Have you ever thought about McDonald’s life cycle? What stage would you think McDonalds is in right now? The first McDonalds opened in 1940 in California. In the early 1980’s, after three decades of rapid growth, the fast-food market slowly went down and pushed McDonalds to expand abroad. During the 1990’s, McDonald’s expanded their menu offering chicken, pork, salad, milk shakes, soup, and also allowing restaurants to customize their menus to suit the tastes of customers in certain regions. Concerned about the environment, McDonalds began using recyclable paper wrapping and paper napkins.
I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal that talks about late night sales for fast-food outlets. According to McDonald’s, their profit increases 11% between the hours starting at midnight to 5 a.m.. Fast-food chains are extending their hours now to serve their late night or early risers to increase sales.
McDonald’s has successfully adapted to changes in the marketplace, innovating new products and services for their customers. It would appear, McDonald’s falls under the maturity stage of the life cycle and I think McDonald’s will continue to stay at the maturity level for many more decades to come.
Do you think McDonalds life cycle will ever begin to decline? If so, why?
Here’s the link to the article in the Wall Street Journal, you will need to suscribe in order to read the entire article:
McDonalds is so widely known and so convenient to all ages. I believe it will take a long time for their life cycle to decline. McDonald’s is always coming out with something new that people always want to try. McDonald’s has been through a lot of bad press with the hot coffee and the chicken head incident, yet they are still on top. This lets me believe if a cooked chicken head couldn’t make people stop going to McDonald’s, than nothing could bring them down.
I commented on another post last week, saying that decline had to be inevitable for any product or company, but I definitely was not thinking about a corporation like McDonald’s at the time. Now that I think about, I really can’t imagine it ever falling into a significant decline. Right now, it seems like those that are in favor of McDonald’s will always outnumber those who oppose it.
I don’t think McDonalds will ever decline or well not anytime soon. Just as Apple, McDonald’s has adapted its operations to meet the needs of their clients such as purchasing a big mac at 3 am. The other major reason why I don’t think McDonalds will decline is that we live a fast paced life, so fast-food restaurants will stay for a long long time because most people think of the convenience rather than their health. And I believe that if eating healthier becomes popular, McDonalds will add a veggie burger or something like it to approach that new demand.
I believe McDonalds is without doubt still in there maturity stage. They continue to provide the service that people want. Staying open late and adjusting to what the customer wants is a good example of adapting to the environment. Also, McDonalds continues to become innovative in different ways, such as offering healthy alternatives instead of the traditional Big Mac. But as far as its decline stage goes, I believe they are still gonna continue to make profits for quite some time. Not entirely sure when I will see McDonalds fall off the map.
just the other day i was at mcdonalds trying to order breakfast while i still was out trying to go back home. It makes sense why business such as fast-food chains are trying to establish a longer service period. Even though there are two types of people that go at the later periods of time are, people like me,or people who have to get up in the morning to eat breakfast. I was thinking thank god for mcdonalds, but if you look at it at a management point mcdonalds was one of the first people to start up the chain of late night and early morning 24 hours system. where it unlocks the fact of higher revenue flow. I see that other fast-food places like taco bell, Wendy’s, subway etc. are all trying to stay open even later. But doesn’t it really depend on their location, if you think about it some places might not make the same revenue do to that fact on where they live. I know Wrigley’s mickey D’s is making more money than a suburban mcdonalds. so the question here is does it really make sense for stores that dont make the same revenue should they stay open. For example i see a 24 hour subway and i rarely see anyone go there after 12. it doesn’t look like its worth them to be open to late. I guess that what makes mcdonalds one of the elites!
I believe that McDonald’s will experience a decline, but it will not be something that will take them down. It is natural for a company, even if they are big, to experience some sort of decline. McDonald’s ,though, seems like a company that will always popular and big unless they have something go wrong with upper management.
Your post caught my attention about if McDonald’s will ever decline. I’ve recently noticed that McDonald’s are currently revamping their image in different cities and states to making the chain stand out from their fast food competitors such as Burger King, Wendy’s, etc. They are revamping their image to a more modern/upscale McDonald’s to appeal the next generation of consumers. With that said, I believe McDonald’s will be in the maturity stage for awhile because they’re constantly forming innovative ideas that keeps consumers coming back.
I believe that McDonalds life cycle will not decline. There are a number of reasons of why I believe this is true. For one McDonald’s has and will continue to be one of the worlds largest and fastest growing corporation. They appeal to every age level, every class, inexpensive, and is convenient. McDonald’s is always finding new ways to reinvent themselves. They have expanded their menu so they can have a healthier meal, since there has been bad press about how unhealthy the food was. McDonald’s will continue to expand over the years and will remain a big corporation.
I agree with the many responses here that McDonald’s will probably never decline. If I had not known better I would still guess that they are in the growth stage because they seem like they are still expanding and coming out with new ideas. They continue to come out with new products which lure in customers left and right. This is one of the few places that will never go out of “style.”
I agree that there probably won’t be a decline in the McDonald’s life cycle in the near future. The fact that they still have room for growth in different areas probably means that the company will continue to grow (if not by opening new stores, then possibly by introducing new products). McDonald’s is probably still in its maturity stage, but definitely not in the decline stage.
I cannot say with any certainty that McDonalds will eventually hit the decline stage, and I do not foresee it as an issue that the company will face any time soon, but in the eventual future I think it is a very legitimate threat. The company is the epitome of established and has held the title of fast food king for a number of years. There is little room for expansion, as the company is currently at the maturity stage, and each year there is less and less and less opportunity for growth. As I do not see a way that fast food can be revolutionized or drastically changed, it appears that all McDonalds really has to look forward to is an effort to hold their current position, and in such a competitive corporate climate, how long can anybody really expect to hold onto the top of the hill? Just one miscalculated move and boom, the decline stage is waiting.
I don’t think their life cycle will ever decline. They keep innovating and transforming their brand very well and efficiently. They always seem to introduce new products without really increasing prices by much. Also, they have a huge exposure due to a lot of sponsorships and commercials endorsed by sports teams and athletes. Their product isn’t top shelf, but their fries are the best in the world. Then again, it is a fast food place and their are on of the best in their industry.
I really liked that you brought up such an interesting article about a company that we are all familiar with. I really don’t think McDonald’s is going anywhere, I think it has staying power and a rapidly growing and changing team that will allow it to stay mature and not decline. I’ve read that Starbucks is now McDonald’s biggest competitor, so it will be interesting to see in the future how the companies will compete against each other in order to stay mature.
I can understand why one may say that McDonalds will not ever go through the decline stage. Being such a big firm and assets worth billions, lots of people think a firm like that will never go down. Think of it this way, right now McDonald’s dominates the fast-food market, yet the reason behind that is simply that they have a store every corner you go. I used to have McDonald’s breakfast everyday and I stopped because I could not eat another fatty sandwich. Everyone cares about their own health, and just like me when it hits you, you will stop eating there. I know McDonald’s is a huge corporation, but even their stocks have been dropping. I feel like they may dominate now, but EVERYTHING has its peak. They will soon fall.
In one of my marketing classes, I was disturbed to learn that the golden arches was a symbol more widely known than any religious symbols, including the cross. So, in a sense, it is hard to imagine that McDonalds will ever enter into a decline stage. In my opion, as long as McDonald’s stays current in food trends (like the current incresing demand for organic foods) as well as maintaining a low price, McDonald’s will maintain its esteem in the fast food industry.
I believe that the life cycle of McDonald’s is very far away from declining. The company is constantly coming out with new options, one of the largest being a new menu including healthier options. In doing so, they have targeted one of today’s most popular fads of having a more healthy lifestyle. The ideas are forever changing to match what is going on currently, keeping them from falling apart.
Unfortunately from a health perspective, I don’t think that McDonald’s will enter the decline stage in our lifetime. I agree that McDonald’s is in the maturity stage. I think that McDonalds will eventually enter the decline stage but it would require Billions of people to consider their health. On the other hand, I think McDonalds is managed so well that if they needed to switch to a truly healthy menu, I think McDonalds has the resources and ability to create a menu that addresses health issues.
I agree with your opinions that McDonald’s is stay at the maturity level and will stay at this stage for a long time. I don’t think McDonalds will never begin to decline, actually, I think every company in the world no matter how successful it is will get through a decline stage. Since McDonalds is not just a fast-food restaurant, it becomes a culture for America. I think it will take a long time for McDonalds to begin its decline level.
Your post was really interesting. I never thought about which stage of the product life cycle Mc Donald’s is really in. Does it depend on the business cycle of economy? Even in recession, Mc Donald’s had increased sales because of their prices. They do have many ways to avoid a decline. For example, decreasing their prices. The prices being so cheap are very attractive to the mass population. Also, the convenience because there is a location in every corner and the quick service. I think that even if Mc Donald’s was to forecast a decline in their sales, they will come up with strategies to avoid it.
I do not believe that the McDonalds life cycle will decline. McDonalds’s is a very convenient place to go to for cheap, and somewhat satisfying, food. It was obviously a good idea to keep McDonalds open late at night as well. I know for me, if I’m ever out early in the morning, and nothing is ever open, I can always rely on McDonalds to be open for a quick meal. McDonalds is also always coming up with new types of food, like the recent McBites, which have become very popular. It is also clever that they have limited timed offers, like the McRib, which have rare availability. Without a doubt, the company will keep innovating with new food ideas and will keep doing very well in the future.
I don’t think McDonalds life cycle will ever begin to decline because they are a leading fast-food restaurant with a huge market share all over the globe. It always tries to adapt to the different tastes of every country it operates in. Its product line is always developing to cater the needs of all its customers. In addition to that, McDonalds has a strong marketing strategy to attract more customers.
I can relate to this article as I work in a shopping mall management in Bahrain. The mall’s Food Court, including McDonalds and many other fast food restaurants stays open up to 2 hours after the trading hours on weekends and it is always packed! by looking at F&Bs Sales report, we noticed that the fast food restaurants make more profits late at night.
As we discussed today in our Operation Management class, although selling standard products and services is easier, retailers begun in the past few years to shift toward product customization. McDonalds are expert in customizing meals ( ex: Mc Arabia in the Middle East, Mc Noodles in China and Mc Falafel in Egypt) without baring huge costs to do so.
I beleive McDonalds life cycle is far from declining any time soon.
I personally view McDonalds as the Kings of Operation Management. Their operations is part of their overall organizational strategy, they are constantly changing their products and adding to their menu. They have the capacity of making food to responds quickly to the demands at any time (I have never come across an incident where they ran out of pickles at McDonalds). Just looking at the day-to-day operating procedures such as serving the milkshakes first because they will hold their temperature the longest, pouring two cups of cola simultaneously if you tilt the cups to the side is all proof of how McDonalds Operation Managers know their operations from A to Z.
So to answer your question about McDonalds life cycle, they are definitely keeping their throne for a little while longer.
I find this post very interesting and informative for the simple fact that I have often wondered what stage is McDonalds at in terms of product life cycle. It seems McDonalds has been around for ages, but the question remained, how well is it actually doing and what more could it possibly offer to its customers? I agree to a large extent, that it is indeed in its maturity stage, and as the previous comments stated, McDonald’s adaptive strategy and continuous innovation make it a leader in its industry. I don’t think I have ever passed by an empty McDonalds branch, it seems that even with the numerous competitors in the fast foods market (Burger King, Hardees, DQ … etc) McDonalds will always dominate due to its more than successful operations management. Consequently, I believe this particular fast food chain will not exhibit any decline for many years to come, and perhaps never expire.
Reading your post really reminded me of the visit I had to Malaysia and Singapore last year, and how McDonald’s always had queues after mid night in comparison to other fast food restaurants. And I personally believe that this is due to McDonald’s understanding of their customer needs, and customized menu that suits every region. For example in the middle east they have introduced the McArabia that is simply a grilled burger in an Arabic bread with some special sauce that includes some Arabic spices, whereas in Asia for example (as I have tried in Hong Kong) the burger comes in rice biscuit instead of the regular bun. I therefore do not think that McDonald’s life cycle will begin to decline anytime soon.
I don’t think that McDonald’s life cycle will begin to decline in the near future. For the past 15 years, I see McDonald’s is still dominating the fast food market and differentiate itself as an innovative and adapting to changes and challenges. With all the bad publicity of junk foods and burgers and the trend towards healthy and less fat foods, I think like carlaf301 said, they will go healthy and change their menu. I noticed new branches opened continuously and there are all crowded and busy queues. Even the kids are so attached to McDonald’s kid’s meal more than any other fast food.