We have expert cooks from five-star hotel’s restaurant. They are proficient in desserts. We also hire them for their enthusiasm and pay them at a rate well above the minimum wage to facilitate low-turnover and long-term loyalty.

Alisa Hui is the general manager and one of the founders of In Season. Alisa graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1999 with a degree in Business Management. Alisa’s success as a Newspoint employee combined with her formal business training makes her an ideal community leader and business owner.

The Market

In Season sells sweeten cakes like BerryBerryBerry and tiramisu, crispy bread like toast, and strong-smelling drinks like cappuccino and lattes. Our desserts are colorful, aromatic, and tasty.

Sourcing is critical for any enterprise, especially a retail operation. The YMT Company Limited will be our ingredient supplier. Beans will be imported from Europe and fresh fruit from worldwide. YMT Company Limited is a huge local supplier. It is several well-known hotel’s ingredient agent and has links with different foreign companies.

At festivals, we will hold celebrations to join happiness. Apart from selling, we provide the place for parties. We have technological equipments to show films. All the time, we will broadcast gentle music. In addition, our café will be famous to lovers.

How sweet will it be to have dessert with the other half? Our shop is peace and warm. Customers learn to make desserts and show their love. Lovers can join the teaching course together and make their own dessert at home. Office ladies like to make cakes, too.

 Financial Projections

Founders will totally introduce $1,200,000 and loan from bank for $500,000 and we expect to balance the introduction in 4 months’ time. Then according to the analysis, we will break-even at about $400,000 in monthly sales. We will avoid operating loss by knowing our competitors, our target markets, business direction, and products we sell.

 Objectives

·        To make In Season a local favorite for tourists, students, lovers and couples.

·        To create a warm environment to enjoy life.

·        To provide a jovial place for celebrations and parties.

·        To teach customer make popular desserts.

·        To achieve a net profit of $400,000 every month.

Keys to Success

To succeed in this business we must:

§     Sell products that are of the highest quality and reliability. We must offer healthy and clean food.

§     Provide for the satisfaction of 100% of our customers and members. Both are very valuable to us and we will listen to their opinions patiently. We will manage complaints and customer feedback. Customers are our first care.

§     Seriously manage our accounts.

Future Products

 We will introduce some new dessert or drinks with alcohol. It will be an extra taste.

Market Analysis Summary

In Season provides high-quality food and services for customers. We design to provide food and drink in different seasons. Season is the theme of our menu. We had an idea. Our cafe supplies a place to a group of people who have gathered to participate in a party. We will have some short-term cooking course for people to learn making desserts.

Market Segmentation

Customers are divided into five groups. Include students, tourists, officers, lovers and others.

ü         With the affordable price, the large student population will become an important part of the In Season customer base. Ideally, located in Mongkok, near to the popular shopping area. For those finishing lessons to take a break or nothing to do. Having a drink and some desserts will be the selling point for students. The key is that price cannot set in high range!
A group of friends in celebration of Hollywood, X’mas or other festival, In Season provides a place for them to rent. We expect realize an increase of 20% annually from this segment.

ü         More tourists are traveling in Hong Kong as in made evident by the increased demand of the local airport. Mongkok is a famous place for shopping and entertainment district that tourists were attracted to visit. Tourists feel tired after the journey, so they need a place to drink and eat and rest. We also anticipate a 15% annual growth rate in this segment.

ü         Most officers work and sit in office for all day long. At the end of the day, they feel tired, bored, and anxious and hope to relax. These customers need a place to take a tea time, to refresh with food and drinks.
These customers will range in age from 22 to 40. We provide short-term course for people who are interested in making desserts. We anticipate a 20% annual growth rate in this segment.

ü         By creating an environment that is appealing to lovers, we secure targets between the lover and the couple. In Season provides comfortable environment for customers to enjoy a cup of coffee. They also can join our course for making desserts if they are interested. We anticipate a 20% annual growth rate in this segment.

Market Analysis (Pie)

ü        

Market Needs

Factors such as current trends, addiction, and historical sales data ensure that the high demand for desserts and coffee will remain constant over the next five years. Most customers seek relaxation, fun and stress management while a tea time. They also prefer comfortable environment in a quiet. In Season has all the necessary facilities to attract such customers.

Market Trends

There are three major trends at work in our market:

l         Nearly five years ago, a trend towards more unique theme cafe began to develop in Hong Kong. There had always been specialty coffee stores, such as Gloria Jeans, Delifrance and Starbucks, etc. It would be competition with them in the market.

l         Lately, we've seen the introduction of alcoholic drinks. We expect that can increase our income and types of customers. Consumers often buy a cake or dessert to home or office. Therefore, selling will be increased ideally.

l         However, we have also provided place for rent to participate in an activity. Our services are convenient for a group of people who have gathered to participate in a party. Consumers often have celebrations in various festivals, so we anticipate a place of booking will be increased during the holiday season.

Promotion

In Season will spend almost $5,000 dollars in the first month of operations to build a brand and a loyal customer base.

²        Newspapers and magazines offer a better opportunity to catch the reader’s attention. We will make advertising on different newspapers and magazines. We also provide coupons on newspapers and magazines for customers to use. Coupons are the most common promotion. It's the ability to track results, as well as their proven effectiveness, that makes coupon offers so popular.

²        The printed leaflets will be delivered to the pedestrians and the buildings near to Mongkok. They are appropriate for headline messages, such as our restaurant name, address and menu. They can be effective for simple image advertising messages, and especially to reinforce messages already being presented in other media.

²        With three HK$200 bills can be joining as a VIP member. We will give 10% discount for cash payment. We will precede their order and request with priority. We will send E-mails to our VIP customers every season. Accumulate payment at In Season totaling HK$400 or above within 1 year, and the membership will be automatically renewed for another 1 year.

²        We designed the website to advertise In Season. The biggest worth of Internet is that it is international. The network is entering in our life step by step. Internet has the highest impact of any medium. Our website has a catalog of menu and we will renew the information.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

In Season uses a strategy of total market service.

Assumptions:

1.     Every person is a potential customer and all our potential markets will experience growth.

2.     Marketing to one segment of the population will lead to an expansion in overall market growth.

Strategy Pyramid

Our main strategy is to develop a quiet and a non-smoking environment for people to enjoy their tea-time and can make them feel relaxed at our café. And they also can cook if they are interested in it.

Value Proposition

As mentioned before, In Season gives visitors the highest quality of desserts, good coffee and a place to meet, in a convenient locale in Mongkok.

Competitive Edge

 Our location is a very important competitive edge. It will be difficult for our competitors to match our location.

 The other competitive edge in development is our reputation and involvement with the community. We choose Mongkok because there are many couples, students and OLs shopping there. If they feel tired, they may come to In Season to have a drink and a rest.

Marketing Strategy

n         We also provide courses for people who are interested in making desserts. Although they need to pay, we have professional cook to teach them.

n         The plan will benchmark our objectives for sales promotion, mass selling, personal selling and place booking.

n           We are focusing our marketing effort on the young people and lover community. We will implement a strategy that treats these customers as a community. This means our marketing resources will be centered on both sales promotions (events, displays) and personal sales (customer service, friendly atmosphere).

Marketing promotions will be consistent with the Mission Statement.

Positioning Statement

 For couples, students and OLs who need a place to stop for gear and coffee near Mongkok, In Season offers high quality food, gourmet espresso drinks, and a comfortable place to meet and talk. Unlike our competitors, our store is relaxant and offers exactly what most young people and lovers need.

Pricing Strategy

We will encourage impulse buying, therefore it is important that we maintain a flexible pricing strategy.

·        Our pricing strategy will be based on competitive parity guidelines. We will not exceed competitors' prices by more than 10%, and if a customer sees a price elsewhere for less, we will give it to them for that price.

·        Price says a lot about a product. The products that are innovative and not available elsewhere in the region will be marked up to meet the demand curve. We are not afraid of premium pricing a premium product.

Promotion Strategy

In Season will implement a strong advertising promotion strategy.

u       Promote will be paid up to $2,000 to determine the needs of the surrounding population and how the company may best meet those needs with promotions, literature and other marketing programs

u       Promotional campaigns will be partially outsourced to Internet.

u       Sales promotions and public relation strategies will work together to inform customers of new products like our season desserts and drinks, to encourage an image of community involvement for In season, and to limit environmental impact

Advertising will be consistent with our name, In Season.

Distribution Strategy

Customers will buy our products directly in the shop. All telephone orders (through our local number) or Internet orders will be taken at the shop. We don’t provide any shipping services. All debits and credits, order transactions, charge backs, and price discounts will be accounted for on the SBT Accounting system at the Bend office.

Sales Strategy

We will promote to tourists, couples, students, OLs and others. Our sales clerks, also trained in the ways of promotional tactics, will call businesses within the area and establish additional sponsors for these events and parties. They will close the sale immediately if possible, enter the closure into the software accounting system, and provide sales follow-up.

For in store sales, our strategy will be to maintain as much on-site point-of-purchase literature as is physically possible. Our clerks will be responsible for informing customers of the products and creating the best fit between customer and product. Our salespeople will understand that selling is about filling a need and feel relax, not pressuring the customer to buy.

Sales Programs

Sales programs will include sales awards for highest sales and customer service awards for those employees who best exemplify In Season commitment to customers.

We will offer coupons in local area newspapers and magazines. These coupons will offer buyers from 100% to 50% off any espresso drink and/or buy one get one free espresso programs.

Management Summary

 In Season is owned by Alice, Amen, Alisa, Kitty, Sandra and Yuki. The café, being small in nature, requires a simple organizational structure. There are four functional groups within the café: General and Administrative, Sales and Marketing, Accounting, and Production. The major management decisions are always made by the owners together as it’s easily to monitor all other business activities.

Organizational Structure

 Alisa is the General and Administrative manager. She has been selected to perform the duties of manage the facilities, equipment, inventory, payroll and other basic, operational processes. Furthermore, she may approach to solving ambiguous problem of customers.

Amen and Kitty are the Sales and Marketing managers. They handle the promotion and scheduling of the café, as well as the promotion of the special seasonal dessert and the cooking course. Use their ability to identify strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace and exploit them.

Alice and Sandra are the Accounting managers. They establish the corporate accounts and policies, also be a bookkeeper to prepare the financial statement each month.

Yuki is the Production manager. Her duties include Customer Service and assess the qualities of the products, also manning the Special seasonal dessert and the cooking course. Sometimes, she may blending the beverages for the specially customers.

Personnel Plan

 The staff will consist of two full-time employees working at $7,000 per month. One chef and two commises (who had been worked in five-star hotel and have more than 5 years’ experiences of making desserts and special drinks.) will be employed. The chef responds to make desserts and the cooking course that is making desserts. The commises assist the chef and respond to the cooking course that is making drinks.