STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Critique of McDonald's Strategic Management



Critique of McDonald's Strategic Management

Introduction

McDonald's is one of the most well-known brands in the world and associated with burgers and American-style fast food throughout the world. The company changed the way that Americans--and indeed, much of the world--eats, but the companies have also struggled in recent years. McDonald's relies on a vast network of franchisees, and has arranged to buy franchises that cannot be sold. The company's stock price has plummeted in recent years franchisees are unhappy with the marketing support--or lack thereof that they receive, and the consuming public has changed its tastes both domestically and in the international market.

Discussion

Critique of McDonald's Strategic Management

For the proposed commercial advantages to eventuate, a company's image must be consistent with corporate identity, and this can pose a significant challenge as can be seen in the case of McDonalds. While the McDonalds corporate identity well defined, its image is not, as many stakeholders maintain views which do not align with the ideal expressions of identity.

Modern corporate activity often demands a compartmentalization of audience, so messages can be tailored to each audience. The scattered image phenomenon (Price, 2008) results when organizations pressured to communicate directly with segmented audiences, inevitably creating varying messages and thus contradictory images. Being such a large organization, McDonalds has an enormous audience which effectively means there are an equal number of interpreters to their projected identity. McDonalds recently adopted menu changes to include healthier options in order to reach a target audience. This move criticized because of it incongruity with their broader identity as a fast food provides (Ibid, 180).

A case in point is McSpotlight, an independent group of volunteers which disseminate factual but wholly negative information about McDonalds (Mc Spotlight, 2008). It can be seen that Image management while important will also continue to pose significant dilemmas for highly visible corporations like McDonalds.

Corporate reputation while distinct from the constructs of corporate image and identity can be described as the end goal of image management, providing it with significant relevance (Cornelissen, 2008). Unlike the immediate impressions stakeholders make when developing a corporate image, corporate reputation is an evaluation of an organizations images made over time (Ibid).

This enduring perception likened to steady accumulation of evidence (Zinkhan, 2001) that stakeholders use to form, and overall judgments, (Balmer, 2001). It said be created from ongoing interaction between an organization and key stakeholders groups, generated through possible transactional experiences, targeted communications or unplanned impact (Ibid). Corporate image is far less durable than reputation; thus a consistent store of goodwill and support are important organizational objects (Llewellyn, G, 2002).

Because an organization's identity perceived and interpreted by its stakeholders in terms of its image, the overarching goal of corporate identity management in an organization is to acquire a favorable corporate image amongst the key stakeholders so that it can acquire a favorable corporate reputation (Cornelissen, 2008).

This not only results in stakeholders having a positive disposition towards the organization (Melewar, 2003) but have strategic and financial advantages including increased ...