English assignment 2 research 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
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
LECTURER: MR. GOPIGHANTAN MYLVAGANAM
SUMMISION & PRESENTATION DATE: 15 JANUARY 2016
LOH MUN TONG (0323680) l TAN JIA SAN (0322406) l LEONG LI JING (0323628) l CALVIN WONG
PING KET (0322481) l KIEW CHEE YUAN (0323297) l THAM KAI LOON (0323593) l LOW WING CHUN
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Name Presentation/Research report role
LOH MUN TONG (0323680)
Artistic cover, cover page, table of content, key
summary, comparative analysis(Haraju Cube),
appendix 1-3 and compilation of report.
TAN JIA SAN (0322406) Brief Description (Haraju Cube), Appendix 4 and
References
LEONG LI JING (0323628) Brief description (Sweet Hug House)
CALVIN WONG PING KET (0322481) Video editing (Sweet Hug House),
Recommendation, Bibliography & Obstacles face by
new business enter the market
KIEW CHEE YUAN (0323297) Competitors, strategy, Comparison of Both Business
(Sweet Hug House)
THAM KAI LOON (0323593) Presentation slides, Brief description of businesses
LOW WING CHUN (0323315) Video editing (Haraju Cube)

TABLE OF CONTENT
TOPIC PAGE
KEY SUMMARY 3
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORY OF 4
DESSERT BUSINESS
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESSES 5 - 6
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE 7 - 18
BUSINESSES’ COMPETITIVE TRAITS
RECOMMENDATION 19
BIBLIOGRAPHY 20
APPENDICES 21 – 42
REFERENCE 43
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KEY SUMMARY
We were assigned to conduct a comparative research. Throughout our
research, eating dessert is a blooming trade. The first dessert shop is situated
in Kampar, a town that has turned into a bustling education hub as University
Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) was set up, and the second interview we did is in
the posh area of Kuala Lumpur, Empire Damansara. Empire Damansara is a
new mixed development that aims to satisfy business and lifestyle needs.
Therefore, it has become a new attraction in Kuala Lumpur. Gradually the
name of the dessert shops are Sweet Hug House and Haraju Cube. The aim of
this research is to compare between these dessert shop businesses in terms of
business strategies, number of competitors, geographical location, number of
branches, main product, revenue and daily number of customers.
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Description of history of desserts business
Dessert is a course that is included in a main meal, and the word
‘dessert’ is originated from French word ‘desservir’ which mean of “to clean
the table”. Usually desserts include mostly sweet food, but may include coffee,
cheese, nuts of other savours. Fruit is commonly found in dessert because of
it’s naturally sweetness.
Sweets were founded to feed for the god in Mesopotamia and India.
Dry fruit and honey were the first sweeteners which were used in most of the
world. After that, human started to use sugarcane to make sugar and make it
easier to use and carry along.
Baked goods have been around the world for thousands of years and the
art of bakery was developed early during the Roman Empire. And the baked
goods became more famous and started selling in Rome, Germany and other
country. Most goods that were baked by bakeries were pies, bread, cakes and
others. As time goes, bakery nowadays not only sell baked goods but also
coffee and other products. For example, RT bakery started selling coffee and
food to increase their profit and also the amount of customer of niche market.
In this generation, bakery and pastry are separated into dessert and non-
dessert shops as more customers are willing to pay a visit to the dessert shop
because of their sweet tooth and also due to the trend.
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Brief Description of Haraju Cube
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 or unique name to attract customers.
Since the founders are Japanese, they have 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 toasts come in cube size, hence the name
“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 a year,
it is still fresh, therefore they do not have any branches. They currently have
12 employees to help run their business. The main product of Haraju Cube is
the Caramel Honey toast because teenagers love 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 a day
exceeds 150 customers. During weekends, customers have to queue up to
visit the shop because the seats are quite limited. The business started back
in December, 2014. The founders, Kent and Daichi were involved in the
pastry field in Japan before they start the business. They started this
business because they have the culinary background and they want to try
their best to deliver their passion on desserts to people. Furthermore, they
also know that teenagers nowadays have an obsession with desserts. Before
expanding their brand to other branches, Kent and Daichi would rather
focus on the current shop first.
Brief Description of Sweet Hug House
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The business that we interviewed is a dessert café located in Kampar
named Sweet Hug House. The Sweet Hug House is currently situated at 2236,
Jalan Batu Sinar, Taman Bandar Baru 31900 Kampar, Perak. It started at 18th
November 2012. This business was founded by a pair of couple, Mr. Ng Kam
Wai and his wife, Mrs. Ng. Before that, Mr. Ng was working in the field of hotel
management in overseas and locally. In Malaysia, he worked at Genting
Highland Hotel for three years. In oversea, he worked at a six-star hotel, Star
World Hotel at Macau for roughly ten years . Mr. 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’s signature desserts are the cheesecakes, chocolate lava, and
fondue. In order to increase their income, they also provide main courses and
beverages. Their signature dish includes honey chicken chop and black pepper
lamb chop while the signature beverages are coffee.
Mr. Ng stated that 50% of the customers are local families, 30% of them
are students who came to Kampar for further studies at UTAR, and 20% of
them are mostly Malays and Indians. The number of customers changes
throughout the year. Mr. Ng estimated that they will have an average of 100
customer per month if is not during festive season. For peak seasons, the
estimated number of customers are on an average of 200 per month. Other
than that, Mr. Ng hired a total of five full-timer which one is supervisor and the
rest are waitress.
To start the business, Mr. Ng used a total of RM 100,000 as business’s
capital. The business has an annual revenue of roughly RM100, 000 per year.
The business currently has no other branches.
The business will change their homemade recipes every two to three
months in order to adapt to customers’ needs and also to attract more
customers. The business future goals are to improve their business and open
one more branch at a different 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 accessed 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’s
favorite, 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.
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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
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
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Sweet Hug House is located in Taman Bandar Baru, Kampar, Perak.
Kampar has been listed as one of the vast development towns for these few
year. These developed infrastructure provides convenience to the local
residents in Kampar. However the main reason of the increasing number of
shop lots is to provide entertainment and convenience to the college student
who stays around. Kampar has become a bustling education hub after
University Tunku Abdul Rahman has set up. Therefore, college students
became one of their target customers.
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.
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Competitor 1: Super Soya Beancurd
The Super Soya Beancurd’s beancurd is
rather smooth, full of soya smell. The
menu has a variety of toppings for the
taufufa. There are so many choices and
the variety of toppings 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 changes their decoration to cope with the trend of
public. The beautiful decoration attracted a lot of customers to come celebrate the festival.
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Besides that, the unique homemade recipe enables Sweet Hug House to be outstanding
at the area. All of the ingredients and dessert are developed by the owner, Mr Ng. The
ingredients and dessert are limited and they produce them daily in order to ensure the
freshness and unique taste of the 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
again.
Sweet Hug House provides good quality of services to their customers. Although the shop
has enough worker to serve customers, the owners are still uphold with their workers to
serve customers together. The workers there are polite and they treat the customers just
like their family. The food are served fast and accurately according to the customer’s needs.
Obstacles faced by new business who wish to enter the market
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A new business which wish to enter the market will normally face
intense competition. As there are many famous dessert shops 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
competitors to against with them. The dessert shops have weak barriers to
entry. 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
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Summary Table of the Differences between Both Businesses
Based on our analysis, Haraju Cube is more commercially
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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
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

successful. There are a few aspects to support this statement. First, it 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 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 required 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
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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
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 faces is the lack of
publicity. They can have more advertisement to attract more customers from
the area around them. The other obstacle that is the number of customers
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.
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Bibliography
Bread Espresso Dessert Café (BED) @ Ipoh (2014, February 2) Retrieved
from http://alwaystravelicious.com/2014/02/02/bread-espresso-dessert-
cafe-bed-ipoh/
JJLifestyleCafe@JalanKampar,Ipoh(2013,August3)Retrievedfrom
http://www.j2kfm.com/jj-lifestyle-cafe-jalan-kampar-ipoh/
ThatHeavenlySlumber@b.e.d.(BreadEspressoDessert)(2012,October6)
Retrievedfrom http://www.j2kfm.com/bread-espresso-dessert-b-e-d-medan-
istana-ipoh/
Dessert(2016,January6)Retrievedfromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert
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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?
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
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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.
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
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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?
A: Not sure yet as we are still new. 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: Approximately RM200k.
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Q: Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?
A: It is quite difficult because we are still new in this market and have no
experience in it. In addition, we also need to ensure 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 decided to open any branches at the moment therefore we
will only 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
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
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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.
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.
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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.
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?
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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.
Appendix 3:
Following are the photos taken in the interviews and document related to the
related businesses.
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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 4: 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 FRIDAY (2pm-4pm) Chairman
Calvin Wong Ping Ket FRIDAY (2pm-4pm) Secretary
Leong Li Jing WEDNESDAY (4pm-6pm) Member
Tan Jia San FRIDAY (2pm-4pm) Member
Low Wing Chun WEDNESDAY (6:30pm-
8:30pm)
Member
Kiew Chee Yuan FRIDAY (2pm-4pm) Member
Tham Khai Loon WEDNESDAY (4pm-6pm) Member
NO. ACTIVTIY ACTION TAKEN BY
1. Introduction
i. Discussed the details of brief and understand
what 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
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DATE : 4th
December 2015
TIME : 11am-2am
VENUE: Library (2nd
Floor)
Low Wing Chun WEDNESDAY (6:30pm-8:30pm) Member
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DATE : 15th
December 2015
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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. Low Wing Chun : Interview
3. Calvin Wong Ping Ket : Record notes
for interview
4. Leong Li Jing : Record notes for
interview
5. Kiew Chee Yuan: Videographer
6. Tham Khai Loon : Videographer
7. Tan Jia San : Photographer/Record notes
for interview
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

TIME : 2pm-5pm
VENUE: Library Event Hall
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. Leong Li Jing :Brief Description
3. Tan Jia San : Appendices ,
Bibliography
4. Kiew Chee Yuan : Competitors,
strategy, Comparison
5. Calvin Wong Ping Ket: Obstacle
Faced , recommendation
6. Tham Khai Loon : Definition of
selected business
7. Low Wing Chun: Video editing,
References.
All members
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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
DATE : 12th
January 2016
TIME : 12:00 pm-3:30pm
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1. Introduction
i. Finish incomplete information and data
need to be compiled
All members
2. Discussion
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
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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 :
- Done
Appendices, bibliography, references
- Will be completed in this meeting
All members
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
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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.
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English assignment 2 research report

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