Go through the case study and answer the questions that follow.

The first McDonalds in Los Angeles in 1954 was not more than an ordinary looking drive-in where people could get cheap hamburgers and did not need to tip the waitresses. At the time it was Ray Kroc, a salesmen of paper cups and mixers, who signed a contract with its owners,Mr.Dick and Mac McDonald, to further spread the McDonalds concept. In 1974, the analysis of the McDonalds company was the following.

The basis of McDonalds success is serving a low-priced, value-oriented product fast and efficiently in clean and pleasant surroundings. While the Companys menu is limited, it contains food staples that are widely accepted in North America. Ray Kroc was a risk taker who believed in the simple formula of the clean and cheap McDonalds restaurants. The Big Mac was introduced in 1968. In 1976, the 4000th restaurant was opened in America. Right now, McDonalds has globally spread to 118 different countries.

McDonalds has gone a long way from being just a simple drive-in. In 1971 the chain reached Japan and it immediately was a huge success. McDonalds Japan was the same concept as McDonalds America, but they did adjust the menu a bit to suit the Japanese taste. For example, McDonalds introduced the Teriyaki Burger, the Rice Burger and the Green Tea Ice-cream. Except for the slight changes in menu, there are other differences between McDonalds America and Japan as well. This has to do with the way McDonalds was received by the Japanese consumer. In Ohnuki-Tierneys chapter McDonalds in Japan: Changing Manner and Etiquette, she writes about the fact that McDonalds food is actually considered a snack instead of a meal, and therefore has never posed a serious challenge to the Japanese lunch or dinner market. There are several ways to explain this conception of McDonalds food as a snack. First of all, McDonalds food cannot be shared: sharing is an important part of the Japanese dinner or lunch time because it brings a sense of community.

Secondly, McDonalds food consists mostly of meat and bread. To the Japanese, meat has always been a part of the Western diet and not of their own traditional lifestyle. Therefore, the combination of meat and bread is in fact quite alien to the Japanese. In addition, the fact that McDonalds food lacks rice makes it unsuitable for a proper dinner or lunch: according to Japanese, a real meal always includes rice, which is not only seen as good nutrition but also as a metaphor for Japanese national identity.

McDonalds did not only introduce a new type of food to Japan, it also introduced a new way to eat. These table manners are actually the opposite of the Japanese way to eat. At McDonalds, you eat whilst standing instead of sitting, and you use your hands instead of chopsticks. Also, McDonalds made it more common to drink sodas directly out of the bottle and to eat ice-cream. Although all these things were previously considered very negative, McDonalds gave a positive twist to to them. But, as Ohnuki-Tierney writes: In the public sphere the new forms of etiquette gradually became the norm; the fashionableness of eating fast food wore thin as the restaurants became a routine feature of everyday, working life). McDonalds became an ordinary feature within Japanese society.

Global goes Glocal

McDonalds was initially a symbol of America; or, a symbol of America as perceived by the Japanese. It gave people a chic and exotic feeling. Nowadays, McDonalds has actually become local in a certain way. I would rather call this glocal; a concept to illustrate the intermingling of both the global and the local cultures that combines the global to go Local or rather Glocal. McDonalds is indigenised by the Japanese. Japan adapted McDonalds to suit its own society. McDonalds is a place to have a quick snack. Japanese can eat a Teriyaki or Rice Burger, drink Oolong tea, and read the Japanese McJoy magazine.

When looking at the case of McDonalds, I think that Tomlinson is right when he sketches the idea that cultural imperialism is not as bad as some people claim it is. McDonalds is embedded in Japanese culture now, and the concept of McDonalds is not interpreted the same way all over the world: each culture, like Japan, fits this into society the way they find appropriate. In this way, no matter how globalized the world will be, we will still have diversity in cultures: global will just become glocal. In the end, it cannot be denied that there is a difference between a Big Mac and a Rice Burger.

d. What is the inference you derive from market entry strategy employed by McDonalds in Japan?