ABSTRACT

In recent years, the high-end market in the catering industry has been cooling down and tilting toward the popular low-priced catering market. Meanwhile, with the cost of raw materials and human resources going up, and as more and more well-known catering enterprises at home and abroad march into Sichuan, the ever-growing competition in Sichuan catering market has been squeezing the profit margin of such enterprises. In the era of New Media, the competition of catering enterprises has gone beyond the wrestling on dishes and service. To stand out from the fierce market competition, they have to keep up with the times and meet the ever-growing personalized needs of consumers. Therefore, developing a marketing strategy by means of New Media is vital for a catering enterprise.Based on such problems faced by catering enterprises with Sichuan regional specialty as catering brands at home and abroad marching into Sichuan for a grab of market share, rising cost, the conflict of regional dining habit and the current food consumption concept, this research explored the catering marketing strategies in the era of New Media. Based on literatures on New Media at home and abroad, the marketing strategies and relevant theories, this research analyzed the marketing strategy advantages and disadvantages of a catering enterprise in the era of New Media. Meanwhile, from the perspective of consumers, this research distributed questionnaires to study the habit of and preference to media use of consumers of different ages, education backgrounds and monthly disposable incomes, their attitudes toward New Media marketing, and the factors influencing their dining decisions. In the end, this research concluded on the data analysis of the survey, obtained the characteristics and personalized needs of New Media users and offered targeted recommendations for catering enterprises in Sichuan to develop New Media marketing strategies, thus to maximize the effect of New Media marketing.