BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

Consumer Prefernece Towards

McDONALDS

SUBMITTED BY :
USMAN ARIF GHOURI
(071280)

SUBMITTED TO :
MAJ. CH. KHALID MAHMOOD GORSI
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPANY
1.1 McDonalds

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving nearly
47 million customers daily through more than 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries worldwide.
McDonald’s sells various fast food items and soft drinks including, burgers, chicken, salads,
fries, and ice cream. Many McDonald's restaurants have included a playground for children
and advertising geared toward children, and some have been redesigned in a more 'natural'
style, with a particular emphasis on comfort: introducing lounge areas and fireplaces, and
eliminating hard plastic chairs and tables. Each McDonald's restaurant is operated by a
franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself. The corporations' revenues come from the
rent, royalties and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated
restaurants. McDonald's revenues grew 27% over the three years ending in 2007 to $22.8
billion, and 9% growth in operating income to $3.9 billion.

Its outstanding brand recognition, experienced management, high quality food, site
development expertise, advance operational system and unique global infrastructure position
it to capitalize on global business opportunities. McDonald’s plan to expand its leadership
position through great tasting food, superior service, everyday value and convenience and by
practicing it they are well known brand all around the world. Its efforts to increase market
share, profitability and customer satisfaction have produced high returns to share holders a
compound annual return of 24% over the past 10 years.

1.1.1McDonald's vision

McDonalds’ vision is to offer the world’s best and quickest service restaurant experience to
its customer all over the world. Being best in the business means consistently satisfying
customers better than anyone else through outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value.

1.1.2 McDonald's Mission

McDonald's mission is to be our customers' favorite place and way to eat with inspired
people who delight each customer with unmatched quality, service, cleanliness and value
every time ... we invite you to be the part of this winning team and give yourself an
opportunity to grow with the family of people striving to create smiles on the faces of
millions of people everyday.
1.1.3 Values

Our values summarized in "Q.S.C. & V.". Provide good quality, services to customer. Have a
cleanliness environment when customer enjoys their meal. The value of food product makes
every customer is smiling.

1.2 McDonald's in Pakistan

Aiming to be the world's best quick service restaurant, McDonald's Pakistan opened its doors
in September 1998 at Lahore and presently operating in seven major cities with a network of
20 restaurants. With a strong belief in the Ray Krock phrase when you are green you are
growing, McDonald's Pakistan has an aggressive plan to expand in all other cities of Pakistan
and is rapidly growing with the focus to provide friendly and quick service restaurant
experience to our customers.

1.2.1 Lakson Group of Companies

McDonald's Pakistan is a part of the Lakson Group of Companies, with a Head Office in
Karachi and a regional office at Lahore. Lakson Group also owned, Lakson Tobacco Co.
Colgate Pakistan Ltd, Century Insurance Ltd. Express Newspaper, Cyber Net and various
others businesses.

1.2.2 McDonalds Image as an Employer

Our overall image and local reputation as an employer is shaped daily by many factors,
including the benefits programs, compensation package, fun working place coupled with
numerous enthusiasm activities, employee development programs, and our world renowned
best people practices.

Employees, the key ingredient play a vital role each day in shaping our over all employment
image through their performance behavior. Realizing our people strength we provide the best
employment experience to our employees in order to achieve the goal of giving the worlds
best quick-service restaurant experience to our valued customers. We strive to recruit the
best, hire the best, and provide the best place to work.
1.3 INTRODUCTION TO RESEACH PROBLEM

Every research has its own problem and limitations. As a case with McDonalds the main
problem is to understand and analyze the consumer’s preference and buying behavior
towards the fast food international and local restaurants in Lahore. Focal point of research is
on the buying pattern of burgers of McDonalds by consumers in Lahore. Why they prefer
McDonalds over KFC, AFC, Hardees and Fri Chicks.

1.3.1 MOTIIVE

The basic motive of research is to study the consumer preference towards McDonalds in
Lahore, Pakistan and to know about the buying behavior of consumers for McDonalds.

1.3.2 Objectives

The objective of my research is

 To know about the customer satisfaction level associated with the product and the
customer preference level

 To analyze the buying behavior of burgers by people

 To analyze and clearly outlining the present need of the consumer

 To study the factors affecting the consumption pattern.

 CHAPTER 2

2. Review of Literature
Review of Literature

While reviewing the literature researcher was able to find prior research in the area of
consumer preference towards McDonalds. Many researchers were interested to study the
preference of consumer towards fast food chains. Many articles available on the internet
provided valuable information about the fast food chains of Pakistan. After studying the
preference and overall scenario of fast food chains in Pakistan, we can be able to
understand the image of different restaurants in the mind of consumer. So this overview
will be helpful in conducting this research.

2.1 Marketing Strategies Adopted by McDonald's and

Consumer Perception towards Fast-Food
2.1.1 Summary

Over the past few years the Indian economy has undergone drastic changes- changes that
have had the market flooded with multinationals and a variety of products. There has
been a sudden upsurge in the Indian industry and exponential growth in specific
industries. Today's companies work in a war zone of rapidly changing competitors,
technological advances, new laws, managed trade policies and diminishing customer
loyalty.

In today's world of cutthroat fierce competition, customer satisfaction is very essential to

not only exist but also to excel in the market. Today's market is enormously more
complex. Henceforth, to survive in the market, the company not only needs to maximize
its profit but also needs to satisfy its customers and should try to build upon from there.

The project title "Marketing strategies and International Business strategies adopted by
McDonald's" is the analysis of the service Quality level of fast food industry. This project
involves the service level provided by McDonald's and its competitors. The survey was
conducted so as to analyze the service quality prevailing in the current industry and the
improvement that can be made upon it.

Market research study has been conducted in order to bring out the picture of service
quality that exists in this industry and the difference in service quality that exists in the
market. Like what are the customer's preferences about the hospitality provided by the
fast food industry.
After this a comprehensive and comparative analysis has been made and conclusion has
been made keeping in mind the detailed analysis of the findings, which has been
collected through the market research.

2.1.2 Research Objective

The primary objective of study was Marketing Strategies adopted by "Mc Donald's". This
objective is supported by four secondary objectives, achieving them will lead to the
fulfillment of primary objective.

They include:

 To understand the marketing strategy of McDonalds with respect to targeting,

positioning and Marketing mix.
 To understand consumer perception and to find buyer behavior towards fast food.
 To Compare Service quality of Competitors vis-à-vis McDonalds
 To find out the ways by which McDonald's can improve upon its service quality
and bring more satisfaction to customers and thus add value to its bottom line.

2.1.3 Conclusions

 McDonald takes the share on this attribute by providing the customer with fast
and friendly services.
 At McDonald we get your order usually within 60-90 seconds from the time it is
placed. Providing the customer fast and friendly services is the philosophy of
McDonald's. This is the big advantage McDonald's is having over the other
restaurants.
 The customer satisfaction levels are better than the other competitors
McDonald's is having.
 The advantage McDonald having over the other restaurant is I) Ambiance ii)
Employee behavior iii) Cleanliness and iv) Price.
 There is a price and service quality factor today, which the customer is looking
for. It is giving an edge to McDonald's over KFC and Pizza Hut.
2.1.4 Limitations of Study

1. Certain limitations were inherent with this project work.

2. 100% response rate was not found from the respondents. Some extent of
biasness was found because of Brand loyalty while answering the questions.
3. Potential biases such as reluctance of consumers, executives etc.
4. Lack of interest of the respondent was one of the major problems.
5. The Geographic extent of this study was limited to the Delhi market only.
6. The research only tries to present a bird eye view of the entire gamut of Indian
Small appliances Market.

The above article was extracted from dissertations by the students of Skyline College.
Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anubhav_Puri

2.2 Survey: Consumers Prefer McDonald's Over Starbucks

Would you prefer to live in a place with more McDonald's or more Starbucks? A new
report from the Pew Research Center tells of the results it got when posing that oddball
question last October in one of its Social & Demographics Trend surveys. Overall,
respondents preferred a place with more McDonald's (the choice of 43 percent) to one
with more Starbucks (35 percent, with the rest declining to choose). As you'd guess,
though, the pattern of response differed significantly among different demographic
cohorts.

Age was one sharp dividing line: Among the poll's 18-29-year-olds, Starbucks beat
McDonald's by 49 percent to 36 percent. McDonald's had the edge over Starbucks among
the 30-49-year-olds (45 percent vs. 37 percent), the 50-64s (43 percent vs. 33 percent)
and those 65-plus (48 percent vs. 18 percent). Gender was also a factor. While
McDonald's easily outpolled Starbucks among men (46 percent to 30 percent), it eked out
just a one-point win among women (41 percent to 40 percent).

In a breakdown of the data by race and ethnicity, McDonald's outpointed Starbucks

among white respondents (43 percent vs. 35 percent) and, by a much wider margin,
among their black counterparts (56 percent vs. 27 percent). Among Hispanic respondents,
though, it was nearly a tie, with Starbucks getting 39 percent and McDonald's 38 percent.

The only one of the survey sample's income brackets in which Starbucks beat
McDonald's was the $75,000-plus cohort (48 percent vs. 34 percent). McDonald's had its
biggest win among those in the under-$30,000 bracket (51 percent to 28 percent). These
numbers dovetail with the breakdown by educational attainment, in which Starbucks won
among college graduates (47 percent to 32 percent) while McDonald's won among those
with a high school diploma or less (50 percent to 26 percent). Among respondents with
"some college," McDonald's had a negligible edge over Starbucks (42 percent to 40
percent).

Regionally, Starbucks had its best showing in the West, where it won by 47 percent to 28
percent. McDonald's won everywhere else, with its biggest margin of victory coming in
the Midwest (49 percent to 30 percent). The obvious caveat is that the regional numbers
may reflect the real-life distribution of Starbucks and McDonald's outlets around the
country as well as consumer preference in the abstract.
2.3 Fast foods and ethical consumer value: a focus on
McDonald's and KFC

Purpose – Aims to investigate the effect of communicating corporate social

responsibility (CSR) initiatives to young consumers in the UK on their fast-food
purchasing with reference to McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

Design/methodology/approach – Focus groups were conducted to clarify themes and

inform a questionnaire on fast-food purchasing behaviours and motives. Attitude
statements were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis.

Findings – Most respondents (82 per cent) regularly purchased fast food from one of the
companies; purchases were mostly impulsive (57 per cent) or routine (26 per cent),
suggesting relatively low-level involvement in each case. While there was scepticism
regarding the CSR activity being promoted, expectations about socially responsible
behaviour by the companies were nevertheless high. Four factors were isolated, together
explaining 52 per cent of the variance in fast-food purchasing behaviour. They were
brand value, nutritional value, ethical value and food quality.

Research limitations/implications – The research was conducted with students, and

while these represent a key-target market, any further research should target a more
diverse public.

Practical implications – There are important implications for global fast-food companies
in terms of protecting and developing their brand value; they need to respond to the wider
food-related debates in society, in particular, those concerning healthy eating and food
ethics. They also need to ensure that their business practices are fully consistent with the
values expressed in their CSR initiatives.

Originality/value – The special value of the paper lies in its joining together of current
perspectives on CSR and consumer value in the UK food industry as it explores both
through the perceptions of young consumers of fast food.
 Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Research Methodology

The fast food business is highly competitive one. To be successful, it must be able to project the
right image as well as meet the needs of customers. Marketing strategies must be formulated to
attract customers. This report looks at some aspects of fast food chains in Lahore. It examines the
buying behavior of consumers and gauges their perceptions of marketing variables specific to the
fast food industry.

3.1Research process

Different steps are to be followed in the research process and they are explained as below:

3.2 Problem Solving

This is the basic step in the research process. It is well said; “A problem well defined is half
solved” here the problem is “to analyze the consumer preference towards McDonalds-

3.3 Research design

Once the problem is defined the next step is the research design. Research design is the basic
framework, which provides guidelines for the rest of the research process.

The research design for this project is descriptive research design as descriptive studies attempt
to obtain a complete and accurate description of this situation. As descriptive research answers
the question who, what, where, when and how

3.4 Sampling design

The sampling design used in this project is convenience sampling, as the sample of the
consumers for the survey was selected from the branch on McDonalds on Main Boulevard in
Gulberg.

3.5 Population

The total element of the universe from which the sample is to be selected to be studied is known
as population. The populations of this research are the consumers of McDonalds.

3.6 Sample size

The sample sizes for this research is 30 consumers walking in McDonalds.

3.7 Data collection

Following are the sources for the collection of data:

o Primary source

o Secondary source

3.8 Data collection method

There are three main methods of data collection

o Observation

o Experimentation

o Survey

Design the questionnaire

After determining the sample design and research methodology the next step is to design a
questionnaire.

It is mainly composed of four segments in this investigation, which includes the background
information as well as know how of people regarding burgers and their preferences.

1. First part of the questionnaire consist of

 Gender

 Age

 Family type

This is necessary to predict the lifestyle of the respondents to know their family
background eating habits and preference. This will help in relating that how consumer
preference changes as they grow older and many more things can be added.

2. The second part of the questionnaire conatins informations that:

  What are the preferences of consumers regarding the brand

 How often the respondent is willing to eat out.

 Which brand was purchased by him/her recently.

3. The third part consists of

 Information that from where does the respondent is willing to buy his product
from.

 From where do the respondent gets information about new products.

 What influences the respondents the most while making decisions of buying at a
burger outlet.

4. The fourth part contains

 How much a respondent is willing to pay for a meal.

 Does the effectiveness of promotional measures are effective

 Whether the respondents gives the recommendations and suggestions.

 How the respondents give weight age to Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value
for money

Survey method of data collection is used in this research. This is one of the common and widely
used methods for primary data collection. A wide range of valuable information about the
behavior of the employee’s can be gathered through this method. in this research questionnaire is
sole source of primary data however direct interview is also used along with questionnaire in
order to get more open ended answers and know their views and opinion.