Meeting Consumer Needs Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Meeting Consumer Needs - Case Study Example The use of certain ingredients that are bad for health have been used by the company such as oils with transfats. Food Safety: McDonalds has reported that it conducts 2000 safety and quality checks on its products. Also 72 safety protocols in a day. The company also claims to be working closely with independent experts on science, health, food and nutrition. But if this is the case then the McDonald's coffee case has proved the organization wrong. In 1992 a woman in New Mexico bought coffee from the drive thru and accidentally spilled it on her thighs and she had to be taken to the hospital because she suffered from third degree burns. She sued the company and it was proved that McDonalds served coffee heated up to 180-190F or 82 -88 C. This can cause third degree burns within 12 seconds and normally restaurants have to serve coffee heated up to 60 C only. Thus, the lady was compensated for the damages and won the case. Plus it was also revealed that McDonalds had received up to 700 complains of burns during that period. Nutrition: McDonald's has been accused of producing highly fattening food products that are bad for health. The company was involved in yet another popular lawsuit known as Mclibel case. There were two activists in Britain who distributed leaflets stating "What's wrong with McDonalds" The company filed a case against them and the men tried to prove their statement but lost the case in the High court. Thus, they challenged the UK libel law in a European court so the court was forced to re-write the legislation. It was proved through the case that McDonalds exploited children through advertisement and also cause suffering to animals. Then Eric Schlosser wrote a book "Fast Food Nation" and mentioned that McDonalds uses political influence to increase profits at the expense of people's health and workers social conditions. Another important event damaged the company's reputation when the Hindu's sued the company for falsely claiming that their fries are vegetarian whereas it was proved they contained beef and animal content. The most important event that created doubts about nutrition in McDonalds food was the movie by Morgan known as "Super size Me." The movie showed having McDonalds for a month and super sizing when asked for thus he gains 11.11kgs in a month. Another important event that further added fuel to fire was when McDonalds claimed to reduce transfat in 2002 but due to some problems the oil was not changed on time and a site www.bantransfat.com had testimonials from people claiming damages for eating the food since they thought transfat had been reduced. All because the company did not create awareness of the fact. A case was filed and the company had to compensate for the damages. Toy safety: McDonalds claims to make the toys in their Happy meals themselves and also that they are tested and not made out of lead-based paint. The customers expect the company to be faithful and give importance to general health of the population by maintaining quality, safety and good nutrition in food. How the organization delivers to these expectations McDonalds has been involved in a number of lawsuits that have damaged its reputation. But whenever the