Street Food HKAn informative system on Hong Kong’s street food culture.

Pansy Hui ∙ Business Model ∙ Professional Practice

Table of Contents

3 Introduction

Marketing Plan

4 Customer Segments5 Statistical Information6 Customer Relationships7-8 Channels & Promotional Tools9-10 Strategies for Success

Operational Plan

11 Value Proposition12-13 Lifecycle

Personnel Plan

14 Key Resources15 Partner Network

Fiscal Plan

16-17 Revenue Streams18 Cost Structure

19 Competitive Analysis

Street food has become a unique representation of Hong Kong’s well-known street culture. It is local and authentic; it is a distinctive aspect reflecting Hong Kong’s past while following current culture. In addition, being under British rule from the 50’s to the 90’s explains how Western culture is embedded into its history and continues to influence its society today, hence Hong Kong’s iconic East-Meets-West culture. Efforts have been made to preserve old Hong Kong traditions and culture as seen in their festive celebrations and architecture; yet Hong Kong is constantly under rapid modernization and Western influence.

This business model is based on the promotion and preservation of a culture, namely street food culture, by educating the public about street food culture, its impact towards the overall culture of a city, and encouraging them to ex-perience it by guiding them through the place they are traveling to. I hope to provide such travel guidance and information to tourists through their mobile devices, which is so widely used today to communicate and absorb information efficiently, yet there are no other services offering this knowledge through the medium of a mobile device.

My design solution is to preserve the traditional aspect of Hong Kong street food through educating the general public about it, recommending tourists to existing examples of both traditional and current street food, and to potentially prolong the life of this disappearing street food culture.

Introduction 3

MARKETING PLAN ∙ Customer Segments

This design system will be valuable guides for tourists, in general, who are traveling to Hong Kong. The system is designed to suit three types of customer segments, each with their distinct characteristics: the First Timers, the Travel Enthusiasts, and the Foodies. These customers are grouped into categories in terms of different needs, different relationships to be made with them, differ-ent ways of reaching them, and range of profitability.

The First TimersThis segment describes those who are or will be visiting Hong Kong for their first time. They may have heard of Hong Kong from those who have went or seen Hong Kong in the television, but they have not experienced Hong Kong; therefore, they are considered to be foreign to Hong Kong culture. This segment will lightly brush across Hong Kong’s most common tourist attractions just to get a “sense” of Hong Kong, Upon their first visit to Hong Kong, they may have mixed emotions ranging from nervousness to excitement. They may be wary towards trying new things and could be in a state of culture shock; however, with clear guidance and suggestions from trustworthy sources, they may step out of their safety zone.

The Travel EnthusiastsGenerally having more spare time travel often (at least three times per year), this segment is obviously more experienced and knowledgeable in traveling than the previously mentioned customer segment. This group is more daring and adventurous - they wish to experience local food and culture and they might have received guidance from local peers.

The FoodiesThis segment is really knowledgeable when it comes to any topic re-garding food. They already have background knowledge as to what is “street food” and may have already experienced street food from other cities. This design solution can offer them a more in-depth detail of Hong Kong street food that is distinctive from other cities’.

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MARKETING PLAN ∙ Statistical Information

According to a survey conducted by the company that is well-known for their vacation planning services, TripAdvisor, 60% of mobile phone users out of a sample size of 1000 mobile users have downloaded and used a travel mobile ap-plication.

In addition to making calls and sending SMS messages, these respondents have also used their mobile devices in the following ways when traveling:

Taking and sharing photos – 65%Browsing the web – 54%Navigation – 52%Reading the news – 48%Playing games – 38%

To be more detailed, these respondents would typically utilize their travel mobile applications in the following ways:

Researching restaurants – 52%Researching destinations – 46%Reading reviews – 45%Booked or researched hotels – 42%Booked or researched flights – 34%

With these statistics in mind, my design system would reach a broad range of customer segments - those who would use their travel mobile applications for navigation (location tracking), taking and sharing photos, researching restaurants, researching destinations, reading and leaving reviews, and sharing through social media. It does not matter whether the user would be a First Timer or a Foodie, because my design system will incorporate services that would cater to both ends of this user spectrum.

Other statistics that surfaced from the survey includes:

Left a review of a hotel, restaurant, attraction – 23%Status updates to social networks – 38%Checked flight status – 51%

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MARKETING PLAN ∙ Customer Relationships

We develop and maintain different types of customer relationships for each segment in our business model.

A more personal relationship is made towards the Travel Enthusiasts and the Foodies because of the more in-depth information provided by them. They have prior experience in traveling to Asia and have background knowledge towards street food, so the information presented to them are in a way less restrictive.

On the other hand, information offered to the First Timers would be more con-servative because we do not want to overwhelm them, as they would already be. We would give them a choice to immerse into the brief background and history of street food culture before they choose to explore street food on their own.

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MARKETING PLAN ∙ Channels & Promotional Tools

The channels through which we offer our value propositions to each customer segment would be through areas of similar topics or interests such as in travel, technology, and food. Value propositions can be advertised through those three different areas as well. Success for each channel could be measured by the sta-tistical information presented earlier in the report.

Channel One - Travel The most obvious channel in which our value propositions could be offered is in the travel sector. Some major marketing could be imple-mented in areas where there would be large amounts of tourist traffic such as in airports and hotels, and where tourist information would be typically offered.

It would also be ideal if this service could be marketed through the of-ficial Hong Kong Board of Tourism website so then the service would in a sense be branded as an official Hong Kong product and thus could increase the service’s credibility. Not limited to websites, other market-ing mediums could include print advertisements and screen media ad-vertisements, all being under the brand of Hong Kong Tourism Board of course.

Exploring the wide range of possibilities under the channel of tourism, we can also reach our customers through travel magazines, websites, and independant blogs. There could be joint ventures with local travel publications in Hong Kong so that this service can serve as an exten-sion to the Western market. Blogs can also be an effective mode of marketing because there is a sense of honesty and authenticity in terms of the materials being communicated and the tone in which the author speaks in.

Channel Two - TechnologyAs with all new technology, it generates news and curiosity. Due to this design solution being the first of its kind in the market that implements AR (Augmenred Reality) technology, it is likely that it will generate news in technology websites and blogs. Use of this new-age technology could generate curiosity in people to try it out but on top of that, good programming would make these people want to continue using it.

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Channel Three - FoodFood would be another big channel where we could offer our value propositions, next to travel. Other than food websites and blogs, street food vendors can, too, be a part of this channel by recommending this service when their vendor is mentioned or recommended to tourists in the service. Street food vendors could then be a potential vehicle to direct traffic.

In addition to these three channels, we cannot forget about the power of social media as a marketing tool, as a medium to communicate to a large groupe of audience, and as a fast and efficient way to reach these groups with low cost. The use of social media in the service as an extension towards the outside of the mobile device realm and to increase interactivity makes social media one of the major channels as well.

MARKETING PLAN ∙ Channels & Promotional Tools (continued) 8

MARKETING PLAN ∙ Strategies for Success

A comparative analysis on some of the existing mobile applications for tracking street food trucks includes:

Food Truck FiestaThis app tracks trucks on a live map using Twitter feeds. The Twitter feed for each truck is revealed when the user clicks on the truck.

Eat St.On top of being able to track trucks on a map, the relationship between the truck owners and their customers is drawn closer because food truck owners to update their own locations, menus, hours of operation, and customize their “restaurant” profiles through the Eat St. database.

Roaming HungerThis app uses tweets and calendars to keep track of street food trucks on a map. It also categorizes the street food into three categories: savory, sweet, and vegetarian. Users can also plan ahead by searching only for trucks that are open.

Road Stoves GPSUsing GPS, this app is the most accurate in terms of tracking street food trucks around town; however, it is the most sparse in terms of the variet- ies of food trucks because not every truck is GPS-enabled. It is easy to access Twitter feeds and menus of other trucks, but it does not put them on the map.

Trux Map LiteThis app locates trucks near the user that are open for business. It also utilizes Twitter feeds to track and plot locations. Users can request new trucks to be added into the app.

It is important to keep in mind that these are North American mobile applica-tions and that right now, there are no street food mobile applications designed and developed to introduce Hong Kong’s street food. This comparative analy-sis is a research into the content, technology, and interactivity that is offered in today’s mobile applications under this category.

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MARKETING PLAN ∙ Strategies for Success (continued)

Research into AR technology being implemented into mobile applications would contribute to another point of success. Currently, Hong Kong Tour-ism Board’s mobile applications that recommend various sightseeing places in Hong Kong has incorporated AR technology to further ease navigation for their users and to increase interactivity. These three mobile applications re-leased under Hong Kong Tourism Board include:

Discover HK · ARUsing AR (Augmented Reality) technology, it enables the phone’s camera to scan its surroundings, recognize it, and will provide information on where and what the user is looking at. On top of this, the content is available offline so that tourists can view the app’s contents without a data plan and they do not have to look for Wi-Fi services.

Discover HK · City WalksThis app also uses AR technology to help tourists find places to visit. There are four categories, or “themed walks”: Arhitecture,Time, Living Culture, and City Life.

Discover HK · 720˚Unique from the above mentioned two apps, this app offers virtual tours of the several key attractions in Hong Kong.Videos are embedded into the app for a multimedia approach.

One of the advantages of my design service is that in terms of design and layout, it is less cluttered and it preserves the navigation and buttons of the original iPhone user interface. That way, tourists do not have to adapt to the custom layout of the interface while they are standing in the middle of the busy street trying to navigate their way around. Also, this service is designed with an assumption that tourists will not have access to mobile data plans; therefore, the content is available offline so greater audience could be reached.

Before officially launching this service, we will do our best to catch any errors or make any improvements, ensuring that the launch will be as smooth as pos-sible. The design of the application will be presented to the developer using a prototyping program, so that the designer’s intent can be effectively com-municated to the developer. Before the official launch of the service, we will conduct another test so that we can receive critical feedback and make further improvements. We aim to catch as many errors and make as many improve-ments as possible before its launch.

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OPERATIONAL PLAN ∙ Value Proposition

This service offers the market an unparalleled informative system on Hong Kong’s street food culture. There are currently no other services like this that offers the same package of information, in a medium that satisfies the three customer segments. We are aiming to develop an interactive system that guides and educates users, and would make the service, which is the mobile applica-tion, a better alternative to its rather static ebook counterpart.

Specific bundle of information offered to our customer segments could be in the form or product of an iPhone application in which people could purchase off iTunes. Information on Hong Kong’s street food would then be available for tourists to view on their mobile devices when they are on the go and want-ing to experience Hong Kong’s street food culture. Ideally, the material is avail-able offline, assuming that tourists will not have data plan. That will, in turn, increase the amount of users for the app. Additionally, the material would be presented in hierarchy to cater all three customer segments ranging from first time travelers to the foodies. It will include a history into Hong Kong’s street food culture and a brief guide to the few common street foods for tourists who would be traveling to Hong Kong for their first time. A map of the different street food vendors as well as customer reviews accompanying these vendors will be available for the more adventurous and experienced tourists. Lastly, this service will incorporate AR technology to guide the app users towards these vendors, regardless of their prior travel knowledge.

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OPERATIONAL PLAN ∙ Lifecycle

Success of the operational plan could be measured by the service life cycle. We want to know what will happen when users finish using the service and no lon-ger need the guidance so that we know how to keep these customers returning.

Michael Griffith, Creative Director at Bottle Rocket, writes that “the average user doesn’t open a mobile app more than twenty times, and people use only one third of the apps they download beyond thirty days.” To tackle this, a user-centered design approach is needed to ensure that users’ desires are always at the forefront.

Stage 1. The App Store ExperiencePurchasing an app is very different from purchasing any other prod-ucts. People cannot try out an app before purchasing it so it is impor-tant to design the experience for potential customers in the app store as well. For this, the screenshots of my mobile application will be shown in the sequence as if it is a user scenario.

Stage 2. The First-Open ExperienceWhen the user first opens the app, it is the first impression that counts and will ultimately determine whether the user would open the app again. The app needs to have features that stand out from other com-peting apps. Street Food HK stands out from other street food apps in a way that it uses a new form of location tracking using AR technology. Also, the design is clean and information is brief and easy to digest.

Stage 3. Attempting Simple TasksBy this third stage, it is assumed that the users have already opened the app and they are making their return because they want to achieve a task with the app. Users should be able to interact with the app almost mindlessly, without thinking, and embed it seamlessly into their life. A user task flow was brainstormed during the creation of this service to ensure that the app is user-friendly and that scrolling between each task should not require any second-thinking or hesitation.

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Stage 4. Attempting Complex TasksAfter being able to perform simple tasks, users would then look into performing more complex, secondary tasks to see how far the app’s capabilities would stretch. This may determine whether or not the user will continue updating the app and keep it in their phone. I would provide occasional updates to my mobile application so that users can experience its new and/or improved aspects.

Stage 5. Updating the AppIf users have reached this stage, this means they are satisfied with the mobile application; however, the lifecycle continues another cycle once they have updated it. There needs to be an indispensable element provided in the app in which users could use and incorporate into their daily lives. What could keep them using my app is that it acts like a jour-nal - on top of navigation, users can also read and share reviews. They can share photos that they have taken of street food and most impor-tantly, potential tourists to Hong Kong can glean from these informa-ton and contribute to this new life cycle as well.

OPERATIONAL PLAN ∙ Lifecycle (continued) 13

PERSONNEL PLAN ∙ Key Resources

In this section of the report, I have identified key tangible and/or intangible resources.

The key resources we need to make our business model function are generally traffic from people, programmers who are familiar with AR technology, and locals who can provide reliable information on street food.

Traffic from people is essential because part of this service is operated, howev-er not dependant, on user-generated content. We also need programmers who are familiar with AR technology to incorporate this new-age technology into this service as well as to plant these check points on the streets so users can essentially “check in” to these places and instantly know where they are. These markers will also indicate any nearby street food vendors.

Additionally, tips and reviews on these street food can be generated by local people as well who wants to share their local experience of Hong Kong for tourists.

If a collaboration can be made with the Hong Kong Tourism Board, it will indeed provide many resources for this app as well as content.

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PERSONNEL PLAN ∙ Partner Network

There would be partners and/or suppliers that I could work with to imple-ment this business model, to increase exposure of this service, and to enhance sustainability of this service. Ideally, I would like to form a partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board. If this service could be branded as an official Hong Kong product, it would thus increase the service’s credibility. In addition, the channels through which we offer our value propositions to each customer seg-ment, as well as costs to develop this mobile application, could then be funded by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

I would also like to form a partnership with an experienced developer, who would like to start their own creative portfolio and would like to showcase their ability to collaborate with an artist or a designer

To increase the exposure of this service, collaborations with social media plat-forms and other mobile applications would direct traffic to this service. Street Food HK allows users to share their app experience with Facebook, Tumblr, etc., which makes social media one of the many channels that would direct custom-ers to this service. I can also collaborate with larger travel publications so that this app could act as an extension of their service.

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FISCAL PLAN ∙ Revenue Streams

It is important to identify which types of revenue streams I can earn from each of the customer segments and value propositions, how this mobile application can be sustainable, and how to generate revenue while providing quality and free service to users.

Approach 1: In-app advertising One common way to generate revenue for free mobile applications is to do in-app advertising. This is separated into 3 types: 3rd part managed, direct, and self-promotion.

In 3rd part managed in-app advertising, advertising services like AdMob will generate advertisers directly; however, you would receive little to no control on the ads shown in the mobile application.

Direct in-app advertising allows app-makers to have more control on the ads shown in the mobile application. In 3rd part managed in-app adver- tising, AdMob would look for advertisers so that you don’t have to spend time finding advertisers whereas in direct advertising, they would have to find advertisers.

Self-promotion refers to promoting the free mobile application in other mobile applications made by the same person.

The advantage with developing a free mobile application is people would most likely download the free application, because afterall, it’s free. With in-app advertisements though, users need to keep using it in order to generate revenue.

Approach 2: Going “Freemium” Following the freemium business model, Street Food HK would be offered as a free mobile application; however, for users who want to experience premium services such as augmented reality and ads-free, they would have to pay for the premium version of the application.

The advantage with going freemium would be that the revenue stream could come from the free version, where the customer segment do not like to spend money. The down side would be making sure the concept is sustainable and offers value so that people would buy the full version. All in all, I would choose to go freemium just so customers get to experience the app before they buy it.

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FISCAL PLAN ∙ Revenue Streams (continued)

Good mobile applications do not have to be paid; when mobile applications are offered for free, it does not mean it cannot make money. According to Gartner, in December 2010 alone, the top 300 free mobile applications generated over 3 million downloads, which is 10 times more than paid mobile applications. Many successful mobile applications are free to download in the mobile applications market. In fact, more than 80% of all mobile applications in the market are of-fered for free.

How would I this service be a sustainable one since it pertains to providing goodness and education to society? I would engage the users with occasional updates that would improve their app experience. Enabling sharing across social platforms is one way to promote the app.

‘When you buy some desktop software you need to look around for your credit card, fill up at least 2 or 3 forms, here you just need your iTunes password. It’s that easy. People spend tons of money in apps and they don’t even realize it.”The advantage of this app system is that it is a very efficient system - I do not need to deal with anyone other than Apple. The downfall of this system would be that once the customer purchases the application, I would not be able to make anymore money from the user after.

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FISCAL PLAN ∙ Cost Structure

There are 3 cost structures for mobile application development:

Paying a contractor hourlyDevelopers in the United States usually charge $50 - $250 per hour to do con-tract iOS development. But of course, the cost depends on the experience and how famous the developer is.

Flat bid rateThere are small-scaled development companies that focus on just developing mobile applications. A simple application, one with basic functions, could cost from $3000 to $8000. Based on a poll conducted by TechCrunch on the average development cost of 124 developers, the average flat bid rate to develop one application would be $6453. Development costs are surely pricey and consider-ing how much users would pay for an app, or how much is earned from in-app advertisements, the money earned could just be enough to pay off develop-ment costs. For instance, LOLerApps paid about $5000 to develop their app called Baby Maker and it made enough money to cover development costs after 50 days, excluding advertising and marketing costs. More complex applications could cost $50, 000 - $150, 000 to develop.

OutsourcingA cost effective way is to outsource IPhone app development to India, Russia, Ukraine, or China, where they would charge as low as $15 per hour. However, there could be certain risks such as issues with copyright. Outsource at your own risk!

As mentioned previously, ideally, I would like to find a developer who wants to collaborate with a designer or an artist so that they can add creative work into their resume and/or portfolio. My secondary choice would be the flat bid rate - the functions in the mobile application would not be complicated to achieve but the designs need to be retained. Time needs to be spent placing all the design elements into their respectful places; I would not want to pay someone hourly to do that.

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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

According to Smashing Magazine, there are more than 140, 000 mobile applica-tions in iTune’s App Store. The app business is really competitive. Big travel publication companies and their move towards digitalizing their content would definitely be one of the major competitors. They have more money, more connections, and hence, more resources to create their mobile application and supply their channels with ease. Making sure that I’m the first to provide the service I am offering is key to factoring out competition. Based on research I have done for my service, there are very few mobile apps in the app business that applies augmented reality technology into the category of travel. To be specific, there are no mobile apps like this one out of all street food apps in the app business.

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WORKS CITED

Fuld, Hillel. “Best Practices for Maximizing Mobile App Revenue — Tech News and Analy sis.” GigaOM. 6 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://gigaom.com/2011/02/06/ best-practices-for-maximizing-mobile-app-revenue/>.

Griffith, Michael. “The Lifecycle of a Mobile App, a User’s Perspective :: UXmatters.” UXmatters :: Insights and Inspiration for the User Experience Community. 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/10/the- lifecycle-of-a-mobile-app-a-users-perspective.php>.

“TripAdvisor Survey Reveals That Travelers Find Mobile Devices Make Good Travel Com- panions.” Reviews of Hotels, Flights and Vacation Rentals - TripAdvisor. 25 May 2011. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.tripadvisor.com/PressCenter-i4720-c1- Press_Releases.html>.