McDonald’s prides itself on being one of the world’s leading fast food companies. Its ability to quickly adapt to the ever-evolving consumer and remain strong amid growing competition is partly attributed to its push for constant innovation, allowing it to continue driving business growth since its inception in 1954.
After nearly eight and a half decades of being America’s favorite fast-food chain, McDonald’s has been struggling with a slowdown in sales. This is partly due to growing competition, price increases caused by inflation, and changes in its DEI practices, which have caused persistent backlash and boycotts.
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Nonetheless, McDonald’s refuses to let all these setbacks hinder its decades-old business or allow its rivals to dethrone it from its highly coveted position.
McDonald’s develops a multi-year strategy to accelerate growth
Since announcing its first Accelerating the Arches growth strategy in 2020, which focused on McDonald’s (MCD) purpose, mission, values, growth pillars, and foundation of running its restaurants, it has seen immense improvements in its business.
According to the company, McDonald’s has grown its digital footprint to over 175 million 90-day active users across 60 markets, generating around $30 billion in systemwide sales to loyalty members in 2024. The fast food chain has also expanded its restaurants faster and introduced global menu innovations worldwide.
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However, with the ever-evolving market and consumer trends, maintaining the same growth strategy for multiple years seemed to no longer do it for McDonald’s.
Quick-service restaurants have begun specializing in a single product as their main selling point to accelerate growth in record time. They focus on what they do best to dominate that specific market.
Some of McDonald’s biggest rivals successfully executing this strategy include Chick-fil-A, which focuses on chicken-based menu items; Dutch Bros, which focuses on beverages; and In-N-Out Burger, which focuses on its burgers.
McDonald’s introduces the launch of new specialized teams to compete with its biggest rivals
Unlike many of its rivals, McDonald’s refuses to let increased competition dominate the market. Instead of blaming others, it has taken action to fight back against its fast-growing rivals.
On Mar. 11, McDonald’s introduced the new Restaurant Experience Team, which brings together operations, supply chain, franchising, development, restaurant design, delivery, and Speedee Labs to execute new innovative ideas and optimize efficiency.
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McDonald’s has created three new global Category Management teams focused on beef, chicken, and beverages/desserts to further specialize innovation within its food products.
These newly founded teams were created to stand against McDonald’s strongest competitors by keeping up with emerging trends, allowing it to stay ahead of the game and continue gaining further market share.
“There’s strong competition within the QSR industry, and success is determined by our ability to gain share. In many markets, McDonald’s is competing against specialists. We’re bringing a specialist’s focus into our operations. Setting up dedicated category teams on beef, chicken, and beverages/desserts will allow better accountability and execution to win with our core menu,” stated McDonald’s in the announcement.
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