Branding McDonald´s

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The first McDonald’s in India was opened in 1996 in New Delhi. The McDonald’s faced serious problems with introducing their beef and pork menus, so it took them more than 5 years (from 1990) to create their absolutely new menu for Indian customers. Nowadays there are 242 McDonald’s restaurants, spread all over the India (Dileshtare, 2015). More information about Indian McDonald´s will be collected in the Empirical chapter.

McDonald´s created a very strong brand image and customer base in many countries around the world. Its success is based on their purpose to have good relationships with the customers, to have good food and to be a good neighbor (AboutMcDonald´s, 2015).

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Problem discussion

Every aspect of our life has been affected by Globalization. Influential power of culture has tremendous consequences to the people as well as the nation as a whole. Food, is playing an important role to define a culture. According to L. Watson (2014), food is considered as the oldest global carrier of culture. Introducing the fast food in the foreign countries by McDonald’s brought up an influential change in the food market. Fast food was almost unknown before McDonald´s and this is the first company which tried to export American love of fast food and changed the eating habits of other countries outside of USA (Mediaimperialism, 2010). However, there is still concern about how McDonald´s is standardizing their franchise, which is affecting attitudes, culture and the environment.

There are many debates raised about the preglobalization which argue that McDonald´s enhances culture rather than adulterate. But Balko (2003) said that in the most communities the local culture has been conformed by McDonald´s and not the other way around. Even the majority of franchise is locally owned and regional menus have altered with the local taste. For example, in India, cows are regarded as sacred animals, so the India local McDonald's offers distinctive menus and burgers such as chicken Big Mac. In Germany, McDonald's sells beer and in China it sells fritters for breakfast. Those facts suggest that marketing is a vital aspect of promoting brand and products. Marketers has to be really cautious when promoting company´s products in order to communicate right values to the specific consumers.

Marketing is very important for companies in order to build relationships with their customers. All brands are trying to be memorable. That’s why they are creating some kind of identity logo’s, phrases, etc., which can be easily identified with their brands.

Every brand must modify their brand identity when they enter different country/culture. It is very important to see cultural differences and be able to change according to them. The closer the company will be to the market it would like to enter, the more successful it will become. One of the most important aspects of becoming closer to the culture is to create a brand identity which address the same values and perceptions as the culture has. McDonald´s is aware of it and makes a high effort in doing so. They create new meals and advertising strategies for countries they would like to enter, and investigate cultural values, on which their brand can be focused in order to be successful (AboutMcDonald´s, 2015).

Based on the facts mentioned in this chapter it can be seen that it is vital for McDonald´s to evaluate their brand identity while entering a new market in order to communicate right values and to be successful.

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Purpose

The purpose of this project is to identify and analyze brand identity of McDonald´s in USA and compare it with McDonald´s brand identity in India by using Brand identity prism.

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Research question

What is the McDonald´s brand identity in USA?

What is the McDonald´s brand identity in India?

What is the differences in McDonald´s brand identity in USA comparing to McDonald´s identity in India?

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Theoretical Framework

The theoretical concept will be analyzed to identify the brand identity of the McDonald. Therefore, the authors will use the Brand Identity Prism as tool for the sake of this research.

Brand identity is very important concept since it defines brands on many different levels and it helps to communicate their values and what they stand for. Good brand identity is one of the key aspects in order to be successful and companies usually put high effort in establishing them.

It is very important for researchers to understand all aspects of a brand in order to analyze the brand´s identity changes in different environments. The process of investigation of values and creation of new ones help the company to be closer to their customers.

When the brand's message get across to the consumers it often triggers some emotional associations based on their previous experience. As everyone has their own personality, the brand also has its own brand personality. Brand personality can influence consumer´s perception of the products. (Venable et., 2005)

One of the tools which identify brand´s aspects is the brand identity prism.

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Brand identity prism

It is a concept defining brand identity by breaking it down into several aspects which are physique, personality, relationship, culture, reflection and self-image. Brand´s physique is a bases of the brand which includes symbols, attributes and features. Pich and dean (2015) also further said, physiques are the group of portrayal of tangible qualities of the brand. Brand´s personality is a concept which defines the brand´s identity in terms of human personality traits such as character and attitudes (Aaker, 1997). Relationship is a term that describes behavior based on interaction between the brand and its consumers. Veloutsou (2007) further goes on saying that, strength is one of the important factor within the relationship, as the consumer does not have enough knowledge about product, therefore, technology product tend to build a strong relationship. Culture is an aspect which communicates the brand´s fundamental values and beliefs that it stands for. The next concept is reflection. It stands for an idea or image, which is communicated