Sustainable Product Strategy Of Mcdonald’s †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Sustainable Product Strategy Of Mcdonalds. Answer: Sustainable product strategy of McDonalds McDonalds follows sustainable product strategy in order to adhere with the triple bottom line strategy of them (Hansen, McDonald and Mitchell 2013). The following sections will discuss about the product portfolio of McDonalds through which, they initiate the sustainable strategy. Mcdonalds continues to find innovative and new techniques to strengthen its nutritional profile of their menu items as well as retaining its potential customers. Here, good food includes real ingredients, great taste and modern choices (Mcdonalds.com. 2018). McDonalds has recently initiated its improved and sustainability measures. The new goal for social responsibility and sustainability made a positive mode by consisting sustainable beef production. The company is now focused on making a difference by changing its core business strategies. The current trend of families for choosing milk and juices has led to the removal of soft drinks from companys Happy Meal menu selection (Carrig 2018). McDonalds also has set to increase its energy efficiency in the majority of their company-owned restaurant. It has also reduced sodium, salt, calories, sugar and saturated fat across its entire menu. McDonald's supports sustainable production of beef. Since the year 2016, it started purchasing beef only from the verified and sustainable sources. The company has implemented proper monitoring and assurance to ascertain the effort made across supply chain. The company is now sourcing 100% of its palm oil, coffee and fish only from the verified sources that completely support sustainable productions (Horovitz 2014). The great tasting espresso and coffee are brewed from high quality coffee beans. Moreover, proper scrutiny of the coffee sourcing is done as it affects the long term growth of the company. McDonalds is now set to purchase 100% of their fiber-based packaging that is done through recycled and certified sources (Gunther 2018). The fast food giant is now all set to achieve the environmental goals by suing renewable and recycled sources for its customer packaging. All the restaurants are having the recycling facilities. It serves 100% more vegetable, fruits, whole grains and l ow-fat dairy in nine of its leading market. McDonalds has increased its in-restaurant recycling by 50%. McDonalds is recently working with environmental agencies and local governments and associations for improved or better packaging designs (Carrig 2018). Moreover initiated customers and employees educations plans for achieving the sustainability goals. The company has created the Global best related Sustainable supply and green environment McDonalds journey for sustainable products and sourcing starts from their suppliers directly. Moreover, at McDonalds people are the face of their brands. The company is also ensuring social responsibility by supporting their employees. Suppliers and franchisees also support various community activities in all the areas, where it serves. Recently, McDonalds also took active participation in the Global Roundtable held for the use of sustainable beef. According to the officials, McDonalds beef value chain proved to be environmental sound, economically viable as well as socially responsible (Mcdonalds.com. 2018). McDonalds is set to explore more efficient and balanced options across its menu. The organization is continually seeking new ways of providing tasty food involving nutrition characteristics and healthy ingredients for its target customers. Happy meals Happy meals are one of the most popular and well known products of McDonalds. This is also one of the products, which are being available in all of their stores around the world. The prime target customers of this product are the children. Thus, in accordance to the preference pattern of the target customers, toys from various movie and other franchises are being offered with the happy meals (Boyland, Kavanagh-Safran and Halford 2015). According to concept of triple bottom line, the first factor is the planet. With the initiation of the happy meal, McDonalds use paper boxes for serving the happy meals. The paper used for the packaging is recycled and reused and they are suitable for use in food products. Thus, the amount of generation of waste from the serving of happy meals is less compare to other products. The next factor is the people. The target customers of happy meals are the children and thus, the food served in the happy meals is having mainly healthy products. For instance, in some countries, McDonalds serves apple slices fruit juice and grilled cheese as side items in the happy meals. Thus, the consideration of people is also being effectively met. The last factor is the profit. With the initiation of the happy meal along with offering toys from famous franchises, it is one of the cash cows for McDonalds. Moreover, co-branding with other companies in offering toys also creates more value for McDonalds. Salad bar and festive offerings McDonalds introduced the concept of salad bar in some of their restaurants around the world. The key objective of this salad bar is to provide and offer some healthier choices to the customers (Swinburn et al. 2015). On the other hand, they are also modifying their existing product portfolio and introducing new products in different festive seasons. For instance, they have introduced festive pie and curding in the United Kingdom in last Christmas season. This strategy helps them to target more customers at the time of festival with offering new products. According to the first factor of triple bottom line, salad bar is offered to the customers as buffet and thus there is no need of packaging. This is helping them in reducing the generation of cost and waste of packaging (Opara 2013). On the other hand, the next factor of people is being met by offering the exact products to the customers at the time of festival. Moreover, the products are being designed according to the festive mood. In the case of salad bar, healthier options are offered to the customers. The last factor of profit is being met by innovative product strategy of them. Expenditure of the customers at the time of festival gets high and thus, it helps McDonalds to gain more revenue by offering newer products in the market. References Boyland, Emma J., Melissa Kavanagh-Safran, and Jason CG Halford. "Exposure to healthyfast food meal bundles in television advertisements promotes liking for fast food but not healthier choices in children." British Journal of Nutrition 113, no. 6 (2015): 1012-1018. Carrig, David. 2018. "Mcdonald's Sets Goal Of Recycling, 100% Sustainable Packaging By 2025".USATODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/01/16/mcdonalds-environmental-goals-sustainable-packaging-recycling/1037214001/. Gunther, Marc. 2018. "Can Mcdonald's Mainstream Sustainability?".The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/mcdonalds-coffee-sustainability. Hansen, Jared M., Robert E. McDonald, and Ronald K. Mitchell. "Competence resource specialization, causal ambiguity, and the creation and decay of competitiveness: The role of marketing strategy in new product performance and shareholder value." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 41, no. 3 (2013): 300-319. Horovitz, Bruce. 2014. "Mcdonald's Sets 2020 Sustainability Goals".USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/30/mcdonalds-sustainability-fast-food-social-responsibility-restaurants/8513245/. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/content/mcd/sustainability/food/nutrition-improvements.html. Mcdonalds.com. 2018. "Nutritional Improvements :: McdonaldS".Corporate.Mcdonalds.Com. Opara, Umezuruike Linus. "A review on the role of packaging in securing food system: Adding value to food products and reducing losses and waste." African Journal of Agricultural Research 8, no. 22 (2013): 2621-2630. Swinburn, Boyd, Vivica Kraak, Harry Rutter, Stefanie Vandevijvere, Tim Lobstein, Gary Sacks, Fabio Gomes, Tim Marsh, and Roger Magnusson. "Strengthening of accountability systems to create healthy food environments and reduce global obesity." The Lancet 385, no. 9986 (2015): 2534-2545.