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0 Introduction Consumer behaviour is "The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society.".Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products the firm should use).Consumer behaviour involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest. The study of consumer behaviour is essential as it helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different brands for certain products. Consumers reactions towards the market is strongly influenced by the environment, culture, family, signs, media, and even ones financial standing. Consumer behaviour can be seen when they purchase a product or service and reaction or decision making while shopping. Consumer behaviour pervades firms and companies at large to create, innovate or produce certain types of products and services. Consumer behaviour defers from age, gender and also ethnicity. Marketers sometimes have preference to choose between targeted marketing or general marketing. However, consumer behaviour plays a huge role on how these type of decisions are made. These days, companies worldwide are investing billions and billions of dollars per year only for marketing and branding purposes.

There are four main applications of consumer behaviour. The most obvious is for marketing strategy for making better marketing campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon. By understanding that new products are usually initially adopted by a few consumers and only spread later, and then only gradually, to the rest of the

population, we learn that (1) companies that introduce new products must be well financed so that they can stay afloat until their products become a commercial success and (2) it is important to please initial customers, since they will in turn influence many subsequent customers brand choices.( USC Marshall- Lars Perner, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Clinical Marketing, Department of Marketing,Marshall School of Business,University of Southern California) A second application is public policy. In the 1980s, Accutane, a near miracle cure for acne, was introduced. Unfortunately, Accutane resulted in severe birth defects if taken by pregnant women. Although physicians were instructed to warn their female patients of this, a number still became pregnant while taking the drug. To get consumers attention, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took the step of requiring that very graphic pictures of deformed babies be shown on the medicine containers. Social marketing involves getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling something. Marty Fishbein, a marketing professor, went on sabbatical to work for the Centers for Disease Control trying to reduce the incidence of transmission of diseases through illegal drug use. The best solution, obviously, would be if we could get illegal drug users to stop. This, however, was deemed to be infeasible. It was also determined that the practice of sharing needles was too ingrained in the drug culture to be stopped. As a result, using knowledge of consumer attitudes, Dr. Fishbein created a campaign that encouraged the cleaning of needles in bleach before sharing them, a goal that was believed to be more realistic. As a final benefit, studying consumer behaviour should make us better consumers. Common sense suggests, for example, that if you buy a 64 liquid ounce bottle of laundry detergent, you should pay less per ounce than if you bought two 32 ounce bottles. In practice, however, you often pay a size premium by buying the larger quantity. In other words, in this case, knowing this fact will sensitize you to the need to check the unit cost labels to determine if you are really getting a bargain. There are several units in the market that can be analyzed. Our main thrust in this course is the consumer. However, we will also need to analyze our own firms strengths and weaknesses and those of competing firms. Suppose, for example, that we make a product aimed at older

consumers, a growing segment. A competing firm that targets babies, a shrinking market, is likely to consider repositioning toward our market. To assess a competing firms potential threat, we need to examine its assets (e.g., technology, patents, market knowledge, awareness of its brands) against pressures it faces from the market. Finally, we need to assess conditions (the marketing environment). For example, although we may have developed a product that offers great appeal for consumers, a recession may cut demand dramatically. 2.0 Consumers perception towards Mc Donald McDonald's Restaurant was founded by Ray Kric on April 15, 1955. The first outlet was opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, Americca. By 1965, over 700 restaurants opened all over America. Today, Mc Donalds is ranked as one of the most expensive brand sin the world at its total number restaurants worldwide has reached almost 70,000 outlets. (Retrieved from Mc Donalds official site on November 4, 2011, fromhttp://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/museums.html)

Table 1: Analysis on Consumers Perception on Mc Donalds fast food

A total of 100 respondents were interviewed at random within the age of 13-50 years old, male and female of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity in Malaysia. Out of 100 respondents, 73 people favoured Mc Donalds fast food. Out of all the respondents, only 27% do not favour Mc Donalds as the food is perceived as unhealthy and very unhealthy especially to those within the age of 41-50 years old. The analysis also tells that majority of people in Malaysia fancy Mc Donalds fast food. From the analysis, it can be assumed that the younger group of people from the age of 13-25 years old have a perception that the food is healthy. This also tells that the younger group of people are unaware of the consequences of such food. However, the analysis tells that the marketing of the product has been reinforced widely through the internet, newspapers, television and also the print media such as brochures which intentionally reinforces the tendency to consume Mc Donald frequently. For instance, respondents within the age group of 13-25 years old visit Mc Donalds at least once a week. Although the food is unhealthy, Malaysian teenagers have developed the eating habits of favouring all types of fast food especially Mc Donalds. This is proved by the data, in which out 40 people interviewed within the age of 13-25, 100% percent favours Mc Donalds. 3.0 Strategies to improve Marketing While all marketers do not agree on a common definition of marketing strategy, the term generally refers to a company plan that allocates resources in ways to generate profits by positioning products or services and targeting specific consumer groups. Marketing strategy focuses on long-term company objectives and involves planning marketing programs so that they help a company realize its goals.( Origins of the Matrketing Strategy, Retrived on November 3, 2011 from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Man-Mix/Marketing-Strategy.html) Companies rely on marketing strategies for established product lines or services as well as for new products and services. Mc Donald restaurant, is set to be successful as it is said that the company spends around 40 USD per year for marketing its products.(Bloomberg U.S, Times Magazine 2010). At this point, Mc Donalds should investigate how to better serve and satisfy their customers and deal with competition from other emerging fast food such as Pizza Hut, Dominos and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Marketing by Mc Donalds in real has become the process of

focusing too much on business and the customers, in which the health aspect of the product has been neglected. For providing wide types of fast food, Mc Donalds had to come up with a more creative strategy to improve the types of food provided. This means, marketing of the food should be based on decisions that affect consumer interest in Mc Donalds advertising, pricing, location, product line, promotions, and so forth. The majors concerns of marketing are usually referred to as the "four Ps" or the "marketing mix": product, price, place, and promotion. Besides, Mc Donalds should also relook on some of its current process and guidelines in which defines the relevance of establishing the companys vision, definition and implementing policies that will enable a company to live up to its vision or maintain its vision. Overly advertising at times can mean more and less impactful. This could be the reason why the older age group of adults choose not purchase the fast food offered by Mc Donalds. Mc Donalds should reinforce its marketing strategy, as stated by Origins of the Matrketing Strategy, Retrived on November 3, 2011 from the (http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Man-Mix/Marketing-Strategy.html).In

1950s Peter Drucker (1909-) and others advanced theories of management that emphasized a customer-centered business strategy. They held that this orientation should be long term, not temporary. The approach that Mc Donalds can use should include strategic thinking in business: budgeting, long-term planning, formula planning, and strategic thinking. Budgeting strategically assigned company projects specific amounts of funds in order to control spending on an annual basis. Future sustainability is important as consumers become aware of the harm of fast food, the demand could decrease overnight. Mc Donald should use this a reference point, so that it would be able to sustain its business and continue attracting consumers to consume. Mc Donald should also widen its scope from narrow sense of marketing to broader marketing. Thus, it is crucial for Mc Donalds to redefine the target market as well as start leveraging an appropriate marketing mix , which will decrease the impact of exploitation on consumers especially children, teenagers and young adults. In a broad sense, the marketing strategy should be based on objectives, strategies, and tactics. A marketing objective of increasing market share is linked to the marketing strategy of altering the product line in order to reach new market segments, for example to appeal to the older audience and reinforce and the marketing

tactic of introducing a new brand name, for instance and various promotions for a targeted portion of the market. Contemporary approaches to marketing often fall into two general but not mutually exclusive categories: customer-oriented marketing strategies and competitor-oriented marketing strategies. Since many marketers believe that striving to satisfy customers can benefit both consumers and businesses, they contend that marketing strategy should focus on customers. This strategy may assume that customers tend to make more purchases and remain loyal to Mc Donald, however they might be loyal to specific brands such as KFC or Pizza Hut as well, as long as they are satisfied, rather than dissatisfied, with Mc Donald..Hence, customer-oriented marketing strategies try to help establish long-term relationships between consumers and Mc Donald. Mc Donald could even leverage competitor-oriented marketing strategy, on the other hand, focusing on outdoing competitors by strategically manipulating the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. For instance, they could even re-design programs or policies to bring down the price of the food in Mc Donalds which will in directly bring more value to its loyal consumers. Since it has a fan following that is majority the younger people, this would help sustain the cost for consumers while sustaining the brand loyalty for Mc Donalds. 4.0 Summary Consumer behaviour is core to Mc Donalds marketing strategy. Understanding consumer behaviour has helped Mc Donalds to create marketing strategies that made them reach their goals even faster. However, the alarming rate of consumerism may bring new possibilities for Mc Donald or even any other company to can include price reduction for market share growth, product differentiation, and market segmentation. The market share strategy calls for reducing production costs in order to reduce consumer prices. This will create equality in terms of demand and supply in the market and a healthy flow of economy. Thus, Mc Donald could work on collaborating via the internal marketing strategy to strive to manufacture their products inexpensively and efficiently and thereby capture a greater share of the market. By adapting this, Mc Donalds can avoid, diverse products lines and marginally successful products and allocate minimal funds to product development and advertising. The competitive advantage offers is the ability to provide products at a lower price than competing companies.

Companies implementing this strategy cut their profit margins and rely on sales volume to generate profits. Choosing the strategic way of marketing is essential for Mc Donalds continuous growth. The selective demand strategies should include retention strategies retaining the organization's existing customers and acquisition strategies; acquiring customers from the competition). This will enhance customers satisfaction; which will improve customer satisfaction levels. Besides, it will strengthen the consumer relationship with new and existing customers. By approaching consumers this way, Mc Donalds organization's offering will be seen as different from the competition, such as making it obvious to reach customers only for Mc Donalds personal gain. The decision maker should eventually arrive at a specific stratagem or set of strategies designed to achieve the stated objective. If the marketing strategy is part of a marketing plan, some or all of the strategy decisions could be formally stated. In some cases, only the lowest level of strategy is indicated. The formal articulation of marketing strategy is a function of the decision maker's preferences, the organization's policy, user needs, and resources available which should be made clear in Mc Donalds guiding principles for its businesses. The basic principles or theories of marketing appropriate to the successful development of marketing strategy are universal. They can be applied by anyone at any time in any kind of organization to any type of marketing problem in any part of the world. They are relevant to international marketing strategy as well as domestic marketing policy. They are useful in both profit-oriented organizations and nonprofit institutions, and are appropriate for both services and products. The wide range of products and services that are available in the market could be used as reference point for successful marketing. If Mc Donald wants to continue monopolizing the market for fast food, it has to understand the ever changing needs and demands that pervades the consumer behaviour. At the end, it also makes good sense if Mc Donalds can incorporate a model to give back to the consumers in terms of community for the support that it has brought Mc Donalds to reach where it is today. (2500 words)