Conclusion of Findings

After spending so many hours in McDonald's recording the videos, sitting in front of the computer counting people from the videos and forming tables and charts, finally a general conclusion can be given from the observation of the whole research.

From this simplified table, many can be told from it.

In terms of race, Malays were most seen purchasing the desserts from the counter as compared to Chinese, Indians and others. There was 62.76% (123 people) of Malays compared to 28.57% (56 people) from Chinese and only 4.59% (9 and 8 people) from the Indians and 4.08% from others. This could be due to many factors. Firstly it could be because in general the Wangsa Maju area and the surroundings of this mall is more Malay populated as compared to people from other race. It can also be due to the fact that Malays like to eat more sweet stuff compared to the people of other races.

From the table we can also see that 42.86% (84 people) of the customers were from the age 21 to 30 which then followed by 18.88% (37 people) from the 31 to 40 years old category. For the customers from 21 to 30, many were of this age mainly because the Wangsa Maju area and its surrounding is more catered for students of the few educational institutes like Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College and the few schools nearby. as for the 31 to 40 years old group, many of these were young parents. They were seen to buy the desserts like Sundae Cone ice-cream, Sundae and the Mcflurries for their children below 20 years old. Many were also with the working attire so we can assume that they were looking for cheap desserts or something light after their dinner at the mall. As we can see from the table, the children of 1 to 10 and 11 to 20 were usually accompanied by their parents to the counter. As for the older customers, they were less seen in the video and this could be because they are more health conscious or do not like the sweet treats.

Interestingly, more females were observed to purchase the desserts from the counter. 61.73% (52 people)of the customers were females and only 38.27% (75 people) were males. A quick research on google (with questionably truth) said that  that indication of hormonal fluctuations can cause a craving for chocolate and sweets in women. As a guy myself I love sweet stuff and McDonald's desserts so I am not sure if only woman have hormonal reactions towards sweet stuff.

In terms of group size and of who the customers with during their purchase, 46.43% (52 people) of the customers were seen to be alone. 30.36% (34 people) of the customers were seen with friends while only 23.21% (26 people) were seen with their children, siblings, partners or parents. Many of the customers could be at the mall alone to have their dinner or meals after work or to purchase whatever they want and then when they get bored or want something light so probably that's why they would go after the cheap deserts offered by McDonald's. Customers with the family members were seen more to entertain the younger ones who usually would whine if they could not get ice-cream.

As this would be my final post, I once again would like to thank all the parties involved with helping me to complete this research. I would also want to thank you for reading and being here to view this blog. Lastly, I would like to mention again (in case you did not notice this message at the bottom of this blog) that this project and research is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with any other Companies and is solely for my assignment purpose only. The information you read here will only be used for this application only and will not be provided to any 3rd party organization.

Thank You and here is a virtual treat for you for staying with me throughout all these posts.

The Researched Results

From the video, I have studied and analysed the customers of McDonald's desserts based on the demographic values of :

1. Race

2. Gender

3. Group size

4. Estimation of age

From the whole observation, a total number of 196 people were seen to purchase desserts from the counter as seen from the video.

Also observed is that there were 112 sales transaction made throughout the whole period of the 145 minutes of the video.

Following is the overall data observed and displayed accordingly.

Click in for a better view

Following is a sum of amount of customers based on the race, age, gender and group size.

Following will be the data shows in bar charts for an easier breakdown of the data.


1. Race

As we can see, most of the customers were Malay followed by Chinese. The others shown in the chart includes of people from the Middle East and Bangladesh origins.


2. Gender

Throughout the video, it was observed that more Females bought the desserts as compared to the Male gender.


3. Group Size

Group size is to observe the people with the customers during their process of purchase. More customers were alone when purchasing the desserts and there was a fair amount of people purchasing with friends and family from the observation.

4. Estimation of age

The most frequent of people purchasing the desserts observed were customers of the 20's. Followed by that were those of the 30's. For this particular group, it was observed that these customers were the ones with the children and buying the desserts mainly for them.

The Video

The video was taken at McDonald's at AEON Alpha Angle in Wangsa Maju Kuala Lumpur.
A total 145 minutes was recorded for the purpose of this research,.
Due to the limitations of the hardware used to combine and edit the video, a total of another 6 hours was used to produce this video.

Please enjoy the video in full HD at 1080p for the best viewing and audio experience.

The day of observation

The video and observation was done was on the 21st of June 2013. We arrived at the location at 1 something. After getting the right location to sit and observe, we manage to set up and do what we needed to do before starting to record at about 1pm.

A view of how it was and how it looked like from my point of view.

Picture taken around 6 something

The timing of the videos taken were from 1pm to 9pm and the time estimations for each recordings were as follow  :

Sitting at the same seat for 8 hours plus hours was not easy but we definitely made it. The results of the observation will be found in another post of this blog.

The Company

The company chosen by me for this project is McDonald's, one of the market leader in the fast food industry in the world. The brand and company is not unfamiliar with the people and is the largest fast food chain in Malaysia as well. 

Following will be a brief introduction of the company for those that is still unfamiliar with the history of the company.

'Ray Kroc was the exclusive distributor of a milk shake maker called the Multimixer. Meanwhile, two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald owned and ran a hamburger restaurant in San Bernadino, California, in the 1950s. Ray Kroc heard how well the McDonald brothers were doing using his Multimixers to serve their customers. He met up with them and acquired the franchising right from them to run McDonald's restaurants.

A great success story was in the making. In 1955, Ray Kroc founded the McDonald's Corporation and opened the first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. In 1961, he bought out the McDonald brothers.
And the rest, as they say, is history. McDonald's grew into the largest restaurant organisation in the world. Today, there are more than 33,000 McDonald's restaurants in 119 countries. Ray Kroc died in 1984 but his legacy is very much alive. His success story continues with McDonald's families of employees, franchisees and suppliers. His commitment, dedication and achievements continue to live on at McDonald's restaurants across the world.' (Source from http://www.mcdonalds.com.my/abtus/corpinfo/history.asp)

In December 1980, Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn. Bhd won the licence to operate McDonald’s in Malaysia. After that, the first McDonald’s restaurant subsequently opened its doors at Jalan Bukit Bintang on 29 April 1982.

Old skool picture.

As for my research, I picked the McDonald's in AEON Alpha Angle in Wangsa Maju Kuala Lumpur.

The outlet.

A picture of myself right in front of the counter for 6 hours.

About 17 videos of 9 to 12 minutes video (due to the inefficiency of the camera I was using) were taken and later combined which could be found in this blog.

In this post I would also like to thank my friends that were with me throughout the whole duration of the video taking process. Thank You.

An Introduction

I am Chan Ee Rick, a student from Tunku Abdul Rahman College taking the course ABDM4064 Business Research. The sole purpose of this blog is created simply to show results of observations that I've conducted for my assignment.

The topic that I have adopted is "To determine who are the customers of McDonald's desserts".

Here in this blog you will see the video and data that I've collected for this research.

Do note that this project and research is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with any other Companies and is solely for my assignment purpose only. The information you read here will only be used for this application only and will not be provided to any 3rd party organization.

Thank You for your support.