Marketing Strategy Based On Consumer Behaviour At Cities In China For Mexican Food Products

The People’s Republic of China has emerged as one of the world largest food consumers and importers of food. This investigation analyses how the rapid economic development in China has shifted the consumer behaviour of one of the most promising future market segments, the young Chinese consumers. It also analyses the factors of young Chinese consumers towards Mexican food, applying OLS models and confidence intervals, to create and implement marketing strategies for Mexican restaurants and food products in China.The sampling design of this research was developed using semistructured questionnaires as a pilot test in order to improve the measures, the layout of the research questions and to determine the optimal sample size. Based on this information, the final questionnaires were designed. The data was collected randomly from a major campus in a university close to a Tex-Mex restaurant in Chengdu, where 212 questionnaires were administered via personal interviews and were totally voluntary. Most of the data collected through the questionnaires was in a dichotomic (0-1) structure, where 0 was a rejection and 1 was acceptance of the issue asked. The rest of the data was built by levels to analyse the income, spending and different perceived factors of the young Chinese people.The analysis results in chapter 4.3 reveal the different factors which determine going to Mexican restaurants in China and eating Mexican food. It also estimates the market share of some selected Mexican food products among young Chinese consumers. The findings show that recommendations, advertisement, magazine ads and prestige are playing an important role by going to Mexican restaurants in China, while taste, similarity to Chinese food and price are the most influential factors by eating Mexican food for young Chinese people. Moreover, in this study, most of the selected Mexican food products are found to have a large proportion of potential young Chinese consumers in cities in China. The strategy suggestions for Mexican food in China are developed in chapter 5, in which the import regulation in China after the WTO and its implication for Mexico are analysed. China’s exports and imports since the accession to the WTO have increased yearly over 20%, but its trade composition has not changed substantially. Most of China’s exports are mainly miscellaneous manufactured goods and machinery and electronics. While China’s imports are mainly capital intensive goods and recently food products and beverages, which account for land substitutes. The most important WTO membership commitment China agreed was the reduction of tariffs from an overall average of 22.1% before 2001 to 9.9% in 2007, restriction of subsidies, a better distribution among non state traders for tariff rate quotas and the elimination of them in the next years.The implications of the China’s accession to the WTO for Mexico, if all the commitments subscribed are well implemented, are very significant and challenging for its economic development. Mexican agricultural and processed food products could have great opportunity of expansion, gaining large market share in China. At the same time, China’s commitment of granting equal access to foreign investors in its domestic market, gives also the opportunity of establishing wholly foreign owned Mexican restaurants.The characteristics of the Chinese market in chapter 6.1 are analysed from a marketing approach with focus on the young Chinese consumers to understand the variables of product, price, place and promotion. These variables are subject of great changes since the market liberalization in 1978. The product variable has had an evolution towards a diversification in categories, higher quality, an awareness of brand name, better design and packing as well as services. The price variable is slowly changing towards a stronger price-quality relationship due to a stronger competition and a healthier monetary environment. The promotion variable is changing in line with the economic development in China, where advertising activity, personal selling and sales promotion are set to the new consumer behaviour of Chinese people. However, the last two promotion activities are steering more the consumers to specific brands and influencing on last minute decisions. The place variable is found to have dramatically changed towards a market driven economy in terms of distribution channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, transportation and logistics. Guided by the analysis results in chapter 4.3 and the characteristics of the Chinese market in chapter 6.1, marketing strategies for Mexican restaurants and food products are developed in chapter 6.2. The strategies for Mexican restaurants and food companies in China proposed by this study suggest that Mexican food products should consider good taste with a certain similarity to Chinese food. The Mexican restaurants and food companies should be established in fast developing second tier cities, while the first ones should be close to universities in order to attract the target consumers. For this purpose, these restaurants and food companies should use a value pricing strategy, which reflects the customers perception of higher social status, and a promotion strategy based on advertisement and on sales promotion team respectively.By implementing these marketing strategies based on consumer behaviour of young Chinese people, Mexican restaurants and food companies could have a successful market entry and large market share of the most important market segment in China.