Segmentation and Targeting Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Segmentation and Targeting - Research Paper Example According to the book entitled â€Å"Principles of Marketing,† the primary method of evaluating a company’s marketing strategies is by way of SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). According to the article entitled â€Å"Marketing at McDonalds,† the company’s strengths lies in its brand and the extensive marketing research that the company performs (â€Å"Marketing at McDonalds†, 2011). Additionally, the company’s main opportunity is the continued population growth which provides more customers (â€Å"Marketing at McDonald’s,†2011). The weakness of the company is the brand maturity which means that as the company ages, they still need to make important changes in order to keep up with the competition (â€Å"Marketing at McDonald’s,† 2011). Finally, the threats to McDonalds include the growing health awareness and the connection between fast food and obesity as well as competition from other fast food establishments (â€Å"Marketing at McDonald’s, †2011). Perhaps the genius behind McDonalds lies in the fact that there does not appear to be a specific target market when it comes to advertising and marketing. The book â€Å"Principles of Marketing† defines a target market as a â€Å"set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve†(Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). For some companies, there is a very specific target market that they are trying to reach. McDonalds, on the other hand, markets to all different types of races, languages, and lifestyles. The only common need that the consumers all appear to share is that of wanting affordable, tasty, and quick food. Therefore, these are the elements that McDonalds must play up within their marketing mix. According to the article entitled â€Å"Marketing at McDonald’s,† the company utilizes four main compo nents for its marketing strategy: product, price, promotion, and place (â€Å"Marketing at McDonalds,† 2011). The company has an overall objective of setting itself apart from its competitors by effectively meeting the goals for the marketing mix. For product and price, the company must look at what they are providing and determine what needs to be revamped and what is performing at expectations. Additionally, price must come into play as the company determines how much value the customers place on the product that McDonalds sells as part of the restaurants popularity is associated with low prices. Determining the physical positioning of the McDonald’s restaurant takes a lot of research as locations must be scouted in order to find the one with potential consumers and less competition. Finally, promotion involves the media advertisements that the company puts out in order to draw in consumers. The company must position itself in such a way as to make their ads stand ou t and apart from the multitude of other advertisements that people are bombarded with on a daily basis. Currently, McDonalds has been in the midst of changing their product line in order to secure their position as one of the top fast food restaurants in the world. According to the article entitled â€Å"McDonald’s adds oatmeal to the menu,† in the beginning of 2011 McDonalds began adding healthier breakfast items to their menu such as oatmeal, yogurt parfaits, and fruit salads in order to help combat some