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The pub has a ambiance that shouts a warm feeling with reddish wall colours and warm lights. It is a far cry from the bright sunny lights of the outdoors.

Some of the tables are made from parts of the ‘old’ sewing machines that our parents or grandparent have before to mend or sew clothes for us at one time. A good way to correlate to the history rich Logan Heritage building that it is housed in.

The opening of Shanghai Splendour was “coincidentally” timed with the soft launch of ‘Logan Heritage Building’, where the Penang Chief Minister was the guess of honour. The photo below shows the owner of the pub introducing the concept to the Penang CM and sharing a light moment with his entourage.

P.S. It is a nice place to have some drinks before heading back home and a place to rest and avoid the traffic jam, but for me personally I would like to have some light snacks or finger food to go with my drinks if possible. Then patrons would stay back longer and spend more at this cosy ambiance pub.

Something we designed for the restaurant to fill in the blank that many could not provide.

Friday Ladies’ Night

Our lady guests will enjoy a complimentary cocktail/mock-tail of the day or get a free dessert of your choice with any main coursed ordered from our a-la-carte menu.

Vintage Bulgaria Restaurant & Bar
1E Jalan Sungai Kelian
11200 Tanjung Bungah
Penang, Malaysia
Business hours: 4pm – 12am everyday
Tel: +604 898 1890
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vintagebulgaria
Website: http://www.vintagebulgaria.com/

This is one of the general promotional activities or tactics that we have implemented with our clients’ to attract business from a target market which is found lacking or to focus effort to escalate “trial” for certain products from the bar or drinks section.

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.