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 Singapore SME 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 Singapore.
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 SG service providers, and wants to arrange for meetings.
To Mr Tsang's dismay, there are only a small number of SG service providers with a Hong Kong office and these are large Singapore 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 Singapore market i.e. the reverse of Singapore SMEs tapping the Hong Kong market.
Like Mr Tsang, they google and browse the websites of various Singapore SMEs, shortlist those of interest, and decide to arrange for meetings with them. To their dismay, their preferred Singapore SMEs 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 Singapore, 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 the SME and mid-high income market segments are underserved by Singapore SMEs, and all stages of the marketing and business development funnel are not being adequately met on-the-ground in Hong Kong.
Find out how our BPO services can help in a cost-effective way and read our experiment and suggestions for a Singapore SME.