Consumer Behavior Of Drinking Beer In Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

Mark242 The Behaviour of Consumers at bars in Lan Kwai Fong

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MARK 242 (Fall 2008) Consumer Behaviour Group Project

The Behaviour of Consumers at bars in Lan Kwai Fong LAU Yuet Wah Rosa

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TSANG Hang Fung

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HO Man Chai

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BRINET Matthieu Alexandre R

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BAS Carole Noelle Catherine

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CHRIQUI Kevin Gontran

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KWOK Emmy Tsz Ting

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Mark242 The Behaviour of Consumers at bars in Lan Kwai Fong

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Content PART 1 A. Basic Information of Lan Kwai Fong -

Overview Type of shops The “Office hours” Locations

B. Data Collection Method C. Basic Segmentation D. Main Consumers’ Segments in LKF E. Description of Target -

General description Pre-purchase issue Purchase issue Post-purchase issue PART 2

A. Introduction B. Pre-purchase issue - Attitude formation toward bar - What cues does our target use to infer which bar is superior to others? C. Purchase issue - Mood and Needs - Bar's atmosphere - Situational influence D. Post-purchase issue - Determinants of the consumer's satisfaction - Will the consumers come again? - Does this person tell others about his/her experiences & influence their decisions CONCLUSION

Executive Summary This paragraph has the purpose to summarize how we conduct our study of “consumer behavior in LKF's bars”.

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Part 1, From consumer's perspective In the first time we considered, a priori, all the populations we could find in a bar. After describing who they are and defining which needs could be satisfy in going into a bar, we selected the three more representative populations in LKF (Business people westerners, Business people locals, students in exchange) and realized a quick overview of their particular behavior in LKF. At the end of this part we selected and studied deeply the behavior of what will be from now our target in the second part of the study. Part 2, From marketer's perspective After a short reminder of the 4P of our “product”, the Stormies, we studied in a successive way the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase issues of the Stormies and we compared it to other competitors. And finally we summarize our conclusion in a table of the main points which crosses consumer's needs and what the Stormies offer.

PART 1

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A. Basic Information of Lan Kwai Fong Overview Lan Kwai Fong is a square of streets full of restaurants, bars and clubs in Central. It is a popular place among expatriates and international students. On Friday and Saturday night, there will be enormous crowds filling on the streets. After school or work, people like to have relaxing time having fun with their friends there.

Type of shops You can eat, drink and party in Lan Kwai Fong and there are a myriad of café, restaurants, clubs, bars and discos that fulfill your needs. For restaurants, there are a wide range of cuisines, like Italian, Russian, Nordic and Australian, etc. For bars and clubs, they are in different sizes and styles. Some play strong music but some do not. There are also some lifestyle shops, such as boutique, galleries and yoga place.

The “Office hours” The bars usually open in the afternoon and they have “happy hours” from 3pm to 8pm in which the beers are sold at a lower price. The bars will open until 4am in the other day most of the time.

Locations Lan Kwai Fong means the area between D'Aguilar Street and the smaller lane, Lan Kwai Fong. Both streets turn 90 degrees to form a rectangle. Moreover, there are some more shops for drinks and food on Wo On Lane and Wing Wah Lane

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B. Data Collection Method The data and behaviors of consumers in bars of Lan Kwan Fong was collected and observed by visiting and consuming in bars of the place by our group members. We conducted a few trips there, in which we chose different bars and stayed there for two to three hours. We observed the consumers by sitting inside the bars and also had interviews with them. Areas that were covered in the interviews included their background information (e.g. origin and occupation), consumption habits (e.g. types and number of drinks ordered, expenditure and places visited before consuming in the bar) and general opinions on the bar (e.g. expectation and favorite ambiance)

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C. Basic Segmentation Age

Origin

<35

Chinese

Western

Students - Not many Chinese students come after school or at weekend

Working people - Quite a lot of Chinese come after work

Tourists - Very few Chinese tourists come

- Going to bars is not - Combination of an activity that - Prefer other men and women is Mainlanders do entertainment, e.g. quite even, but the when they visit going to karaoke number of girls Hong Kong box and visiting counts a little - Chinese tourists shopping mall more than boys prefer places with local Hong Kong culture rather than Western culture - Many exchange - Many Western - Very few Western students who have people come after tourists going to been here for 4 work bars months to one year - Meeting friends or searching for - Even if they do so, potential dating - Go out a lot they would just partners because they don't come once when have a lot of class - Meeting friends they stay in Hong - Like to hang who are from Kong to have a around with other their home taste of LKF international countries or other students countries speaking the same mother tongue

Mark242 The Behaviour of Consumers at bars in Lan Kwai Fong

Age

Origin

Students

>35

Chinese

Not applicable (No - Not a lot of Chinese - Very few Chinese students aged below in this age group tourists come 35) come after work - Going to bars is not - They focus on an activity that family life after Mainlanders do work when they visit - Even if they go to Hong Kong bars, many of them - More mature go to those in the Chinese tourists go Kowloon side out at daytime for shopping branded goods and electronic products Not applicable (No - Come after work - Even fewer Western students aged below to relax and meet tourists go to bars 35) new people than the young ones - Meeting friends who are from their - Prefer drinking home countries or together with dinner other countries at restaurants rather speaking the same than bars mother tongue - Enjoying the time with their loveones

Western

Working people

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Tourists

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D. Main Consumers’ Segments in LKF Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

The Western Working people with age under 35

The Chinese working people with age under 35

The Western Students with age under 35

-

- Young working people who come to bars after work

- Many exchange students who have been here for 4 months to one year

-

-

-

-

-

-

A large proportion of this segment are Western people who have been working in Hong Kong for several years Many of them are professionals working in the business field or are doctors

- Have not married so that they can stay very late in bars with a group of friends - Have not much financial burden to their family

Treat coming to bar and talk with people as a deeprooted occidental culture

- Willing to spend quite a lot on lifestyle products, e.g. buying fashion goods and dining in a nice restaurant

Come after work for relaxing and relieving their stress in a fun place

- When come in groups, the number of girls counts a little more than boys

A conventional norm to order alcoholic drinks in bars

- Many of them have studied or worked overseas

Lan Kwai Fong is a common place for them to assemble and gather with friends Meet people from the same countries or speaking the same mother tongues

-

Have a drink and sit down inside the bars to have a nice little chat with their love ones

-

Like to order wine serving along with food

- Receptive to Western culture and have a mindset as a Westerner - Like to read English magazines and fictions during leisure - Many of them order cocktail to show that they know how to appreciate the drinks

- Like to hang around with other international students - Want to make the most of their exchange and discover all famous clubs in Hong Kong - Come with a large group of students from the same school - Begin the night with drinking cheap drinks e.g. Beer or Vodka in seven-eleven - Do not order a lot for saving money to spend in clubs at a later time of the night - Go to bars throughout the week - Prefer standing close to the bars while drinking cheap alcoholic drinks bought in convenient stores

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E. Description of Target After analyzing the above 3 populations, western business people would be our target. The reason choosing this target is that western business people go to Lan Kwai Fong more often, compared to Chinese business people. Also, their drinking behaviour in bar is more distinctive and interesting. According to our detailed observation in Lan Kwai Fong for several times, we discover that our target group has the following demographic and psychographic behaviour.

General description of our target group For our target group, they are western business people, including both men and women. They are between 25 and 35 and they usually wear classic suit. Before they go to Lan Kwai Fong, they usually go to restaurant to have dinner first after work. After dinner, they will go directly to the bars in Lan Kwai Fong. For those who are rich, they will choose taxi to go from restaurants to bars as they think it is the most comfortable and convenient way. Normally, they will arrive at the bars at 9pm and they come in groups – usually with more men than women. Sometimes, they will meet other people in the bars too.

Pre-purchase issue In our observation, when our target group comes to choose a bar, people do not need much hesitation. They just directly go into one bar that they want to go. The reason behind is that they are used to the parties in Hong Kong and they already have their own favourite bars in mind where they can meet people. That is their evoked set. For the bar that we investigate into, is an expatriate bar. They go to this bar as they want to meet others coming from the same country as they do. They can hardly change their habit and go to a new bar that they are not familiar with. Inside the bar, there are both boys and girls and they are mixed in groups. Some girls’ groups are sitting at the table and boys are most likely standing outside the bar. For our target group, they stay inside at a table first as it is not so late when they go inside the bar. But while they go ordering the drinks, they always meet people they know and usually they stay standing up talking with them. They also go outside to talk with people as it is less noisy and there are fewer people outside. When they go outside, they just stand near

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the tables as they can still feel the air-conditioning. They are not particular finding a bar that is quiet or with strong music. Besides drinking, our target group also dances. They do not dance when they first go inside the bar. Yet, when they met people they know which are dancing, they can join them before coming back to their table. There is a television showing football game in the bar. Our target group does look at the TV but it is not their main concern.

Purchase issue After going inside the bar, the business people find a table to settle down. They wait at the table and wait for the waitresses to serve them. They just want to have fun inside the bar and do not want to take the drinks by themselves from the counter. They try to find the waitresses first and call them to take the order. However there are many people inside the bar and they cannot catch the attention of waitresses. So, they directly go to the bar counter to order. It takes quite long time for them to go to the counter as they have to pass through the crowded people to the counter. When they go to the counter, they do not need to queue to order as they have already found the best place in order to be seen by the barmen. Some people may need to change place to be seen by the barmen but it is not the case of our target. When they order the drinks, they do not need the menu and they do not need to think for a moment of what to order as they go there often and are familiar with the drinks inside. It is their habit of ordering drinks. They only need to speak the name of drinks once loudly to let the barmen understand what they order. When ordering drinks, it is somehow a difficult process. As when a businessman, one of our target goes to the counter to order, has to leave his friends alone at the table. Also, he has to cross the packed people and catches the barmen’s attention when he arrives at the counter. He needs to speak loudly so as to let the barmen hear what he wants as there is music around and people are chatting noisily. But finally, he seems to enjoy the process as he can really get some drinks back for his friends, not only for himself. He knows what his friends want actually as he usually comes with the same group and knows his friends want beer. Inside the bar, most of the people drink beer in big glasses while some girls drink wine. There are also some people around their 40s drinking beer in glasses and bottles. There is

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no cocktail at the beginning of the party but there are few people drinking at the midnight. The reason behind is that people want to have something softer first, like beer, followed by stronger cocktail. Our target group usually orders a few glasses of beer first, and then changes to vodka cocktail. They change to another type of drinks as they want something stronger and they want to have a different taste. Moreover, they may think beer is too common and they want something more festive. After several drinks, they still do not get totally drunk but are quite happy and enjoy the night. Furthermore, it is discovered that men will offer drinks to women. As they are working group and money is not a problem to them. Thus, they will invite their women friends to go to bars with them. However, in our several observations none of them will offer drinks to girls who they do not know.

Post-purchase issue After buying the beers or wines, most people continue chatting with their friends. Very few people dance actually and they mostly dance at the end of party. Our target group usually stays there for more than 2 hours, which is leaving at around 11:00pm to 11:30pm. It is their average time staying in one bar. Not all the groups in the bar leave at same time and there are few people keeping talking inside. For majority of people, they usually leave at 2am and they are leaving happily.

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PART 2 A. Introduction – Stormies' 4P In the second part, we have decided to study a specific bar and two competitors and how can their marketing's actions influence our target. First of all, we want to describe briefly our bar's marketing mix: Product The Stormies is a pub with a classical ambiance, the place is quite small but it benefits from a good situation on the street. The bar is clean, well decorated, toilets are quite ok, the music is from 80's and most of people like it, drinks are quite good and there are a lot of choices. Price

Drink prices are quite expensive, a little bit more than other bars, you can pay either with cash or credit card.

Place

There are two ways to sell drinks: customers can order at the counter or they can call a waitress.

Promotion Offer : there are price offers for girls on Thursday “Ladies night” : one specific cocktail is free for girls Communications: neither mention on Internet nor on blog, advertising can be found in the tourism office. The bar is the sponsor of a local sports team. The communications works more by word of mouth.

B. Pre-purchase issues When talking about consumption in a bar we generally thought about drinking, and this is true it may be the only moments where you will be ask for payment. But what we do not realize at that moment is that we are paying for the drink but also services. What does that service mean? In the service are included costs such as: the place, all the staff and also the ambiance (decor, music...). Thus, when dealing with pre-purchase issues for a bar, we are not just thinking about ordering and drinking because, as seen above, as soon as you enter in the bar you start consuming the “bar” even if you haven't paid yet. The particularity of our topic is that we can categorize the consumption as an entertainment. A hedonistic consumption based on a need for belongingness.

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Attitudes formation toward bar Concerning our product, we can say that our target is loyal to the bar. As seen in part 1, these people are part of a community: same origin, they are all expatriates, similar job and lifestyle. Thus more that relaxing after a working day, the Stormies is a meeting point which is a place reflecting what our target wants. What is the process for integrating this community? Take the case of a new expatriate seeking for new friends in Hong Kong. This man may be disoriented, will look for people close to him (it is natural need). Considering this, he will ask people like colleagues, friends (people who have the information), these persons will probably advise him LKF. This kind of search in information is called word-of-mouth and seems to be the most efficient one, especially when dealing with products with great social attributes, « If my peers like it I should do so ». First, why LKF seems to be the most appropriate place for our target. 1. Reputation of LKF: it is an area dedicated to entertainment with a large number of bars. 2. Proximity with the working place: most of our target works for a big western company localized in Hong Kong Island and as « time is money », it is more convenient to go out in the neighborhood. 3. Proximity with the living place: during the week going out in a relatively close place allows our target a fast go back home. As the area in not very big, it is easy to walk nearby all the bars and assess them. However we face a large range of different ambiances: 1. Lounge bar: dim light, relax atmosphere, people stand seated on a sofa or on high table (nobody outside). Beer in bottle is mainly consumed (Heineken and Corona are the most common brand), but also cocktails. The population of the bar is mix, we can find expatriates as locals. Big screens play video-clips related to the music. 2. Chicha Bar: people in those bars are chicha smoker. Due to the smoking

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system people are seated around high table, the music and lights are dim and remind oriental style. Our target never go in this kind of bar. 3. Bar Latino: strong character and origin, here it is only a matter of fiesta. Music as drinks or food reminds Latino style. In these places we drink cocktails based on rum and tequila or Corona. Clients do not hesitate to dance (especially women). 4. Bar new generation: new materials and fixture are used in the decor (aluminum, neon...), the music is quite loud and new (a lot of electro). People inside are young and mix. They consume beer in majority. There are screens broadcasting sport events and video-clips. 5. Pub: In a traditional style, pubs in LKF are very close from those of England and Ireland (woodwork, trophies, and team sport pictures). Here, is served beer pint (but also bottles), cocktails and wine. Screens broadcast sport events some are attentively follow by clients. The music is based on British Pop Rock. It is the place where our target is dominant, because of the strong cultural heritage. Now that we identified the competition, let see what the Stormies’ attributes are: The Stormies is a pub located in the high of LKF on D'aguilar Street. With 3 flags (English, American, and Australian) at the entrance, the place is more opened than others (certainly because the bar is located in the angle of the street), there are large windows, and thus you never really know if you are inside or outside. Lights are bright. But what is more striking it is the crowd in front of the Stormies, since the start of D'aguilar Street it is possible to see these people having fun even when others bar are quite empty. This people are wearing the same dress code: dark suit or pants with shirt (me) and smart dress (women), they are all westerners aged between 30 and 50. They discuss, laugh loudly, sing, dance, the atmosphere is so relax. Most of the men are drinking beer, girls prefer wine or cocktails. The music outside send all people at 20 meters around, back in the 80's for some British Pop (comment: the 80's is generally the youth of all customers in). If our target didn't know about the Stormies, just by passing in front of it, he could say: « Hey! I know this song I bought the album when I was young » then « those people are looking like me, they drink what I am used to drink in a place that looks like my home country ». In few words « this is the community I make part ». Clearly there are no other bars in LKF where we could find this fever, this crowd and those so characterized customers.

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What cues does our target use to infer which bar is superior to others? If we want to be fair and rational our target should try every bar, but it is impossible, this option will be too time costing. And we must remind that most part of our target is in group, so if a change has to occur (trying a new bar for instance), it involves the agreement of everyone. In this case the differentiation is a matter of feeling, and projection. The differentiation using the imaginary of our target will decode the perception he feels exposed to a particular place. Even without going into the bar our target will in a first time evaluate elements such as: 1. other customers in the bar: who they are, what are they doing, their mood; 2. Ambiance: light, music, TV, furniture; 3. Place layout: seats, table, bar... After this appreciation our target will imagine himself in the bar (projection), the difference between this projection and what he is expecting when he goes out, will allow him to assess is personal appreciation of the bar. If it is made over a bigger sample, he will make his own ranking. Finally he will submit his conclusion to his friend and generally the place which will gain more sympathy will be chosen.

C. Purchase issue Many things may influence consumers when they purchase. In our case: when a consumer is in a bar and buys a drink. In this paragraph, we are going to study how its personal mood and need, the bar's atmosphere and the situation can influence the way our target purchases.

Mood and Needs Needs We mustn’t forget that drinking in a bar is responding to a basic need: the thirst. In fact the role played by this physical need is not so important as it should actually be: yet if our target is very thirsty it may begin by a non alcoholic drink or a light alcoholic drink. But fulfilling this physical need doesn't mean the consumer will stop purchase because this

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need will be replaced by other goal. Mood Drinking in bar is a social activity, to enjoy it people must be in good mood, open with people and feel comfortable: everybody knows that alcohol can be an easy way to lose sense of reality and to be more relax. So the way consumers feel in bar and their humor really influence the way they consume. Here are different typical moods of our target and the way they consume: >Our target goes out after a stressful working day, we know that usually it takes times to forget business problems – in this case yet people have to forget their work quite instantaneously and be funny. If our target doesn't feel at ease it might be more disposed to drink a lot at the beginning of the evening or taking hard drinks. >On the contrary, our target is likely to go out with colleague or to try belonging to a network that is why he must stay on control and won't drink a lot and sophisticated drinks. Role play As we say, drinking in a bar is a social activity whose goal maybe to meet new people and relax with friends. That is why people might modify slightly their image to impress other people or to give a friendly image of themselves for example by purchasing expensive alcohol or offer drinks to other – in the Stormies our target is more inclined to get 4 biers in the same time for friends than just one for himself. For example we have observed a business man coming by MTR eating a sandwich because it was cheaper than going in the bar ordering an expensive alcohol and paying a round for all its friends. What actions are made to influence our target's purchase: Our bar influence consumer's mood thanks to its warm and relaxing atmosphere (see part on bar's atmosphere), here are some actions which can be added to the strategy: > Need: to give things to eat but which also makes you feel thirsty (like peanuts). >Mood: to placard an attractive menu of the cocktail on the wall > Role play: to placard price of wine bottle or make 5L bier barrel offers

Bar's Atmosphere The atmosphere can also play a big role in consumer's mood – basically if a consumer

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feels good in a bar he will stay longer and will order more. In this table we have described the ambiance of the Stormies and 2 competitors: we have put in blue factors which influence positively our target (feels at ease and consumes more) and in red the factors which could be improved. Stormies

Competitors 1

Competitor 2

Light

Soft and warm light but clear enough to read

Dark light with coloured spot

Soft light

Temperature

Air conditioned but not too cold

Air conditioned but not too cold Air conditioned but not too cold

Odor

Small food odor because the bar has also a restaurant

Tabaco odor

No odor

Decor

Chic but casual decor , quite personalized with paintings , blue sits and woods on the wall. One TV in the bar. Bar decorated with lots of sport trophee

Black wall and black sit, nothing on the wall

Metallic - zinc seat and table, not very chic

Music

Playlist - The music is pop rock-quite loud but you can ear people talking There is music outside of the bar as loud as inside

Music very loud, hard to talk, hip hop music

Music not really loud, easy to talk, but perturbed by the other bar's noise

crowded

There are a lot of people inside the bar but more outside the bar – it's difficult to enter the bar or even to see the entrance ! But it also show that this bar is famous and may attract people

Bar very crowded, not a ot of people at the entrance because most of them are on the dance floor

People have all the place to seat, there is no empty place. The space near the counter is really crowded

co-consumers People are all businessmen/women, well dressed, around 30 years old

Businessmen / women but also Businessmen and women, a lot of younger people (around couples, more than 30 years 20 years old) old – not so well dressed

Place of the bar

The bar is more off center than Middle of Lan Kwai Fong. the Stormies even if he's in Lan Big bar and big terrace Kwai Fong too The bar is quite big but there is no terrace.

In the middle of lan kwai fong, just at a corner (more place outside for people). Small bar without terrace

Place of the In the middle of the bar counter in the bar Seats and table

The counter is in the middle of the bar

There are not a lot of seats (5 Not a lot of table, tables are tables). Tables and seats are leaning on the wall, they are high so people can either sit or high stand near the tables. No table outside of the bar

At the entrance on the left – large counter leaning the wall Lots of table outside on the terrace, table and seat are high

Mark242 The Behaviour of Consumers at bars in Lan Kwai Fong

Dance

No place at all for dancing

Big place for dancing in the back of the bar

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No special place for dancing but still some place where people can dance

The atmosphere is a big part of the Stormies' success: in the table above, we can see that most of the features have a positive influence on the purchase behavior. Thanks to the warm light and the personalized decoration customers feel at ease, most of the customers are all from the same segment which make it easy to engage in conversation, the music fits totally with our target, the emplacement in the street is practical to gather people and the layout of the bar makes people order easily. Problems come mainly from the size of the bar: people cannot sit, the entrance is crowded. But in fact the Stormies managed to turn it into advantage: they put fan and music outside so that people have more space and feel at ease in the bar as well as outside the bar; Stormies' waitresses even take order from outside. Finally people have spent their day working in an office and like to be drink outside.

Situational influence Surveys have shown that few minutes before ordering, people don't know what to drink. It is the same assessment for the reordering: when people come into a bar they don't know how many drinks they are going to order. Even if our target usually knows what it's going to drink and has its habits, situational factors may influence the way it purchases. Co-consumer Influence Co-consumer

Influence

Friends

Our target will be more likely to drink a lot and stay longer with friends or to pay round.

Co-worker

Our target is more likely to leave early after one or two biers.

boy/girlfriend

Our target would like to sit, stay longer, not drink a lot but maybe quite expensive alcohol (wine, cocktail)

It seems that friends are the most profitable influencer cause they drink a lot and quite fast, a way for the Stormies to attract more groups of friend (than boy/girlfriends for example) would be to offer a drink to the person which orders a round for all its friends. Ordering a drink : time influence When it comes to purchase, waiting time really matters. In bar our target would have to

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let their friends and stop conversation to order a drink at the counter. He may take time, demand effort to catch the barman's attention. On the other hand, as our target is used to this bar it will find easily the barman and order will take less time. Furthermore our target knows a lot of customer in the Stormies so he generally finds someone to talk with when he's waiting. Our observation shows also that the queue in the Stormies is not very long. Indeed to improve service's rapidity, Stormies' waitresses are taking order outside to avoid people to queue at the counter. A good way to improve people's feeling toward queuing to have a drink would also be to ask barman to serve drink and to make cocktail in an attractive way, to placard recipe or more decorations on walls...

Price, Offers and « promotions » Stormies' prices are more expensive than other Lan Kwai Fong's bars. Normally it should influence consumers, however our target earns a lot of money and doesn't pay too much attention to price: they don't look at the menu before ordering, they sometimes pay for other people and they pay after each drinks so at the end they don't know how much money they have spent. In this bar there is no special offer, only on Thursday for girl there is the « Ladies night » : the Stormies as well as other bar give free cocktails to women. This offer tend to be the normal trend in most LKF's bar, however some bars offer every kind of drinks to women on thursday. These are more crowded on Thursday and tend more to compet with the Stormies We don't think our target is influenced by price promotion (for example tonight tequila shot are half prices) but special offer can make our target consume more : if our target sees an offer for two beers, even if it doesn't care about the price, it may order 2 biers even if it needs and wants only one. Increase purchase's number and spontaneous purchase As said bellow, our target might change its mind just before ordering, that's why the bar should do everything to ensure that our target will change his mind to a more expensive drink. The second point is that the number of purchase can be influenced by the bar. Currently, the Stormies shows just great bootle of expensive alcohol in order to make our target want to purchase this kind of alcohol.

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But it could also communicate on special cocktail, brand, etc. For example some bar have advertising sticked on their table, use branded beer mat, put some drink advertising on TV instead of classical advertisings, put brand on their waitresses' uniforms (Tiger beer dress). Concerning the purchase's number, the Stormies is taking advantage of the situation. As people standing up cannot put down their glasses or bottle we have observed that they are more likely to drink faster. This is actually a good thing while around 70% of the Stormies' customers have to stand up outside. For people seating, barmen have to care about empty glasses and remove them from the table as soon as they are empty. Indeed people won't stay in the bar without any glasses on their table and will either order another drink or leave the bar and let the table free for other people.

D. Post-purchase issue In this post-purchase issue analysis, we are going to determine what’s the consumer’s perception of the Stormie’s service once he has consumed it and how is it formed. In a bar, we almost use our five senses to appreciate the quality of the place: The sound, the tastes of the drinks, the light & décor, the quality of the material use for the bar and the smell (witch can be negative is the smell of cigarette is too strong, or positive if it is a well known bar for cigar’s smokers.) But if we look beyond this explosion of senses that a consumer experiment when entering in a bar, what determines whether the consumer will be satisfied with our product? Witch brings us to the second question, what are customer needs & expectations? And finally, are we able to meet those needs and expectations?

Determinants of consumer’s satisfaction What are customer needs? Classified by importance: A place to spend time with friends & meet new people 1. Music is the key element that attracted customers to the Stormie’s. There are two main effects that their play list enable : The direct effect is that the customer will be please to hear music he appreciate and remember him his, and the second effect is that he will expect find in this place people who are more or less on the same wavelength, because of their musical tastes. 2. Co-consumers: It is easier for foreign people to meet and become friend with

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people in the same situation as them, because when people live in a foreign country they have to build up again a network of friends and they are much more likely to make new friends when going out. 3. Drinks: Foreign business people expect from an “expatriate oriented bar” to have the variety and the knowledge to offer them the drinks they use to drink in their country of origin. (cocktails, wines & specific alcohols)

4. Décor, sound volume & light: Those are elements witch the consumer do not notice but appreciate, it creates an ambit pleasant to consume & spend time. Does the storming bar answer well to the customer needs? 1. Our bar is “western” customers oriented: The music & the décor appeals to western countries. And it is also oriented to >35 years customers, because the music is “retro”. This strong identity allows it to attract a lot of foreign businessman, and the bar benefits form the snowball effect. 2. We can say that the Stormie’s succeed in satisfying all the senses of consumers, because theirs drinks are goods, there is enough light to move easily through the bar and the décor is adapted to every culture, the music allow people to speak with each other and appeals to the best times of their youth, the bar is clean and with quality materials, pleasant to touch, and the place is very well ventilate, to avoid excess of cigarette smells, and there even are ventilator airing the street for consumers standing outside. In conclusion, we can say that, by answering both senses & social needs, the Stormies succeed in satisfying its customers. But there are externals factors that the Stormies can hardly avoid / control witch can damage consumer’s satisfaction: Threats to consumer satisfaction As the stormies have small place to welcome its consumers, when people flock to the bar, almost 60% of customer have to stand out of the bar, on the road. Shortage of space brings 3 problems: • •

If it starts to rain, consumers may become very upset When people start to leave LKF, the Taxi doesn’t stop disturbing

Mark242 The Behaviour of Consumers at bars in Lan Kwai Fong

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consumers. It is very difficult to enter into the bar and reach the counter.

What solutions can the bar adopt to counter those negatives effects? • • •

offering big umbrellas when it rains Ask to the town council to let enter taxi into LKF only after midnight, when the flock of consumer is gone justifying with safety reasons. Hiring more waiters to allow consumer to order without having to enter into the bar.

Will the consumers come again? Does the price paid for the service meet his psychological price? People from different background have different psychological prices, young people compare to seven / eleven prices and think that the price is expensive and for the western businessman might compare with the bars in their country of origin, and in most of the cases, the price is very close, maybe a bit lower. What factors can push him to come / not come again? 1. Friends: if one of the customer’s friends doesn’t like the bar, he will ask for the whole group of friends to go to another place. How can the stormies encourage friends groups to come again: Special promotion offer: when a friend offers a drink to all his groups of friends he gets a free drink, or he can choose the next song. 2. Weariness: People might find very repetitive to go always to the same place with the same people and may want to discover new bars and see new parts. Stormies can avoid weariness by moving the furniture, by suggesting new drinks to try (the “new” drink of the night: kind of barman’s special innovation), by keeping attracting new consumers, to allow people to meet different people (If someone bring one friend for the first time, he get an extra cocktail for example). Inventing Special nights themes: it exist lady’s night on Thursday, they may can make a “Pod-cast night” (people voting the song they want to hear when ordering), or other themes.

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3. But we also have the opposite effect of weariness, meaning that when people get use to go there, they will want to be there even more, because they feel like at home. We can improve this by developing personal relationship with customers, if a waiter sees that a customer come very often, he might try to make him feel special. Meaning when he will come with his friends, his friends will notice that he is an important customer for this bar, and he will be more prone to bring friends and to motivate people to go to the stormies 4. If people have an excess of this lifestyle, going out, meeting new people each night, they might reject this behaviour, and feel that they are not building anything.

Does this person tell others about his/her experiences & influence their decisions? People are generally proud to say that they have an active social life. And going out, spending time in bars, meeting new people and having good time with friends is seen as socially healthy. If they have a good time in the bar, then customers when they will talk about their weekend, they will mention the bar as a good place to be. Also when they will be dating with friends, their friends will be grateful to discover a new good bar. But if they had a bad experience with this bar, they may convince their friends to go somewhere else when deciding witch bar they will spend their night.

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Conclusion Consumer's perspective During the working day our target forms the need to gather and have fun around a drink after work They want to have a special place where they can feel like in their home country The place must be well located for a more convenient return to home

Marketers's perspective Because of it reputation the Stormies is becomed the meeting point for our target after work They know that what ever the day they will come they won't be disapointed and could enjoy the moment The Stormies is well situated, close from the living place of

Atmosphere Our target just come from office and need a casual atmosphere w here he can relax - this place must be like home. Our target avoid stressful and noisy bar. Sitting/standing Our target like to sit in a bar and like having space (w hen the bar is n

Atmosphere create a w arm and personalized atmosphere w here people can be at ease (good temperature, no odor). The music play a great role and has to be chosen cautiously. Sitting/standing There should be a lot of sit and table and enough place to move eas

The day after : They enjoyed their night and will be willing to go back to this bar Theirs friends will remind them the good time they had in the bar

The bar meeted their expectations, and it is easier to go back to the same bar for them.It will also allows the consumer to take new people to this good place he knows very well and people will be thanksfull for it.