Exploratory Study of Kopitiam Business

Exploratory Study of Kopitiam Business A new breed of kopitiam (a coffee shop in local Chinese dialects) has gained popularity in Malaysia during the past few years. In fact, there are no less than a hundred different brands of kopitiam which can be found everywhere in Malaysia with little or no differentiation. In such saturated market, lowering the prices has become common strategy to attract customers, consequently, kopitiam business has been caught up in price wars and competing under the shrinking profit margin. Thus, it leads the business with nothing but bloody red oceans. However, there are limited studies in business strategies in kopitiam businesses. Therefore, this paper aims to bridge the gap by discusses a conceptual strategy approach, particularly, Blue-ocean strategy (BOS) in kopitiam businesses. Keywords: Kopitiam, Differentiation, Red Oceans, Blue-ocean strategy. 1.0 Introduction A new breed of kopitiam (a coffee shop in local Chinese dialects) has gained popularity in Malaysia during the past few years. However, the literature review suggests limited research attempts have been made in kopitiams business strategies. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap and it presented in four parts. The first part begins by reviewing the history of kopitiam in Malaysia. Following this, the second section reviews the new breed of kopitiam business in Malaysia. Lastly, the last two parts discusses the conceptual approach, Blue-ocean strategy in kopitiam and its untapped market respectively. 2.0 The History of Kopitiam 2.1 The Migration In nineteenth and twentieth century, British Imperialism had brought in diverse of people, mainly from China, India and Malay Archipelago. According to Kaur (2004), the growing economic opportunities in the region such as mineral and agricultural expansion were the pull factors to Southeast Asia during that time. In the colonial era of Malaya (before independent), British had introduced the practice of segregating economic activity along with racial lines such as Chinese migrant workers to work in the tin mines, Indian migrant workers to work in the rubber plantations and Malay Archipelago to work in the agriculture fields (Arif Abubakar, 2005). 2.2 The Hainanese Factor In 1900s, the main Chinese dialects groups in Malaya are Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew and Hainanese. According to Lai (2010) among the Chinese dialect groups, Hainanese were the late comers and the minority of migrant group. Due to the scarcity of job during that time, the other dialect groups would take any job offered or opportunity available. They became rubber tappers, seamen, cooks and just name to it a few. Most of them worked for the Europeans. In late of 1930s, Hainanese, individually or partnership, offers their personal skills such as culinary, service, housekeeping, and management skills which they learned from European households. They started to set up new concept of kopitiam (meaning coffee shop in local Chinese dialects) and involved in food and beverage related industries like coffee processing and food catering during that time. The growth fastiqium period for Hainanese distinct kopitiam were in the late 1920s to 1950s. Hainanese coffee merchants and kopitiam operators had developed their special method to roast the coffee beans and brewed the coffee (Lai, 2010). Some of them have their secret/special recipes which served as the key attractions to retain customers. In 1960s, the success of the kopitiam business had led the newcomers from other dialect groups to venture into this business. Subsequently, competition became more intense. 2.3 The Evolutions of Kopitiam Conventional Kopitiam, the basic formula was an outlet and simple menus. They served local coffee, toasted bread with margarine and kaya (a type of jam made of coconuts and eggs), half-boiled eggs and some traditional pastries. Prices were relatively cheap with a cup of coffee and other food charged which everyone could afford. In the past, the kopitiam sole proprietor dressed his white sweatshirt and stripped pajama pants making coffee. The kopitiam was a place as social centre where men could indulge eating, meeting, drinking and chatting on anything that came to mind, light or seriously in what had become known as coffee shop talk (Lai, 2010). Normally, it would be located in strategic location of the main street, village or neighborhood. According to Lai (2010), as populations grew rapidly, some of the kopitiam expanded into modest-sized eating shops in the more strategic location nearer to the towns, village, neighborhood or others. Proprietors sell both drinks and foods or solely drinks and rented out stall space to other food operators. It was the place that customers enjoyed their breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their target customers were industrial personnel, laborers, and residents. This kind of kopitiam set up remains until today. In the late twentieth century, new breed of kopitiam chains which trade on both modernized and nostalgia approach, started to emerge. The outlets are designed with old posters feature, vintage antiques and furniture to evoke a 1960s atmosphere (Euromonitor International, 2010). In the past few years, the popularity of new breed of kopitiam has begun in Malaysia. This brand new kopitiam emphasize eating experiences by offering value-added services like free Wi-Fi access, air-conditional environment and offered innovative breakfast and lunch set-meals and more choices on the menu to fulfill every level of consumers (Euromonitor International, 2009). To remain competitive, aggressive marketing strategies and management systems are implemented. They innovate and improve their kitchens technology for preparing foods and beverages (Lai, 2010). As such, kopitiam has gained the favour of young consumers to hang out at these outlets. 3.0 An Overview of New Breed Kopitiam in Malaysia Local food beverages (FB) face some challenges which are beyond the issue of rising cost of raw materials and shortage of workers but the scene with intense competition among the food service operators. This was mainly due to the low entry barriers and switching costs of buyers/suppliers. According to Selamat et. al. (2003), the entire Malaysia food industries make up from the total of 172,252 units of food service entities which consist of food stalls/kiosk and restaurant. In the new concept of kopitiam alone, there are more than 100 brands of new concept kopitiam in the market today. Statistically, the percentage of units/outlets growth in both independent and chained kopitiam accounted for 9.1 percent and 16.1 percent in 2008 respectively (Euromonitor International, 2009). Generally, the new breed of kopitiam entering the market by integrating the old fashioned of traditional kopitiam in a more trendy, hygenic, and air-conditioned environment. No doubt that the movement of these kopitiam has successfully created a new wave of eating experiences in Malaysia. However, there is little or no differentiation against one another in terms of (1) product offerings (i.e., coffee, bread toast, and other local authentic foods) are nearly the same from one outlet to another regardless of the brand; (2) targeting the same group of consumers, for example, professionals, managers, executives, and business owners; (3) physical environment such as decoration was found to be the same among these outlets. Today, marketing tasks has become complicated and more challenging than ever. Businesses today are competing in fragmentation, saturation, and storm of novelty that exist every day in the market. In fact, when the industry become more intense, businesses will continuously increase their market share by identifying and creating niche market (Kotler Tiras De Bes, 2003); strive to retain and develop existing customers (Kim Mauborgne, 2005) which would result in finer segmentation. Thus, it ends-up creating too-small target market. Besides, the increase of commoditization of products and services leads consumer hardly to differentiate their product offerings. As a solution, reducing prices has become the common competitive strategy for kopitiam businesses as competition intensifies. According to Euromonitor International (2009) found that prices of offering items in cafes/bars (including kopitiam) will likely drop gradually. Thus, promotions such as value set breakfast and lunch with lower price can be easily found in these outlets. Commonly, we found that lowering the prices with the purpose to beat competitors, but, it is often not a wise strategy in business like kopitiam as every player can do the exactly same thing. Trout Rivkin (2000) illustrated that price is always the enemy of differentiation. Consequently, the above mentioned scenario will lead the business with nothing but a bloody red ocean. Red oceans stand for the industries that are around today. In the red ocean, the rules of the game are known as it had been around for ages. Thus, businesses tend to compete to get a bigger chunk of the pie. When this happens, the market space becomes smaller, resulting to a drain in profit and growth. As this prolongs, the stiff rivalry among the companies would turn to be a bloody red ocean (Kim Mauborgne, 2005). 4.0 Swimming towards Blue Oceans Kotler Tiras De Bes (2003) described the current market is not the same as compare to 1960s and 1970s. Typically, product is designed to fulfill consumer needs; however, consumer needs are hypersatisfied today. Kim and Mauborgne (2005) pointed that business strategies and management of the 20th century are becoming extinct as the business evolves in an industry that is changing to be a shade of red, the management has to be on its feet to think on how to make it ocean blue. Generally, blue oceans denote the new market space, new creation, and high probability for growth. Most of the blue oceans created within known markets but there are a few that are completely new industries rivalry among companies are not predominant in the blue ocean as there are no known rules to follow. Indeed, Kim Mauborgne (2005) describes the future of a company depends on how the management can create and use this new strategy. Besides, both authors indicate that 86 percent of launched business (improvement within an existing red-ocean market) which accounted 62 percent of total revenue and only 39 percent of total margins. On the other hand, the remaining of 14 percent launched businesses was in blue oceans (non-competing market space) which accounted to 38 percent of the total revenues and 61 percent of total profits. Apparently, the benefits of creating blue oceans are more promising. As more and more kopitiam will be trapped into red bloody oceans in this saturated market, hence, blue-ocean strategy is significant for the industry. Unfortunately, blue-ocean strategy is literally new to Malaysias businesses. Even though, many CEOs are aware of the existence of blue-ocean strategy but they have yet to fully understand and adopt the strategy to their businesses (as cited in Yap and Ang, 2007). Most recently, an interview session with Kotler on Getting savvy in newer media, narrated: They [Asian marketing professionals] need to improve their strategic capabilities with Blue Ocean thinking and Lateral Marketingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.Companies that employ Blue-ocean strategy use innovation to find uncontested blue oceans of opportunities that their competitors have yet to discover, while lateral marketing requires companies to look beyond narrow, vertical segmentation and be creative to create fresh ideas and new markets. In response to such market, Kim Mauborgne (2005) provides set of analytical tools and framework in creating blue oceans. For example, both authors urge businesses to take a reverse course from focusing on existing customers to focus on noncustomers. By doing this, businesses are able to exploits new market space that never existed before. Air Asia, for example, a successful Malaysia low-cost airline that had identified a Blue Ocean to unlock the unaddressed market space by focusing on non-customers (i.e., the masses that cannot afford the expensive flight tickets and government employees) instead of customers (i.e., corporate and customers who can afford to buy expensive tickets) to avoid head on competition with Malaysia Airline (MAS) and other regional airlines (Lau, 2007). 5.0 The Untapped Market Knowing the nature of ones market is significant to business success. As such, the changes of cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors cannot simply be ignored in the fast-changing market. Friedman (2008) pinpoints that the world is heading to a new era called Energy-Climate Era whereas the world is currently facing three pitfalls namely, global warming, flattening, and crowding that affect all of us today. Hence, not surprisingly that sustainability has become a buzzword and being discussed by people from all walks of life. Even though, the sustainable practices are still hotly debated by both scholars and practitioners, but, this is a fundamental shift in how companies should function in this era. In fact, the contemporary environmental issue provides businesses the greatest prospect for return on investment and growth that never existed before (Friedman, 2008). However, going green is far more complicated than what we think. Numerous studies found that the main force for businesses being sustainable was mainly driven by legislation, marketing, and values (Gummerson, 1994). Typically, Malaysia is one of them from launching No-Plastic Day to stem duty exemption for green buildings and New Economic Model (NEM) that emphasize on economic growth and environment. No doubt, sustainable practices are still new to Malaysia, but, these new policies are important as a head start for Malaysia. As a result, several industries such as telecommunications, plantation, and real estate are taking different steps to balance between their business growth and sustainability. Unfortunately, sustainable practices with the initiatives to reduce food waste, water consumption, and energy consumption are literally new to the local FB industry. Revell Blackburn (2005) found that sustainability practices are considered as low priority because restaurateurs foresee their impact towards environment as insignificant. Besides, numerous studies found that low awareness of the environmental impact as one of the barriers to change (Hillary, 1995; Holland Gibbon 1997; Rutherfoorrd et. al. 2000). According to Consumer Association of Penang (2009), Malaysia restaurants discards more than 10 tons of left-over food daily with a total 490 tons carbon dioxide produced annually per restaurant. Even so, many restaurateurs have the attitude of wait and see on the environmental issues because they foresee the impact has yet to affect their business. Parsa et. al. (2005) denotes that inability to understand, anticipates, and adapt to the current market trend often lead to restaurant failures. As environmentally sustainable practices are important to todays consumers, hence, local FB industry such as kopitiam should take advantage of the opportunities by creating a win-win situation between the growth of business and sustainability of environment. Friedman (2008) indicates that, green is going from boutique to better, from a choice to a necessity, from a fad to strategy to win, from insoluble problem to great opportunity. Beside, Jogaratnam et. al. (1999) urges that restaurateurs should incorporate their business by adapting to the environmental changes and find ways to link with, respond to, integrate with, or exploit environmental opportunities. In summary, there is totally an untapped market from conventional kopitiam to sustainable or green kopitiam that emphasize on both growth and sustainability. 6.0 Conclusion There is a paradigm shift from traditional kopitiam to new concept kopitiam. The shifting has gained popularity among young generation, thus, more and more entrepreneurs venture into the business. Consequently, the business become intense and eventually turns the kopitiam business into red oceans. As such, businesses should take advantage of the blue open sea. Make itself impossible to be the target, isolate from possible followers at the same time lead them far away. The goal is to make the ocean theirs and prevent other competitors from invading it. Even so, in the long run there may be competitors that follow the same strategies making the pristine blue ocean red. The company would have to distance itself from the followers by changing their game plan to create another blue ocean.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Essays -- Then There Were

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie And Then There Were None, is an intriguing murder mystery novel that follows the lines of a poem called "Ten Little Indians". The story is intricately written to keep the reader in absolute suspense from the beginning to end. The novel involves eight people being mysteriously invited to spend a summer holiday on "Indian Island". Among the eight are a judge (Justice John Wargrave), doctor (Edward James Armstrong), military general (General John Macarthur), former inspector/current private detective (William Blore), mercenary (Phillip Lombard), young rich athlete (Tony Marston), religious woman (Emily Brent), and a schoolteacher (Vera Claythorne). Additionally, a married couple consisting of a butler (Thomas Rogers) and a maid (Ethel Rogers) are both already present on the island. With the exception of the Rogers', only the host, who is expected to arrive the next day, is absent. As the guests begin talking together, they discover that all of them were invited by a Mr. U.N. Owen. Wargrave surmises that their host's name is fictitious since it so closely resembles the word "unknown." The other guests agree, and tension begins to build. Another mystery is the fact that each of the guests has found a po em titled "Ten Little Indians" in each of their rooms, and mysteriously enough, it appears that there are ten small Indian statuettes arranged at the dinner table. It doesn't take long for each of the guests to realize that the poem and statuettes are representative for each of them. With passing of the first night's dinner, the group hears a mysterious voice condemning each one of them to a specific murder. A phonograph i... ...led, and even made comments to other guests that he was ready to die. In an absolute panic, Vera ends up killing Blore and then, not being able to deal with what is happening, she commits suicide. The last topic of discussion I found was the one pertaining to death. Death occurs continuously throughout the novel. After the guests realize that the other guests are not having mere accidents or killing themselves, they realize they are all going to die. With the exception of Wargrave, all of the island's guests die. Rather, they are all murdered. This was an exceptional novel, masterfully written to propel the reader into feeling the very same fears, doubts and suspicions as the characters. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that Wargrave is never found, nor is there a mention as to why his body is never found.

Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork ‘Starry Night’ Essay

Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork ‘starry night’ is a classic example of the post impressionism movement. Post-impressionist were artist who rebelled against the limitations of impressionism. They developed person styles that focus on emotional, structural, symbolic and spiritual elements they felt were missing from impressionism. ‘Starry Night’ was created in 1889, earlier that year Van Gogh decided to enter the asylum at Saint-Rà ©my. ‘Starry night’ was inspired by the view from his window in the asylum. The painting was done on canvas with oil paints. The height of the paint 73.70cm & the height being 92.10cm. Van Gogh’s night sky is brimming with energy and it contrasts with the silent village below. The town he depicts in Starry Night is somewhat from his imagination. Though parts of it related to the view of the village, such as the church. Van Gogh includes a cypress tree in the left foreground which gives off an eerie mood. The colours are deep and rich the lines are spiral and curved, the painting is top heavy and the stroke thick and rugged. The sky is organic, it spirals and the colours are deep and rich. The town below is barely noticeable in comparison to the sky which draws all your attention. The Cyprus is gloomy and coarse. It’s spikiness and darkness makes a negative space. â€Å"Throughout his career, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) attempted the paradoxical task of representing night by light. His procedure followed the trend set by the Impressionists of â€Å"translating† visual light effects with various color combinations. At the same time, this concern was grafted onto Van Gogh’s desire to interweave the visual and the metaphorical in order to produce fresh and deeply original works of art.† –MoMa (museum of modern art.) Van Gogh briefly yet fulsomely explores his special relationship with the darkness. His colours provide and tendency but also an urgency. The clashing of all the colours is exaggerated and visually dramatic. The dominance of the yellow in contrast to the blues; all of the colours complement each other. There are rich blues that sink into greens then into yellows. It looks chaotic, but it’s really very orderly. The landscape is bright, but used to capture the night time. We can tell by the yellow lights in the windows–little splashes of light that bring a vast balance to the bright stars in the sky. This painting is all about balance and harmony. The fact that Van Gogh had painted this from his mental image may have contributed to this piece having such a strong sense of mental dislocation and emotional intensity. One almost feels as if he was hardly  able to contain his feelings and that all his angst and passion seem to just splatter all over the canvas. That it was actually the emotions that were moving the brush rather than his hand. Vincent creat es a perfect balance with line, the contrast between the spiralled night sky and the rough parallel curved Cyprus creates a lovely abstract image. The space and perspective created using line to emphasize the focal points of the painting. The large cypress tree in the foreground should dominate the painting, but we’re drawn to the other elements–the moon, the stars, and the swirling sky because of the definition in their lines. It establishes perspective. It’s definitely in the foreground. The village is in the middle ground, the mountains and sky are background. It’s an amazingly calculated setting. The wavy, turbulent night sky almost mimics the sweeping hillside; makes for a very spiritual feel that carries through the painting. Compared to the human side of the painting (the town) which is very geometric and structural. Which makes you wonder, which part is chaos and which part is formulated? I feel that the town relates to Van Gogh’s life. It’s pretty quiet, everyone’s lights are out while they’re asleep totally unaware of the intense night sky that’s full of life, it makes me feel like he was trying to inform viewers of the ignorance of individuals. I think the village accurately represents a world, all of the people so unaware of raging passions that are going on around them. However to understand starry night to full extent, we must look at the big picture. Vincent Van Gogh was one of the great postimpressionist artists. Postimpressionism was basically a rebellion against impressionism, which believed that art should reflect reality with natural colour and lighting. Postimpressionists believed that art is not meant to imitate form, but to create form. These artists took some inspiration in the world and then painted their world according to their own perceptions. As Van Gogh himself said, â€Å"We may succeed in creating a more exciting and comforting nature than we can discern with a single glimpse of reality.† They had no fixed style – their personal styles reflect on personalities, emotions and soul. Many critics say his bush strokes, odd shapes and painting style were ‘loony’. I don’t think so, tormented and troubled? Maybe yes. But crazy? No! I think Van Gogh executed this painting beautifully, and he knew exactly what he was doing. My interpretation of this artwork is probably different to many, as every  individual has a different one. Everybody seems to be using different codes to decipher this piece. Truth being, no one can really know what Van Gogh’s own interpretations of ‘Starry Night’. For me, I’ve always thought Van Gogh was this tragic, anger-fuelled artist, who wished to do the best for humanity he was capable of. This painting spoke to me of belief and love of gods wonderful creations yet also the unmistakeable feeling of loneliness as if no one really saw things like he did.

Starbucks Brand Positioning Free Essay Example, 2000 words

Along with this, the strategy of repositioning the brand is also evaluated along with existing marketing issues and challenges faced by the company and the services marketing mix of the company. The report also suggests the possible adaption or changes in the service marketing mix which should be incorporated into the company in order to reposition the brand in effective and efficient manner. Branding facilitates the organizations in the process of attracting and retaining more customers and hence making more revenues and sales. In this new era of globalization and technological advancement, it is important for every organization to work on building relationships with the customers and for this there is the need for brand management and brand strategies. As a result, it has become important for the organizations to include brand management and relationship marketing in the overall integrated marketing communication strategy (Lovelock Wirtz, 2011). It is not easy for any company to build big brand names and brand images. This requires proper and well-thought brand strategies and positioning, same is the case with the Starbucks. The founders and management of the company have been focusing on promoting the Starbucks. We will write a custom essay sample on Starbucks: Brand Positioning or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page