Ch. 15 - Retailing

Place visited: McDonalds

McDonalds being a franchise, offers almost the same product and services as any other McDonalds all depending on their location. For example, the way one product or service is practiced in one McDonalds may be different than others because of regional differences. Boasting a whopping 33,000+ restaurants around the world in 118 countries, McDonalds is one of the leading franchises. Being a restaurant type franchise, McDonalds doesn't use many retailing practices and relies solely on commercials and other picture orientated advertisements/retailing to help persuade people to buy the product. Along with most McDonald advertisements/retailing they usually talk about the prices being low and tend to over-exaggerate things when in reality the product you get is nothing like the pictures portrayed in the advertisement/retailing.

Although McDonalds does tend to disappoint people/customers when new products are released (mostly the burgers), they do have a good enough retailing mix to keep them coming back. Promotion of their products is a very important role to McDonalds because it will determine whether or not that product will sell or not. If they introduced a new product without promoting it beforehand then no one would know that such a product even existed. Along with promotion comes presentation and pricing. Like I discussed earlier, McDonalds relies heavily on picture orientated advertisements/retailing which are meant to give off a "delicious" or "worth the money" image. If all of McDonald's burgers were shown in their advertisements/retailing as the way they "really are/look like" then they would most definitely see a drop in sales because they don't give off much appeal. Same thing can be said about the pricing; if a product sells for $5, then by all means it better be worth $5. Lets use an example; the double cheeseburger:

What the product really looks like

What the product looks like in their advertisment

Because the double cheeseburger practically replaced the regular cheeseburger on the dollar menu (roughly $1.20 at most McDonalds), people don't care about the appearance of the product, they mostly care about the price. If the double cheeseburger wasn't on the dollar menu and costed lets say $3.00 instead of $1.00, the burger might actually still sell, however that would only happen if the product "looked the same as it did in the advertisement". If the double cheeseburger didn't sell for $3.00 McDonalds wouldn't be in much trouble because of the wide variety and mix of products being offered to the customers/consumers (diversity). Atmosphere also plays a important role in day to day McDonalds operations because it influences the mood of customers and employees. Ask yourself "would I want to sit down and eat here again if I had a choice?", if you answer yes then that means that particular venue (it can be any restaurant or etc.) has a good atmosphere. If a McDonalds looked like a run down restaurant with dust, cobwebs, and etc., it would give off a bad impression and vice versa. If a McDonalds restaurant looked classy, clean, and sophisticated, then it would give off a good impression which in turn would bring in more re-occurring customers.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Recognition

CAT INC. is recognized as #1 in their industry, providing not only machinery but diversified plans and services to back it up. Usually when big companies or organizations construct new buildings/firms they use Caterpillar machinery, which shows that their machines are very dependable and worth the investment/money. Of course not every company or organization may use Caterpillar, maybe to save money or some other reason, but CAT INC.'s machinery are viewed by those companies and/or organizations as a last resort.

Certificate of Supplier Quality Excellence Process

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Information Search, Evaluation of Alternatives, and Purchase

Recognition and Information Search goes hand in hand because they both rely on each other. When a company, organization, or individual wishes to purchase a CAT INC. machine they usually do research beforehand to determine whether or not the machine/product is for them which brings up a important question, "Is this something that I want or is this the something that I need?"  When you research a product online (it can be any product) you will most likely find a evaluation page or something similar to it where people rate the product(s). People who have previously bought or used said product will give their review on it for others to see, it can be good or bad depending on the product. Good reviews/ratings will provide the company, organization, or individual who is researching a product more incentive to make a purchase because it has been given the appraisal of others; also vice versa, if the product has bad reviews/rating then they will have less incentive to make a purchase because it has been judged as a horrible product by others.

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Post Purchase Behavior

Because CAT INC. is at the top of their industry, they always meet or exceed customer expectations. When customer expectations are met they will be more prone to give good reviews for the product as well as the brand which will in turn boost incentive for others to purchase goods from CAT INC..

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Because CAT INC. has a great global vision, they excel in their industry (#1 in their industry). Many people think that CAT INC. only operates within the United States but the truth is they operate anywhere there are big businesses and corporations; of course with some exceptions such as North Korea or any other country outside of the general jurisdiction. CAT INC. has various firms stationed in other big countries such as China and the United Kingdom showing that their machinery is wanted and needed; they also export their goods to other countries who order through the internet. A positive note to CAT INC. would be that because their business operates all around the world they're deeply connected to various markets, domestic and international markets. On the downside because their business is spread throughout the world their source of income, marketing strategies, and other activities tend to fluctuate depending on various factors. Example; a country where one of CAT INC.'s firms are stationed has experienced economic problems and because of it big businesses and corporations would stop growing. Because of the country's economic problems CAT INC. would be negatively affected and would have to change their course of actions in order to stabilize the situation. Even though CAT INC. is affected by many factors worldwide it helps them grow as a business/company specifically through trial and error. Whenever they are faced with a problem concerning one of their firms stationed in another country they'll know what to do because they've been through it all before, maybe not in that specific country/area but they have the knowledge and experience needed in order to solve any problem.