Kampar food trip-Vegan Life

Shop Name: Vegan Life

Address:   No. 2193, Jalan Timah, Taman Bandar Baru, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia (Kampar)

                     21, Jalan Medan Ipoh 7, Taman Ipoh Timur, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia (Ipoh)

Operating Hours: Monday-Sunday 11am-3pm

                                                                 6pm-12am

Kampar Brunch:

Latitude 4.327332

Longitude 101.145452

Kampar brunch is in new town of Kampar and in Jalan Timah, which between grand Kampar hotel and Econsave.

To get there, from the main road, turn into Jalan batu Karang, and then the left side is Jalan timah, turn into it, then u will saw Vegan life at your right side.

Ipoh Brunch:

Latitude 4.616094

Longitude 101.121342

Short History of the dishes

Vegan Life Restaurant is operated by young vegan enthusiasts and it is guaranteed no meat in the process of food (Halal).

The menu is extensive enough to cater everyone taste such as Tom Yam Kung (Spicy), spaghetti, laksa, fried rice, porridge, bak-kut-the india style curry clay pot, or even side dished provided as well.

What impressed our members about this restaurant would be the recipe the cook used for cooking.

There is no use of monosodium glutamate (MSG), no white sugar, no white salt, less oil, less sweet, natural and no artificial processed. Yet, they still able to serve the customers with variety of dishes to scarify the customers needs. This restaurant would be more focus on producing a healthy meal for the customer to let the customer eat a balanced diet with a healthy life.

These are the some dishes our group had order for our dinner. Surprisingly, those typical vegetarian or flavor taste does not exist in the foods provided. Its tastes almost like home cook food.

Furthermore, the price is reasonable and worth for the money as well. Students are affordable to pay for the cost to stay in a balanced and healthy diet by visiting Vegan Life.

As a customer, we are happy and enjoy with the meals we have. The restaurant mount with air-conditioned, cozy ambiance and soft melody, it’s indeed a nice restaurant to enjoy with your family, friends or lovers.

We rated 4 cows and thumb up for the working since we had dining in the restaurant and wish more people may try the food there. May you glad the chance to try up those delicious dished provided.

Value Proposition

At first, when we step into the restaurant, we can feel an aura of peace, comfort and relaxation. There are full of green artificial grass surrounding their restaurant , a lot of beautiful lighting, special small fan for creation, also some fresh vegetable pictures on the wall with some soft music in the background which make us feel relax and enjoy our healthy foods. It is literally green and resonates with ideology.

Besides that,  this restaurant make us imagine that we are in the vegetable farm, we pick up  some fresh green vegetables on the  ground of the land, cook it and eat it freshly. We were dumbfounded when we look through the menu because everything looks so good, so natural and we had a hard time choosing the foods.

Meanwhile, we found that the uniqueness of Vegan Life Restaurant that impressed us the most is that, it advocates not just only vegetarian but also healthy eating using fresh, organic, natural vegetables, less sugar, no MSG, no salt, no artificial and  no uses garlic or onion in creating fusion dishes. Not like other vegetarian shop where food are rather bland and tasteless but this really have their flavors. Meanwhile, Vegan Life serves noodle dishes, whole-grain brown rice, soy seafood and soy meat dishes, some of which are made-in-house. Moreover, juices they provide are made from fresh fruits with little or no added sugar or water. 

At last, we choose to introduce the most famous foods that always prefer by the customers to you, which are Vegan Bai Kut Tea rice (RM7.99).  At first glace, it look normal , so we feel that it will be tasteless cause is vegetarian food, but when all of us take one sip of the bai kut tea soup with one scoop of rice, surprisingly the"vege or flavor taste" (斋味) is absent here and it taste different than normal ones, it is the perfect match of their own recipe taste of whole-grain brown rice with the rendering  natural fresh taste of  the vegetables into the soup. After eat this, our first comment are special and  no one told us before that vegan food can be so delicious but they do. Furthermore, we will not worry about the calories after eating their foods cause all of their foods are natural healthy and organic foods which contain low calories and this is the reason why all customer choose this.

In addition, WIFI available on this restaurant where we can use wifi for any purpose and in the same time we can slowly enjoy our meals. It serves a good variety of both Asian and Western food, and many in range of RM 10 or less which are affordable prices with value of getting healthy foods.

                                   

Selfie Time

                    

                 

                 

Group Opinion and reason for select Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa

Nowadays, outside food are served with preservation, therefore we choose vegan life because it is healthy vegetarian food that is free of preservation. Other than this, we also need test to know that whether food without preservation is good in taste or not. This is because many of us think that food without preservation is tasteless plus it is 100% vegetarian so it is taught to find for this type of food. However, after we dine in Vegan Life, we find out that they are unique because their food is quite nice even though they do not add the preservation to make the food tasteful.

Besides, vegan life has a relaxing environment to dining, which designed with some plant. We enjoyed the environment while dining in vegan life. Therefore, this is one of the reasons we choose Vegan Life. When we enter the store, the waitresses welcomed us and arrange the seat for us, by the same time, we look around and enjoyed with their atmosphere.

      

Third reason we selected Vegan Life is there are very few vegetarian shop around in the new town Kampar area. Students or kamparian who are vegetarian are hard to find a shop that provides food that suitable for them. Therefore, Vegan Life helps them to solve their lunch and dinner.

Classification of E-Commerce

Vegan life is doing the business to consumer (B2C) business which selling their product to the end customer.

They had used social network such as Facebook to provide information and also interact with their customers.

Other than that, they are also doing the business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C). This is because they have certain supplier that continuous to provide them certain raw material so that they can produce the product to customers. For example, organic vegetables from Taiwan.

Vegan life also conduct the business by business-to-employee (B2E) which is they provide the training for their employee. For example, they teach their employee how to cook the food which design by their founder. 

Business Model

Vegan Life Restaurant is a brick-and-mortar store which they perform their primary business offline where they sell their foods in store by using business-to-consumer (B2C) for their transaction and the relationships among their consumers.  

Moreover, Vegan Life Restaurant also used online-to-offline commerce and viral marketing to create revenue. Vegan Life Restaurant use online-to-offline commerce to create product and service awareness online, which allows their potential customers to research different offerings that they offer to customers through Facebook page and then drive them to visit the local brick-and-mortar store to eat their foods. From here viral marketing occurs which is world-of-mouth where consumers are allows to rate, give comment on their Facebook page through online and recommend to the people around them after they visit the store. Besides that, they use this business strategy to create relationship with their customers by keep updating and inform their consumers when their new food or any promotion activities coming out as well as identifies their customers in the online space through internet advertising.

Furthermore, they also conduct business by using business-to-employees (B2E) which Vegan Life Restaurant delivers services, information, and products to its individual employees. They teach their employees how to cook the foods step by step and teach them how to face problematic customers as well as serve them well. In addition, Vegan Life Restaurant use online banking to pay their worker wages. They also train them to handle the customers in peak hour for their employees to make sure their business flow is smooth. 

Basic Approach used in Marketing and Advertising

Vegan life use Web2.0 on their marketing and advertising approach.

They created their own official page to have a dwa-conversation between the customer and the owner. The owner may receive feedback or recommendation from the customers or visitors. These will help the restaurant to improve their services, quality of food and make improvement from the recommendation. It let the owner and the customer to collaborate and share information online.

Furthermore, Vegan Life able to promote their new recipes and discount on Facebook page to attract customers and followers attention. So they able to bring in more visitors to dining in the restaurant to have a memorable meal with veges.

They will post some dished picture to fascinate others Facebook user intention to try up the foods. Below the pictures the owner would write a short description about the food. Facebook users may take this opportunity to share the picture with their own friend group for gathering or vege’s day.

Recommendation using E-Commerce

Electronic commerce is the process of buying and selling goods and services through an electronic devices with internet connection.

In this advanced technology, most of the business would use e-commerce as a part of their business strategies to minimize some of the issues that may occurs.

While a retail shop or restaurant uses e-commerce would bring in a lot of benefit for the owner as well as the worker as well. There are several recommendations why most of the business using e-commerce:

Increasing customer base

The customer base will be the main concern for a business because without customer the businesses will not be success. Since, people around the globe have the opportunity access to the internet and overcome the geographical limitations.

Information will be spread as fast as a click and 24/7, 365 days. The doors never close and customers will keep rising. In addition, increasing in customer base bring help to generate more profit of the organization.

Lower costs

When the company able to lower costs of manufacturing. The company able to advertising and marketing on the webpage created or organic search engine traffic and pay-per-click to advertise the company to allocate will the costs.

Timeliness and Paperless

The company may save up a lot of time by doing manually with the paperwork in the company, while using e-commerce they may thrift a lot of time because there will be a system that help you to manage your document such as inventory system.

Moreover, the systems may save the information in your databases or storage to avoid redundancy. If any information you are searching, you may go in the system and insert the file name and you will get what you need in the next second, you no need to print out the document while you may review anytime anywhere with electronic devices.

Kampar food trip- Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa

Shop Name: Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa

Address:   Jalan Hala Timah 1, 31900 Kampar, Perak (Kampar)

                     No 8, Lorong Panglima, Ipoh, 30000, Ipoh, Perak 30000, Malaysia (Ipoh)

Operating Hours: Likely open

Latitude 4.327308

Longitude 101.143828

Bellow is the instruction to reach the destination:

Kampar brunch of Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa is located at Jalan Hala Timah 1, 31900 Kampar, Perak. From main road Jalan Batu Sinar, stick to the right lane, then traffic light turn right to Jln Kolej

After enter to Jln Kolej, drive small distances and turn right again to Jalan Halah Timah 1

Slow down your speed, pay attention to your left hand side, and we will reach our destination.

Short History of the dishes

Tofu is a traditional Chinese food known all over the world. There are many different varieties of tofu and Tau Fu Fa is one of the famous dishes of it. Tau Fu Fa is a very popular Chinese dessert made with very soft tofu that can be eaten either hot or cold. It is made by coagulated soy milk, served with syrup infused with ginger, brown sugar or pandan. Tau Fu Fa is a healthy food that has tons of nutritional value. In the old days, it was sold by street vendors but nowadays it can found it as part of the dim sum offering in Chinese restaurant.

Customer Feedback

Nicklas Wong:

I’m UTAR student. I like to come here and buy their cold soy milk drink after lunch when the weather is so hot.

Bryant:

Their Tau Fu Fa is smooth and nice. I like to eat their Tau Fu Fa with ginger syrup or black syrup. The environment is nice although the shop is small.

Mr. Chan:

I’m the frequent customer here. I like to bring my children come here enjoy the dishes after pick them up from school. 2 of my children like to eat their Tau Fu Fa with soy milk and I like to eat the Traditional Tau Fu Fa.

Xiao Qian:

The workers here are so friendly and the environment is clean and tidy. The dishes taste good and I especially love their Tau Fu Fa.

Wong Chin Lian:

I’m a person who does not like sweet or high sugar level food or beverage. But Ding Feng fulfills my requirement which provide soy milk that less sugar. I like their Tau Fu Fa with soy milk because it is smooth and won’t so sweet.

Value Proposition

Kampar Ding Feng Tou Fu Fa is the main brunch of the Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa. The director of Ding Feng Tou Fu Fa is a lecturer of UTAR Kampar. He is operating his business not only in Kampar New Town but also in UTAR cafeteria and Ipoh. Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa is a shop that mainly selling all the dishes about soya bean. The 6 dishes selling in the shop are Traditional Tau Fu Fa that can choose the syrup flavor ourselves, Soy milk, Tau Fu Fa with soy milk, Soy milk with Sea Bird’s Nest topping, Soy milk with jelly, Tau Fu Fa with Sea Bird’s Nest and Ginkgo Nuts topping. In the day we go to visit Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa, we decide to try all the dishes because we got 6 people and all of us can try the dishes together.

Dishes Description:

        

Traditional Tau Fu Fa. (Dine-in RM1.20 Take away RM1.70)

This is the hot seller item in Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa. Based on the survey we have done, mostly of the customer come to Ding Feng is because of their Tau Fu Fa. They provide 3 types of syrup flavor for customer includes normal syrup, black syrup and ginger syrup. I ordered a Tau Fu Fa with ginger syrup because I like their ginger syrup very much. The ginger syrup is different compare to others, the ginger smell of the syrup is strong and delicious while others shop ginger syrup do not have much of the ginger smell.

Above are the types of syrup provided by Ding Feng for customers.

Soy Milk (Dine-in RM1.40 Take away RM1.60)

Soy milk is the second hot seller item in Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa. Malaysia is always in hot weather situation. Customers like to go Ding Feng and have a cold Soy Milk when the weather is hot. Most of the customer is students that are go out for lunch and craving for cold drink because of hot weather. Ding Feng Soy milk is different with others. Regarding to customer health care purpose, Ding Feng introduce their Soy Milk with less sugar and fresh. Because of the hot weather, we also order cold soy milk from the worker when we go for visitation and survey. 

Tou Fu Fa with Soy Milk (Dine-in RM1.70 Take away RM1.90)

Tou Fu Fa with Soy milk is a little bit special for us when we go to visit Ding Feng. It is a Tou Fu Fa that replaces the syrup to soy milk. Its taste good because the warm Tou Fu Fa match with the cold soy milk. The dishes can fulfill the customer who willing to choose Tau Fu Fa and Soy Milk in the same time. The taste of soy milk is strong and merges with the Tau Fu Fa. For the customer who like to eat Tau Fu Fa but the weather is hot, this dishes is suitable for them because the Tau Fu Fa is cold after match with cold soy milk. It is different with Tau Fu Fa because this dish is smoother and more water. Tou Fu Fa match with enrich syrup so it do not need much syrup. This dish replace with soy milk which is water and less sugar so it can put more soy milk inside.

Tau Fu Fa with Sea Bird’s Nest and Ginkgo Nuts topping (Dine-in RM2.30 Take away RM2.80)

Here is the special Tou Fu Fa in Ding Feng. The smooth Tau Fu Fa match with sea bird’s nest and ginkgo nuts come out with another different taste and feel. The cold sea bird’s nest mix with warm Tou Fu Fa is delicious; the ginkgo nuts taste good and no bitter taste. Overall it is good and we like it because normally the ginkgo nuts we eat at outside is bitter because the shop did not clean the core of the ginkgo nut. The core of ginkgo nut is bitter and It will spoil the whole dish if do not clean it out. The workers of Ding Feng tell that all the ginkgo nuts will be clean and check by themselves. They will clean the core of the ginkgo nut one by one without miss any step on it.

 

Soy milk with jelly (Dine-in RM1.70 Take away RM1.90)

Here is another cold drink recommended for customer. It is a common beverage that can found in any restaurant. But Ding Feng Soy milk is different with others, so the taste of the soy milk with jelly will be delicious than others. Soy milk of Ding Feng is less sugar and fresh, matches with the cold jelly. The taste is nice and it help to reduce customer body heat when hot weather.

Soy milk with Sea Bird’s Nest topping (Dine-in RM1.70 Take away RM1.90)

This dish is not much special because it just adds on Sea Bird’s Nest topping inside the soy milk.

Group Opinion and reason for select Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa

Ding Feng is a shop that selling various types of Tau Fu Fa and Soy Milk.  It is a famous and well-known in Kampar. Peoples who try their desserts before are giving high review, highly recommended to the shop and the word-of-mouth from the customer make us feel interest to the shop. Due to this reason, we decide to select Ding Feng as one of the shop that we will visit for our assignment purpose. Based on the survey and visitation we have done, we found out that most of the customer give good comment for their dishes such as the texture of Tau Fu Fa is unbelievable taste good, silky smooth, comfortable and clean environment, and friendly stuff.

The second reason is Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa not only has a physical store at Kampar New Town but also expand their business to UTAR Kampar cafeteria and Ipoh Old Town. We feel that it is interesting to know more about the back story and the successful way to expand their business from Ding Feng director. Besides that, we would like to seek for more information and making process for their Tau Fu Fa and Soy Milk. To further understanding the making process, we decide to have a short interview with the person-in-charge of Ding Feng. After the interview, we realize that it require many procedure and process to make a simple and delicious Tau Fu Fa. The people who in charge required professional skill and be patient when they making Tau Fu Fa.

Classification of E-Commerce

E-commerce implemented by the Store Ding Feng is Business to Customer (B2C). B2C is business or transactions conducted directly between a company and consumers who are the end-users of its products or services. B2C involves a product or service exchange from a business and consumer, whereby merchant sell products to consumers. B2C differs significantly from the B2B model, which refer to commerce between 2 or more businesses ("Business To Consumer (B To C) Definition | Investopedia," n.d.).

They had actually set up a website page in the social media Facebook, allow consumer access their website and easily retrieve related information, and public are welcome to leave comments in their page as well.

By adopting B2C model of e-commerce, the stores Ding Feng had gain several competitive advantages. Like reduces the marketing or advertising expenses, and received flexibility of catalogs adjustment. Information are to up-to-date and able to offer better customer services.

Business Model

Every business has its own model in order to sustain the business and generate revenue. We had analyse the pattern of business process on Ding Feng and determined the business model is community business model. This model is based on marketing efficiency, target customer and similar driving forces. It’s relies on certain community to do marketing, find customers and create revenues. It will be easier to generate revenue compared to other business model.
The community model has been changed to internet communities in these decades. The reason behind is business intend to using viral marketing to increase the product awareness by the increasing community members. For Ding Feng, a great place for student from Utar to “yamcha” and get away from hot temptation. When student talk about it, the name and reputation of Ding Feng has become greater and greater, especially in community of “Utarian”.
Another key reason or advantage to make community business model being so successful is the competitive advantage. The traditional Ding Feng Tau Fu Fa was the first store sells these products in Kampar area, which means the company owns the market. This advantage gave them an opportunity to create the “old school” or “traditional” branding, to be to first and famous Tau Fu Fa in Kampar. Thus, the benefit of marketing plan can direct derive from using e-commerce since Ding Feng is famous in “utarian” community.
Community can be differentiated by demographic, job, or specific interest, but for Ding Feng, the targeted customer or community is “Utarian”. Nowadays, students like to upload photo to Instagram and “check in” on Facebook, it subsequently help the business doing advertising. The power of social media can make it be the legend because this is come from the mouth of customer, it’s more trustable and his or her friends or followers from Utar might be hundred or thousand. To be a successful community business model, the key is built around a lifestyle and sharing the mindset. Through the quality and the branding of Ding Feng, it does already make it happen!

Basic Approach used in Marketing and Advertising

Marketing Mix are the ingredients that combine to capture and promote a brand or product unique selling points, those that differentiate it from its competitors. Marketing Mix generally fall into 4 controllable categories that include product, price, place and promotion (Borden, 1964). It is a basic marketing approach adopted by most of the business, same goes to the Ding Feng Store. 4Ps are able to explain appropriately regard activity of Deng Feng store.

Product

Product refers to tangible, physical products as well as services that fulfill a need or want of consumers. Ding Feng emphasize only Tau Fu Fa and Soy milk, which actually none of store in Kampar New Town area offers the similar products. Indirectly their products had become unique in the Kampar which allow the stores gain the competitive advantages. In order to attract more customers, we suggest that the store introduces various types different favorite of Tau Fu Fa and Soy milk to increase customer attention which can lead to generate more sales for the shop.

Price

After understanding of the product or service offering is established, the firm can start making some price decisions. Price determination will impact profit margins, supply, demand and marketing strategy. Similar products or services may need to be positioned differently based on varying price points. Tau Fu Fa and Soy Milk is a low cost product, so the products could only set at certain prices that are affordable for customers. From minimum price of RM 1.20 up to maximum RM 2.80. Although the products are low cost, but the business appears had an unexpected good profit, due to the reason of ideal level of margin. According to the concepts, the store Ding Feng practicing penetration pricing strategies, which selling their desserts at low prices to expanding their markets. Remain unchanged could also help achieve better performances and increase customer flow.

Place

Place has to do with how the product will be provided to the customer and the key element of placement is distribution. Placement strategy will help assess what channel is the most suited to a product and how a product access by the end user. Ding Feng applied typical method for place selection, which chosen the location that is busy and lively. Kampar New Town is the location selected by Ding Fung store, there is a lots of people flow at New Town due to the surrounding cover by plenty of restaurant and food stalls. Besides that, Kampar New Town is nearby the college and housing area that full of university and college student. It will be a good place to setup their business at this area due to most of the student will craving for their meal at New Town area.

Promotion

Promotion looks at the many way marketing agencies disseminate relevant product information to consumers and differentiate a particular product or service. Promotion represents the various aspects of marketing communication. It is the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a positive customer response. The elements of communication decisions include: advertising, personal selling, public relation, sales promotion and publicity.  Ding Fung using none of the promotion strategies, since the products already at extremely low prices. Promotion that suggested to Ding Feng is Purchase 10 item FREE 1 item. The profit of the store may not be high so they do not have the ability to provide high expenses promotion to public. The promotion suggested is suitable for Ding Feng and it may help to attract more customers to visit the store more frequent.

Advertising

Advertising is defined any paid of nonpersonal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor. The paid aspect of this definition reflects the fact that the space or time for an advertising message generally must be bought (Belch & Belch, 2015, p. 18). Advertising provides a direct line of communication to your existing and prospective customers about the company product or service. The purpose of advertising is to make customer aware to the product or service, enhance the image of the company and convince the customers. Ding Fung store barely apply any advertising due to the reason that institution is small. Their store is famous enough in Kampar. The only advertising strategy adopted is online advertising, through social network Facebook. Propose the company participate more in the events that hold by the university. They can join the Flea Market organize by university student and set up their booth to sell the products. This is the easier way to gain word-of-mouth when the customers recommend to their friend after try their dishes.

Recommendation using E-Commerce

Since the majority customer of Ding Feng is student, they might more focus on behavior of student which is surfing the internet. Web advertising will be the best strategy for targeting student as customer. The company can expand the advertising strategy but not only for Facebook page. Student used to receive information through these social networks such as Wechat, Instagram and Blog. These are the perfect platform to educate the customer about the detail of business and create the awareness. The most important thing is this is free of charge. A webpage also can allow the company posting any news or changes of menu, time of operation, the pricing, and promotion and so on. Another good alternative for online advertising is Google’s Major Advertisement. It can be chosen as Adwords or AdSense. Adwords is about “buying” pertinent keywords and spend certain amount of money. AdSense is an offered from Google gives to website owners to earn commission for their willingness to place ads of other advertisers on their sites.

Furthermore, get the customer’s feedback through social network is an evaluation for potential customer. The company can try to encourage their customer write some feedback on Ding Feng Facebook webpage in order to listen their opinion, so the business can be improve and provide the exact needs of customer. It also can educate people from the social network about the content provided from company such as price, photo, and how it taste are exactly same as reality.

The company can provide online order and delivery service. The capacity of the shop is quite small and the seat is limited, peoples may enough to fit in but they might feel crowded and uncomfortable. In order to expand the business, the company should encourage customer ordering online and deliver it into their house with a certain service charge. This solves the limited seat problem and makes more convenient for the customer. The company gains the satisfaction of customer and also allows those students who don’t have the transportation can enjoy the Tau Fu Fa from Ding Feng.

Lastly, the marketing strategy must be evolving from time to time. Time changes everything, the best strategy is observe what are the changes of needs around you and give them what they need. The population of Kampar increase is due to the student of university and college but in future kampar might attract more and more tourist

through the developing of the town and the event of university or college. Thus, Ding Feng maybe can expand the target customer in order to maximize the profit.