1. COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS OF A
CAFÉ AND COFFE HOUSE
EFFECTIVE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION [FCOM 0102]
Ms. P.THIVILOJANA
ENGLISH 2 [ENGL0205]
MS. CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
July 2013 Intake
Foundation in Natural and Built Environments
Group Members
Toh Yih Sheng 0315976
Lee Ka Hoe 0315908
Liew Hong Zhi 0315836
Shaun Chung Tin Fung 0315806
Dinuka Oshidhi Weerasinghe 0316164
Tan Wee Keat 0315885
Rajan Kulandaya 0317164

2. 1
Table of Contents
Key Summary......................................................................2
Methodology ......................................................................3
Café and bakery in Malaysia...............................................4
Eté Café...............................................................................5
Shakespeare .......................................................................9
Comparison and Contrast.................................................13
Recommendations............................................................14
Conclusion ........................................................................15
Similarities ........................................................................16
Differences .......................................................................17
References........................................................................18
Appendix...........................................................................19

3. 2
Key Summary
Our assignment requires us to conduct a research on two businesses of the same type in
order to compare the differences and similarities between those two. Our group consists of 7
members: Tan Wee Keat, Lee Ka Hoe, Rajan Kulandaya, Dinuka, Shaun Chung, Toh Yih Sheng and
Liew Hong Zhi. We had chosen two café shops as our research targets: Eté Café and
Shakespeare. The Former is located in 25, Lorong Carnarvon, Georgetown, 10300 Penang and
the latter is in Jalan SS 15/7, SS 15, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor.

4. 3
Methodology
The first café shop that we did our interview with was during our Penang trip on May 16th
2014.
The trip was planned by Mr. Joe, Ms. Cassandra and Ms. Lojana. The main objective of the trip
was to bring the students who were involved in the same interviewing assignment to make
contact and interview their targeted businesses in Penang.
Those who participated in the trip to Penang gathered in Taylor’s University Lakeside’s bus stop
on 6am as the bus leaves the university at around 6.10am. Those who went to Penang from our
group were: Tan Wee Keat, Liew Hong Zhi, Rajan Kulandaya and Shaun Chung.
As soon as we reached our hotel room, we immediately surfed the net to find possible
businesses that we could make appointments with. We found a lot of businesses and contacted
them but most of them either rejected our request or were too far away from our hotel. We
understood that it was a Friday and they were probably very busy serving the customers. It was
our fault because we did not give out any notice to them beforehand. Luckily for us, we found a
small café shop located not more than 2kilometres away from our hotel. The café assistant
accepted our request after getting the approval from the owner.
Before we headed to the café shop, called Eté Café, our group accompanied another group to
their interview. Sadly, their interview did not go well as the owner was not in the store and the
manager there was busy. We parted ways with the other group at the store and we took a taxi
ride to the café shop. When we reach there, the assistant was waiting outside of the café shop;
it was quite a small shop at first glance. The assistant asked us whether we were the ones who
had called them earlier for an interview and we nodded our heads in approval.
We went into the shop and saw the owner who was chatting with a Japanese woman. We
quickly greeted him and introduced ourselves. His name was Alex and he was bald, he did not
tell us his age but from the look of his face he looked around the age of 30 to the mid 40’s. We
began the interview as soon as we had set up our laptops with a list of questions which were
later used in our interview. Alex was very friendly; he explained lots of things to us including
coffee making. Rajan took a lot of pictures using his camera during the whole interview as we
conversed with Alex in Mandarin. The whole interview took half an hour, we had all the
information that we needed. We bought some desserts from the café before we left.
The second café shop was Shakespeare. We contacted that cafe shop on the 28th
of May 2014.
The one who picked up the phone was the manager of the shop, his name was Jimmy. Jimmy
accepted our request right away and the interview was set the next day, which was on the 29th
of May 2014, around 4pm. The next day, we arrived at the café shop right on time. This time the
members from our group who went for the interview were Tan Wee Keat, Lee Ka Hoe and
Shaun Chung. We bought some desserts from the café while waiting for Jimmy. At last, Jimmy
was here, he looked like he was only about 27 years old. The whole interview took around 20
minutes only not as long as the one in Eté Café.

5. 4
Café and bakery in Malaysia
Back in the old days, middle aged people love to sit down in small quaint coffee shops,
The Infamous “Kopitiam”, to enjoy a cup of ‘Kopi’ with toast bread while reading a newspaper or
chatting with friends. Some preferred just to enjoy the taste of coffee and ease their mind from
a tiring day of labor. This past time is slowly dying in the now 21st
century and can only be
spotted in rural areas and in certain locations in Mainland Malaysia
Nowadays, young people can also be seen wondering in a café shop. They are mostly
found in famous shops like The Coffee Bean and Starbucks and ones that make designer coffees.
Some spend their time there conversing with one another and some can be found reading a
book or newspapers. Most of cafés now also sells pastries and cakes because they want to
branch out by venturing and generating new ideas and products. Their target customers now
are mostly students as they like sweets and savory food products.
Our group decided to conduct a research and interview to identify how a café and
bakery shop actually functions. We had chosen a smaller and a bigger shop in order to see the
similarities and differences between the two.

6. 5
Eté Café
The name of the shop owner was Alex, a Taiwanese that came to Malaysia some years
ago with his wife and children. The couple came to Malaysia because their children were
studying here. He started his business 2 years ago and he named the shop Eté Café. Eté Café
specialized in selling signature coffees and French desserts. The inside of the café was decorated
with murals, drawings and pricings of the various savory items they sell. The space inside the
café is quite small and it is not very crowded because there are only a few tables and chairs and
a piano beside the entrance.
The café sells coffee and tea. The owner brews coffees using a syphon coffee maker,
which produces coffee that is cleaner, crisper and smoother compared to other brewing systems.
However the syphon coffee maker has a drawback; the process is too complex compared to
other coffee makers. There are many varieties of coffee sold there. The coffees made by the
owner are sugar free and milk free as well.

7. 6
The café also sells French desserts like cakes and macaroons. The owner claimed that he
studied dessert making in Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, for two years. He reduces the sugar content of
all the desserts, this skill was picked up during his time in Paris.
Alex told us that the locals always asked for a stronger taste in their cakes when they
were eating them. Yet, he did not change the taste of the desserts; he had his own principle in
dessert making. He wants the desserts he made to taste exactly like what he wanted. There
were two Japanese customers who came to his shop on the day we visited, and seemed to know
Alex very much. Alex also told us that foreigners often come to his shop.

8. 7
Alex claimed that there were not many western style café shops in Penang, only about
five. For that reason, he does not worry so much about his competitors. Even though his
competitors may threaten his business in terms of coffee, the cakes that he makes are a whole
lot different from theirs. The only significant disadvantage his business has right now is the high
pricing he imposes on the coffees he makes. To Alex, the pricings of the coffees are acceptable
because it is almost the same as those sold in Starbucks and back in his homeland, Taiwan.
The café is small because Alex wanted to interact with his the customers as much as
possible, this is due to his strong statement he stressed during the interview by saying he likes
getting to know different people and making new friends. If the place is too big, he could not
serve the customers well. Also, he said that the customers he interacted with could help him to
advertise his shop to others. Alex told us a lot about businesses in Taiwan too. According to him,
Taiwan is a lot smaller than Malaysia but the populations of both countries are very much the
same. Hence, the competition is very great in Taiwan. If a shop reduces its products’ prices, all of
the shop’s competitors will follow suit; if a shop increases the quality of its products, all of the
shop’s competitors will increase the quality of their products too. Because of that, the
customers will go to the shop with the best services. Alex said most of the shops’ in Malaysia do
not have the kind of culture that focuses on good services.

9. 8
Alex said that his 2 year stay in Paris thought him a lot especially in terms of the food
industry and eating. He claimed that food in Paris does not contain any chemical ingredients; the
people in Paris use only the freshest and most natural ingredients. That isn’t all, they also use
traditional methods of making food, instead of using machines that other businesses do in order
to produce food in bulk.
We were informed that this café is only Alex’s side job. The shop is operational for only
works 6 hours a day from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eté Café also provides learning courses for those
who are very interested in making French desserts and brewing coffee. The maximum number
of students that Alex recruits is only four as his time is limited and he finds it convenient to be
teaching a small group.

10. 9
Shakespeare
Mr. Ting was the founder of Shakespeare. The shop was founded in the year 2012.
Shakespeare sells 3 kinds of foods: hot foods, pastries and desserts. The shop also sells a variety
coffee and chocolate flavored drinks too. The most popular items sold by the shop are the
Japanese breakfast, chocolate macaroon, lesultau (chocolate crunch with coffee) and chocolate
truffle.
The reason why Mr. Ting decided to open a café was that he had a sudden interest in
opening one while he was studying abroad in Japan. He noticed that Japanese bakery stores had
a huge difference compared to those in Malaysia. He wanted to bring the Japanese style of
baking back to Malaysia because it will be special a to Malaysians. Because of that, he opened a
café shop which focuses more on baking products.

11. 10
The interior of Shakespeare has a design similar to the coffeehouses in England: white
and brick-like walls, wooden ceiling arches and furnished with western styled tables and chairs.
That’s not all, there were also old western influenced drawings hanging on the walls. Mr. Ting
wanted his customers to feel like they were in England whilst they were have their tea. The shop
was named after William Shakespeare as he was an English man.
This café shop business was only Mr. Ting’s interest, not his main job or a family
business. Not only that, Mr. Ting himself has zero knowledge about coffee brewing and pastry
making. He chose SS15 as the place to open Shakespeare because there were many students
from the nearby schools and colleges. Sometimes, there will also be families and nearby workers
coming to have their breakfast in the shop. Mr. Ting wanted the customers to feel comfortable
in his shop, to enjoy their time dining or drinking a cup of coffee. He wanted the customers to
taste the wonderful Japanese style foods and beverages.

12. 11
One of the many challenges that Shakespeare was facing is the need to be more creative
than other similar shops in SS15. The bakers of the shop often need to invent new kinds of
bread and pastry to attract more customers. Not only that, there are limited car parking lots in
SS15 as the place is always congested. The shop with the biggest threat to Shakespeare is the RT
Pastry House, which is quite a famous franchise bakery store in Malaysia. Shakespeare also
suffers from the over hiring of foreign workers as they could not communicate well with the
locals. Customers would sometimes complain that the foreign workers do not understand what
they ordered and gave them the wrong foods. Even though the shop faces lots of challenges, it
however can still manage to earn a lot of money.
Mr. Ting hired 3 consultants from Japan to help him with his business. Most of the
bakers were Chinese. Shakespeare was the sixth shop opened by Mr. Ting, the first shop was
located in Kuala Lumpur named “Levain” and is a bakery. The manager, Jimmy, whom we
interviewed, also manages another one of Mr. Ting’s shops. Jimmy wanted to further improve
the service of the shop by having a good attitude towards the customers.

13. 12
The prices of the cakes are relatively cheaper as compared to other cake shops, only
about RM35 for a whole cake. The prices of the products did not rise in the past 2 years and the
service charge is free.

14. 13
Comparison and Contrast
Both shops shared lots of differences. Firstly, Eté Café was a whole lot smaller in terms
of the shops space and size as compared to Shakespeare. Because of that, Eté Café could
achieve the objective of providing good services to the customers as the owner can interact
directly with the customers more. On the other hand, Shakespeare was often complained by the
customers about its poor services.
Furthermore, the targets of Eté Café were mostly old, loyal customers who love
spending their time conversing with the owner as he was a very friendly man. In Shakespeare,
their targets were mostly new customers because over a half of their customers were students
from the nearby areas.
Eté Café only needed to hire one assistant hence reducing the cost needed to operate
the shop. Contrary to Eté Café, Shakespeare needs to hire more workers to speed up the
working process because the shop is much bigger. They need to earn more to pay the salaries of
the workers but that did not seem to bother them as the customers kept on coming.
However, both shops still shared some similarities. Both shops were opened as an
interest and both were just a side job of their respective owners. Not only that, the types of
foods they sold were pretty much the same, for example: macaroons and cakes.
In addition, both owners opened their respective shops without thinking of earning a
huge sum of money; they simply like to provide a comfortable environment for their customers.
In conclusion, both shops shared a fair amount of similarities and differences.

15. 14
Recommendations
Eté Café should rent a larger place and make more advertisement to attract Eté Café.
The shop sells different coffees from around the globe so that customers visiting the shop are
mostly foreigners and that these foreigners can taste coffees inspired by flavors from their own
country.
Not only that, we recommend the Eté Café to make more varieties of pastries so that
the customers could come during tea time to fully fill their stomachs. The owner of Eté Café
should really extend the working time if he wanted to increase the profit of his shop. We feel
that 6 working hours is not enough.
Shakespeare should try to buy more parking lots for their customers to park their car.
They should stop hiring foreign workers because they cannot communicate well with the local
customers. In addition, their workers should be trained to interact more with their customers so
that they would want come back to Shakespeare again.

16. 15
Conclusion
Based on our analysis, Shakespeare did a great job in terms of being commercially
successful. This is because the area where Shakespeare was located had a lot of people as there
are many schools, colleges and working places nearby despite its flaws of having many
competitors. People would eventually go and try the food of Shakespeare because of the
relaxing environment and the unique pastries that they are selling. However, in terms of
providing a homely environment, Eté Café has done a much better job. The frequent interaction
between the owner, Alex, and his customers created some kind of relationship between them;
that is how loyal customers were made. People would be willing to go to Eté Café again despite
the high price of their coffees and teas just to have a friendly conversation with the owner.
Overall, both shops had their own strong point but both still serve delicious foods and drinks to
their customers.

17. 16
Similarities
Eté Café Shakespeare
Both shops were founded because of the interest of the owner
Relaxing environment
Sells cakes, desserts and macaroons
Sells coffee
Do not focus on earning money
Founded in the year 2012
No change in prices

18. 17
Differences
Eté Café Shakespeare
Sell breads No Yes
Shop size Small Big
Presence of foreign workers No Yes
Amount of workers needed Few Many
Target customers Loyal customers New customers
Service provided Good Normal

19. 18
References
The Evolving Coffee Culture in Malaysia (Internet reference)
http://www.myworklife.my/lifestyle/live/dining/the-evolving-coffee-culture-in-malaysia/
What2See: best of Penang Food! (Internet reference)
http://www.what2seeonline.com/tag/ete-cafe/
Ken Hunts Food (Internet references)
http://www.kenhuntfood.com/2013/09/ete-cafe-lebuh-carnavon-georgetown.html
Drink a cup of French coffee (Newspaper article) (2012) Guang Ming Daily
Eté Café TV interview (Interview reference) (2013) Astro ben di quan
Alex (2014) Interview with Eté Café in Penang, 16th
of May 2014.
Jimmy (2014) Interview with Shakespeare in Selangor, 29th
of May 2014.
According to Alex (2014), “The art of coffee brewing is very hard to master”
According to Alex (2014), “I do not change the taste of my coffee to suit the taste of the locals”
According to Jimmy (2014), “We are trying to change the attitude of the workers towards the
customers”

20. 19
Appendix
Interview with Alex, owner of Eté Café

21. 20
Different view of Eté Café
A variety of coffees and syphon coffee filters

22. 21
Pricings.
The piano beside the entrance.

23. 22
A certificate proving Alex graduated from Le Cordon Bleu.
Outside view of Eté Café.

24. 23
Interview with Jimmy, the manager of Shakespeare

25. 24
Different views of Shakespeare.

26. 25
Paintings.

27. 26
Gift from Jimmy.