Environmental Factors Marketing at Mcdonald's Essay

e) Political systems and international relations

The political systems raise complexities through distinctive legislations. While the political systems in the U.S. might militate for a specific business feature, foreign political system might militate for a different business feature. The complexities include the need to spend increased funds to research and comply with the laws of the political systems across the globe.

In terms of the international relations, these would not raise any difficulties in the context of a perfect market. Still, since this is not the case, the international relations between the countries might facilitate or create tensions for McDonald's marketing efforts.

f) Foreign Corrupt Practices and local, national and international legislations

Since McDonald's is registered in the United States and operates in various countries across the globe, it has to simultaneously respect the laws of both the United States, as well as the legislations of the countries in which it operates. In the U.S. For instance, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 forces McDonald's to invest more in transparency and accounting responsibility (FCPA Enforcement).

While, at a generic level, it would be expected for the laws to be the same in the U.S. And in the other countries, some differences do exist. One is for instance pegged to advertising to children. In countries where laws prohibit advertising to children, the marketing team at McDonald's has to find ways in which to sell the products addressing the children to the parents.

g) Effect of technology

Technological innovation is omnipresent in all aspects of the business processes. At the marketing level, it has various implications, some of them including the following:

New technologies allow McDonald's to create better developed campaigns

The newer campaigns created with the aid of technological innovations better capture the attention of the audience and they make a more favorable impact

The technologies are however expensive and have to be continually upgraded

They create competitive advantages for the competitors as well.

Overall, McDonald's owes its success to a multitude of forces, but an important such force is represented by the highly capable marketing department. So far, the marketing decisions have been made in an integrated manner to include all possible challenges of the micro and macro environments.

References:

Adams, B.,2007, McDonald's strange menu around the world, Trifter, http://trifter.com/practical-travel/budget-travel/mcdonald%E2%80%99s-strange-menu-around-the-world / last accessed on October 4, 2011

2011, Website of McDonald's, http://www.mcdonalds.com last accessed on October 4, 2011

The FCPA explained, FCPA Enforcement, http://www.fcpaenforcement.com/explained/explained.asp last accessed on October 4, 2011