Opportunities

Better franchise relations

Internal research in McDonalds have shown that the Franchise part of the restaurants have been running their business better than the corporation-run restaurants. McDonald’s themselves have been realising that local franchisers/entrepreneurs  in general have a better knowledge about the local areas, and have a far greater motivation to run a good business than normal restaurant-managers have.

Furthermore the McDonald’s owned shops are financed 100 percent of the McDonald’s corporation, while the franchise-owned restaurants were financed by the franchisees. This is means that McDonald’s do not have to invest as much money or other resources in opening new branches. Furthermore, it does not have the same risk, and somehow their model secures the same quality and shared value through their network of franchisees.

These relations, popularity and the model McDonald’s have created, give them a strong opportunity to further expand, and that without investing to much funds in the expansion. (McDonalds Annual Report 2005, Lord 2006)

International expansion

Even though the American market and to some part Western Europe have reached a reasonable mature stage, then there is still high growth areas around he world to be explored. Both Europe and Asia still posses a lot of countries where international brands not yet have made a full scale market penetration.

Changing trends

Even though changing trends have stroke down on the traditional fast food industry, then all McDonald’s closest competitors with the same products have been struck by the change as well. But this gives a real opportunity to outperform its competitors with a quicker re-branding of their products.

Change in alliances

Since McDonald’s and Disney ended their 10 years long exclusivity deal in 2006 about not to deal with any other fast-food restaurants or film production companies, then a new world of opportunities have opened up for McDonalds(Schmeltzer 2006). Since they have changed focus from mainly targeting young people, then their alliances should reflect this. Furthermore Disney is no longer the only large producer of cartoons for the big screens. DreamWorks and Pixar are both doing very well and have made several successes for the big screen, and thereby McDonalds have new opportunities here. Furthermore, with products like McCafe and more exclusive products on the menu aiming against another, older, market segment, then alliances with companies producing normal films would also be an opportunity not to ignore.

Health advances in R&D

A good way to improve an image could be to improve their existing products. There has already been focus on removing trans-fat from the fast food industry (MacArthur 2006). This was a measure forced on by health associations to enhance the quality of the industry. If this were to happen on other areas of the industry, either by own R&D or by external forces, could help McDonalds and the traditional fast food industry obtain a better image.