April 2011 – et cetera.

How hard is it to walk on the streets of a developed country and not see a pair of golden arches accompanied by the ubiquitous red and grey storefront? If you’re a travel aficionado like me, you’ll know the answer to this.

McDonalds…the emblem of globalization and arguably the most well-known chain of fast food restaurants, was founded in 1940 in California. It has now grown to serve 120+ countries around the world and counting!

As we recently learned in class, some companies stick with a standardized marketing strategy while others adapt to their situational surrounding. There are some things that are kept consistent, such as branding. In other words, people all over the world need to have ways of associating the products that they see with McDonalds. This is why you wouldn’t see them changing their logos, colour scheme or interior design. BTW, I’ve noticed a rebranding trend going on whereby they’re trying to establish a classier image by emphasizing modernity and comfort in the design of their interiors, but that is another story I won’t dive into this time.

The following are instances in which the storefront changes to adapt to a country’s culture and as you can see, a lot of McDonalds stores blend into the traditional architecture of the building in which they are found. If you have the time, Flickr has a group that aggregates all the McDonalds storefronts people post on the site. There are over 8,500 of them.

Blending in — Don't mind me, I'm just a temple!

We’ve just briefly touched on the situation analysis but something else to consider when expanding globally is the Marketing Mix! For the four P’s – Price, Product, Place and Promotion, I’m going to provide examples of how McDonalds is a “chameleon”.

Price–A bit of macroeconomics/econometrics here, but economics have actually developed this index that measures the difference in PPP between countries. It’s called the Big Mac Index because it uses the price of Big Macs around the world. Talk about globalization. The point is that you’d think that currency rates would ensure that you’d pay the same price for a burger in Australia as you would in Japan, but this is not the case. The most expensive Big Mac is in Norway and the cheapest Big Mac is in Ukraine.
Product–It is truly amazing how products will differ around the world. For Americans, there’s always some sort of new variation of beef coming out, but in other parts of the world…some cultures just aren’t beef fans. It is said that pictures speak louder than words.

McHotDog Mega Sausage — Across Asia, you can pick up the McHotdog Mega Breakfast Sausage.

McKatsu — Also in Asia, the Cheese Katsu sandwich, a fried pork sandwich stuffed with cheese.

In Hong Kong, the Shogun burger consists of teriyaki pork patty with lettuce, served in a sesame seed bun.

In India, the Chicken Maharaja Mac has two grilled chicken patties with a smoke-flavoured mayonnaise, fresh onions, tomatoes, processed cheddar cheese in a toasted sesame seeded bun. Also available in Lamb.

The McKebab -- Kebab served on flatbread. You can find this in Israel.

Greek — I'm having trouble guessing where this is from. Mmm...pita.

Ebi Filet-O — Japan's Ebi Filet-o a.k.a. Shrimp burger.

McRice — You can get fried rice cakes instead of buns in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

The Lakse wrap (a kind of fish) is sold in Norway and Finland.

And now for my favourite…

Beer — McDonalds beer! I'm not kidding, I saw this when I was travelling in Madrid, Spain but it's also available in France and Germany.

Place–Just check out the link for the storefronts! It’s also interesting to see how McDonalds integrates itself into traditional architecture. I love how they vary their locations and yet stay recognizable.
Promotion–McDonalds uses celebrity endorsement in some countries. A lot of the commercials are geographically unique.

I hope you had as much fun reading this post as I had writing it.

Picture source

Source for the menu items: One, two, three

Comm 299: Business Communications or “Career Fundamentals” is a course that people either love or hate. For me, having transferred into Commerce during my second year, I didn’t necessarily have all the experience or knowledge as my peers. Comm 299 helped me discover my passions, made my resume 100% more efficient, taught me interview skills, but most importantly, made me realize the value of communication. For all of that, I tip my hat to Philippe Desrochers.

Before Comm 299, I had never heard of the term “informational interview.” When Philippe first introduced it, I thought to myself, “why would anyone want to waste their time talking to a figurehead at a company with no job expectation.” Then came the question, “what do you talk about?” Obviously, it’s not like meeting just a friend for coffee. But when Philippe reassured us that employers are genuinely interested in students and care about our interests, that was good to hear! I’m starting to request my first informational interviews now, which is another way of saying “I’ve run out of intelligent things to say for now, but let me get back to you!” (Just kidding.) But I can honestly say that I truly value the skills I’ve learned, bring on the job hunting!

To Philippe and the Comm 299 peer advisors, my CAR statements thank you!