The hamburger is the quintessential product of McDonald's. It is the symbol of their success and global domination, in-fact it became an iconic product within the 20th Century. Unlike similar products with only one logo, McDonalds had the clever ability to make people visualise a burger before they had even realised they had seen a yellow "M".

McDonald’s took the traditional German hamburger and re-packaged it for the US before selling it back to the rest of the world. An incredibly simple, yet ingenious idea.

There is no great mystery to McDonald's success, there is no great recipe, McDonald's, whatever it likes to claim, never really had or will have the best hamburgers in the world. However, like most chains it offers something else instead: reliability. You can drop into a McDonald's anywhere in the world and you know exactly what you're getting. McDonalds has introduced the sort of restaurant where you can quickly pop in, regardless of what country you are in, and experience the same level of satisfaction you would of got from your local Mc-cky D's, around the corner from your house back home...

You could have an interesting debate about which was the most iconic business of the last couple of decades. Microsoft was by far the the most succesful, Apple undoubtedly the coolest and McDonald’s the most consistent. Over the past 30 years, their products, including the globally recognised "Big mac", have been made the same style and taste the same way. With few alterations to suit local markets in different countries, Mcdonalds is likely to stay the same for many years to come.