For this exercise, you will read some background information concerning a specified business and then answer several questions. This case involves a new retail store outlet and you are tasked with determining if they identified an appropriate target market and did they position their product effectively.

This should be written up in paragraph form (do not give me a bulleted list of answers). where each paragraph addresses one of the questions. Your response should be no longer than 2 double-spaced pages.

McDonald's Sponsorships The Ethics of McDonald's Sponsorships McDonalds is a well-known fast-food chain throughout the world. In recent years, it has worked hard to broaden its menu offering and try to broaden its food appeal. It has introduced some healthier options and has also added higher quality food and coffee as well. In addition to having thousands of locations throughout the world, McDonalds also has very strong brand equity and is generally considered one of the top 10 most valuable brands in the world. This has been achieved over many years through a combination of store locations, media attention, advertising and other forms of promotion, including sponsorships. McDonalds is a significant user of sponsorship as a key form of promotion. Because of McDonalds long history in fast food offerings, there is a proportion of consumers that have a strong negative attitude towards McDonalds because they perceive McDonalds as primarily selling junk food. And McDonalds uses sponsorships in order to counteract this and create positive view of the company by doing good things in the community and for local groups. For example, for many years, McDonalds have been involved in Ronald McDonald house and various other related health sponsorships. In many countries, they also are sponsors of sport and childrens activities. However, critics argue that McDonalds should not be associated with anything regarding health or sport.

Student Discussion Questions

1. What is your current perception of McDonalds in terms of their food offerings? Do you think that they have worked hard enough to broaden and diversified their product offering or are they still primarily a fast-food chain?

2. Do you think that McDonalds is acting as a good corporate citizen in their sponsorship activities, or do you think that they are primarily interested in associating their brand with food and health?

3. Referring to the question above, provided that McDonalds is supporting worthwhile causes, does it really matter what McDonalds intentions and goals are?

4. Marlboro (cigarettes) is still one a strong brand in the world, despite not being able to advertise in many countries for decades. They are still allowed sponsorship of Formula One racing do you think that is a suitable arrangement? And do you think it is conceptually different to the McDonalds and health and sport sponsorships?