Running Head: ADDRESSING CHANGING FOOD VALUES

ADDRESSING CHANGING FOOD VALUES Name: Institution:

ADDRESSING CHANGES IN FOOD VALUE

ADDRESSING CHANGING FOOD VALUES Food values are the composition of nutrients contained in food. As time goes by, technology advances in various sectors of the economy. The rapid advancement in technology has also been seen in the food industry. There has been a lot of technological advancement in food preparation, production and processing. These include areas such as planting, planning, harvesting, cultivation and many other processes on the production and processing of food. These advancements have affected the nutrients composition of food and have therefore affected the points value of food. In some instances food values are changed intentionally to make the food more nutritious or less harmful to people. With the change in lifestyles and the greater understanding of the importance of eating right, people are demanding food with better food value. They are demanding more organic food as compared to processed foods. People are becoming keener on their health. They are becoming more and more concerned with health and fitness due to the rapid increase in deaths caused by lifestyle diseases. People are therefore looking for healthier food options to avoid things like obesity. Restaurants and other places that sell food have therefore been force by the situation to change and find ways of meeting their customers needs so as to remain relevant in their industries. This has affected the quick service restaurant industry more than any other industry and therefore there has been some sort of revolution in this industry. Consumers are demanding healthier options in convenience foods. Major companies in the restaurant businesses have therefore had to change or face the consequences. McDonald is one of the companies that have been faced with this situation and have therefore has had to change to accommodate it. McDonald Australia is among the biggest McDonald franchises in the world. It has 761 stores spread across the whole country and these stores serve approximately 1.2 million customers on a daily basis. It was therefore in a very good position to undertake a market research so as to know how to cater to the changing needs of their customers. (REVIEW, 2005)

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From their extensive research McDonald realized that its customers are demanding healthier options from them. In the 21st century the world has become a global village. The advancement in technology has led to more and more people having access to mass communication, access to the internet and many other methods of relaying information to the masses. People have therefore been had access to information on healthy living. People have therefore savvier on health issues. McDonald has therefore had to make its offering to the customers healthier. After the research they wanted to know what changes should be made and therefore Guy Russo the then McDonald C.E.O started attending various summits on nutrition and obesity. He went into meeting with key organizations from these meetings such as the Obesity Taskforce and the Food Group Australia. Later on McDonald Australia and the Food Group Australia formed a relationship from where McDonald learnt a lot concerning nutrition. They later applied this in producing healthier products for its customers. McDonald changed a lot of things including their recipes. They started using canola and sunflower oil blends which are healthier options compared to the other due to lower saturated fat. They also reduced the amount of sugar and salt that they were using. (Guide, 2011) McDonald also started selling smaller sizes of muffins. In creating more values for their customers, McDonalds also introduced new products in their menus. They started selling salads. They introduced a salad plus range with very little fat. McDonald also introduced the Deli plus range choices which also had very little fat in them and was therefore very healthy. (Healthy EatingOverview, 2009) They then introduced the Happy Meal choices which were a bag of fruits, fresh juices and water. All this new options were readily accepted by McDonalds Customers since they were able to serve two purposes; they were convenient foods and were healthy. As time passes by, business environments change. Businesses therefore have to change in order to be able to satisfy the needs and desires of its stakeholders. The stake holders of the business are the people that are affected by any actions of the business. The stake holders are therefore very important in ensuring the continuity and success of a business. The stake holders in McDonalds case are the customers, the employees, the business partners and the opinion holders. All this

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shareholders could have different interest and reconciling their interest is important in the success of the business. From the last paragraph we have seen that McDonald strives to meet the interests of its customers. McDonald therefore cares about its responsibility to the customer. McDonald can be seen as a corporate social responsible organization due to the work that it has done. Corporate social responsibility is when a company takes it upon itself to do things or engages in activities that are beneficial to the society. Businesses that are CSR focused voluntarily get rid of business practices that are harmful to the community. McDonald Qualifies to be called a corporate social responsible organization since it was able to get rid of unhealthy recipes or food that it was offering to its customers. For example McDonald reduced the salt and the sugar in their recipes since they were not very healthy. They reduced the amount of fat since it was unhealthy to their customers and also introduced new healthy products. McDonald also took it upon itself to do a very wide research on healthy eating. With all the info they had acquired they were able to come up with ways of improving their products and therefore improving the health of their customers. McDonald is also seen as being social responsible as it consulted other organizations to help in improving their products. In business the environment is ever changing. The business environment always changes to reflect the social environment. Businesses therefore have to adapt. One of the most important things is marketing. A business has to constantly evaluate its marketing strategies to ensure that they are still relevant. The business therefore has to regularly conduct an environmental analysis of the marketing environment surrounding an organization. Analyzing the marketing environment is very important to the success of a business. Marketing Analysis is crucial in ensuring that the marketing efforts of a business are successful. First of all marketing research and analysis helps a business to identify and understand the opportunities that are out there. From a marketing research, a business can be able to see the niches in the market and therefore take advantage of it. A good example is McDonalds case. With the changing food values, restaurants had to change and offer what their customers were demanding. McDonald took it upon itself to do a wide research on what is required

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and what were the necessary changes that it needed to take to care to the ever changing environment. This helped them to be the first people in the quick service industry to start offering healthier food options. They therefore made a lot from this. (Plan, 2009) A good marketing analysis will also give you a good overview of the economy. The overview of the economy is very good as it helps you to understand a lot about your market. You can be able to comprehend where the market is and where the market is headed to. The economic over view should also be able to tell you how the specific industry is growing or not. A marketing analysis will help you know how the state of other players in the industry and you will therefore know where you stand to. This helps to identify the threats in an industry and the ways you can follow to avoid any failure. (Solanki, 2010) Marketing analysis is also very important in surviving the competitors. Through Marketing research a business can be able to discover quite a lot about a business. For a business to be successful it needs to be keen on what the competitors are doing. A business needs to know any moves that the competitors are making so as to be able to counter them. A good market analysis will help you in asserting and understanding a competitors information. This is their marketing tactics and identity, the network they use in their marketing, their scale of operation and the type of customers on which the competitors are focusing. The business can therefore compare the marketing practices with their competitors and see where they are going wrong or right. This is crucial information and helps in surviving and sometimes even becoming better than the competitors. (Nale, 2007) A businesss success is also reliant on its customers. A business therefore needs to have a wide understanding of the market that they serve. This is one of the importances of marketing research. It helps a business to understand who its customers are. The business can understand who are the main consumers of their products and even get to know the approximate number of people that the business serves. (WAHM, 2011)The marketing analysis is also useful as it shows the

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attitudes and opinions that the customers have about the business. The business will therefore know the need and importance of individual products. This helps the business in planning and in sales as the business will know which part of the market to target. By understanding who the customers are the products can be tailored to fit the desires of the customers so as to increase sales. From the analysis a business gets to know the expectations of their customer and can therefore meet them. This can also help as the business can change its products to accommodate more and more customers and to even convert non-users to new users. (Teacher, 2011) Through marketing analysis businesses can be able to see their success. They can be able to see which product is making the most amount of money and which products are failing. Marketing analysis also tells the business whether their marketing techniques are effective or not. It shows them the number of people that their marketing campaigns are reaching. Through this they can be able to decide on which is the best marketing method for them. With all that they can be able to maximize their profits as they will avoid wastage. Marketing analysis is therefore a very important part of a business success. (Pride & Ferrell, 2010) McDonald case they were influenced by changes in their environment leading them to change their menus to incorporate healthier food options for everyone. The environmental factors that led to McDonald changing their menus were brought about by the consumers changing their needs and desires. With the advances in health care and preventative medicine, medical organizations have been encouraging more and more people into going for healthier diets. Through mass communication media people are becoming more aware of the risks of improper feeding. They are therefore opting for healthier meals. With the fast pace of our modern lives, people still quick service restaurants such as McDonalds to help them cope with their lives. They are therefore demanding healthier options from these quick service restaurants. McDonald therefore had to respond to the demands of the customers and start offering healthy foods with less fat, less sugar and salts and other new healthy meals. Other environmental factors are such as the pressure from

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medical organizations to offers consumers may have led to McDonald changing their menus. These Medical organizations and other such as the Obesity Task force and the Food Group Australia are stake holders in McDonalds since they are the opinion holder in the industry and therefore McDonald has to ensure that their interests are met. (Marketing, 2004) While doing the research McDonald used to major methods of research to get information. McDonald used the qualitative and the quantitative types of research. The qualitative research is research done on a smaller group of people and its aims are usually different from the aims of the quantitative research. In qualitative research the questions are usually probing and seek to discover and define the issues. The questions in qualitative research are usually why oriented. Here the research is open and the name of the organization caring out the research is disclosed. Qualitative research uses interviews and focus groups. (Belk, 2006) Quantitative research on the other hand usually focuses on a larger group of people and collection of statistical data. Here questionnaires and opinion polls are used. Information can be used to track matters such as the market size, the share of the market. This type of research focuses on the how many questions. McDonald research project that was done in 2005 was named Project Discovery. In their qualitative research they used two hour interviews with 35 people and in the quantitative research they interviewed 2,602 people through the telephone. The information received from this research revealed a lot to McDonald. They were able to see the areas that need improvement and they ended up acting on them. They also discovered some pleasing consumer perceptions. Explanatory research could have also been useful for McDonald in their research. Explanatory research is an investigative research into a problem providing insight on the issue. This could have been helpful in researching on the health concerns of their customers. (McBurney & White, 2009) Competitive organizations are finding it harder and harder to get an edge in the market place. The market place is changing fast and organizations are finding it hard to keep up. Markets are becoming diverse and fragmented. Market behaviors are becoming hard to read and old

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instruments of reading the market are not helpful anymore. It has become almost impossible for organizations to tell why people behave the way they are and therefore it hard to know how to turn a no into a yes and vice versa. Through research the Roy Morgan Research group was able to come up with a better understanding of the prime motivations of choice and change. They were able to develop ten mind set segments of the Australian population by using deeper drivers of choice and change. These can be called the Roy Morgan values segments. Different business and products usually produce goods to target different segments. These segments can be able to help business people a lot in their marketing as they are very specific. (Value Segments, 2010) In McDonald case they seemed to have focused their new healthy products on the convectional family segment. The convectional family segment consists of suburban families. These families dedicate all their time and effort into creating a good home. They are also usually focused on providing their children with the best opportunities. They try to enjoy their family lives and at the same time stay in contact with their parents and friends. McDonalds healthy food must have been targeting this segment because of various reasons. In this segment the parents are usually very busy with their work and therefore most of the time they would opt for convenient food to save time. In the rush of trying to take care of their families and at the same time take care of their careers this segment will most definitely be among the frequent visitors in McDonald. These types of customers would therefore demand healthier options. In their marketing McDonald advertised on early breakfast radio shows. This shows that they were targeting the people who are on their way to work and listen to the radio while headed to work. This includes the convectional family segment. This segment also consists of teenagers. The teenagers from these conventional families are targeted by McDonald too. McDonald websites are always designed to appeal to teenagers. The new products introduced by McDonalds would therefore be enjoyed by the teenagers. The healthy options would also be welcome by teenagers since more and more teenagers are becoming aware of the health and the need to be healthy. The parents in this segment want the best for their family and therefore would

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want their families to eat healthy. This segment is therefore the one who out to look for healthy food options and better diets. The quick service therefore needs to change in order to focus on food with higher food values. By using the proper research methods and analysis this industry will be able to know what is the best measure to take.

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References (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.the-business-plan.com/importance-of-market-research.html Belk, R. W. (2006). Handbook of qualitative research methods in marketing. Chicago: Edward Elgar Publishing. Guide, H. (2011). Healthy Eating. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_eating_diet.htm Healthy Eating- Overview. (2009, October 12). Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/tc/healthy-eating-overview Marketing, C. I. (2004). Marketing environment. Chicago: BPP Professional Education. McBurney, D. H., & White, T. L. (2009). Research Methods. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Nale, M. (2007, October 7). The Importance of a Market Analysis. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.ere.net/2007/10/05/the-importance-of-a-market-analysis/ Plan, B. (2009). The Importance of Market Research. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.the-business-plan.com/importance-of-market-research.html Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2010). Foundations of Marketing. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. REVIEW, F. (2005). McDonald's: Addressing changing food values through market research . Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.afrbiz.com.au/case-studies/mcdonald-s-addressingchanging-food-values-through-market-research/Page-2.html Solanki, P. (2010, March 2). Importance of Marketing Research. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-marketing-research.html Teacher, M. (2011). Environment analysis for international marketing. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-international-marketing-environment.html Value Segments. (2010, December). Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.roymorgan.com/products/values-segments/values-segments.cfm WAHM. (2011). Importance of Market Analysis Process for Your WAHM Business. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.marketingforwahm.com/importanceofmarketinganalysis.html