McDonald’s Case Study SWOT Analysis | Identifying Internal & External Factors

Business and management students are often asked to work on McDonald's case study SWOT analysis to identify the most common yet crucial factors of the company that determine its success. Since McDonald's is the most successful fast-food chain company of all time, it is not easy for students to perform a SWOT analysis on it and understand all the internal and external factors.

However, you need not fret; this article is going to help you big times. It presents McDonald's SWOT analysis so that students can get an insight into its key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that affect the business. Let's get started!

1.Strength

McDonald's is the second-largest restaurant chain serving customers in over 120 countries. The massive size of the company is one of its biggest strengths that provide many benefits over competitors. Other important strengths are:

* Large Product Range

* Moderate Market Diversification

* Standardized Processes

* Strong Brand Value

* Strong Global Brand Image

2.Weakness

Due to an increase in the annual dividend hikes, the dividend growth rate of McDonald's is slowing down and will continue to do so. Some more weaknesses of the company are:

* High Employee Turnover

* Limitation in Process Flexibility

* Low Differentiation

* Low Product Diversification

* Massive Decline in Western Market

* Negative Publicity

* Unhealthy food on the menu

* Weak Product Development

3.Opportunity

There are many opportunities for new restaurants in developing countries, and McDonald's has been rightly taking advantage of them. Some more opportunities that the company has are:

* Growing Dine Out Market

* Increasing the Extent of Localization in International Markets

* Market Development in the Middle East

* Product Diversification

4.Threat

McDonald's faces competition from many similar brands, such as Burger King, which is a great threat to the company. A few more are:

* Currency Fluctuations

* Fast Food Market Saturation in Developed Countries

* Food Safety Concerns

* Global Economic Recession

* GMO Rules and Regulations

* Healthy Lifestyles Trend

* Lawsuits Against the Company

So, these were the key internal and external factors that impact McDonald's. Hope this article helped you understand SWOT analysis to a great extent.

Expert's Tip: When conducting SWOT or PESTLE analysis on a company, you should explore all the working aspects to understand where it stands in the market, how it is better than its competitors, where it is lacking, and how it can have an edge over other brands. You should also think from the company's perspective when using some strategic planning tool to identify internal and external factors. Keeping this in mind will help you a lot when working on the next case study writing task of a company!

Summary: This article explains McDonald’s case study SWOT analysis that will help you get an insight into all the internal and external factors affecting the company.