‘Coffee for You’ is set to be operational in January 2016 if all project plans are executed on schedule. The highlight of the coffee shop is that it is the first authentic gourmet coffee house to be set up in this region. The coffee shop will be offering a customised coffee-making facility to the customers whereby the latter will be able to sip coffee of their own choice by selecting the coffee beans, the flavour, texture and brewing method. The interior will have a vintage look with antique-style wood furnishings and artworks adorning the walls. Silver-plated crockery especially brought from England will be used to serve coffee and other eatables to customers. Such a vintage look will be set in order to appeal to the high-profile clientele. The coffee house will be facing intense competition from rival companies such as Costa Coffee and Starbucks, however, the managers believe that the competition can be beaten through a competitive pricing strategy and the unique selling points of the coffee house.
The primary mission of Coffee for You is to provide a highly customized, gourmet coffee experience to the customers in a luxurious yet aesthetically appealing vintage environment.
The managers of Coffee for You will strive to provide coffee products and associative services to the customers that are unmatched in terms of quality, quantity, price and experience.
The coffee house will mainly be selling gourmet coffee of different flavours to its customers. One of the most significant unique selling propositions (USPs) of the coffee house is to provide a customised coffee making experience to its customers whereby the latter would be able to choose their own flavours, textures, coffee beans and the brewing method. Alongside gourmet coffee, normal coffee and espressos, the coffee house will also be serving its customers with several soft drinks variants. The management of the coffee house will also have loyalty rewards for the customers who make a set number of consecutive visits in a week. The loyalty rewards will include discount coupons (to be redeemed in subsequent visits), coffee mugs and artworks. The coffee house will also have separate private kiosks, which can be booked on an hourly basis by customers who require a quiet place to have private meetings and conversation. However, upon no reservation, these kiosks will be offered to regular customers.
The owner/manager will be responsible for overseeing the overall operations within the coffee house. The chief operation officer will be responsible for heading he individual functional blocks which includes the finance department, human resource department, supply chain department and the catering service department. The functional departments will be supervised the respective managers. The chain of command will follow a top down approach where the chief financing officer will be in charge of the accountants and the analysts, the HR manager will supervise the organization staff, the supply chain manager will be responsible for overseeing the supply and delivery of raw materials and the kitchen manager will be monitoring the performance of the kitchen staff. The employees will be recruited through advertisements posted in newspaper as well as in online job portals. In addition various job recruitment agencies will also be approached who have a huge base of talented applicants from different sectors.
London and Wales has been selected as the marketplace for the new coffee house. The reason behind that is because of the city’s highly developed market that supports the existing companies as well as new entrants trying to establish a foothold in the market. The positive aspect of the marketplace is the constant visit of business-class people as well as tourists from different parts of the world. This allows the firms to spread their brand name outside their operational zones. Being a new firm in the zone, Coffee for You is expected to attract customers mainly with their store design and additional services provided to the customers such as ambience and discount offers. The primary barrier for the coffee house will be to manage the competition from the existing firms in the marketplace such as Barista, Starbucks, Costa Coffee and so on.
The fundamental requirement for the coffee house to be successful in the dynamic market of London and Wales is to make sure that customers are able to monitor and notice the special features of the store such as the quality of the service, which will be monitored by The Barista Guild of UK (Aaker, 2011). These are compulsory aspects of the service process of Coffee for You and should be made known to the customers in order to gain their trust. The development of the marketplace will also be enhanced by the promotional offers given by the business house during the initial period of the store opening. Discount offers, package deals, gift vouchers, celebrity endorsements and so on are some of the common strategies implemented by other beverage firms operating in the target neighbourhood. Focusing on the specific needs of the customers in the concerned market, the busy life style of people urges them to ask for fast service with the shortest lead time (Apéria and Georgson, 2011). However, as most of the customers visiting high-end stores prefer ambience, disciplined service and respect for their needs from their service providers, the service process of the coffee house should maintain these forms of etiquette without slowing the pace of their services (Kapferer, 2008).
