PEOPLE is not one of the 4P’s!
By Joe Johnson
I know this to be true after being kindly directed by our all-knowing marketing guru, part-time scarf model, and full-time professor Alana the magnificent! Needless to say, I used “people” as one of the 6P’s in my first deliverable, and my professor was less than impressed with my marketing knowledge. If Alana could have used a virtual red marker, I would have had a red marker mark next to the word People on my report, followed directly with the sentence, “what the hell?” in all caps on the assignment. The 4P’s are about finding “the right people,” but “people” is not one of the 4P’s. Got it!
That’s why I chose to discuss the article, which gave us amateur marketers a front-row seat to examine how McDonald’s utilizes its 4P’s regarding their overall marketing mix. The 4P’s of marketing are Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. Furthermore, the 4P’s are a model used for enhancing a marketing mix that aids businesses in taking a product to market. In the most basic terms, it is a tool for finding your target market.
McDonald’s uses their products to gain an expansive group of market segments. The menu includes burgers, fries, chicken and fish sandwiches, salads, desserts, all-day breakfast, and McCafé. McDonald’s mainly cater to fast-food buffs, but even if you are a vegan, you can get a salad.
When McDonald’s was conceived, their main focus was on making burgers, fries, and shakes at breakneck speeds. McDonald’s owners used the assembly line concept birthed in Detroit for automobiles and thought, “burgers.” This original concept has worked with immense success. Since that time, the McDonalds brand has increased its product lines to appeal to more consumer segments, and that’s why they have the list of products previously mentioned.
If you’re like most people, you might think there is only one place available in which to purchase McDonald’s, but you’d be wrong. McDonald’s has restaurants, duh, but they also have kiosks, a mobile app, and now they work in conjunction with delivery apps so that you can get McDonald’s pretty much everywhere. McDonald’s is available wherever wi-fi or 5g is available. Let’s put it this way, if you can’t get McDonald’s delivered to you, you may be lost and in great danger.
McDonald’s uses various types of marketing mediums to promote their brand. According to the article, they use; Advertising (most significant), sales promotions, public relations, and direct marketing. At this point, who doesn’t know what McDonald’s is? McDonald’s is a multinational billion-dollar corporation. Everyone on planet earth knows what McDonald’s is, and everyone knows what McDonald’s is famous for. Unlike most companies that are mostly unknown, I would have to assume McDonald’s markets to stay relevant and to promote new food items.
The pricing aspect of McDonald’s has changed significantly in recent years. The article states that McDonald’s uses a value-based pricing strategy to exploit two techniques: bundle pricing or a psychological approach. Within the last eight years, McDonald’s has made a 180 due to ditching the value meals and has since focused more on limiting the menu while increasing their standards on every product produced. Overall, this move has proved to be an improvement to the products while still keeping their price points competitive.
Even though I was a little confused about the 4P’s initially, I have learned a great deal about them, why they are essential, and how to use them effectively. The article about McDonald’s was a second opportunity for me to further my knowledge about the 4P’s and show how they are used in an overall marketing mix.
