The Marketing Mix: McDonald’s in France

The marketing mix refers to the various factors or aspects of the products or services being developed or advertised which might be modified or manipulated in order to curb consumer responses or decisions in favor of the goals and objectives of the business organization.
Some of these factors or aspects include the features or characteristics, quality, and offerings of the product or service, the price of the product or service which determines their marketability, the location or situations within which the product or service is being marketed, and the techniques or strategies being employed in order to promote or advertise the product of service. The marketing mix is commonly represented by the 4 P’s, known as the Product, the Price, the Place, and Promotion.
(Grover & Vriends 2006, 506) The globalization of corporations or business organizations influences the marketing mix implemented in these organizations operating in various regions because the marketing mix becomes a venue for corporations to formulate business strategies that may either standardize or adapt processes or operations to identified cultural and diversified factors. (De Mooij 2005, p. 14) Approaching the marketing mix follows a series of steps which compartmentalize the processes by which it is to be achieved in the implementation of business strategic decisions.

The first step in implementing the marketing mix is to determine the characteristics or dimensions of the product or service that an organization shall provide to target consumers. Defining the product or service may be facilitated by conducting a SWOT analysis. The second step necessitates the characterization of the consumer population targeted by the organization. In this phase, the organization should be able to determine how the product or service matches the consumer profiles obtained from extensive marketing research and studies.
The third step constitutes the identification of consumer needs, demands, and expectations. (Baker 2003, pp. 288-289) In order to deeply understand how the marketing mix works within the landscape of business management and implementation, we need to know how it is applied in practical terms. Under these pretexts, we shall analyze the dimensions of McDonald’s, the organization being one of the primary symbols of globalization because of its massive expansion worldwide, and determine how it implements the marketing mix in France.
Overall, the marketing mix implemented by McDonald’s in France follows the theoretical approach of adaptation with the formulation of the products being provided, the price of commodities, the marketing or advertising of these products, and how these products are spatially positioned, according to the cultural, economic, political, social, and other aspects inherent in the country.
Some of the specific considerations in implementing adaptation to international business practices, operations, strategies, and so on, include the cultural differences between regions around the world, the legal aspect of corporate implementation and management which are not patterned after a singular framework, the conditions or situations that determine the structure of the local market as compared to the foreign market, etc.
(Ajami, Cool, Goddard, & Khambata 2006, p. 246) Therefore, the dimensions of the theory of adaptation seeks to control or direct business processes, operations, and strategies distinctively depending on the nature and conditions within a particular market environment.