Alcohol and Unhealthy Food Product Advertising in Hong Kong, Compared to the United Kingdom - Research Proposal Example

Discuss the influence and suitability of alcohol and unhealthy food product advertising and its censorship in Hong Kong, compared to the U.K. Introduction 1.1 Background to the Study There is no denying the fact that we are now in a highly competitive global environment where businesses are in constant competition against each other. In such an economic environment, the need to gain competitive advantage over competitors is a very crucial requirement for organisations to be successful (quote). As a way of being competitive, quote (year) makes mention of the use of marketing, of which rigorous advertisement is a part. The key to advertisement in a very competitive market is that it opens companies up to their potential clients and makes them popular among customers (quote). With the use of other strategies, advertisements help in building brand image for companies, meaning that clients can easily identify specific companies with specific products and services. In Honk Kong, the need for producers and service providers to be competitive is no different from what exists in other parts of the world as companies are constantly opened up to local and international competition (quote). 1.2 Statement of the Problem As noted in the background, competitiveness among companies in Hong Kong is now an important determinant of success for various business operatives. Even though this is a situation that happens with almost every other company, quote (year) singled out the food and alcohol industry and said that these are faced with even stiffer need to be competitive as the industry is regarded as both important and exposed to perfect competition. On a daily basis, new food, beverage and alcohol companies spring up in Hong Kong in different sizes. As noted in the background, most of these companies resort to the use of advertisement to make their presence known to the public. The problem with advertisement from some of these companies however has to do with the consent of their products and the content of their advertisement. Even though even though alcoholic and unhealthy food are not prohibited in Hong Kong, quote (year) laments about how the content of advertisements are not made to reflect the true content of products but only to emphasise on persuading clients. 1.3 Purpose of the Study In the light of the identified problem above, the proposed study will be carried out with the purpose of comparing alcohol and unhealthy food product in Hong Kong to the United Kingdom (U.K.). This means that the U.K’s model of advertisement and censorship on alcohol and unhealthy food is used as a model to test the rate of acceptability with what prevails in Hong Kong. U.K is selected as the model due to popularity of its advertisement regulations in literature and how practicable these regulations have been over the years. Throughout the study, emphasis will be placed on censorship and regulation of advertisement laws, given the fact that the advertisement of these products is not regarded as illegal but worthy of scrutiny due to the effect that the products carry, it is expected that one of the ways to ensure that consumers are protected is by regulating and censoring the messages that go to them by way of advertisement (quote). 1.4 Aim and Objectives To achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher aims to undertake a comparative study that discusses the influence and suitability of alcohol and unhealthy food product advertisement and its censorship in Hong Kong as against the U.K. This aim will be approached through various objectives stated as follows: 1. To identify how advertisement influences the food and alcohol industry in Hong Kong. 2. To determine the impact of advertisement of alcohol and unhealthy food on the general public. 3. To find existing regulations on the advertisement of alcohol and unhealthy food in Hong Kong as against the U.K. 4. To examine the censorship of advertising in Hong Kong and the U.K. and identifying the changes in advertising censorship over the years. 1.5 Rationale for the Study The proposed study can be termed as very timely due to the significance it carries in both academics and professional practice. Throughout literature, it would be noted that various researchers have generally divided food and alcohol products into legal and illegal (quote). To this end, not much emphasis has been placed on unhealthy food and alcohol, as most of these are also considered as legal. The researcher is however of the opinion that the fact that a piece of product is legal does not necessarily mean it is good for everyone. This gap in literature will therefore be bridged with this study as there will now be an emphasis on the impact of advertisement of unhealthy food and alcohol as a component of legal products. From a practical viewpoint, this study is being carried out with the rationale of sensitising the public on what to look out for when making purchases of various food and alcohol products. This is because it remains a fact that most advertisers have only looked at ways to be persuasive rather than informative (quote). 1.6 Research Questions In order to conduct a study that directly focuses on the specific objectives without going out of scope, the following research questions will be tested during data collection: 1. What is the state of censorship of advertisement in Hong Kong and the U.K. and how have there been changes in advertising censorship over the years through secondary data? 2. What are the differences and similarities in advertisement strategies and styles used in the U.K and Hong Kong? 3. What images or situation would be too offensive to put into alcohol and unhealthy food advertisement (in Hong Kong)? 4. Are unhealthy and alcohol adverts inappropriate in the interest of health and morality (in Hong Kong)? 5. Do bans or restrictions on advertising affect people’s behavior and does this make undesirable behavior more likely? 2.0 Literature Review The literature review of the study shall serve as an important component of the whole research where secondary data collection shall take place. Ahead of the actual data collection, a preliminary literature search has been performed, based on which four major themes have been created from the specific objectives of the study and thus the research questions. In the literature matrix below, the key themes and major literature sources that will be used in reviewing each theme are presented. The matrix also contains preliminary findings about the various themes based on the content of the sources. Theme Sources Type of Work Preliminary Review The Place of Advertisement in Marketing Trend of alcohol and unhealthy food advertising in the last few years in HK & UK Impact of Food and Alcohol Advertisement on people in HK and UK Trends in Censorship in HK and UK -Examples of banned adverts (alcohol & unhealthy food)- Are they soon enough to see the affect in the society? -Is it Acceptable in HK to ban those adverts 3.0 Methodology 3.1 Research Design The research design outlines the general approach that the researcher will take to data collection, particularly primary data collection. In the proposed study, the researcher is going to use a survey research design for primary data collection. This means that a very large research setting is going to be identified, from which a number of respondents will be selected to express their opinion about an issue, which is the research problem. Based on the opinions of the respondents, a conclusion will be drawn for the entire research setting about their position on the research problem. Because it is going to be the express opinions of a representative group that will be generalised for the entire group, a lot of emphasis will be placed on the careful selection of respondents to ensure that they are a fair representation of the larger group. The survey will be conducted in a qualitative manner, which means that there shall not be the use of numeric indexes in the collection and analysis of data. The study shall however be carried out as a mixed research, making use of both primary and secondary data collection. 3.2 Population and Sample The population of the study shall be made up of two different groups of people, one from Hong Kong background and the other from U.K background. The population shall also be made up of people who are 18 years and coming from a university setting. It is however expected that within the research setting, there will be too many people than the researcher can adequately handle. Because of this, a sample size will be created. The sample size will consist of 50 respondents, 25 of who will be from Hong Kong and the remaining 25 from U.K. The sampling technique to be used on the respondents will be a non-probability sampling technique. This means that not all people within the sample size shall have equal chance to be part of the sample size. The reason for this is to ensure that only people who quality the inclusion criteria of the researcher, which is 18 years and above will be included. Respondents will however be expected to be both males and females. 3.3 Research Instrument Secondary data collection shall be done by use of a literature log, which will contain both qualitative and quantitative components. The primary data collection shall however be done by the use of a questionnaire. More specifically, the researcher shall prepare an online questionnaire to be distributed to the respondents via the internet. The questionnaire will be structured in a manner that contains an expanded version of the research questions. This means that the question will directly focus on the research questions as a way of confining data collection to the aim of the study, as the research questions were set with the research objectives in mind, which were also set based on the aim of the study. As part of the qualitative study, the questions on the questionnaire will largely be based on the qualitative variables such as the views and attitude of respondents towards advertisement. 3.4 Data Collection Procedure As part of the mixed research method, there shall be two major forms of data collection, which are primary data collection and secondary data collection. The researcher shall however begin with secondary data collection, which will involve the review of existing works of literature that are directly linked to proposed study. A qualitative secondary data collection will emphasise on research questions 1 and 2 and will take data from government websites of both Hong Kong and U.K. There will also be the use of books, journals and newspapers to explore theories and professional review on advertisement and censorship to answer research questions 2 to 5. On quantitative secondary data collection, the emphasis will be on sales figures of alcohol and unhealthy food products of U.K. and Hong Kong to determine the impact of advertisement on marketing. With the primary data collection, much attention will be posted to the distribution, collection and analysis of questionnaire. 3.5 Ethical Consideration As part of academic and professional requirements, the researcher is going to follow very strict ethical requirements while collecting data and conducting the study as a whole. For example, the researcher shall ensure that a consent form is prepared and sent to the faculty of the university where data will be collected. The consent form will generally explain the rationale of the study and reason it is important to use students from that research setting. Moreover, various arrangements made by the researcher in ensuring that the confidentiality and anonymity of respondents is guaranteed shall be stated. For example, respondents will not be expected to write their names on questionnaires. In terms of secondary data collection, much focus shall be given to the need to avoiding plagiarism by adequately acknowledging all sources that are used. This will be done both at the in-text and end-of-text sections of the study. 3.6 Data Analysis Plan After collecting data, the researcher shall employee the use of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis procedures in analysing results. The selection of this mixed approach is in the fact that the whole study is a mixed research. As part of the mixed data analysis plan, the researcher shall have a separate section of the study for presentation and interpretation of data, where data shall be presented in a quantitative manner, using various charts and mathematical indexes. After this, there will be a discussion section where literature will be used to thoroughly analyse the result by giving implications of results. It is expected that the data analysis will end with the research questions rightly answered as the results to be analysed will be coming from the secondary and primary data collection, which are also based on the research questions. Read More