives allow the company to reach and satisfy its customers at home. McDonald’s has even made their own delivery app. However, they can get more customers by partnering up with food panda and other renowned services.
- Serve low-cost menu
They can also get more customers if they cater to those who have a lower income. Providing a low-cost menu would get these customers to come and spend their money in Mcdonald’s.
- Customer Service
Mostly, they ensure every part of your meal is of the best quality. You have a good time and good food every time you walk into McDonald’s.
- Recognizing the brand
The brand tells you what the company is all about. With McDonald’s, you see a fast food restaurant that has and provides great service and good quality food. It is family-friendly and a perfect place for friends to hang out too.
- Loyalty
This fast-food restaurant has some of the most loyal fans in the industry. Decades have passed, McDonald’s is still a front-runner.
According to the company, they sold over 30,000,000 happy meals each year in the US. That would sum up to be a lot more considering there are other branches in the world.
Threats
External factors that affect McDonald’s will be explained below.
- Ingredients vs. Culture
McDonald’s has a lot of meat items on its menu which include pork, lamb, and chicken. However, some of these come into conflict with certain cultures. This would cause them to lose customers belonging to those cultures and backgrounds.
- Pollution
They use plastic straws, boxes, cups, and wrappers which aren’t good for the environment. It causes pollution. They should replace it with environmentally friendly packing materials. This will avoid setting a negative image to customers.
- Health Conscious Customers
Health-conscious customers are leaning towards healthy products. The cost of the government regulations asking McDonald’s to reformulate its food because of the fat and sugar content will be a lot.
- Uncleanliness and Health Risk
If you go to a McDonald’s, you may find trash scattered around in some of their locations. This could chase customers away. They need better trash cans so that people can easily throw away their garbage.
There have been issues with customers getting sick or E. coli breaks due to the food at Mcdonald’s. They need to be more careful so they don’t pose a threat to people’s health.
- Varying Food Quality
When the staff isn’t trained well, they produce a varying quality of food. This is a threat to your customers.
- Competition
Many fast-food brands have been introduced lately. Not all of them are as strong as McDonald’s but this company does have competitors. Burger King, Subway, Chipotle, and Wendy’s are McDonald’s main competition.
Competitors
Subway and Chipotle are competitors who made their way into the playing field by giving customers healthier food choices.
Burger King reported having revenue over $20 million while Yum Brands’ revenue exceeded $5.6 billion at the end of 2020. As of July 2021, Chipotle has a revenue of $6.0 billion. These other companies are making headway and stealing customer’s hearts.
McDonald’s will have to keep up and do better to stay on top.
Conclusion
With businesses and companies trying to adjust to COVID, McDonald’s has been doing fine. As long as they keep their food’s quality good and deliver it on time, all is well.
They need to keep up with the times and work on their weaknesses and threats to improving. It all depends on how much more competition they can handle. Otherwise, they’ll start to lose customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who is McDonald’s target market?
The main target is for families especially parents with younger children. It is also open to teenagers, friends, business customers, and others.
- Who is the biggest threat/rival to McDonalds?
The biggest threat would be the competition as that could take customers away from the fastest. So far Burger King is its closest competitor.
- Which countries don’t have McDonald’s?
Some of the countries that don’t have Mcdonald’s are Bermuda, Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Yemen.
