Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Submitted by Group 9
MCDONALD’S IN INDIA
• Indian- zed menu: They customised the menu according to the Indian taste and culture by taking
out beef out of the menu and introducing vegetarian options.
• Lowered their prices for the Indian market: Prices were slashed down according to Indian
income to target the middle income group and not only keeping to the affluent. The cheapest
option on the menu started at Rs. 19
• Culture change (research shows that in 2003, of 100 meals that people ate in a month, only
three were eaten out)
• A Restaurant Management System (RMS) was created for efficient management of the
operations.
• The vegetarian menu was printed in green and the non-vegetarian menu in
purple to clearly distinguish the menus
How did McDonald's tackle the cultural, political
and economic issues in its Indian operations?
POLITICAL:
CULTURAL:
McDonald’s took a series of politically correct strategies to deal with the initial
challenges of the Indian market since India’s population was Hindu majority. Hindus
consider cows as sacred and 150 millions of Indian Muslims do not eat pork. Thus beef
and pork have been a complete no-no from the start. Instead, they introduced a
mutton based Maharaja Mac in India.
Separate utensils were used for cooking vegetarian and non-vegetarian food
It has also introduced several new products specifically for Indian consumers in order to
get accepted and successfully blend into local market
ECONOMIC ISSUE:
Due to India higher import duties and foreign exchange fluctuation , McDonald’s
decided early on to source its raw materials from local suppliers to the maximum extent
possible, It has also used technologies like ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) for the
timely delivery of goods at the minimum price
It has managed to reduce its per store investment cost , as it is being clearly mentioned
in the case that it has reduced its per-store investment by 33% in 2003-2004 as
compared to 1996
As a part of its corporate citizenship strategy, McDonald’s has been involved in many community related
projects in India, most of them directed toward children.