Business Models
There are 9 elements in the business model
which are value proposition, revenue model and market opportunity, management
team and strategy, financial and organizational viability, available resources,
business partners and supply chain, strengths and weaknesses analysis, industry
competitive and competitive advantage & products and services offered.
Value proposition is defined as the products and
services of a business including complementary services that is offered to
fulfill customers’ needs and wants (Kambil, Grinsberg, & Bloch, 1996). As
for Funny Mountain’s business, its value proposition to customers is the
authentic traditional way of making soy milk and “Tau Fu Fah” (Soy Bean Custard
or Pudding).Besides, Funny Mountain also provides drive-through service for
customers’ convenience’s sake.
Through our interview with the owner of Funny
Mountain, he insists to follow his grandmother’s method of making soy milk
which is by using stone grinder to make the finest soy milk that remains as one
of the top attractions the locals as well as foreigners. The uniqueness of
drive-through service helped to facilitate the business because they allow their
customers to ‘dine-in’ in the comforts of their own vehicle.
Revenue Model and Market
Opportunity
In term of the revenue model that used by Funny
Mountain is the sales revenue model which derive revenue from selling goods and
services to customers. Funny Mountain focuses on their main products such as
soy milk and “Tau Fu Fah” (Soy bean custard) but they also make use of other
ingredient like grass jelly to mix with their main products to attract
customers with a variety of sweet desserts. Hence, they are offering products
like “white white” (soy milk + tau fu fah), “black white” (grass jelly + soy
milk) to cater and serve the needs and wants of customers.
As for the “#41 Dessert Stall” at “Dessert Street”, they are using
the same revenue model which is sales revenue model to generate profits for
their business. The owner with his “mixed fruits shaved ice”made his stall
stand out among other dessert stalls because the mixed fruits shaved ice uses
tropical fruits and is served in smaller pieces that is suitable for customers
to blend with shaved ice. Other than that, the mixed fruits shaved ice tastes
well with a well-balanced sweetness that fits everyone’s needs regardless of
customers’ age and health concerns. Dessert stall 41 also serves side dishes like 爱玉冰 (Ai Yu Bing, a cold and sweet
refreshing shaved ice dessert) ，and 啦啦 (Freshly steamed cockles).
Funny Mountain serves the mass market as their
food and beverages are appropriate for everyone with different demographic or
physiographic but they do focuses on micro group of consumers who loves the
mixture of soy beancurd, soy milk and grass jelly. Besides that, the market
space that Funny Mountain intends to serve has no boundaries because all
Malaysian even foreign tourists will grab a cup of soy milk under hot weather
for cooling purpose.
Dessert stall 41 at Dessert Street provides food
and beverages to differentiated market as their target market is only people
who crave for desserts with shaved ice. This is because health conscious
consumers will not prefer to consume sweet ice desserts or beverages on a
frequent or fair regular basis. However, having a bowl of mixed fruits shaved
ice is an enjoyment or reward for many Malaysians after a long day at work.
Management Team and
Strategy
As for the management team of Funny Mountain,
owner and employees have fast and responsive action in serving consumers. Not
only that, employees in serving drive-thru service customers have seldom make
mistakes and control the traffic of cars smoothly without making problems to
other people.
The owner and employees of dessert stall 41 are
friendly and caring to consumers. They will approach every customer to check
whether the food is served or if there were anything missed out to avoid
disappointment from customers.
Financial and
Organizational viability
Basically both businesses are required small
amount of capital to start off and their products’ cost is low because the raw
materials are always available in the market just depending on the quality.
However, they have their own suppliers who supplies yellow bean, grass jelly to
Funny Mountain whereas for dessert stall 41 are fruits and some seafood. Since
both businesses have low cost raw materials but their effort to make the food
and beverages are much appreciate which they have to charge consumers with
market price to pay off their efforts and time in the process making. However,
from consumer perspectives, the pricing for food are worth of money that’s the
reason why they are so famous and always full of consumers.
Funny Mountain has its own technique of making
soy milk and soy bean curd which is the unique resources that able to retain
customers and customer spread word of mouth about it. For dessert stall 41, its
fruits mixed shaved ice with ice cream and ice jelly has differentiate with
other stall dessert because the homemade sauces that mix with tropical fruits
has creates a special taste. Consumers will always up for ice dessert due to
Malaysian weather but dessert stall 41 is because of the taste of mixture that
causes consumer unable to resist.
Business partners,
supply chain
For Funny Mountain, it has its own business partner
that provides the soy bean and glass jelly as their basic ingredients to make
the soy milk and soy beancurd. As to ensure their business is not affected
because of the delivery of basic ingredients, Funny Mountain owner will pick up
the ingredients from their supply themselves instead of asking for delivery.
Besides, the owner will ensure their daily business process run smoothly before
they start to operate every day.
Dessert street dessert stall 41 owner manage to
have fresh fruits from his own supplier daily early morning so that they have
enough time to prepare the fruits before business hours. Other than that, the owner
will go to market to grab some fresh seafood like prawns and cockles for
consumer to enjoy together with shaved ice.
Strengths and weaknesses
analysis
Strength point of Funny Mountain is that the
traditional recipe of making the soy milk and soy bean curd as well as they are
creative enough to create its own drive-thru service where consumer can
‘dine-in’ inside the car or take away. In term of its weakness, Funny Mountain
has limited space for consumer to enjoy soy milk or other beverages inside the
shop and long queue of car causes traffic jam in that area.
For dessert stall 41, it has variety of food and
beverages with its special sauce and friendly customer services. On the other
hand, dessert stall 41 has stuffy environment where the kitchen is right in
front of customer dining area and limited seats for customers and dining area
is open for customer to sit even customers are not ordering food from the
stall.
Industry Competitive and
Competitive Advantage
Funny Mountain in Ipoh is famous to local and
foreign tourists for its soy milk and soy bean curd hence its competitive
environment is not intense as there are only few stalls or shops selling the similar
food and beverages as Funny Mountain. Besides that, Funny Mountain has its own
supplier in providing soy bean and traditional method of making soy milk and
soy bean curd that facilitates the operation. Funny Mountain has the finest soy bean curd and rich aroma and taste soy bean milk that become the competitive advantage over other competitors.
Dessert stall 41 serves the mixed fruits shaved
ice with fresh tropical fruits that buy from market every morning and no
leftover for tomorrow business. Under such intense competitive environment,
consumers select stall 41 because of uniqueness of shaved ice and other side
dishes offered. Dessert Stall 41 famous for its fresh tropical
fruits in mixed fruits shaved ice besides cheap and tasty side dishes that leads
consumers choose over other dessert stalls.
Products and Services
Offered
Funny Mountain is offering soy milk, soy bean
curd or mixture of soy milk n soy bean curd and mixture of grass jelly with soy
milk. Besides that, all products come with different size of serving either
500ml or 1.5l for take-away but for dine-in is all the same with plastic cup
and glass bowl. In term of their service, drive-thru service has differential
from other competitors because consumers can ‘dine-in’ inside care while having
the drive-thru service. Other than that, employees of Funny Mountain have quick
service and seldom make mistake of orders from consumers.
Dessert stall 41 in Dessert Street is offering
ice cream tropical fruits shaved ice, ice jelly and some other ice beverages as
well as some snacks that have matches the taste of shaved ice like freshly
steamed cockles and prawn biscuits. Dessert stall 41
is focusing mainly on their products but they do provide friendly services to
customers which make customers feel comfortable.
References
Kambil, A., Grinsherg, A., & Bloch, M. (1996). Re-inventing Value Propositions. New York.
