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McDonald’s: Local Footprint, Global Reach
Laurel Delaney | October 6th, 2008 - 08:12 AM
(16) found this useful. Do you? 
Have you ever wondered if you could order a McHuevo in Uruguay?
Yes, you can — but if you’re an American touring Bombay or Delhi, for instance, you might well ask, “Where’s the beef?” Due to the religious beliefs of many Indians, there won’t be any! Instead, you’ll see a McVeggie or McAloo — don’t ask me what the latter is — which you can check out for yourself.
McDonald’s is opening restaurants worldwide, faster than you can say “two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-sesame-seed-bun,” and keeping pace with market-smart variations on their traditional menu.
If money were no object, think what fun it would be to travel around the world and check out the Golden Arches in every country to see what that local menu offers and how McDonald’s applies (enforces) the concept of local footprint, global reach! I will spare you the expense. Right here, right now you can get an insanely great idea of what the journey would be like — the differences in culture, food offerings and technology from country to country — by surfing online. Let’s take a look:
• Norway: The “Laksewrap Wasabi,” a salmon wrap with dill sauce.
• Netherlands: The “Groenteburger,” a vegetable burger.
• Germany: Frankfurters, tortellini and beer!
• Thailand: The “Samurai Pork Burger,” marinated with teriyaki sauce; a palm-fruit sundae; or a fish n’ salmon sauce burger.
• France: Wine.
• Uruguay: The “McHuevo,” a hamburger with a poached egg on top, or the “McQueso,” a toasted cheese sandwich.
• Japan: The “Chicken Tatsuta” sandwich, fried chicken spiced with soy sauce and ginger, served with cabbage and mustard mayonnaise.
• The Philippines: “McSpaghetti,” featuring a sweet tomato and meat sauce with frankfurter bits.
• Singapore: Vanilla ice cream swirled with Flavour Burst - rich chocolate, tangy raspberries, fruity grape or exotic mocha - and spiced for Singaporean tastes.
• New Zealand: The “Kiwiburger,” a hamburger with a fried egg and slice of beet.
• Chile: Dress your burgers with not ketchup but avocado paste. It becomes a “McPalta.”
• Canada: Grilled cheese sandwich, and in some parts of Canada, you can order a lobster dinner with the McLobster lobster roll.
McDonald’s is the leading global foodservice retailer, with more than 31,000 restaurants serving 52 million people in more than 100 countries each day. More than 70% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women. Revenues for the year 2007 reached $22.8 billion.
McDonald’s has a sizable international presence; 65% of sales occur outside of the United States. In addition to developed markets like the U.K., Canada, South Korea and Australia, McDonald’s operates in fast growing emerging markets like China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe.
China is a particularly important market. In FY 2007, McDonald’s launched the breakfast menu, extended store accessibility to 24 hours in major cities, and implemented drive-thru in China, which attest to the corporation’s high expectations of growth in that market.
Most recently, McDonald’s has been benefiting from new menu items elsewhere, expanded hours and the tendency of cost-conscious consumers to opt away from pricier eating-out options in the U.S. Overseas, it has reaped rewards from expansion and organic growth in key markets like Australia, China and Japan, along with the currency benefits of the weak U.S. dollar.
International breakdown for the largest markets is as follows:
Take a historical virtual tour of McDonald’s land.
And surf the world at McDonalds.com.
Truly a global empire, and a great example and inspiration to boot!
* * * * *
About the Author: Global business expert Laurel Delaney is the founder of GlobeTrade.com. She also is the creator of “Borderbuster,” an e-newsletter, and The Global Small Business Blog, all highly regarded for their global small business coverage.
Laurel is a member of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.
Pablo | October 6th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Did you know that in my country, Bolivia, about 5 years ago or so, McDonalds closed all 3 (or 4) of their restaurants.
I don’t have the official info but public gossip says they went bankrupt.
Burger King survived them and even took over the premises where the “golden arches” formerly stood.
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Laurel Delaney | October 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Yes, I am aware …
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/bolivia/bolivia-mcdonalds.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2545361.stm
A meal that I guess was not so happy in Bolivia!
Thanks for sharing.
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Rose Anderson | October 7th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Oh I See. I have not heard about that. But I think these are already franchises.
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Gemma | October 7th, 2008 at 8:52 am
McDonald’s certainly is quite the empire isn’t it? Amazing that “assembly line” burgers would become such a rage back then. And all of these different foods in different locations? That’s even more amazing to me . . . how diversified they are. Germany even has tortellini!
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Bianca Aquino | October 8th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Indeed, an inspiration!
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Laurel Delaney | October 8th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Thank you so much Bianca!
And Gemma, I didn’t know about McDonald’s in Germany offering tortellini! Thanks for letting us know.
Anyone else know of unusual or indicative of local taste offerings at McDonald’s around the world?
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Bianca Aquino | October 9th, 2008 at 1:21 am
You are welcome, Laurel.
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Amanda | October 9th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Very interesting. This is why McDonalds is so successful, being able to adapt to local markets. I am amazed that the US only consumes 35% of their revenues. I would have expected that to be a larger number.
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Look Who is Appearing On The American Express OPEN Forum | Small Business Trends | October 10th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
[…] Laurel Delaney - McDonald’s: Local Footprint, Global Reach. […]
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Martin Lindeskog | October 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
They have pancakes for breakfast in Sweden. Have you touched on the Big Mac Index? http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/
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Look Who is Appearing On The American Express OPEN Forum | Business Never End | October 12th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
[…] Laurel Delaney - McDonald’s: Local Footprint, Global Reach. […]
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Laurel Delaney | October 13th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Thank you to all of you for sharing your thoughts, comments and ideas!
And a BIG thanks to Martin for his Big Mac Index — hadn’t seen that — and the mention about pancakes being served in Sweden at breakfast. Are we to assume those are Swedish pancakes :-)? And if so, exactly what are they like?
Much appreciation and please continue to keep sharing your Mc-D menu items from all over the world!
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Martin Lindeskog | October 15th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Laurel: You are welcome! The Big Mac index by The Economist is an important indicator of the currency situation in the world.
Swedish pancakes are similar to the ones in England with the following ingredients: flour, eggs and milk. They are thin and the taste resembles the French crêpes. I had tasty pancakes (palacsinta) in Sopron, Hungary. Here is a recipe from the famous cookbook by Gundel: http://egoist.blogspot.com/2007/05/palacsinta-by-gundel.html
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Look Who is Appearing On The American Express OPEN Forum | idealfusion.com | October 16th, 2008 at 1:03 am
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