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Poonam Sharma

SUBMITTED BY: Aarti Sharma PGFB1101

Title: After Amritsar, McDonalds eyes to open more veggie outlets in India Source: Times Of India Date: 5th September 2012

Overview: After successfully opening a retail store in Amritsar, McDonalds is now planning to open a store in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir and in the next three years it plans to double the number of outlets to more than 500.

Reasons: The reason why McDonalds is seeking opportunities to increase the number of outlets is because it is running successfully in the India market. This is evident from the fact that McDonalds serves half a million customers in India.

McDonalds is an American brand and entering into the Indian market was not easy. It had to rework its entire menu in order to cater to the tastes of the Indian consumers. In many countries, McDonalds serves beef and pork but it cannot do that in India because 80% of the Indian population is Hindu and Hindus regard the cow as sacred hence cow slaughter is not acceptable in the country. There is a huge number of Muslims also in the country and for them the consumption of pork is prohibited by the Koran. This is why only chicken-based and vegetarian food is being served.

Learnings: The learning from the article is that a company can only be accepted in a foreign market if it pays special attention to the tastes and preferences of the local consumers. A product which works in one market may be a total failure in another market. Therefore a company must understand not only the language and laws of a foreign country but also the peoples tastes, preferences, beliefs, religious sentiments, rituals and also superstitions. Anything that may be offending to the people may bring huge trouble for the company. This is the reason why many retails stores such as Dominos, Pizza Hut and KFC have reworked their menus in order to Indianize them.

After Amritsar, McDonalds eyes to open more veggie outlets in India

AFP | Sep 5, 2012, 01.00PM IST

NEW YORK: After opening an outlet in Amritsar, the US food retail chain plans to launch another vegetarian outlet at Katra near the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in Jammu & Kashmir. The leading food retailer in the world sees the potential for many more vegetarian restaurants across India. McDonald's in India already has a menu that is 50 percent vegetarian. Its McAloo Tikki burger at Rs 28, which uses a spicy fried potato-based patty, is the top seller, accounting for a quarter of total sales. Among the chicken-only meat offerings, the Maharaja Mac is also a favourite. At present, with its population of 1.2 billion, India still a "very small market for McDonald's," said Maini. "We have just 271 restaurants in India and across the world we have nearly 33,000," Maini said. The chain serves half a million customers a day in India, out of 50 million people it serves daily in over 100 countries. "When you look at the potential of the country, it's one of the top priority countries and we're laying the groundwork for capturing the market," said Maini. "We plan to nearly double the number of outlets to 500 plus within the next three years," he said. McDonald's realised soon after it entered the country that it had to rework its international menu to Indian tastes. "The reasons were very compelling -- cow slaughter is not allowed because of religious reasons and we couldn't do pork either," Maini explained. Hindus, who account for 80 per cent of India's population, regard cows as sacred. For Muslims, the consumption of pork is prohibited in the Koran. "It was the whole idea of going local and creating flavours that would create acceptance for us," Maini said. "We had to look at the whole market innovatively and we realized only chickenbased and vegetarian food would work." McDonald's is not alone in "Indianising" its offerings. Domino's Pizza, another leading fast food chain in India, has created pizzas with extra spicy toppings. But growing consumption of food high in fat is a spurring concern that India is importing the Western disease of obesity, creating a ticking public health timebomb.