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Name: Shama khurshid

Course: pgd in strategic

business management

Student no: pic11

College: Peterborough

international college

Unit; Research Methodology

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Table of Contents page

no.

Introduction........................................

......3

Aim and

objectives....................................3

Research

scope..........................................4

History of

Macdonald..................................5

Quantitative research methodology...........9

3

Qualitative

method .....................................9

Macdonald and its competitors..................12

Similarities between KFC and

MacDonald’s.........................................

........17

SWOT analysis of

MacDonald’s.........................................

.........18

Comparison of KFC and MacDonald’s...........20

Fast food industry from health

perspective.........................................

...........20

Conclusion and recommendations................22

References..........................................

...........23

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Introduction:

With this piece of art I will decide suitable area for

research and develop a detailed research question with

the aim, scope, objectives and success criteria for the

project. Also I will explain the research and I have

discussed it with my tutor on June 8th 2013.

Within my task 3 I have demonstrated a detailed research

proposal which includes

Research techniques

Bibliography of material

Time scale for completion of primary research,

completion of literature review, draft report and

final submission.

And finally I have made substantial recommendations

and presented in a suitable format

Research question

Will MacDonald maintain its market in future?

Aim

To find out the reasons of successful business, to know

what are the tactics of doing a business and establish it

and how to compete with competitors.

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Consequently this research will help me to have an

insight into MacDonald’s working machinery and this will

also help me in qualifying myself for my course of which

it is a part.

Objectives

Why people prefer MacDonald’s than other outlets .whether

MacDonald will be able to maintain its customer with the

passage of time. will people prefer to go to MacDonald

than other fast food options in future.

Research methodology

I will use both quantitative and qualitative methods of

research as I need some specific data in figures and also

some explanation and details.

For quantitative method of research I will do some work

on questionnaire and will collect some data in form of

figures and for qualitative research I will go for

informal interviews.

Research scope

Time period for this research will be of one month’s. I

will divide my research into four weeks according to my

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time scale .I will allocate first week for survey on

internet about organisations structure and working

strategies. The second week will be used in getting the

data through questionnaire .The third week will be

subsequently used in conducting a sort of informal

interviews that will help me further in my research and

the last week will be spend on reviewing, analysing and

preparing a final draft of my research paper.

History of MacDonald

McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is the world's largestchain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around64 million customers daily in 119 countries. [3][4]Headquartered in the United States, the company began in1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymousRichard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948 they reorganizedtheir business as a hamburger stand using production lineprinciples. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as afranchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased thechain from the McDonald brothers and oversaw itsworldwide growth.

A McDonald's restaurant is operated by a franchisee, anaffiliate, or the corporation itself. The corporation'srevenues come from the rent, royalties and fees paid bythe franchisees, as well as sales in company-operatedrestaurants. McDonald's revenues grew 27 percent over thethree years ending in 2007 to $22.8 billion, and 9percent growth in operating income to $3.9 billion. [6]

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Food McDonalds offer is burgers, chips, drinks, icecream, breakfast (muffins, coffee, etc.)And in most

markets MacDonald offers salad, wraps, vegetarian itemsand other localized fare. On a seasonal basis McDonaldoffer MRIB sandwich. Portugal is the only country whereMcDonald is serving soup .This deviation and variety is

peculiar to McDonald and distinguishes its chain from therest of fast food server. Rice in Indonesia also depictsan important factor of regionalism that helps to caterthe market .McDonald worldwide is highly recognized for

high degree respect for local culture.

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E.g. McDonald doesn’t offer any beef and pork items inIndia .the cheese and sauce items used in India are 100%vegetarian. In Bahrain like all other Middle EasternMcDonald restaurant, all food served is halal. McDonaldalso keeps in account the traditional values of differentcountries. As there is seasonal Chinese New Year mealavailable including grilled chicken burger, curly frieswith a horoscope of 12 zodiac animals as Chineseastrology and traditional red packets or gift bags formonetary gifts giving as good luck.

.(http://www.scribd.com/deleted_fbuser_1315228605/d/22274022-Marketing-Research-on-McDonald-s)

Consumer requirements:

Good quality fast foods Quick delivery Variety Reasonable prices Good environment

Consumer requirements should be fulfilled by anyorganization who wants to compete MacDonald is trying tofulfil the requirements of consumer.

Quality fast food

MacDonald’s vision is to provide world’s best quickrestaurant. MacDonald want to become best means ofproviding quality, cleanliness and value that makes everycustomer in the restaurant smile.

Quick service

Number of employees working in MacDonald’s is 1.5 millionworld-wide, 398,000 company staff and 1.1 million

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franchise staff. Macdonald employs staff for providingquick service to customers.

Variety.

MacDonald’s serve variety of food, taking into accountthe regional values of different countries .e.g.MacDonald’s do not serve pork in India in 1979 happymeal was introduced. In 1987 fresh salads were introducedby MacDonald’s for diet conscious people. Snack wrapswere introduced by MacDonald’s in 2006.

MacDonald’s offer variety in the food to customersas

Mac hotdog mega breakfast sausage Sausage and egg twisty pasta Bacon potato pie Cheese katsu sandwich Macarabia The chicken big Mac Chicken nuggets MacDonald’s French fries Mcflurry Milk shakes etc.

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Price

Though MacDonald has high price as compared to local fastfood but it provides quality product .the othercompetitors in this business like kFC, burger king etchave slightly different prices as compared to MacDonald’s.kFC has slightly high prices as compared to it. ButMacDonald’s tries to make it reasonable and within thecustomers access. During the period of recessionMacDonald’s changed the size of some product as to makeit under customers approach.

Diversification of menu

Diversification of its menu is also a key stone in itspopularity. In order to satisfy the palate of localpopulation in the country MacDonald’s offers aregionalized version of its menu.

Bahrain

In addition to mcArabia the MacDonald restaurants alsostarted serving MCcrispy that contains some chickenstripes with the choice of sweet and sour, barbecue andgarlic sauce. Like all other middle east MacDonaldrestaurants the food served in Bahrain is also halal.

China

In china the chicken nuggets come in special sweet andsour, traditional BBQ sauce and honey and mustard sauce.In china there are specific MacDonald restaurants andcounters for ice cream and beverages which are otherwiserare in china. There is also seasonal Chinese New yearmeal available including grilled chicken burgers andcurly fries with the special zodiac animals of Chinese

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astrology and traditional red packets or gifts bags formonetary gifts as good luck.

Hong Kong

A special Mcveggie burger is sold during bun festival onCheung Chua. In some restaurants a separate counter sellsice cream and desserts to pedestrians. Some restaurantshave section for MacAfee .apart from general food menuit also promotes some seasonal and longer food like spicyFrench fries ,shogun burger, twisted macaroni breakfast,salads ,rice fan-tastic and many other.

India

The McCurry dish is very popular in India. Beef and porkproducts are not served to cater Indian religioussensitivity. Mexican style wrap for both vegetarian andnon- vegetarians are served such as paneer salsa andchicken Mexican wrap.

Pakistan

There is spicy McChicken burger with chutney inside forcatering Pakistani taste. McKofta is another regionalspecial item.

Macdonald has established its product name very stronglyby providing quality with good services. Its menu varieswith place but its quality remains the same.

Quantitative research methodology.

As I mentioned above in order to get data in figures Iwill go for quantitative research methodology, usingprimary research method of data collection.

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Questionnaire

I will design a questionnaire and take maximum 20 peoplefrom different areas and different countries e.g.Pakistan, UK, Germany and India. I will send them thisquestionnaire through e-mail .the questions I askdifferent people were as follow.

What gender are you?

Male Female

What is age group?

15-25

25-45

45-65

Q (1).Do you prefer going to MacDonald

frequently occasionally Never

Q (2).Are you satisfied with the price of MacDonald’sfood?

Yes NO

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Q (3).Do you agree the service of the MacDonald’s isgood?

Strongly agree agreestrongly disagree.

Q (4).Do you like the menu of MacDonald’s?

Yes No

Q (5).Do you like the atmosphere?

Yes No needs someimprovement

Q (6).Does it provide you the taste of your choice?

Yes No

Q (7).If you are given a chance to have a free food forone day would you prefer going MacDonald?

Yes No

Q (8).Are you satisfied with the attitude of workers inMacDonald’s?

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80% 50% 30%100%

Q (9).Do you like to have a low prize menu of MacDonald?

20-40% 50-60% 70-80% 80-100%

Q (10).Do you like to compromise on the quality of foodof MacDonald?

Yes No

Qualitative method

I will also do qualitative research by conducting aninformal interview with different age group people andask them questions regarding taste, quality and serviceof MacDonald’s. I will ask them whether they find thequality, taste, price and service of MacDonald’s good,bad or satisfactory. Then I will compare my data with theone I collected through quantitative method.

The result I collected through quantitative method is asfollow.

Total number of people used in survey are 20.

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10 males and 10 females ,out of 10 males 3 fall in the age range of 15-20,3

in between 25-45,and 4 are in the category of 45-70. Out of 10 females 4 are in between the age range of

10-20, 3 fall in between 25-40 and 3 are of 45 to 75range.

Response from Q.1 to Q.5 is 100% from both male andfemales of different ages .

Whereas the response from Q.6-Q.10 is as follow ; Male from age 15-20 responded 100% Male from age 25-40 responded 90% Male from age 45-75 responded 95% Females from all different age groups responded 100%

to Q.6-Q.10. Both male and female belong to different categories

of work ,including students, teachers, banker, housewives, pensioners, etc.

13 people are satisfied with quality. 11 people are agreed with price. 15 people find taste of food good. 16 people are satisfied with the service. 15 people are happy with the ambience.

Result of qualitative research is shown by this chart

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Quality Price Taste Service

02468

1012141618

GoodBad

Satisfactory

GoodBadSatisfactory

Primary research and graphs used as techniques.

Macdonald and its competitors

KFC Domino Pizza hut Burger king

Market shares of major fast food industries

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This shows that MacDonald is having 19% of totalmarket shares.

Pie chart is other research showing a different way.

Task 3.

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The time scales used for different research techniques have been justified Questionnaire 2 weeks .Prior to this you utilised literature material showing in depth background of my organisation. The literature review is the actual background of my research which does compliment the entire report showing comparisons of two different organisations submitted with substantial conclusion.

Comparison

I will compare MacDonald’s with one of its competitorsto show its strengths and weakness in the growing fastfood industry.

KFC is also one of the world wide franchise organisation.I am going to compare KFC with McDonalds. I thinkMcDonalds would be better option because they do kinds offood where KFC only provide chicken meals. McDonalds issuitable for everyone such as kids, adult, andvegetarian. However KFC and McDonald’s service can be onthe same level because from my observation I found outthat they both provide fast service. there are some otherareas where KFC proves a better option than MacDonald’slike price of KFC remains same at different areas whilein case of MacDonald’s it varies to some extent.KFC isalso a world popular fast food outlet .it also providevariety and quality of food .

KFC, a brief survey

KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, isa chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of KFC

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.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

Type Wholly owned subsidiary

Industry Restaurants

Founded

1930 (original) (North Corbin, Kentucky)1952 (franchise) (South Salt Lake, Utah)

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Founder(s) Harland Sanders

Headquarters

Louisville, Kentucky, United States

Key people

Roger Eaton, PresidentHarvey R. Brownlea, COOJames O'Reilly, VP for Marketing

ProductsFried chicken, grilled chicken, related Southern foods

Revenue US$520.3 million (2007)[1]

Employees 24,000 (2007)[1]

Parent Yum! Brands

Website www.KFC.com

KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, isa chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.

KFC primarily sells chicken pieces, wraps, salads and sandwiches. While its primary focus is fried chicken, KFCalso offers a line of grilled and roasted chicken products, side dishes and desserts. Outside the USA, KFC offers beef based products such as hamburgers or kebabs, poutine, pork based products such as ribs and other regional fare.

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The company was founded as Kentucky Fried Chicken byColonel Harland Sanders in 1952, though the idea of KFC'sfried chicken actually goes back to 1930. AlthoughSanders died in 1980, he remains an important part of thecompany's branding and advertisements, and "ColonelSanders" or "The Colonel" is a metonym for the companyitself. The company adopted KFC, an abbreviated form ofits name, in 1991. Starting in April 2007, the companybegan using its original name, Kentucky Fried Chicken,for its signage, packaging and advertisements in the U.S.as part of a new corporate re-branding program; newer andremodelled restaurants will adopt the new logo and name,while older stores will continue to use the 1980ssignage. Additionally, Yum! Continues to use theabbreviated name freely in its advertising.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC

Key success factors.

. Quality Service Cleanliness Satisfying consumers needs

KFC`s traditional franchising strategies have been.

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. Emphasizing standardization . Reducing financial risk

KFC`S market entry strategies

. Franchising . Licensing

Allegations/issues

Animal cruelty Unsafe chicken/bird flu Un healthy and fattening food

(case 10: Kentucky Fried &The Global Fast-FOOD industry .)

Similarities between KFC and MacDonald’s

Both have the same marketing strategies i.e.marketing mix strategy.

Both are worldwide fast food chains. Both are originated in America. Both serve chicken. Both are questioned for animal rights if whether or

not they consider better animal standards.

Differences

Their logos are entirely different Although both serve chicken but entirely in

different form MacDonald’s serves huge variety of vegetarian meals

while main element of KFC meal is chicken.

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MacDonald’s takes care of the regional value of foodand taste and their menu and taste includes some ofthe regional taste of that locality e.g. you can’tget soup and rice in MacDonald’s but you would findsoups in Portuguese menu and rice in the Indonesianmenu.

There is also difference of price in their menu. MacDonald’s main offer is hum burger while KFC main

offer is fried chicken. MacDonald’s other offers include breakfast menu,

desserts, chicken sandwiches and French fries. WhileKFC other offers include salad, wraps, roasted andgrilled chicken cuisine and desserts.

KFC is 10 years older than MacDonald’s

Swot analysis of MacDonald’s

Strengths

Strong brand name Strong financial performance and position Strong performance in global market Quality of product Quick service Great promotions Variety and regional value of food Catering all age groups through food, as people

consider it food for all.

Weakness .Business now needs more concentration, so as toobtain greater accuracy, there is no time for correctingthe daily error and losses .It is better to take precautions to avoid them.(Gamble,w,1907,The business Life, Pitman and sons.

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High price No home delivery service Large queues

Opportunities

Increase product line Provide more variety Low price menu settled with size Attract all age group through their meals offer like

happy meals for older generation with different themes.

Should do some charity work as some other fast food companies are doing for promotions.

Threats

Opening up of new fast food outlets with low pricerange.

New competitors with better taste and better offers. Changing customer’s life style. Awareness about healthy food.

Swot analysis helps us to use strengths to overcomeweakness and opportunities to overcome threats asargued by Lawrence G.Fine.(Fine,L.G,2009).

Comparison of MacDonald and KFC in different countries

KFC is more popular in china as compared to MacDonald’s,with more than 2100 locations in more than 425 cities.

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This is the reverse of situation in USA .In USAMacDonald’s is considered to be number 1 while KFC trailsbehind.

Reasons of popularity of KFC in china.

.KFC caters Chinese taste better thanMacDonald’s/MacDonald’s cater its menu tointernational tastes, but not to same extent inchina.

From slick marketing campaign of KFC some Chineseare convinced that KFC is better option thanMacDonald’s from health point of view.

In these lean economic conditions; KFC has better couponsthan MacDonald’s. The coupons are apparently so good thatChinese KFC are occasionally mobbed by coupon holders.

Business overview of MacDonald’s

McDonald's makes money by operating its own restaurantsand [[franchising]] to third parties. Of its 32,278restaurants around the world as of September 30, 2009,25,975 (80%) were franchises and 6,303 (20%) werecompany-operated.

Business strategy

MacDonald pursues two strategies of business since 2003.

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To keep up with changing consumer`spreferences ,demography and spending patternsMacDonald introduced new items to its menu

It also add a healthy options in its menu regardingthe health awareness among its customers,MacDonald’s introduced salad to its menu.

Fast food industry from health perspective

. There are many various reasons why it is important tolearn more about the fast food industry. There are somany parts of the system that affect many various people.One thing that consumers need to understand is that fastfood overall isn’t healthy for the human body.Occasionally, it’s alright to consume fast food, just aslong as the amounts and the nutritional facts are takeninto consideration. But constantly devouring fast food isunwise and may result in unwanted health issues.

One piece of advice is to not give in to the super-sizeoption, something where fast food restaurants greatlyincrease the amount of food given in a serving. Althoughit may seem like a great deal because the prices may below, it’s important to think about how overall the foodquality of fast food is low, too. Another reason why itimportant to learn more about the food industry isbecause a lot of times, people don’t know where theirfood comes from, how it became edible food, what happenedto make it all possible. By understanding the system(knowing where your food comes from, what it’s made of,etc.), customers overall will have a better view of howthe industry is run and may end up finding outinteresting facts that change their opinion on what theyconsume[.

Overall, it’s important to know about the fast foodindustry because there’s so many different parts involved

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and as consumers know more about what they put into theirbody when they eat fast food, they may be more healthconscious and may make decisions that will help prolongtheir lives.

The junk food industry is a very rich business that mostall Americans contribute to. Companies such as McDonald’sand Burger King are monopolies and control the otherbusinesses in the industry with their impossibly lowprices. Food in this industry is derived from unsanitary,dangerous conditions that are not polished because itwould cost too much. Diseases such as Mad Cow Diseaseleave customers vulnerable in many ways.

Fast food consumptions has great positive associationwith weight gain and insulin resistance, suggesting thatfast food increases the risk of obesity and diabetic type2.(the cardia study) 15 years prospective analysis.

The fast food industry is inducing the dangerous healthhabits in people that will cause bad effect on largerscale in coming years .the products they offer are notproviding energy in a long-term. These fast foods causeproblems of

Heart diseases Obesity Acne Asthma Diabetes Liver diseases Cancer

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Block arteries Cardiovascular diseases Strokes

Fast food industry has now changed their menu byintroducing some healthy products in their menu like

MacDonald introduced fruit and yogurt parfiat and snackwraps.

In kids meal people can choose between fries and mandarinoranges.

MacDonald’s in America.

There are many major companies within the fast foodindustry. However, the most popular company is mostlikely McDonald’s. McDonald’s has been well known andpopular for many years. Their products range fromhamburgers to salads to iced coffee, providing manyvarious products for their hungry customers to consume.While McDonald’s may be one of the leading fast foodchains, there are many other successful companies, suchas Burger King, Wendy’s, and Subway. Overall, there aremany various companies within the fast food industry, butMcDonald’s is by far one of the most popular.

Fast food is all over the United States, even all overthe world. According to a Google map, “there are close to50,000 fast food chains across the United States, withMcDonalds being the largest restaurant chain.” (Source 2)

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While fast food may have started small, it has certainlybecome one of the most powerful and common industries inthe world. Overall, “there are more than 500,000 fastfood places” in the world. (Source 2) Basically, the fastfood industry has spread all throughout the world and arestaurant can be found almost anywhere throughout thecountry[shamma,1999]

One government agency that influences the production ofthe fast food industry is the USDA (United StatesDepartment of Agriculture). While overall the USDAhandles food, the agency helps inspect and monitor themeat that is used for production. The agency is quiteeffective and is very careful in how the food is handled,prepared, and served. The USDA helps practicesustainability because if there’s meat that iscontaminated and full of germs, the agency is careful toknow about it and help prevent the meat from being usedand from contaminating any consumers. Overall, the USDAhelps maintain the food quality in the country.

Conclusion/ recommendations.

From the above research I concluded that with the changesin the economic as well as social sectors there is a needof following things to be followed by MacDonald’s inorder to maintain its position in the fast food industryalong with growing number of competitors

First of all it should focus on some healthy menuoffers regarding the health of its customer becauseof the awareness about health customers is moreconscious about their health.

It should focus on hygienic conditions and try toprovide more better atmosphere

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It should develop variety in the taste as in thecase of its low popularity in china as compared toKFC.

It should do more effort on the regional value andtaste of food to cater the customer of particularregion

It should give low price menu with smaller portionsto access all people

It should also arrange some seminar giving peopleinformation about food quality and health value toattract people

It should give seasonal offers to make it prominent It should start home delivery service It should enter into environmental friendly

packaging. Focus on the gifts for all generations ,including

citizens of all age group-children. It should also allocate some space in their

restaurants special for some events such as birthdayparties, youth festivity etc.

Service should be improved with special training onbehaviour with different age group and differentcustomer attitudes.

Work for social welfare of society. Should pay more attentions to the areas where they

can create a market.The golden arches are now more widely recognizedthan the Christian cross.(Eric Schlosser)

Also available:

Reference list (http://www.scribd.com/

deleted_fbuser_1315228605/d/22274022-Marketing-Research -on-McDonald-s )Accessed on 22nd March 2012.

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Fast food nation( Schlosser.E,2001,Fast food nation,Houghton Mifflin Company). Accessed on 24th March 2012.

Topic: MacDonalds : Behind the golden arche. Accessed on 12thMarch 2012.

The business life (Gamble.W,1907 ,pitman and son.Accessed on 25th March 2012.

(Fine.L.G, 2009, Swot analysis, create space).Accessed on 25th March 2012.

Case 10: Kentucky Fried chicken &The Global fast-food Industry.Group members.(Haris_Rashid, Kashif sajid,SiddiqueAli Bhai)Accessed on 25th March 2012.

Pereira MA,Kartashav AI, Ebbeling CB, van Horn L,Slattery mL ,jacbs Jr Dr et.al.Fast foodhabits ,weight gain, and insulin resistance(theCARDIA study)15-years prospective analysis ,Lancet2005;365;36-42(article) |pub MED|IsI|Accessed on 30th March 2012.

Appendices:Healthy ,innovative and fun food

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food.html

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Ronald MacDonalds House Charities

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Ourworld/Environment/Litter.html