he internet has opened up many opportunities for high-impact, low-cost marketing across a range of industries and firms. Increasingly, firms are being judged more frequently and strongly on their online presence and perceived technological savvy – it can serious harm a business’ image if they’re seen as out-of-touch with the modern technological world (Chaffey, 2009). Marketing opportunities using the internet are many and varied and can range from, involved, intricate, multi layered viral campaigns, through website design and functionality to a simple social media presence. While the fast food industry was rather slow to catch on to the benefits of online marketing in the beginning, almost all of them have now embraced its potential, and McDonald’s is at the forefront.

Environmental

In recent years, environmental topics have come to the forefront of public awareness with the rise of many green initiatives and movements. Environmental apprehensions about a business’ operations are predominantly pronounced in the food industry, as food production techniques are frequently associated with poor environmental controls, predominantly in emerging third world economy producers, and budget meat suppliers (Foster et al, 2007)

On 19thJuly 1985, Greenpeace in the United Kingdom declared an ‘’anti McD day of Action’’ (Veggis, 2014), which involved demonstrations, protest marches and pickets of a high quantity of McDonald’s restaurants across the United Kingdom. In response to this, McDonald’s concentrated on a number of Corporate Social Responsibilities policies centred on reducing the environmental impact of the business.

Legal

The specific legal environment in which McDonald’s operates is highly depended on the specific market and country in question. However, the majority of the markets that McDonald’s operates in have a form of a Healthy and Safety legal framework, predominantly with regard to food preparation. Almost all of the countries McDonald’s operates in has some form of public health inspection system with regard to food producers – in the United Kingdom, it’s the Food Standard Agency. Any employees with food-handling capabilities must take part in food-hygiene training at the company’s expense. McDonald’s has implemented a system that adds additional controls to those required by either health agency. Their customer-facing websites states the following: ‘’There are at least 70 safety checks on beef and chicken every day. In fact, McDonald’s rigorous standards have been used by government agencies as models for their own regulations’’ (McDonald’s 2014d, p1)