Social/Cultural Trends
The background and culture of the people is not important. Anybody can drink bubble tea, it's just another beverage. Of course, the drink will be more prominent among the oriental customers but word of mouth from those who know it and advertisements, which are discussed below in this plan, will raise awareness of this drink.
Product
The following items need to be purchased for the store: ice maker to serve cold drinks, drinking water system to mix with the tea powder as well as to serve hot drinks, cocktail shaker to finely mix the tea with water, refrigerator to preserve ingredients, microwave to cook tapioca and defrost ingredients, lightings to create a nice atmosphere in the store, stereo system, telephones, one cashier register, tables and chairs. As for the bubble tea, the necessary ingredients are bubble tea powder flavor, black/red/green/ tea bags, sugar syrup, and tapioca. For the containers of the tea we need drinking glass, plastic cups and covers, plastic cutlery and straws.
Distribution
We will not be manufacturing the tea but will buy the tea and its ingredients from suppliers, some will even be bought in supermarkets and sold at the café, and therefore there is no need for distributors. Bubble Tea Supply, Bubble Tea, and Bubble Tea Online are some suppliers. Some things that we can buy in local supermarkets are plastic cups and straws; we can also get tapiocas from the Chinese supermarkets. This will help reduce some costs.
Process
We are not going to manufacture the tea ourselves.
In terms of Sales:
Decide what to sell → Advertise using newspapers
Starting the business from scratch:
Use Real Estate Agency to Find Location → Buy It → Buy Furniture and Set them up → Buy Tea Necessities → Sell Inventories
Day-To-Day Process
Greet Customers As They Come In → Wait Until They Sit → Waiter Gets Order → Takes It To Order Taker → Order Taker Prepares Drink → Calls Waiter → Drink Delivered To Customer
Note: In filling orders, delays should be eliminated as much as possible.
Products and Services
Our goal is to introduce and serve one of the most popular drinks invented in Taiwan, Bubbletea, to the Canadian market. We predict it would be a potential hit in the location that we have chosen because of its humongous success in both Asian and other North American cities.
Product Background
Bubbletea was originated in Taiwan in the early 1980's at a small tea stand. Elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. One concession owner became popular with her tea when she started adding different fruit flavouring to her tea. Because of the sweet and cool taste, children loved the taste. Other concession owners soon followed to add flavouring to their teas.
In 1983 Taiwanese Liu Han-Chieh introduced to add tapioca pearls to Bubbletea. After the tea and flavour were shaken well, it topped tapioca pearls that were sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. The tapioca pearls also looked like bubbles, thus also came to be known as "Bubble Tea".
In the past few years, this drink has gained popularity in the West, in cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, and the Bay Area.
Product Description
The two main ingredients of bubble tea are the tapioca balls and the milk tea. The tapioca balls in bubble tea are round, black, gummy, and the size of gumballs. In Taiwan, these tapioca balls are referred to as pearls or "zhen zhu." Little kids in Taiwan like to call them "QQ," which in Chinese means chewy. Milk tea is made from black tea and sweetened milk, but green tea and red tea are also used.
Product Features
Our research result has shown that most people would prefer a fruity flavour to be added to the drinks followed by the flavour of chocolate/coffee. Therefore, our bubble tea menu will have a lot of fruity flavours provided for our customers to choose; and on the other hand, we will also include other welcomed flavours as well as some alternative flavours in our menus.
While regular bubble tea is served cold, we also offer hot drinks to our customers. Customers will also have a choice of whether they want tapioca in their drink or not.
With 36 flavours in total, 6 different types of tea, serving hot or cold, possible combination would be 432 drinks in total. We also provide take out service.
This illustrates an example of our menue.
CHOOSE A FLAVOUR
CHOOSE A TEA
Promoting and Planning
It is important for us to introduce our store and product to people during the introduction period. Therefore, we have planned a three steps promotion.
To start, we will first advertise in two local newspapers in Toronto: Ming Pao and The Toronto Star. Ming Pao is the number one Chinese Newspaper selling locally. After numbers of observation in other Bubbletea stores, we discovered that most of the people who buy Bubbletea regularly are Asians; Chinese in particular. Therefore, to advertise in a Chinese newspaper would definitely have its advantages because it would attract the local Asian customers around the store area to come for a visit. To advertise in the Toronto Star has a similar reason, but also to introduce our product to people who have never tried Bubbletea before. The advertisement will run for one to two months. Inside the advertisement you will find a printed coupon, which can be used as a dollar of store credit during the first three months of operation. This will attract new customers to try out something new at a price that is lower than competitions from other Bubbletea stores; and certainly, it will also attract regular Bubbletea drinkers to drop by in a new store and buy their drinks at a lower price than usual.
The second stage of our promotion will have advertisements appearing in the university papers of University of Toronto and Ryerson University. The reason why we want to have advertisements in these 2 papers is because from the result of our research, people who would usually go “out” are between the ages of 20-27, which usually included university students and thus they are integrated in our target market. Not only can the advertisements can have a directly promoting effect to the students, advertising in these papers can also generate a “word of mouth” function; we simply hope that students can know about us by hearing from a friend.
The third stage of our promotion plan will include a series of special advertisements. These promotions will give discounts or free drinks to qualified customers. They are explained in details on the following page.
Special Promotion
INSTORE special promotions
Two types of INSTORE promotions will be used:
- Birthday Discount
- Daily Special Drink
Birthday Discount
Detail: Customer who visits the store on his/her birthday will receive a free drink of any choice (regular size, no tapioca added).
Rules: To receive the free drink, identification with birth date printed must be shown before order. Valid for INSTORE order only. Each customer can only receive one free drink on birthday.
Explanation: It would be rare that one would celebrate his/her birthday alone in a Bubbletea café, there are usually friends or relatives with them. Though a free drink is given to the birthday person, it would actually create more business and make our store a place to go for celebrating birthdays.
Daily Special Drink
Detail: From Monday to Friday, a particular drink from the menu will be offered at $2.49, which is 50 cents cheaper than regular price.
Rules: This promotion is for both INSTORE and take out order. Each customer can only receive one drink at special price per day.
Explanation: Selling at a cheaper price, daily specials would promote the selling of those flavors that are not so popular.
Take out order special promotion
An in-store promotion will be used to encourage customers to purchase from us:
Buy ten get one free
Detail: Customers can obtain a tracking card, which is free, from the store. For each take out drink that the customer orders, a stamp will be given to the customer’s tracking card. When 10 stamps are collected, the customer can receive a free regular drink, no tapioca added.
Rules: Stamps cannot be transferred or combined with stamps on another tracking card.
Explanation: The tracking card method would preserve the loyalty of our customers because the more drinks they buy, the closer that they will get a free drink.
Pricing
From the result of our research, most people do not agree that bubble teas are priced fairly on the market. However, we believe that bubble tea is considered as a specialty product because there are no similar products on the market and certainly it is not a convenience good.
As a specialty product, consumers have substantial product loyalty toward the product and they are willing to spend considerable effort to locate and purchase the product. Therefore, the price factor is minimal in this case as long as we are not charging our customers ridiculously.
As a result, we will charge our customers with the average market price, which is $2.99 for each drink, and 50 cents more if tapioca is added.
We do not plan to enter the market with a much lower price than the market price because it would be difficult for us if we plan to increase the price later on, though it would have given us an advantage over our competitors.
Personnel
Administrative Structure: Since the BubbleTea Café is not a large café, the staff will initially be small. The manager for the cafe will be one of the five owners on an alternate basis. The manager will operate the café on daily basis. The remaining staff will include a waiter/waitress. These employees are part timers and will not receive benefits. All other needed help will come from the remaining owners.
The café will be open 7 days a week the hours of operation are as follows:
Monday to Wednesday 12 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Thursday 12 p.m. – 12 am
Friday, Saturday 12 p.m. – 2 am
Sunday 12 p.m. – 11 p.m.
With the exception of the manager/owner(s), the waiter/waitress will be paid at $6.85 per hour plus any tips he/she receives.
Owner/Manager
Other Owner(s) Waiter/Waitress
The schedule for the café is as follows:
Monday to Wednesday 2 p.m. – 11 p.m. 1 Waiter/Waitress
Thursday 2 p.m. – 12 am 1 Waiter/Waitress
Friday, Saturday 2 p.m. – 2 am 1 Waiter/Waitress
Sunday 2 p.m. – 11 p.m. 1 Waiter/Waitress
Total hours for the waiter/waitress is 40 hours.
Note: the following estimates for wages does not include tips made by the waiter/waitress.
Employee Recruitment and Training:
We would like to hire mainly university and college students. Since our target market is between the ages of 19 and 25, having younger employees would help to go with the flow and create an attractive environment.
Waiter/Waitress
Duties: A waiter/waitress will greet all customers, handle all orders from customers, serving of all beverages/food, cleaning of tables, and receiving payments from patrons.
Responsible to: Owner/Manager
Requirements: Should have past experience in customer service field, be available to work nights and weekends, be able to use a cash register.
Personal: Must be friendly, punctual and reliable.
Bartender (Taken on by one of the Owners)
Duties: A bartender is strictly responsible in preparing all customer orders.
Responsible to: Owner/Manager
Requirements: Must be able to handle multiple tasks, be available to work nights and weekends, be able to use a cash register, and be able to learn procedures for preparation of customer orders.
Personal: Must be friendly, punctual and reliable.
Manager
Duties: The manager will handle supervision of all employees. This includes creating employee schedules, employee grievances, and all oral and practical training. The manager must also keep the facility clean at all times, and provide patrons with the best service and product by the BubbleTea Café. In addition, the manager will assist the waiter/bartender whenever they need him/her.
Evaluation
The first three months of employment are a probation period. The employee will be observed by the manager and evaluated. With in these three months the employee will be trained in all procedures related to their job description.
After the three months period, the manger will conduct a meeting with the employee to discuss their performance and assist the employee in areas they are weak. Any questions posed by the employee will be answered during this or any other time.
Training
The manager of the café will do training. The manager will first introduce the product, then describe where it came from, and then the product itself. With the waiter/waitress, the manager will show them how to use the cash register, and the café procedure for taking and serving orders.
Policies
All BubbleTea Café employees will follow the following policies:
- Work schedules will be posted at least one week in advance.
- Any scheduling conflicts are to be reported to the manager as soon as possible.
- The BubbleTea Café stresses customer satisfaction. It is the employees’ responsibility to make sure all orders are taken correctly and the beverage/food is served as ordered by the customer.
- All of the staff members are entitled to a 20% discount on any purchase made.
- The manager will handle all purchases made by employees.
- All personal phone calls by employees are to be conducted during breaks, and should be kept to a minimum. No cell phone or pagers are allowed during work hours.
- The company phone should be answered promptly, and with a clear voice. The employee should present himself or herself as cheerful, helpful and courteous.
Place and Location
Specific Site
The cafe will size will be about 1000 square feet and will seat from 20 to 30 persons. The décor of the café will reflect the popular tastes of our customers. As discovered in our survey, our market has an age from 19 to 25. Therefore, the café will be designed with simple, clean, contemporary furniture.
- The BubbleTea Café is located in a location that is filled with restaurants, cafes and grills.
- Though there are other cafes located within the surrounding area, there is no other cafés that serve BubbleTea.
- The area includes a dynamic combination of concentrated offices, retail, shopping, restaurant/entertainment, and residential development.
- There is a variety of parking available to our customers. For example they can park on the streets or any of the parking lots located within walking distance.
The BubbleTea Café location is described below:
Manning St
C
o
l
l
e
Clinton St g
e
S
t
Grace St
Beatrice St
Site Costs
The specific site costs include the following:
Rent $4500 per month for 1100 sq. ft.
Utilities Deposit $100
Telephone $75 per month
Hydro $500
Insurance $170 per month
License/Permit $200
The total site and operational costs add up to approximately $5545.00 per month.
The total rent of the BubbleTea Café will be $54000.00 per year. The term of the lease is one year with an option to renew. In addition, an advance of two months rent is required.
Insurance for the BubbleTea Café is $170.00 per month. This coverage includes any damage caused by any day to day activities of the business. The insurance further covers liability for bodily injury and property damage claims arising out of the maintenance and use of the area. The insurance will also cover any damages caused by fire hazards. The total cost of insurance for the year is $2040.00.
Proximity to Other Business
The area in which we are establishing the business has a variety of businesses. There are retail shops, restaurants, grills, and other businesses catering to the neighborhood. With the customer traffic that is present, we will receive good exposure. There is currently no other café offering BubbleTea (confirmed by visiting every café in walking distance) in the immediate vicinity of the site. Though there are other cafes, approximately 6 in a one-block radius, our café will provide a unique menu of BubbleTea specialties not offered at those cafes.
