ENGLISH ii EFFECTIVE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

A TALE OF TWO BUSINESSES – A

COMPARATIVE

ANALYSIS OF 2 BUSINESSES OF SIMILAR

INDUSTRY

IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS

Group Members

PANG KAI YUN

SAM WEI YIN

NG HUOY MIIN

TRACE GEW YEE

LIEW POH KA

LEE KAILYN

LEE SHZE HWA

YEO KAI WEN

0319802

0320364

0319097

0320369

0320424

0320273

0320053

0319844

Description of the

Furniture Trade in

Malaysia

History of Furniture

Undergone dynamic transformation

2,400 furniture companies

One of Malaysia’s biggest

revenue earners

Offers a rich variety of options

Quality designs that suit the lifestyle and

taste of different generations

Adopting green

manufacturing methods

Incorporate sustainable and

chemical free fabrics fibres

Penetrating high end applications

Trade in MAlaysia

DESCRIPTION OF THE

BUSINESS

Heng Furnishing

The Curiousity Shop

VS(Penang)

(Kuala Lumpur)

Heng FurnishingLocation

23-E Mk13, Jalan Ayer Itam, 1500, Penang

Heng FurnishingFound in 1973 (42 years)

Founder Yeoh Hun Beng

Named after the owner

Demand from the locals

Passed his business to his son,

Yeoh Tze Xiang

DESCRIPTION• Home base

• One branch

• 4 employees (locals)

• Opens daily from 9am to 9pm

Customers• People who live nearby

• Average 30 customers in 1 day

• Depends on festive seasons

• Annual revenue figure of roughly RM 800,000.00

Main product and services sold

• Ready made furniture

• Interior decoration

• Monopolize the mattress because his father is

interested in mattress

Future plan

Sofa

Rectangle

Dining Table

Round

Dining Table

Bed

Mattress

Cupboard

The Curiousity Shop

No.134, Jalan Sungai Besi, 57100, Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah

Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur.

Location

The Curiousity Shop Founded in 2005 (10 years)

Founder Danny Ho and his co-partner

Started this business with their hobby

Name the shop as ''The Curiousity Shop''

because they want the customer to be

surprise when they walk into the shop.

When there is a “surprise”, they will be

“curious”

DESCRIPTION• Commercial base

• One branch

• 2 employees (locals)

• Warehouse (Sungai Besi)

• Opens from 10am to 10pm daily

Customer• Regular customers

• Designer, developers and restaurants owner

• Depends on festive seasons

• Break-even condition

Main product and services sold

• Vintage furniture

• Decorative objects, lighting, collectable item, painting and

fabric

• Provide different services to their customers such as

restoration, recreate, redesign, interior design, mass

production, rental and consignment

Future plan• Hope to build a better and stronger team

Lighting

Collectable

Item

Decorative

Objects

Painting

Wooden

Racker

Sofa

Competitors of Heng Furnishing

Heng Furnishing

Kingkoil Corporation Sdn Bhd

• Incorporate in 1983• The leading manufacturer and

supplier of high quality sleep

related products in Malaysia

• Services a network of over

2,000 furniture dealers,

interior decorators, hospitals,

hostels and hotel chains in

addition to the export market

VS

Newton Furnishing & Interior

• Located in Jalan Air Itam

• Produced office furniture

• Services include furniture

dealers and retail

Heng Furnishing VS

Dekea Furniture Design Centre

• Located in Jalan Air Itam

• Modern furniture and

provide interior design

Heng Furnishing VS

STRATEGY EMPLOYED

PricingService and product

different

❖ Reasonable and affordable ❖ Provides standard service

that every furniture shop

has such as delivery service

❖ Provide interior design for

customers

Strategy Employed

Strategy Employed

Quality of Service Advertising

❖ Provides very good quality

service

❖ Owner very friendly

❖ Workers will communicate

with customers and understand

their needs and provide advices

for customer

❖ Facebook page and official

website

❖ Overview of the company

❖ Description of their product

Competitors OF tHE CURIOUSITY SHOP

The Curiousity Shop

Stanzo Collection

• “Stanzo” is an Italian term,

which literally means

“rooms”

• Retailer

• Scandinavian design and Zen

style furniture

• Contemporary lighting

VS

Harvey Norman

• Australia company

• A giant provider of a wide

range of Electrical,

Computers, Furniture and

Bedding products

• Prominent international

presence

• Stresses on 4-in-1 concept

The Curiousity Shop VS

Stoolicious

• Located at the lower ground floor of 1 Mont Kiara

• Sells all sort of colourful stool, from adult stools to baby stools

• Baby chair, coffee table, trolley and corner rack

The Curiousity Shop VS

STRATEGY EMPLOYED

PricingService and product

different

❖ Reasonable comparing to

others furniture shop that sell

vintage furniture

❖ Provides a lot of service such as as restoration recreate, redesign, interior design, mass production, rental and consignment to customers

❖ Decorative objects, lighting, collectable item, painting and fabric

Strategy Employed

Strategy Employed

Quality of Service Advertising

❖ Provides excellent quality service.

The owner and his partner treat

their customer with respect with

interacting with them in a

friendly way

❖ Listen and understand what their

customers want and need

❖ Facebook page and official

website❖ Uses facebook to interact with

their followers. They will create

special events and limited-time

promotions and invite their

followers, and it helps them to

grow their fan base

Comparative Summary(Difference)

DifferenceHeng Furnishing Differences The Curiousity Shop

1973 When it was founded 2005

Yeoh Hun Beng Founder Danny Ho

1 Number of Founder 2

Demand of localWhat prompted to start

this businessHobby

Heng Furnishing is located in a double storey

building at Jalan Ayer Itam, Penang

Location

The Curiousity Shop is located in a commercial building at Mont Kiara,

Kuala LumpurEight hundred thousand

RM 800 000Annual Revenue Figure Break even

Heng Furnishing Differences The Curiousity Shop

0Number ofwarehouse

1, at Sungai Besi near HELP University

4 Number of employees 2

Around 30 Number of customer -

People live nearbyWho are the customers

Designer, developers and restaurants owner

6 Number of competitor 3

9am-9pm Business Hour 9am-7pm

Difference

Heng Furnishing Differences The Curiousity Shop

Mattress Future Plan Build a strong team

Modern furniture Type of Product

Vintage furniture, decorative objects, lighting, collectable item, painting and

fabric

Services and quality StrategyDifferent product and

services

Home base Business Operation Commercial

Difference

Comparative Summary(Similarity)

SimilarityHeng Furnishing Similarities The Curiosity Shop

0 Number of branches 0

Furniture Main Product Sold Furniture

Lead by the owner Leader Lead by the owner

Depends on season Best Seller Depends on season

CONCLUSIONHeng Furnishing more commercially successful

• Established earlier

• Long-term customers who live nearby

• Sell modern furniture

• Longer business hour

• Pricing is reasonable

Obstacle faced by new business

Publicity Customers Location

Nature of the MarketPerfect competitive

• No barriers to entry

• New firms can enter and exit the market freely

• No pricing power

RecommendatioN

Heng Furnishing• Provide private parking for the customers

- No parking at the roadside

- Parking in front of the shop is always full

- Prepare private parking

- Walkway is very narrow the shop is full of furniture- The shops look very messy because there is too many

furniture inside and it is not organize- The signboard of the shop is quite small and hardly

visible- Expand their shop so they can display their

furniture neat and tidy

Heng Furnishing• Expand their shop

The Curiousity Shop• Do more advertising about the shop.

- Located at a corner inside of the highest floor of the shopping mall

- Exposure of the shop is very low- Lack of advertisement and publicity- Very few people in the shopping mall- Advertising and publicity can be taken

another further step through mass media such as newspaper and television

The Curiousity Shop• Rearrange all product based on categories.

- Does not arrange their furniture properly- Looks very messy and unorganized- Hard for the customers that are searching for the specific

category- Arrange all the products based on categories.- This will make the shop look tidy and neat- Easier for the customer to search the products they are

looking for

Reference• N.Gregory, M, (2007), 14, In Principle Of Economics (4th ed.,pp. 289-

309). Thomson higher education.• Manser, J. (1994). 9. In Economics: A foundation course for the built

environment (pp. 84-86). London: E & FN Spon• MARADE. (n.d.). Furniture. Retrieved from http://www.matrade.gov.

my/en/foriegn-buyers-section/69-industry-write-up--products/621-furniture. Accessed on 14 May 2015.

• Aronson, J. (1965). The encyclopedia of furniture (3rd ed.). New York: Crown.

• Hiew, J., & Yap, J. (2008). INTERIOR SPACE. MY HOME INTERIOR

AND IDEAS.

• Tang, T. (2011, May 1). Nature comes home (D. Tan, Ed.). Eco Chic, 58-87.

• The 73 by Heng Furnishing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.the73.com/content/home/index/site:the73-link:1427. Accessed on 29 April 2015.

Reference• Morley, J. (1999). A history of furniture (1st ed.). Bulfinch Press.

• Furniture Design History. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2015, from http:

//www.onlinedesignteacher.com/furniture_design/furniture_design%

20history.html

• The 73 by Heng Furnishing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.the73.

com/content/home/index/site:the73-link:1427. Accessed on 29 April

2015.

• The Curiosity Shop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thecuriousitygallery.

blogspot.com/. Accessed on 10 May 2015.

• D.Ho (Personal communication, May 13, 2015)

• TX.Yeoh (Personal communication, May 2, 2015)

Thank You !