McDonald's market segmentation strategy
Summary
TLDRMcDonald's employs target marketing by segmenting its audience into specific groups like young adults, women, moms, and various ethnicities. Each segment has a dedicated manager who uses market research to gather consumer insights, focusing on values, needs, and lifestyle. These insights inform the creation of positioning profiles for each product, guiding the development of targeted ads. For instance, the southwest chicken salad is marketed differently to African-American, Hispanic, and Asian consumers, highlighting its hearty nature, cultural ingredients, and variety of tastes, respectively. This strategy has significantly boosted sales.
Takeaways
- π― McDonald's uses target marketing to appeal to specific consumer segments.
- π₯ McDonald's segments are managed by segment managers instead of brand managers.
- π Segment insights are derived from continuous market research and consumer behavior analysis.
- π McDonald's focuses on understanding the values, needs, and lifestyle of each segment.
- π Each product has a positioning profile created based on segment insights.
- π The creative team uses these profiles to produce targeted ads.
- π Southwest chicken salad is an example used to illustrate how McDonald's tailors its advertising to different segments.
- π The general market is attracted by the variety of ingredients in the southwest chicken salad.
- π€ African-American consumers are targeted with messages emphasizing the salad as hearty and filling.
- π Hispanic consumers are attracted by the cultural resonance of the salad's ingredients.
- π½ Asian consumers are targeted with the appeal of variety and new tastes.
- πΌ McDonald's has a dedicated team to keep segment information current for effective marketing.
Q & A
What is the central aspect of McDonald's marketing strategy?
-The central aspect of McDonald's marketing strategy is target marketing, which involves segmenting the population into specific groups and positioning their products to appeal to those segments.
How does McDonald's organize its marketing department differently from traditional consumer package goods companies?
-Instead of organizing by brand with brand managers for each product like Doritos or Lays, McDonald's has segment managers, such as a director of young adults, women moms, African American consumers, Hispanic consumers, etc.
What is the purpose of segment managers at McDonald's?
-Segment managers at McDonald's are responsible for maximizing targeting marketing efforts by understanding the needs, values, and lifestyle of each specific consumer segment.
How does McDonald's gather information about different consumer segments?
-McDonald's gathers information about different consumer segments through continuous market research, collecting data and insights about the behavior of each segment.
What is the focus of consumer insights at McDonald's?
-Consumer insights at McDonald's focus on the values, needs, and lifestyle of each segment, which helps in creating compelling product descriptions and marketing messages.
How does McDonald's use segment insights to create marketing materials?
-Using segment insights, each segment team creates a positioning profile for every product, which the creative team then uses to produce targeted ads for relevant segments and the general population.
What is an example of how McDonald's tailors its advertising to the general market?
-For the general market, McDonald's emphasizes the variety of fun ingredients in the southwest chicken salad, as it is considered compelling to a broad audience.
How does McDonald's approach advertising to the African American consumer segment?
-McDonald's learned that African American consumers are less likely to consider a salad as a substitute for sandwiches, so the advertising message focuses on the salad being hearty, filling, interesting, and exciting.
What resonates with the Hispanic consumer segment in the context of the southwest chicken salad?
-The southwest chicken salad resonates with the Hispanic consumer segment due to the ingredients that are culturally and traditionally compelling.
How does McDonald's appeal to the Asian consumer segment with its southwest chicken salad?
-McDonald's appeals to the Asian consumer segment by highlighting the variety of ingredients and the new exciting taste, which aligns with their preference for tasting new and different things.
What is the result of McDonald's target marketing strategy?
-Target marketing has proven successful for McDonald's, as it has increased overall sales by understanding various consumer segments and positioning products to appeal to each segment.
How many people at McDonald's work full-time to keep marketing information current?
-There are a couple hundred people at McDonald's who work full-time to keep the marketing information current and ensure that the insights are used to make compelling marketing efforts.
Outlines
π McDonald's Target Marketing Strategy
McDonald's employs target marketing to cater to diverse consumer groups. Unlike traditional companies that organize marketing by brand, McDonald's uses segment managers for different demographic groups such as young adults, women, and various ethnic consumers. This approach allows McDonald's to tailor its marketing efforts to maximize appeal to each segment. The company continuously gathers consumer behavior data through market research to develop insights about the values, needs, and lifestyle of each segment. These insights are then used to create positioning profiles for each product, which guide the creation of targeted advertisements. For instance, the southwest chicken salad is marketed differently to the general population, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian consumers, highlighting aspects that are most appealing to each group.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Target marketing
π‘Segment managers
π‘Consumer behavior
π‘Market research
π‘Consumer insights
π‘Positioning profile
π‘General market
π‘African-American consumer
π‘Hispanic consumer
π‘Asian consumer
π‘Business-building marketing
Highlights
McDonald's uses target marketing to make their products relevant to a variety of consumers.
Marketers identify specific segments of the population and position products to appeal to those segments.
McDonald's has a unique approach to segmenting compared to traditional consumer package goods companies.
Instead of brand managers, McDonald's has segment managers for different consumer groups.
Segment managers include a director of young adults, women moms, African American consumers, and Hispanic consumers.
This structure allows McDonald's to maximize targeting marketing efforts.
McDonald's uses segment insights, which are information about consumer behavior developed through market research.
Marketers are constantly collecting data about different segments to understand consumer behavior.
Consumer insights focus on the values, needs, and lifestyle of each segment.
Segment teams create a positioning profile for every product based on insights.
Creative teams use these profiles to produce targeted ads for relevant segments and the general population.
Southwest chicken salad ads emphasize variety for the general market.
For African American consumers, ads focus on the salad as hearty and filling.
Hispanic consumers are targeted with ads highlighting ingredients resonating with their culture and heritage.
Asian consumers are targeted with ads emphasizing variety of taste and new experiences.
Target marketing has been very successful for McDonald's, increasing overall sales.
Hundreds of people work full-time to keep McDonald's information current for compelling marketing.
Transcripts
in order to make their products relevant
to a variety of consumers companies use
Target marketing marketers identify
specific segments of the population and
position their products to appeal
specifically to that segment at
McDonald's segmenting is Central to
their marketing strategy but the burger
giant takes a different approach to
segmenting than most companies
traditional consumer package Goods
companies such as Fredo L organize their
marketing department by brand
and so you will have a brand manager on
Doritos or a brand manager on lays etc
etc at McDonald's instead of having a
brand manager on Big Mac and a brand
manager on french fries what we have are
segment managers and so at McDonald's
you will find a director of young adults
a director of women moms a director of
africanamerican consumers is a director
of Hispanic consumers Etc so that
structure all by
itself puts McDonald's in a position to
really maximize targeting marketing
efforts in order to Target markets
accurately McDonald's uses segment
insights insights are information about
consumer behavior that are developed
through market research we're constantly
every day all week long collecting
information and data about the different
segments that each of our marketing
people are responsible um you know are
responsible for understanding and what
we pull from these segments are insights
pieces of information that help us
understand how to describe our products
in a way that will be most compelling
for the particular segment consumer
insights focus on the values needs and
lifestyle of each segment using these
insights each segment team creates a
positioning profile for every product
then their creative team uses these
profiles to produce ads targeted to
relevant segments as well as to the
general
population in the case of our southwest
chicken salad we learned from our
consumer uh intelligence that this salad
presented such a cool variety of
ingredients that the General market
would find that compelling so if you
look at our ads that were targeted to
the General Market you'll see the
emphasis on the variety of fun things in
the southwest chicken salad hi can I get
a southwest salad with Crispy Chicken
and I want that new thing with the
grilled chicken and tortilla strips you
know it has that real creamy dressing oh
and I think some lettuce on the other
hand if you look at the African American
Consumer advertising we learned from
marketing intelligence that the
African-American consumer is less
inclined to uh consider a salad as a
substitute for almost any of the
sandwiches we have at McDonald's and so
uh instead we needed to develop our
message in a way that said to this
segment this is a hearty
filling interesting and exciting salad
if you look at our Hispanic consumer
segment the southwest chicken salad is
full of ingredients that are that
resonate with with culture and Heritage
and are compelling ingredients to
Hispanic segment for a whole different
reason the Asian consumer's requirement
includes variety of taste and tasting
new and different things and so what we
presented in our advertising that was
targeted to Chinese and Korean Americans
was the whole notion of this variety of
ingredients and a new exciting taste
Target marketing has proven to be very
successful for McDonald's by
understanding the various consumer
segments and positioning their products
to appeal to each segment McDonald's has
been able to increase overall sales at
McDonald's there are a couple hundred
people who work full-time just keeping
the information current and keeping the
information coming so that we can use
insights to make certain our marketing
is compelling and that our marketing
efforts do in fact result in business
building
marketing
Browse More Related Video
How do focus groups work? - Hector Lanz
Analisi brevi di mercato con l'AI: Metodo a 3 fasi (insights, opportunitΓ e posizionamento)
Market Research | The Secret Ingredient for Business Success
Qualitative Market Research: Qualitative market research method in market research
STP Framework in Marketing | Segmentation Targeting and Positioning | Marketing Fundamentals | #12
Consumer Motivational Theories - Thorndike and Alderfer
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)