Environmental Factors
Sam Fakhoury
2/9/2010
MKT/421
Kelly Duman
Group ID BSAW0BR3F1
Environmental factors can play a major part in a company’s marketing plan. Environmental factors can include social, ecological, political, cultural, technological and ethical issues. McDonalds can face all these issues because they are a global company. Many of these issues can affect McDonalds marketing plan even in different areas of the United States. McDonald’s has over 30,000 local restaurants in more than 120 countries. 70 percent of our restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent, local businessmen and businesswomen (McDonald’s Global, 2007). Larger environmental factors affect the way they market globally with different factors having to be considered in each area of the world they have restaurants.
High-level Domestic and Global Environmental Factors Depending on the area, marketing strategy has to change. For instance, in China, the government controls most or all businesses. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has largely maintained control over the political content of mass media communication. Television, radio, and newspaper commercials voice party lines and party slogans (Lewis, 2002). The only way for advertisements to go out over the airways is by the approval of the CCP and tagged along with a political add Many other issues can affect the way McDonalds does business as well. For instance in India they do not eat beef, when most people think about McDonalds they think of hamburgers. There are two menus in India, the veggie menu and the non-veggie menu which includes chicken items. Domestic factors also affect marketing strategies. The food menus differ from state to state. For instance spicy chicken sandwiches are spicy in Louisiana. One of my family favorites is the chicken biscuit. When we travel to New York from Georgia they do not have chicken biscuits on their menu.
Technology Impacts Technology has changed the way companies market...