Research Methodologies - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The new media identified is the internet and the possible e-marketing exercises that could be resorted to in order to boost the profitability.
Hong Kong is made of 236 islands in all on the South China Sea. Out of this land space, it has been found that only 25% of the land has been commercially developed and used. The rest are green and form a part of National Parks that are protected and reserves (Lonely Planet, 2006). Since it borders the Pearl River and its delta, it also provides some of the best picturesque locations for restaurants and evening sit outs. Most of the people live and work in high rise buildings. The restaurants that cater to the catering business in Hong Kong are on many cases are located next to one another for want of land and place (Time Out, 2006). This led to excessive competition between the restaurants of the region. The sharp increase in the GDP of the province and an economic growth that surpassed 10% year on year on the GDP helped the province to swiftly prosper at the same time pushing the cost of place and hence the rental costs to incredibly high figures.
While the rental costs have gone substantial up, it is also found that the cost of food has not gone up to that extent. This has happened due to the fact that most of the food is imported and the imported cost has not gone up in the mainland China from where food is brought in. This meant the cost of the food has to go up for specific areas and not for others resulting in discrepancies of cost even across the small area in the Hong Kong. People could show preference based on the cost of the food as much as the quality of the food that the restaurants served (HKSAR Budget 2006-07). Increasing competition forced the restaurants not to increase the cost of the food at these restaurants for the fear of losing business.

Current Marketing Methods
The restaurants in Hong Kong promote themselves using any of the traditional methods of advertising on the newspapers and other media. Some of the well known restaurants thrive due to a strong of word of mouth advertisement that they get from their patrons. All these help them in consolidating their market base. However with the rise in the competitive levels the large food market in Hong Kong which is also known as the Food Paradise since the 1980s. A large cross section of the cuisines are also supported and it is found that these restaurants have already carved a niche for themselves by serving specific food varieties starting from Asian or Cantonese or Manchurian and other choices that serve as a differentiator. However, with the increasing level competition even these differentiators get blurred and there happens to be competition within these specific niche markets themselves so much so that these niches are no niche markets that they used to be once upon time.

Out of the total area of 1,102 square kilometers of Hong Kong only about 300 square kilometers are occupied by human settlements. There is a large scale exodus of restaurants to move from these established locations and move out to the non established out skirts where the land and the building rentals are pretty cheap but at the cost of the patrons who would find it ...Download file to see next pagesRead More