What specific business need was being addressed and solved?

We have visited the shop and talked to the owner of the shop and they told us that they are
facing several problems, in which those are typical business needs faced by usual businesses.

First of all, they told us that their shop failed to attract a lot of customers. Despite having a
long history, customers are usually the regular customers, and find it difficult to expand their
customer base to teenagers and students, as the location may not be too convenient. After
visiting the shop and tried out the desserts, we came up with a conclusion, that is the menu
design being outdated. Therefore, we made another menu that differs from its competitors.
We spent time looking for its competitors’ menu for ideas, like honeymoon dessert and hui
lau shan. Later on, we did a new menu, with the theme “old hong kong” and add lots of
adjectives usually used by teens, in order to recall the childhood memories of the older
customers, while at the same time use interesting adjectives to attract the younger
generations. So as to attract a wider customer base to solve the business need of attracting
more customers.

Secondly, they told us that their shop was kind of outdated due to the lack of a digital cashier.
In fact, although cashier digitalization is very popular in Hong Kong, many small shops still
do not have a digital cashier limited to the amount of capital. Presently, the shop owners are
required to take order manually and keep the records by papers and files. After several
meetings with the business owner, we have agreed to the introduce apps for recording
transactions and book keeping. Therefore, we searched throughout the internet and apps and
finally came up with an app that can help them with that. Having a digitalized cashier can not
only reduce the probability of having bookkeeping errors, but also speed up the cashier
process. In the age of digitalization, digitalizing the cashier is a trend and is a business need.

Thirdly, they find it difficult to compete with large dessert shops, especially the chain stores,
despite having lower price than the chain store competitors. Apart from the menu problems,
we found that the company do not have enough focus on their hot items. Then we talk to the
shop owners and suggest that they should focus more on their hot items, especially the ginger
milk curd. Since our main focus will be on the menu part, we decided to add different
categories to the menu, like “hot items”, in order to let customers know what products the
shop is famous for. Comparing their original menu with the menu of the large chain stores,
we found that it lacks pictures for the desserts. Therefore, we went to the shop and take
photos of their items and put them into the menu, in order to make the menu attractive and
look similar to the chain stores. We hope to make the shop look more attractive and focus
more on their hot items to solve the business need of competing with large dessert companies.

Lastly, the shop’s goodwill has not yet been established and the shop owner told us that they
have a need of establishing a goodwill. Although the shop has a long history, the current
owner just bought and run the shop for a limited period of time and the past owner didn’t run
the business well and ruined the goodwill and this can be shown by the bad reviews in
openrice. Therefore, the owner has an urgent need of establishing a goodwill. In the face of it,
we recommended the owner to change the image of the shop, by changing the menu from
old-school to more pictures and interesting names, to attract more customers and serve tasty
desserts to them. This allows customers to build more confidence in their products and hence
write better reviews in openrice. Long after, the shop’s goodwill can be established.
Hidden meaning in menu:

Given that the shop has a long history, it has viewed and experienced the old Hong Kong.
Therefore, we would like to change the theme of the menu to “Old Hong Kong songs”, as
Hong Kong is rather famous for its songs especially in the 1980s and 90s.

Eg 1: 相逢何必曾雙色
This means that two colours meet each other, and the colours are the typical black
(sesame) and white (egg white). This is actually taken from a famous love song sang by Ram
and Rita in 1990.

Eg 2: 分分鐘需要梨
This means that a person is desperate of pear (fruit). This is taken from a famous
love song sang by George in 1980. The original sentence should be about a person who is
desperate of another person. Since the pronunciation of ‘you’ and ‘pear’ are the same, we
substitute ‘pear’ into this sentence to highlight the dessert made of pear.

Eg 3: 烈焰紅唇蛋茶
This is taken from a famous love song sang by Anita in 1987. Since the dessert is
ginger flavored, which is a bit spicy, customers’ lips make become red after eating it due to
the spicy flavor. This dessert name can let customers visualize the level of spiciness, hence
the freshness of the ginger, as the more mature the ginger, the higher the level of spiciness.