They should just step into the shoes of their potential tenants and they would realize what tenants want in return for paying the extra cost they would have to endure if they operate in shopping malls. If I am paying for the high rental fees and maintenance fees, all I want is as follows (demand part of the equation):

• A steady flow of quality consumers,
• A good steady flow of revenue income,
• Optimal efficiency of income over cost,
• No or low direct competition within the mall,
• A well structured and organized management to handle issues that may occur.

So, as the Management of the shopping mall they would need to make sure happens is the placement of the followings before they can really speak of attracting potential tenants (supply part of the equation):

• A forward looking vision of the mall as a whole,
• A proper detailed marketing plan for the mall as a whole and for the individual tenants,
• A niche or specialty that attracts constant flow of quality shoppers for the long run,
• A plan to optimize not only revenue income but the also the profitability of their tenants,
• A reduced supply of competition, • A strong professional team to run and manage the shopping mall and to serve the tenants,
• A well plan traffic flow or circulation of shoppers within and out of the mall.

If I am to pay for the high cost involved in operating in shopping malls, I would need to first be sure that I can make sufficient margins to pay for the costs and still make a hefty profit or better profits as compared to the current made at the current location. What businesses want is just a simple brighter future, as with everyone on this island!

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One of the new communication solutions (media) and fast in growing acceptance are blogs. Blogs used to be the online diary of an individual, but recent years have shown us the commercial value that it can bring to businesses. The utilisation of blogs does not only confine in the commercial world, it has also grown in popularity amongst the politicians and politicians want to be. And it is one of the reasons that created a political tsunami during the last General Election on March 8^th 2008, where the opposition coalition got control of three states on the Malaysia Peninsular, namely Penang, Perak and Selangor. Thus, blogs (keyboard) are mightier than the sword!

With that in mind, I would like to examine the use of blogs in promoting food businesses in Malaysia in general. Apart from being a Marketing & Restaurant consultant, I am also a 4 year old food blogger which has seen my fair share of invited reviews organised by food business operators or owners. Being a consultant in these fields and a food blogger it gives us a different prospective when it comes to writing our experience on invited reviews and also on our casual dine-outs.

Many restaurants and even hotels are resorting to inviting food and lifestyle bloggers to experience their hospitality and their “products” for free and in return have the blog owners write about their feedback and create an awareness of their brand name and products on the net. Benefits that come with this new form of media channel for branding is:

· Low investment required,

· Targeted advertising or promotion effort,

· A more persuasive selling of the brand and its message,

· Longer message life cycle,

But is it really effective? It will be effective if all the invited guests provide a positive write-up of their experience to promote the brand and product. But then it would also rely on the reputation of the bloggers to convince the audience. Reputation in the sense that they show consistency of fair and impartial reporting or comments and an acquired skill and pallet that provides them some authority over their readers or audience. Only then their comments will carry weight and reinforced or compliment the other branding or advertising activities that have been carried out by the businesses. But popular celebrity food bloggers do also contribute to the promotional event as it brings with them the visitor traffic(figures) that follows their blogs to have a guide to places that they may consider trying out.

Whether it is serious food bloggers or celebrity food bloggers, the main thing is to get all the basics in running a restaurant in order before inviting bloggers or guests for reviews to promote the business. Any prematurely planned events will not be in favour of the brand name but in fact be detrimental to the branding or promotional effort and also to the reputation of the bloggers. Those we follow food blogs for guidance to places to dine would inevitably experience for themselves what the restaurants can offer and would have their own judgement and comments.

To become a restaurant owner is not difficult; one would just need to have the answers to the following simple but yet hard questions:

1. What are your current and future plans for your career or business?

2. What is the reason for establishing a restaurant?

3. What kind of food do you have knowledge and passion in?

4. What is the trend or market demand in your target area?

5. How much capital do you have for start-up?

6. How much funds can be pooled for daily operational expenses? My suggestion would be a minimum of six months.

7. What business or corporate structure should be chosen?

8. Who and how many competitors are in the area?

9. Determine what is the most suitable size of the restaurant?

10. How much is your involvement in the daily operations?

Entering into the restaurant industry is easy; it is the daily managerial and marketing activities that will actually be the challenged to become a successful restaurateur. On the operational front, as an owner you must be ready to participate in every level of managing the restaurant be it in the kitchen or dining floor up to the ‘selling’ of your products to servicing your customers. It is all hands on!

Case Example:

As Restaurant and Marketing consultants, we recently encounter a restaurant in a prominent mall in Penang that abruptly closed down due to long term mismanagement and inexperience that left it bleeding profusely since the beginning of its operations. From our initial encounter with the restaurant and its owner we already set its life span for between 6 months to 1 year the most. The reason was simple:

· Right concept poor execution,

· Inconsistent and poor quality of food served,

· Lack service initiative by the service crew,

· High level of wastage that ultimately eat into the margins,

· Lack of right experienced management to lead the operations and oversee the kitchen activities,

· Slow adaptation to environmental changes,

· Inefficient Marketing Strategy and Management,

· Inefficient control of budget and expenses.

Therefore to succeed in creating and operating your own successful restaurant, you need to have the right concept, proper execution, good management and leadership direction, cost efficient control methods, sound targeted marketing strategy and tactics, and most of all adaptable to changes. Thus, to have the following focus in place before operation of the restaurant begins would provide a higher probability of survival of your restaurant:

Ø Let the staff know what your expectations.

Ø Develop a good marketing strategy and tactics according to your budget, capacity and target market. to get the word out to more potential customers about your restaurant

Ø Make sure a system is ready to provide customer satisfaction in terms of food and service.

Ø Work hard to meet your budget limitation and revenue goals.

Ø Consider using a restaurant consultant and marketing consultants, if sales are continually down.

Franchising is an avenue to successfully expand ones business at the shortest time possible with the least capital investment and risk burden for the franchisor. But it should not be considered an easy way to fortune and also a tool to boost or assist ones ailing business. A successful franchise will allow both the franchisor and franchisee to reap the benefits.

Many of the world’s largest corporations have used franchising to speed up their growth as a global brand. As with any business venture, the business needs to be well managed, must be profitable and have a reputable and creditable track record. Thus, before one begins to offer ones business to potential franchising market, they have to ask themselves these simple questions:

• Does the business have enough reputable history and track record to attract potential franchisee and investment at a premium price?
• Are the products or services easily replicable by the franchisee to offer to their potential market?
• Are there Standard Operating Procedures in place and practiced to manage the business to ensure uniformity and consistency?
• Can this concept, SOPs, terms and conditions be easily accepted and transferable to the franchisee to learn to operate the business in 3 months or less?
• Does the business have a structure that is able to oversee a franchise base business venture and support franchisees in many different locations?
• Does the franchise have a sound marketing plan to branding campaign that will also benefit the potential franchisees?
• Are the concept sufficiently unique and the target market properly differentiated to provide a substantial amount of security and competitive advantage that will transpire to an adequate return on investment, which is around 8% to 20% after royalties?

THE PROCESS OF FRANCHISING

Ø Maintain a lucrative and successful business model.

Ø Develop a sound plan for expansion, which must take into consideration the numerous issues like momentum of growth, territorial distribution, support, human resource, and fee structure, etc.

Ø Then the franchisor needs to draft a proper legal documentation or franchise contract.

Ø Followed by the development of an operations manual or SOPs.

Ø And finally, the franchisor will need to create marketing and promotion materials to sell the franchise to potential franchisees.

The key to success in franchising is not only limited to creating a lucrative business model which is easily replicable and mange, it also lies in the ability to sell the franchise and to ensure franchisees also succeed in their franchise venture. Passion, time and effort are pump into the franchise by both the franchisor and franchisees, the franchise may become the next Old Town or Manhattan Fish Market.

What do one gets for becoming a franchisee?

• Becoming one’s own boss to a certain extend although one is lacking in capital or business operation experience.
• Acquire a ready establish business model, thus would be able to operate as a mature business and with advises from the franchisor. Faster returns (in many cases) as compared to a newly start-up business.
• Gain other businesses efforts, expertises, know-how, procedures, training, collective buying power, and advertising.
• Established Brand recognition brought over the Franchise, thus eliminate this hurdle by developing an image in the marketplace.

What do one forgoes for signing the franchise agreement?

• One must work, operate and act according to the franchisors terms and conditions. Therefore loosing the will, control and capacity to do as you want or need to do to develop your own market. It is a no go for someone who dislikes working for an employer.
• One would have give up a portion of its profits in return for the benefits gain from buying the franchise licence. In addition to initial franchise fee, there is also a percentage of monthly gross that is put back to the parent company.
• Forced to purchase goods from appointed suppliers or parent company, which may prohibit you from getting the best prices.

After considering the above benefits and disadvantages of buying a franchise licence and you have decided to go ahead with franchising as your mode of entry to becoming a business owner. Then, you would need to consider the type of franchise that is most suitable to your interest and character.

• Do not be misled by promise of high income, potential growth and popularity. Consider the possibility of interest, enjoyment and knowledge of a particular product or service. This would induce one to stay longer with the business or franchise.
• Should research on the existing and possible competition from within and without the industry or market.
• Another must consider would be the stage the franchise business is at in the product or market cycle. Whether it is at the growing, maturing, saturated or declining stage.
• History of support provision by the franchisor that would be the essential building blocks for personal growth and also business viability.

Any decision made on whether to buy a franchise licence or start your business should be base on your own research, planning, strategising, projections and capacity in terms of knowledge, experience and capital.

Next article we would be looking into the how to create your own franchise and its requirements. And for more information on the article posts or publish, do not hesitate to contact us at jason@kwangventure.com.

Am i a zebra or a horse?

What is Marketing or Strategic Marketing and what is Branding? Are they the same? These are some of the questions that many are still not sure of the answer or have confused these two concept to be one. Therefore, we would have to begin from the very basics to answer these questions.

What is Marketing to me? Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably.  Therefore, it forms a social and managerial process which individuals or businesses finds an unsatisfied need or want, creates a product or service and supplies it in the most efficient manner and price to provide value to the consumer or buyer and earn a premium or profit in the process. In short, the Marketing process places customer or consumer satisfaction in the focal point of all business activities.

Some of the important elements in the Marketing philosophy or concept are as follows:

• Marketing focuses on the satisfaction of customer needs, wants and requirements.
• The philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone from within the organisation.
• Future needs of the market have to be identified and anticipated.

And what is Branding or what is a brand? A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design or value, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services or businesses that differentiate one from another. Therefore, it is understandably that branding is about getting the potential customers to notice you as the most suitable solution provider to their needs and wants. Thus, the objectives of branding or a brand should be:

• To delivers the message clearly.
• To confirm your credibility.
• To capture the emotions of your target prospects.
• To encourage or motivates potential buyers to act to your benefit.
• To create and strengthen loyalty or emotional attachment.
• To generate value to the brand.

Therefore, to succeed in branding your business or products, one must first understand the needs and wants of your target audience or market and create something that can satisfy and give value to the target market.

To summarise, Marketing is the social and managerial process of satisfying customer needs and wants, and branding is the process of persuading your target audience to choose you from the others.

Decades of rapid modernization and industrialization have inevitably led to the severe deterioration of the river water quality in Penang. The PSDC (Penang Skills Development Centre) is introducing its Greening Penang Initiative to mobilize the adoption of Effective MicroorganismTM (EM) as a sustainable mediator for the continuous pollution. EM, which was discovered by Prof. Dr. Teruo Higa, is a technology known to stop algae growth and break down sludge in lakes and rivers. It works as a viable replacement for chemical-based cleaning solutions and at the same time, promotes the habit of recycling food wastes.

Through the Greening Penang Initiative, the PSDC aims to encourage and inculcate the adoption of EM Activated Solution (EMAS) among the residents of Bayan Baru. EMAS is made from organic products and can be used for household cleaning, laundry, gardening and even on pets. Most of all, it is an effective and healthy alternative to the conventional chemical-based solutions and fertilizers. Bayan Baru residents who are interested to find out more about EMAS and how to make the solution from home is welcome to participate in the official launching the Greening Penang Initiative on Saturday, 31 October 2009 at 10:00am at the PSDC premises (1, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Bandar Bayan Baru, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang). Complimentary EM starter kits and EMAS will be given out to participants of this Program. For more information, please contact PSDC at 04-6437909 ext. 514/ 596 or email CorpComm@psdc.org.my.

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