Economics report

SCHOOL OF
ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
REPORT TITLE: A Comparative Analysis of 2 Businesses of Similar
Industry in Different Geographical Locations
GROUP MEMBERS: LOH MUN TONG (0323680)
TAN JIA SAN (0322406)
ADELE LU KHAI SYN (0323151)
CALVIN WONG PING KET (0322481)
KIEW CHEE YUAN (0323297)
PRINCIPLE OF ECONOMICS (ECN 30205)
LECTURER: MS. TAY SHIR MEN
SUMMISION & PRESENTATION DATE: 19 JANUARY 2016
TABLE OF CONTENT
LOH MUN TONG (0323680) l TAN JIA SAN (0322406) l ADELE LU KHAI SYN (0323151) l CALVIN
WONG PING KET (0322481) l KIEW CHEE YUAN (0323297)
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TOPIC PAGE
KEY SUMMARY 3
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESSES 4 - 5
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE 6 - 17
BUSINESSES’ COMPETITIVE TRAITS
RECOMMENDATION 18
APPENDICES 19 - 42
REFERENCE 43
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Key Summary
To deepen our understanding towards our local dessert house
businesses, as a team we researched and interviewed 2 businesses of similar
industry in different geographical locations.
Sweet Hug house has been operating for almost 3 years. The founders of
this dessert house are a pair of loving couple, Mr and Mrs Ng. It is a renowned
shop lot in the state of Perak. It has also been the favourites of many families
for a place of good food throughout the area.
On the other hand, Haraju Cube was founded by two ambitious young
adult a year ago. It is a brightly-lit renowned cafe in Petaling Jaya, located at
one of the shop lots in Empire Damansara. This unique cafe serves one of the
best honey toasts in town based on the Japanese Shibuya-style honey toast.
Different environments and other external factors lead to different
business outcomes when business such as these two firms are compared and
which leads to a series of analytical research that we, as a team had done.
Brief Description of Haraju Cube
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Haraju Cube, listed as the best dessert shop in Klang Valley, gained their
popularity from their unique taste of Japanese honey toast. After Shibuya-
style Japanese honey toast has generated long queues in Tokyo, Taiwan and
Thailand, Haraju Cube founders Daichi Fukuzato and Kent Ong decided that
it is high time to introduce this Japanese treat to Malaysian. Nowadays, any
Food and Beverage will think of a cool different name to make it on the
market to attract customers. Since the founders are Japanese, they decided
to use a Japanese name. “Haraju” came from “Harajuku” which is a location
in Japan where the young and teenagers dress in their own fashions they
invent themselves, or cosplay outfit. While honey toast is in cube size, so
they named their shop as “Haraju Cube”. It is located at 103 Level 1, Empire
Damansara, Damansara Perdana, Jalan PJU 8/8, 47820 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor , Malaysia. The brightly-lit café has cheerful yellow and white walls,
huge windows and minimalist furnishings. Haraju Cube has run their
business for almost one year, it is still fresh, and therefore they do not have
any branches. They currently have 12 employees helping to run their
business. The main product of Haraju Cube is Caramel Honey toast because
teenagers nowadays like to eat sweet things. Caramel Honey toast is a huge
and thick toast, laced with whipped cream, crowned with generous scoop of
ice cream. Cutting through the edge of the toast to reveal 8 pieces cubed
toast which is actually the “filling” of the hollowed square toast. As we know
that Haraju Cube is a famous dessert shop which attracts many teenagers
and families. Their estimated customers in one day exceeds 150 customers,
during weekends, many customers have to queue up to visit the shop
because they have limited seats and it is crowded. The business started
during December, 2014. The founders, Kent and Daichi were learning pastry
in Japan before they start the business. They decided to start this business
because they have a background of culinary and they want to try their best
to show people their passion on desserts. Furthermore, they also know that
teenagers nowadays have an obsession with desserts. The founders
mentioned that they still want to focus on their first shop and improve so
they do not plan to open any branches at this moment.
Brief Description of Sweet Hug House
The business that we have decided to interview is a dessert café that is
located at Kampar named Sweet Hug House. The Sweet Hug House is currently
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located at 2236, Jalan Batu Sinar, Taman Bandar Baru 31900 Kampar, Perak.
This business started since 18th
November 2012. This business is founded by a
pair of couple, Mr. Ng Kam Wai and his wife, Mrs. Ng. Before Mr. Ng found this
business, he was working in the field of hotel management in overseas and
local. In Malaysia, he worked at Genting Highland Hotel for three years. In
oversea, he worked at a six-star hotel, Star World Hotel for around ten years
which located at Macau. Mr. Ng and Mrs. Ng decided to move back to Kampar
and operate a dessert shop because of their kids’ education and to earn for a
living.
Their shop signature dessert are the cheesecakes, chocolate lava, and
fondue. In order to earn more profit for the business, they also sell main
course and beverages. Their signature main course included honey chicken
chop and black pepper lamb chop while the signature beverages are coffee.
Mr. Ng stated that 50% of their customers are local families, 30% of are
students who came to Kampar for further studies at UTAR, and 20% of them
are mostly Malays and Indians. The number of customer will change
throughout the year. Mr. Ng estimated that they will have average of 100
customer per month if the month is not festive season. For the peak season
month, they estimated to have average of 200 customers. Other than that, Mr.
Ng hired a total of five full-timer which one is supervisor and the rest are
waitress.
Mr. Ng spent a total of RM 100,000 as business’s capital to start up the
business. The business has an annual revenue of roughly RM100, 000 per year.
Mr Ng said that he still has no further planning to open branch yet.
The business will change their homemade recipes every two to three
months in order to adapt customers’ needs and attract more customers. The
business future goals are to improve their business and open one more branch
at another area.
Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’
Competitive Traits
Haraju Cube
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Haraju Cube is located in Empire Damansara which is the heart of Damansara
Perdana in Petaling Jaya. It is situated in a prime location in Petaling Jaya and
can be accessible easily from different directions through many major
highways It is just minutes away from the prestigious and affluent districts
such as Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Bandar Utama and Mutiara Damansara, Empire
Damansara’s Heritage Lane houses a variety of F&B outlets catered for both
the young and the old alike. Therefore, it encounters severe competition with
many other dessert shops.
The top 3 competitors of Haraju Cube are Cat in the Box, Metal Box and Seven
Cups. They are all located in the same building as
Haraju Cube which is Empire Damansara.
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Competitor 1: Cat in the Box
Everything found in this place is made
from scratch, from their Callebaut
Chocolate sauce all the way to hearty
pies. Dig into their Chicken & Potato Pie
for a comfort, hearty meal. With crust
not too thick, its savory pie has
generous fillings, which is a good
replacement for one’s lunch. Their
signature is Callebaut Mocha Brownie
with Fat Baby’s Ice Cream. Homemade
not too sweet brownies topped with a
scoop of Fat Baby’s Salted Caramel.
Location: Empire Damansara (first floor)
Competitor 2: Metal Box
Metal Box is a place where patrons flock
faithfully to for their meals be in
breakfast, brunch or tea. Metal-box’s
baked eggs is usually the crowd
favourite, 2 free range eggs with slices
of chicken breast, chicken sausages and
potatoes baked beautifully and served
with 2 pieces of sourdough bread. The
whole combination is palatable and a
suitable comfort food. One can also dig
into their Specialty French Toast, French
toast pan seared till golden brown and
served berries and a shot of gula
Melaka. This dish will definitely end
one’s meal on a SWEET note.
Location: G12, Empire Damansara

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Competitor 3: Seven Cups
A crowd favourite for a cuppa of Joe
when one is in the vicinity. Dig into
their best seller, the French Butter &
Maple Syrup Waffles. Classic waffles
out of the hot iron, with a slab of
French butter on the side, drizzled with
maple syrup. The waffles were nicely
done, fragrant batter and not too soggy
nor crispy. The Lescure French butter
that came with the waffles was just so
creamy and buttery. Order a
chocolatey cup of Iced Chocolate or
Iced Latte to go with that waffles.
Location: Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara
Perdana

Strategies Employed by Haraju Cube to compete with Competitors
Haraju-Cube dishes out their famous Shibuya honey toasts. Each toast is baked separately,
with an outer layer of thick toast and 8 mini toast cubes hidden inside. Since the mini toasts
are added with honey and butter, do expect a sugar rush moment. The outer layer toast is
thick, whereas the mini toasts on the inside are warm, fluffy and soft. It claims to use special
ingredients and its uniqueness in taste and texture make it stands out compared to others.
Haraju Cube is also known of its flavoursome speciality of milk mixed with the cafe's own-made
butterscotch & caramel which only serve at RM8.90 each.
Although the entire café is not spacious but it exudes a cosy and relaxing ambience for casual
gathering. The interior of the café is decorated with lots of wooden elements in light tone, coupled well
white walls and highlights of yellow for colour contrast. The decorations are minimal, with potted
plants on shelves hanging from wall. Ample of natural lights flow through the French window during
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daytime. Therefore, it serves as a good place to take good shots of photography and also their worthy
desserts. This strategy has attracted many blogger to visit the store.
Sweet Hug House
Sweet Hug House is located in Taman Bandar Baru, Kampar, Perak. For
these few year, Kampar has been listed as one of the vast development towns
in Malaysia. These developed infrastructure has provide convenience to the
local residents in Kampar. However, the main purpose of the increasing
number of shop lots in Kampar is to provide entertainment and convenience to
the college student who stays around there. Kampar has become a bustling
education hub after University Tunku Abdul Rahman has set up. Therefore,
college students became one of their important source of income.
The top 3 competitors of Sweet Hug House are Super Soya Beancurd,
Bread Espresso Dessert and JJ café. These stores are all located at a walking
distance within Taman Bandar Baru and each of the business having their own
unique characteristics to operate their business.
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Competitor 1: Super Soya Beancurd
The Super Soya Beancurd’s beancurd is
rather smooth, full of soya smell. The
whole menu is variety of topping for the
taufufa. There are so many choices and
the variety of topping that work well with
beancurd. The almond with raisin topping
is one of the popular menu of Super Soya
Beancurd. The almond was crispy and
blended nicely with the beancurd.
Location: Super soya beancurd located at
414, Jalan Perak 4 Taman Bandar Baru,
Kampar.
Competitor 2: Bread Espresso Dessert
The BED café, short for Bread, Espresso, Dessert, is
quite a cute and unusual name for a cafe. Bread
Espresso Dessert (B.E.D.) specializes in freshly-
brewed coffee; decorated with coffee art by a self-
taught barista to lift that aesthetic element
beyond the usual cup of coffee served in
conventional cafes. For desserts, Creme
Brulee and Banana Frangipane. The Frangipane is
derivative from custard tart, usually flavoured with
almonds/pistachio. Filling may vary as the coconut
version, whereas besides the banana, the cherry
and blueberry version are also available. Slightly
above average, the banana complemented well
with the crumbly pastry which is not too sweet.
As creme brulee literally means Burnt Cream,
the coarse brown sugar at the top surface is
usually caramelized with a torch.
Location: No 3, Medan Istana 6, Bandar Ipoh
Raya, Ipoh, Perak 3000, Malaysia
Competitor 3: JJ Café
Competitor 3：JJ café
The café may have different concepts
within, rest assured that JJ café brims
with life and rainbows of colours where
corners are filled with the owner’s
personal touches like teddy bears, funky
yellow piano, travel books and souvenirs
from overseas. JJ café probably has the
most unique chairs in town where the
chairs come in velvet fabric, Dalmatian
dots and leopard prints. The signature
dessert of JJ café is durian mille crepe,
the smooth crepes were thin and
layered delicately over one another with
rich of durian.
Location: 116F, Jalan Raja Permaisuri
Bainun, 30250 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Strategies Employed by Sweet Hug House to compete with
Competitors
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The prices of the desserts are set as reasonable and affordable to the customers.
During festival season, Sweet Hut House always change their decoration to coordinate the
trend of public. The beautiful decoration attracted a lot of customers come to celebrate the
festival.
Besides that, the unique homemade recipe enable Sweet Hug House become outstanding at
the area, all of the ingredients and dessert are developed by the owner, Mr Ng. The
ingredients and dessert are limited produce every day in order to ensure the freshness and
unique taste of food. Also to adapt the needs of customers, Sweet Hut House will change
their menu every 2 to 3 months to ensure that customers will come back to consume again.
Sweet Hut House provides good quality of services to their customers. Although the shop
already have enough worker to serve customers, the owners are still uphold with their
workers to serve customers together. The workers there are always serve the customer
politely, treat the customers just like their family. The order come fast and correctly
according to customer’s needs.
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Obstacles faced by new business who wish to enter the market
A new business which wish to enter the market normally will faced
intense competition. As there are many famous dessert shop in the market, it
would be a great challenge for them to survive in this market. If they do not
stand a chance to compete with others, their business probably would not
sustain for a year or even six months. In addition, it will be difficult for the new
business to earn the customers loyalty because they just started to enter the
market. Many customer prefer to remain at the old shop rather than trying out
new things. Moreover, the lack of capital is another obstacle that is normally
faced by new business that enter this industry. Most of the new business does
not have enough capital to maintain their shop for the first few month because
they lack of experience in running the business.
Nature of market
Both of the dessert shops are in a monopolistic competitive market.
There are a lot of dessert shops in the same area, which creates lots of
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competitors to against with them. The dessert shops have weak barriers to
entry the market. This means once entrepreneurs acquired the technique of
making dessert then the new firms are able to enter and exit the market freely.
Besides, the dessert shops have weak pricing power, because they have no
ability to charge a higher price than the market price unreasonably. This will
cause their customer to turn to other competitors. Therefore, having a good
quality food with reasonable prices will bring back trustworthy customers.
Summary Table of the Similarities between Both Businesses
Summary Table of the Differences between Both Businesses
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Sweet Hug House Similarities Haraju-Cube
Lead by owner Leader Lead by owner
Ng Kam Wai Main Founder Daichi Fukuzato
1 Number of Founder 1
0 Number of Branch 0
1 Number of Shop 1
Expand size of shop Future Business Plan Expand size of shop

Based on our analysis, Haraju Cube is more commercially successful.
There are a few aspects to support this statement. First, is the location of
Haraju Cube. Haraju cube is located in Empire Damansara. Empire
Damansara is a new mixed development which aims to satisfy both
business and lifestyle needs. Therefore, it houses with both residential
area and commercial area in one place. Besides, the location of Empire
Damansara is better than other location as it is closer to Mutiara
Damansara where one can access plenty of amenities easily and also has
a close proximity to the entry and exit point. In addition, the location
itself can be assessable from different other directions through many
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Sweet Hug House Differences Haraju-cube
2236 Jalan Batu Sinar (Taman
Bandar
Baru), 31900 Kampar,
Perak
Location 103 Level 1, Empire
Damansara, Damansara
Perdana, Jalan PJU 8/8,
47820 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
RM 100,000 Amount of Starting
Capital
RM 200,000
Around RM 100,000 Annual Revenue Around RM 216,000
5 Number of Employee 12
4 Number of Competitors 3
50% families, 30% students,
20% Malay & Indian
Targeted Customers Young generation
Lack of publicity Obstacles Faced  Production
preparation,
number of
customers
exceeded their
expectations
 Difficult to keep
the ingredients as
they have to be
fresh
Chocolate lava fondue,
Homemade Cheesecake
Special Dishes Honey Toast

highways. Nonetheless, this has become one of the biggest attractions of
Haraju Cube. Next is the aspect of income, in the table above, we can see
that Sweet Hug House required RM100K for their starting capital while
Haraju Cube require approximately RM200k, however, Haraju Cube gain
approximately RM216k for their annual revenue while Sweet Hug House
only has RM100K. From this we can conclude that Sweet Hug House did
not experience any profit or loss but Haraju Cube is gaining profit in the
business. To wrap up our analysis, Haraju Cube is more successful than
Sweet Hug House.
Recommendation
Based on the analysis that we have done the research regarding the two
dessert shop, Haraju Cube and Sweet Hug House, we have proposed a few
recommendation to further improve and expand their competiveness in the
future.
One of the biggest obstacles faced by Haraju Cube is that their product
takes a long period of preparations. Therefore, they can hire more number of
workers to reduce workload and increase their productivity. This way they can
earn more profit and be able to expand their business in the future. Besides
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that, the number of customers have exceed their expectation. The possible
way for them to solve this problem is to open another branch to separate the
amount of customers. With this, they can solve the problem of not having
enough tables for the customer and also earn more income. In the interview,
the owner of Haraju Cube also mentioned that is it very difficult for them to
keep the ingredients fresh. They focus on quality over quantity. One of the way
that could be the possible solution to solve this problem is to expand their
business. As they expand their business, they would be able to have more
customer. This way the ingredient will be used more often and finished faster.
They would be able to use up their ingredients when they were still fresh.
For Sweet Hug House, the obstacle that they faced is the lack of
publicity. They can have more advertisement to attract more customer from
the area around them. The other obstacle that is faced is the number of
customer they have is not stable as more of the students will have their
semester break which cause less customer that period of time. To overcome
that they should do more promotion, such as, using online promotion code
and promotion set for their dessert.
Appendices
Appendix 1:
Interview Questions
1. When was the business founded?
2. Who are the key founders
3. What type of business plan did you employ to operate your business?
4. What prompted the founder to start this business?
5. What are your main products or services provided?
6. Who are your customers? ( age , group , income level, education level)
7. What is your annual revenue?
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8. How many employees do you have currently?
9. What is your estimated current number of customers
10.Your recent development? (What has the business accomplished, what
changes had occurred?)
11.Why do you choose to sell desserts?
12.What is the uniqueness between your desserts and many others?
13.What is your Future development?
14.What difficulties you had face running this business?
15.Who are your competitors?
16.How do you compete with your competitors (what strategies do you
employ to divert customers away from your competitor?
17.How much capital is required to start this business?
18.Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?
19.Where do you see your business in the next year? In the next five years?
The next ten years?
20.What do you most attribute your success? What would say are the five key
elements for starting and running a successful business?
Appendix 2:
Transcript (Haraju Cube): Daichi Fukuzato Kent Ong
Q: When was the business founded?
A: Mid-December 2014
Q: Who are the key founders?
A: Daichi Fukuzato and Kent Ong
Q: What type of business plan did you employ to operate your business?
A: We apply our culinary knowledge learned in Japan to the making of our
desserts.
Q: What prompted the founder to start this business?
A: To bring Japanese culture (Japanese dessert) to Malaysia.
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Q: What are your main products or services provided?
A: Shibuya Honey Toast
Q: Who are your customers? (Age, group, income level, education level)
A: Mostly are the younger generations. For instance, teenagers and college
students.
Q: What is your annual revenue?
A: Our Monthly income is RM18k, therefore annual revenue is around RM216k
Q: How many employees do you have currently?
A: There are total of 12 workers in our shop
Q: What is your estimated current number of customers?
A: Approximately 150 customers daily
Q: Your recent development? (What has the business accomplished, what
A: We have produced a new product recently which is the honey cheese tart.
Q: Why do you choose to sell desserts?
A: Our background prompted us into this field as both of us are major in the
culinary field. Besides, we also wanted to share to people about our ideas in
desserts and to show people what we can do.
Q: What is the uniqueness between your desserts and many others?
A: The quality of the ingredients we used is different from other desserts
shops, we only use good quality in our desserts. Moreover, we do not sell same
type of desserts as well as beverages compared to other dessert shops.
Q: What is your Future development?
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A: Not sure yet as we are still newly open. We wanted to concentrate on the
current branch at the moment.
Q: What difficulties you had face running this business?
A: We lack of time for product preparations at the beginning of the business as
the number of customers exceeded their expectations. We also having a
difficulties in keeping the ingredients fresh.
Q: Who are your competitors?
A: To be honest we have lots of competitors in this market, however we have
also other competitor which sell similar type of desserts with us which are all
located overseas such as Cruis dessert in Thailand, Hanito café in Tokyo and
Dazzling Café in Taiwan.
Q: How do you compete with your competitors (what strategies do you employ
to divert customers away from your competitor?
A: Our ingredients makes us different from other desserts shop. To be precise,
the fact that we pick our ingredients make us unique. We only use the best
ingredients for our desserts.
Q: How much capital is required to start this business?
A: RM200k approximately
Q: Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?
A: It is quite hard because we are new in this market and have no experience in
it. In addition, we also need to make sure that we provide the best services to
our customer.
Q: Where do you see your business in the next year? In the next five years?
The next ten years?
A: As we have not deciding to open any branches at the moment therefore we
will just focus on this shop. We were hoping that we will become best of all
desserts shop.
Q: What do you most attribute your success? What would say are the five key
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A: I think it’s time that matters the whole succession. We dedicate lots of time
for the preparation of our honey toast.
Transcript (Sweet Hug House): Ng Kam Wai and Cheong Phooi Leng
Q: When was the business founded?
A: started since November 18th
, 2012
Q: Who are the key founders?
A: Ng Kam Wai and Cheng Phooi Leng
Q: What type of business plan did you employ to operate your business?
A: We use our own recipe to produce our desserts
Q: What prompted the founder to start this business?
A: I used to work in a 6-star hotel in Genting Highland before that and I move
back to Kampar recently to take care of my children. Therefore, I decided to
start this business to earn a living.
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Q: What are your main products or services provided?
A: Our signature dessert is cheesecakes, chocolate lava, and fondue. For main
course, we have honey chicken chop and black pepper lamb chop.
Q: Who are your customers? (Age, group, income level, education level)
A: 50% of his customers are families, 30% of them are students and the 20%
are mostly Malays and Indians.
Q: What is your annual revenue?
A: About RM100k
Q: How many employees do you have currently?
A: 5 full time, 1 supervisor and 4 waitress
Q: What is your estimated current number of customers?
A: about 100 people for normal season and 200 during peak season.
Q: Your recent development? (What has the business accomplished, what
A: We’ve makes some new changes to our menu and collecting customers’
feedback.
Q: Why do you choose to sell desserts?
A: Because I have experience in this field by what I observe when I was working
in the hotel before that. Moreover, we have less competitor in selling desserts
in Kampar too. Another reason is there are many students living in this area.
Q: What is the uniqueness between your desserts and many others?
A: What special about us is that we use homemade recipe. In addition, we will
change our recipe every 2 to 3 months according to the customers’ need and
liking.
Q: What is your Future development?
A: We plan to open another branch if possible.
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Q: What difficulties you had face running this business?
A: Since we are not franchise therefore we lack of publicity. We need to work
really hard to attract more customer.
Q: Who are your competitors?
A: We don’t have much competitors as our food taste differently compared to
other shop. Therefore, it is based on the customers liking.
Q: How do you compete with your competitors (what strategies do you employ
to divert customers away from your competitor?
A: What we different from other desserts shop is that we produce our recipe
on our own.
Q: How much capital is required to start this business?
A: Approximately RM100k
Q: Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?
A: It is not easy as it needed a lot of time and effort in order to make it
succeed.
Q: Where do you see your business in the next year? In the next five years?
The next ten years?
A: As the economy now is not good due to the falling of currency. I hope that
there will be an increasing number of customer each year.
Q: What do you most attribute your success? What would say are the five key
A: Time and effort. We spend lots of time and effort in our recipe.
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Appendix 3: Comparative Analysis Summary Table
Competitive Traits Sweet Hug House Haraju Cube
1. Number of
Competitors
4-5 3
2. Barrier to Entry Weak. This means that many
competitors can enter the market
easily.
-No legal barrier which is regulated
by the government.
-No strategies barrier because most
of the businesses will not adopt
aggressive strategic moves to
prevent new competition.
Weak, which means that
many competitors can enter
the market easily.
- No strategies barrier
because most of the business
adopt aggressive strategic
moves to prevent new
competition.
3. Differentiated or
Standardized Products
(if differentiated provide
2 to 3 examples)
Differentiated products (dessert,
main course)
Differentiated products
(dessert, main course, drinks)
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4. Pricing Power (Price
Maker or Taker? Why?)
Low.
-According to law of demand,
quantity of demand will decrease
when price increases. Customers
will switch over to other dessert
shop if the business raises the price
of the products. Pricing decision
will also be affected by the
competitors. So business should
not simply adjust their prices.
-The business has high price
elasticity of demand, which means
that a small percentage of price
difference will lead to a big
percentage change of quantity
demanded.
-Generally speaking, if a
business doesn't have much
pricing power then an increase
in their prices would lessen the
demand for their products.
Low.
-According to law of demand,
quantity of demand will
decrease when price
increases. Customers will
switch over to other dessert
shop if the business raises
the price of the products.
Pricing decision will also be
affected by the competitors.
So business should not
simply adjust the prices.
-The business has high price
elasticity of demand, which
means that a small
percentage of price difference
will lead to a big percentage
change of quantity demand.
5. Other Characteristics
(e.g. Any close product
substitutes, mutual
dependence, constant
advertising)
Constant advertising could really
boost up their products.
Their products are quite
unique where there is less
close product substitutes, but
there are also similar
products outside which is
cheaper.
6. Verdict (Monopoly?
Oligopoly? Perfect
Competition?)
Monopolistic competition
-Large amount of small firms
-Each selling products that are
differentiated from one another.
-Weak barriers to entry
Monopolistic competition
- Large amount of small firms
- Weak barriers to entry
Appendix 4: Photos
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Following are the photos taken in the interviews and document related to the
related businesses.
Sweet Hug House
The interior design of Sweet Hug House
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The exterior design of Sweet Hug House
We ordered a pandan lava
cake. The dessert is designed
in a Christmas theme as
Christmas season is closed that
time.

Interview notes
Name card taken from Sweet Hug House
Details are as follow:
Name: Cheng Phooi Leng
Job position: Promotion & Event Planner
Phone number: 016-441 7760
Email address: pl.cheng1@hotmail.com
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Sweet Hug House Facebook homepage
Link: https://www.facebook.com/sweethughouse
Group photo with Ng Kam Wai and Cheong Phooi Leng
Haraju Cube
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Interior design of Haraju Cube
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Exterior design of Haraju
Haraju Cube’s menu

Interview notes
Photos of our group member interviewing the interviewee
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Haraju Cube’s Honey Toast

Haraju Cube Facebook page
Link: https://www.facebook.com/harajucube103/?fref=ts
Details are as follow:
Name: Daichi Fukuzato
Job position: General Manager
Phone number: 0377335973
Email address: harajucube@gmail.com
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Appendix 5: Minutes of Meeting
DATE : 1st
December 2015
TIME : 10am-12pm
VENUE: Library , Event Hall (2nd
Floor)
NAME OF GROUP MEMBERS TUTORIAL GROUP ROLE
Loh Mun Tong TUESDAY (11.30am-1.30pm) Chairman
Calvin Wong Ping Ket TUESDAY (11.30am-1.30pm) Secretary
Tan Jia San TUESDAY (11.30am-1.30pm) Member
Kiew Chee Yuan TUESDAY (11.30am-1.30pm) Member
Adele Lu Khai Syn TUESDAY (11.30am-1.30pm) Member
NO. ACTIVTIY ACTION TAKEN BY
1. Introduction
i. Discussed the details of brief and
understandwhat we were assign to
ii. Figured out what type of business to research
All members
2. Discussion
i. Decided two locations of business which is in
Klang Valley and one is in outside of Klang
Valley
ii. Did some research on how to make an interview
with proper English
iii. Listed out some of the interview questiond.
iv. Minutes of meeting will be recorded by Calvin
Wong Ping Ket
All members
3. Conclusion
i. We decided to use desserts shop for business
research
ii. Briefly draft for interview questions
iii. Next meeting will be on 4th
December 2015
(after showing progress)
All members
DATE : 4th
December 2015
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TIME : 11am-2am
VENUE: Library (2nd
Floor)
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DATE : 15th
December 2015
TIME : 2pm-5pm
VENUE: Library Event Hall
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1. Introduction
i. Role of group members during interview
ii. Preparation for interview
All members
2. Discussion
i. Decided locations for both desserts shop
( Kampar & Damansara)
ii. Finalized the interview questions
iii. Distribution of roles of members during
interview : (Kampar)
1. Loh Mun Tong : Interview
2. Calvin Wong Ping Ket : Record notes
for interview
3. Kiew Chee Yuan: Videographer
4. Tan Jia San : Photographer/Record notes
for interview
5. Adele Lu: Brief Description/ Appendix
iv. Equipment needed for interview :
1. Camera
All members
3. Conclusion
i. Interview session for Sweet Hug in
Kampar will be at 11th
of December
2015
ii. We will be having meeting after the
interview to analyse the answers
and information of interview
iii. Only some of the group members
will be doing the first interview
All members

1. Introduction
i. Analyze interview answers and
information
ii. Plan for next interview for Haraju
Cube
All members
2. Discussion
i. Roles of group members for report
assignment
1. Loh Mun Tong : Cover page ,
content, key summary , Comparison
2. Adele Lu :Brief Description
3. Tan Jia San : Appendices ,
Bibliography
4. Kiew Chee Yuan : Competitors,
strategy, Comparison
5. Calvin Wong Ping Ket: Obstacle
Faced , recommendation
All members
3. Conclusion
i. Compile interview questions and
answers for first interview by 23th
of December 2015
ii. Next interview session will be on
23th of December, 2015
All members
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DATE : 12th
January 2016
TIME : 12:00 pm-3:30pm
1. Introduction
i. Finish incomplete information and data
need to be compiled
All members
2. Discussion
36 | P a g e

i. History of both business shops:
- Done
Brief description :
- Done
Video editing :
- Video for second interview not
complete yet
Comparative analysis:
- Not Complete
Competitors, strategy:
- Strategy part will be done in this
meeting
Artistic cover :
-Finalize draft
Obstacle faced , recommendation :
- will be done in this meeting
Appendices, bibliography, references
- Not complete
All members
3. Conclusion
i. Complete the tasks above and
compile together by 15th
of
December 2015
All members
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DATE : 14th
January 2016
TIME : 1pm-4pm
1. Introduction
i. Finalization of compiled research report All members
2. Discussion
ii. History of both business shops:
- Done
Brief description :
- Done
Video editing :
- Done
Comparative analysis:
- Completed
Competitors, strategy:
- Completed
Artistic cover :
- Finalization stage
Obstacle faced , recommendation :
All members
38 | P a g e

- Done
Appendices, bibliography, references
- Will be completed in this meeting
3. Conclusion
I. Complete all the compilation and submit
hardcopy of the report with a CD of
interview videos on 15th
of January 2016
All members
39 | P a g e

References
A brief History of Desserts ( Irtiqa RSS) Retrieved from http://www.irtiqa.co.za/a-brief-history-of-
desserts. Accessed on 2 January 2016.
History of Baking and Pastry Cooking (History of Baking and Pastry Cooking)
Retrieved from http://www.pfisterconsulting.com/history.htm. Accessed on 2 January 2016.
Harajuku (Urban Dictionary) Retrieved from
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Harajuku .Accessed on 30 December 2015.
Haraju Cube (Time Out Kuala Lumpur) Retrieved from
http://www.timeout.com/kuala-lumpur/restaurants/haraju-cube . Accessed on 30 December 2015.
Sweet Hug House (Foursquare) Retrieved from
https://foursquare.com/v/sweet-hug-house/50ba1aece4b04656297d6f0d . Accessed on 30 December
2015
10 Spots Not To Be Missed in Empire Damansara | OpenRice Malaysia (OpenRice Malaysia)
Retrieved from http://my.openrice.com/klangvalley/article/10-spots-not-to-be-missed-in-empire-
damansara/735 . Accessed on 31 December 2015 Seven
Cups & Epique, Empire Damansara, Damansara Perdana (The Garden NOM)
Retrieved from https://thegardennom.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/seven-cups-epique-empire-
damansara-damansara-perdana/. Accessed on 31 December 2015
JJ Cafe @ Ipoh, Malaysia (Always Travelicious)
Retrieved from http://alwaystravelicious.com/2013/11/07/jj-cafe-ipoh/. Accessed on 1 Jan 2016
Bread Espresso Dessert
Retrieved from http://softshellcrabtemaki.blogspot.my/2012/10/life-in-bed-bread-espresso-
dessert.html. Accessed on 3 Jan 2016.
40 | P a g e

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