OC BaKeRy - KaMpAr Part 7

a) Your group opinion and why you selected these two places.

Since last year most of the UTAR student is a puff lover due to hot weather, ice cream puff was the best choice because it is a new item, cheap and it is fresh to students where attract student’s attention. We decided to choose a puff shop which is near to student especially international exchange students and new intake students because we would like to recommend to them the food popular among us. OC bakery is a shop where only needs 5min distance from our hostel. OC bakery originally is a cake shop but starting from last year it has comes out with variety of dessert such as puff and tart. 

The popular item we would recommend in this shop is puff. This shop originally comes out with more than 15 flavors of “ice cream puff” where once a hit in almost all UTARIAN and others cake shop also comes out with this idea. Starting from this year, they come out with another new flavor which is “cream puff” with 7 flavors to be chosen and from few weeks ago there was a new flavor which is “durian tart” which is not available from other shops. Their puff has more flavors compared to other shops where it can fulfill every customer requirement.

Besides that, they are also popular with designation of cake. They can make a creative 2D or 3D birthday cakes with a cheaper price compared to other shops that provide 2D/3D birthday cakes. We would just need to choose a photo from cake history they made or find a photo to do as 2D/3D cake to the baker where this service only provided in OC BAKERY among other bakery shops. By this they can make an only one cake purposely for you and fulfill customer needs and requirement perfectly. On the other hand, flavor available for cake is 15 flavor available such as fresh durian cake, fruit cake, oreo cake and etc. mousse and cheese mousse cup is also available in the shops but not available everytime hence we will need to give a confirmation call before ordering or we can request for this item the day before we wants.

b) Its classification of e-commerce by the nature of the transactions or interactions.

OC Bakery in classification of e-commerce by the nature of the transactions and the relationships among participants is business-to-consumer (B2C). OC Bakery had used several e-commerce models to carry on business such as 360fusion.net, Facebook, and Wechat to sell to individual shoppers. Consumers only needs to lists out what they want before purchase through these models to make sure they have sufficient cake, puff or tart to buy. Additionally, this model of transactions is highly recommended by the shop owner due to always not enough puff for consumers. This situation had seriously affect consumer purchase decision indirectly when always happens no puff or tart to buy. This model of transactions ensure baker to have sufficient time to prepare amount of puff, tart or 2D/3D cake which consume more time to design to consumer.

From the Facebook there are examples of cake design that they design before and we can choose for us to prefer to buy. For cake design we will have to private message for price. For normal cake they had provide price on that. Other desserts available in shop are posted and price is given too. 

360 fusion is a page that gathered variety of shops in Kampar and OC Bakery is one of them. The same method used as Facebook for 360fusion.com. every design, price, flavour and variety of dessert has uploaded on that page. The only difference is we ordered from phone or given feedback bottom of the page.

Lastly is the Wechat method. Wechat did not upload any photo or information but it’s a popular model used by students to makes order. Students can get information from the shop, 360fusion and Facebook for the first time and next time can use Wechat since had knows the information. Their Wechat id is “oc_bakery”.

There is another classification of business model which is business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C). OC Bakery tend to sells it cakes, tart and cream puff to UTAR student for event purpose at a lower price since they bought it at a large amount of cakes. It is a traditional B2B2C where focuses on fully pysical transactions which need face to face interactions and give feedback at the moment. Traditional business model can increase the relationship between consumer and sellers and indirectly improve to fulfill customers satisfactions. E-commerce B2B2C can eventually improve the sales but not used by OC Bakery hence it will be mentioned in recommendation. 

c)Business model

OC Bakery is using viral marketing business model. Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses social networks to promote their products. Products or information are spread through the social networks by the consumers to other people. It may refer as the word-of-mouth, “buzz” or social networking sites such as Facebook. Basically, viral marketing is spread through the word-of-mouth, but with the improving of technology, it is including internet-based platforms too. A good viral marketing campaign does not just pass from a person to another, but to hundreds of peoples with the social networking. As example, OC Bakery giving slice cake promotion of “ Buy 3 for RM10 only” and it is promoted on the social network (Facebook). If there is good review from the consumers, it may spread out and positive response will be received.

There are benefits by using viral marketing business model. Firstly, the cost for viral marketing is lower compare to other business model. The advertising expenses will be lower as it will buzz around the Internet and is recommended by consumers. Therefore, the business does not need to spend extra on the advertising cost. OC Bakery advertising cost is low as they promote their through Facebook, 360 Fusion, WeChat and the word-of-mouth from customers.

Secondly, viral marketing business model could improve the growth of business in short time period. There is potential impact that viral marketing to reach huge numbers of customers in a short time period without geographic boundaries and time restrictions. Once there are people share the information in the social network, it is expected there are huge traffic to the business’s site with more clicks. OC bakery Facebook page do have 637 likes since they start their business last year. By a short time period, OC Bakery is quite a famous shop now as there are many UTAR students supported them with their famous ice-cream puff.

Thirdly, credibility of a business will increased from the recommendations of consumers. When there is something good, people will tend to recommend their friend to go for a try. Furthermore, it can be recommended and shared through social networking. Therefore, it will create buzz about the products and increase the credibility of business. With the positive reviews, business will improve too. The reviews from OC Bakery Facebook page showed 4.8 out 5 stars. Their customers are giving positive reviews.

Fourthly, the response rate of viral marketing is better compared to other marketing methods. As example, the numbers of views on promotion post on the social networking was attracted, the number of times that the promotion post was shared and the positive reviews were able to attract customers. Due to the large numbers of viewers, the business generated a massive publicity for their products. OC Bakery made a giving away promotion to 50 lucky customers and the responses were good.

d)Basic approach used in marketing and advertising

Marketing is the process of preparing a product by understanding what is wanted by customers and attracts the market. Due to the hot weather in Kampar, OC Bakery found that there is demand where consumers need something which is cold, friendly-wallet and convenient to eat. Therefore, they innovated ice-cream puffs. They would like to receive feedbacks from customers and make improvements on their products. Some customers demand for more flavour of ice-cream to be sell, so recently they add more ice-cream flavours in order to meet the demand of customers.

Advertising is the process of making the product known to the marketplace. OC Bakery is using online advertising methods. OC Bakery is using various marketing strategy in order to advertise their products which is ice-cream puffs, cream puff, cakes and others. Sales promotion and digital marketing are their marketing strategies.

Sales promotions
OC Bakery had few types of sales promotion such as discount, setup booth in university, buy one free one and loyalty incentives.

Loyalty incentives which giving away 50 pieces of free cakes to 50 lucky customers by just like the page and share the post. It may help in attracting more customers, and increase the people awareness on their shop. Furthermore, they would like to repay their loyal customers who supported them.

OC Bakery set up booth in University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) to promote and sell their products.

Digital marketing

With digital marketing strategy, they were using social networking of Facebook, websites of 360Fusion and also phone application which is WeChat.

//www.360fusion.net/#!oc-bakery/mqoh1

WeChat ID:oc_bakery
Facebook page:OC Bakery-Kampar

360Fusion is an advertisement website which discovers the businesses and promotions in Kampar, Perak. OC Bakery had advertised in this website in order to promote and update their recent products and promotions.

Social networking (Facebook) is used as Facebook is a good platform to promote their products. Almost everyone in the world use it and there are no geographic boundaries. OC Bakery created a page for their business without any single cents needed. Therefore, it will cut down the marketing costs. Through Facebook, the customers could know the business information such as the location, their opening hours and latest products.

Besides that, WeChat is an mobile application to interact with others. For OC Bakery, they used this application as one of their marketing strategies. Customers could make early booking on the products through the application to prevent any disappointment. As OC Bakery’s ice cream puff is so popular in Kampar, it is always out-of –stock. Therefore, customers can made early booking before go there.

e) Recommendations to improve businesses through e-commerce
In the competitive e-commerce world, every business tend to get the better of others and try to attract customers. Therefore, it is a must to improve the business through e-commerce.

Firstly, creating a blog is recommended. However, to maintain a blog requires a lot of effort by keep the information or content updated, but it would drive people to the website that engage visitors. Humming Bird Bakery is an example where the bakery shows the recently cakes which are very attractive and describe on the cakes. It also provides online ordering. OC Bakery should create a blog by upload the custom made cakes as requested by customers to ensure the blog is attractive to increase their visibility.

Secondly, OC Bakery is recommended to use social media marketing to communicate with the customers and share the best content. It is an effective and low cost way to advertise and interact with the customers. OC Bakery should often promote the products at least a few times a week instead of promote the products few moths once. Furthermore, OC Bakery should interact more with their customers in the social media by accepting customers’ feedbacks and try to improve it.

Lastly, E-mail marketing is recommended in order to improve business. A list of loyal customers can be build by using E-mail marketing. In order to attract customers to subscribe into the business’s email, OC Bakery should offer special promotions, discounts or sales to the e-mail subscribers which could not be found other where in the beginning. With the email list, it will help in the growth of business by sending updates, promotions and others content to each of the customers. Besides that, the direct communication which is the customer’ inbox is also a good way to build a strong connection with the customers.