Bridge Marketing Gaps
An in-depth analysis is required for a proper assessment of marketing gaps. To illustrate our point, we put together a simple scenario of Mr. Tsang's frustrations from looking for overseas service providers in Hong Kong.
Consider the plight of Mr Tsang.
Mr Tsang is the owner of a SME factory in China, and he is planning to move part of his business to another country.
To this end, Mr Tsang develops a lengthy to-do list: set up company, market business potential, housing, education, tax, residency, employment…etc.; and he googles for information and browses the websites of various overseas service providers, and wants to arrange for meetings. Mr Tsang prefers small-medium size service providers due to budgetary considerations.
To Mr Tsang's dismay, there are only a small number of overseas service providers with a Hong Kong office and these are large corporates that cater to the corporate or high-net-worth market segments i.e. too costly for him.
Mr Tsang is not alone.
Consider Mr. Chan, who is the owner of a boutique Southeast Asian gourmet shop; and he is looking for niche Singapore products and ideas.
Then, there is Ms. Lee, the owner of a niche but popular local condiments brand; and she is looking for a partner for the Malaysian market.
Like Mr Tsang, they google and browse the websites of various Singapore and Malaysia SMEs, shortlist those of interest, and decide to arrange for meetings with them. To their dismay, their preferred companies do not have a Hong Kong office and a person in Hong Kong that they can contact.
Mr. Tsang, Mr. Chan and Ms. Lee are fictitious for illustrative purpose, but the scenarios are real based on our on-the-ground interactions in Hong Kong with clients and business associates.
Like many developed markets, Hong Kong has a vibrant SME and mid-high income market:
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Over 340,000 SMEs in Hong Kong employ approximately 45% of private sector workforce
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About 25% of the population, or 1.66 million Hong Kong people, have an education qualification of university degree or above
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Of the 2.6 million households in Hong Kong, one-third of them have monthly household income of more than HK$40,000 or about S$7,000.
We believe that there are opportunities for international companies in the SME and mid-high income market segments. However, all stages of the marketing and business development funnel are not being adequately met on-the-ground in Hong Kong.
Find out how our outsourced marketing services can help in a cost-effective way and read our experiment and suggestions for a Singapore SME.