INTRODUCTION

Sushi Ninja is a sushi restaurant that specializes in making Singapore-style sushi. Other than the usual Japanese ingredients, Sushi Ninja included a twist of popular local food such as Chili crab and Sambal Stingray. Furthermore, customers are able to customize and roll their own sushi. Sushi Ninja will be the first restaurant in Singapore to offer these.

LOGO & SLOGAN

All parts of the logo symbolized our vision for the company. The letter “U” feature a sushi which symbolize “Ninja”, the smile represented good service with a smile, and the five tiny stars on the letter “S” with the use of red and white color signifies Singapore. Together, all parts of the word represented a united team of Sushi Ninja management and staff, working as one to bring the company forward. Furthermore, our slogan “Ninja your sushi way” focuses on how our sushi is made from mixing a large variety of ingredients, to customers’ exact specifications.

MISSION STATEMENT

Provide the best quality Singapore-style sushi and unique dining experience of making your own sushi at a reasonable price for customers.

UNIQUE SELLING POINT (USP) & CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS (CSF)

Sushi Ninja’s USP is using popular local food as the ingredients to derive the first and only Singapore Style Sushi. Another USP is allowing customers to customize and make their own sushi.

Sushi Ninja’s CSF is the food quality, employees’ attraction and retention and maintaining customer’s satisfaction. As Sushi Ninja is a restaurant, the quality of food is important in order to attract customers and retain them. For example, the ingredients used must be fresh and up to customers’ expectations. Good food quality also helps Sushi Ninja to build a good reputation in the industry. Employees’ attraction and retention is also important for Sushi Ninja’s daily operation as without employees such as our chefs and servers, our restaurant cannot conduct business properly. Lastly, customer’s satisfaction is a compulsory for a restaurant as customers are our main source of income.

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Ninja your sushi way

BUSINESS MODEL

Sushi Ninja is going to adopt two business models, the Business to Customer model (B2C) and Brick and Click Model (B&C). With food being a daily necessity for everyone, both business models will allow Sushi Ninja to maximize its profit.

B2C The relationship between Sushi Ninja and its customers is to sell the products directly to the customers, with no intermediary.

B&C Sushi Ninja will have a physical retail shop and an online presence that generates sales. It will also allow the organization to reach a vast population and give the business competitive advantage.

PRIMARY RESEARCH-SURVEY ANALYSIS

Respondents

The number of females and males that has taken our survey is generally equal, aged between 16 to 25 years old (Question 2). This shows that majority are teenagers or young adults with no income as proved in Question 3 and the price will be a sensitive issue as proved in Question 13.

Recommendation of Customization

In the analysis from Question 7, we realized 34% of the respondents are neutral on the concept of customization. However, the average rating of 3.41 out of 5 and 71% (Question 6) shows that they would like to customize their own sushi. This shows that at least more than half of the Singaporeans like the idea of customization and are more likely to recommend customization.

Making your own sushi

According to the survey, 68% of the respondents would like to make their own sushi while the remaining 32% do not want to. This shows that most people are willingly to make an effort to create their own sushi while the remaining 32% might find it troublesome and time consuming. Nevertheless, making your own sushi is an uncommon concept in Singapore which will be a new experience for majority.

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New Combination

The survey shows that 92%, with a rating of 4.02 out of 5, likes sushi (Question 4&5). This shows that sushi is a popular food in Singapore and 70% (Question 9) are willingly to try out new combination of sushi while the remaining 30% responded no. This might be due to the refreshing concept which is not commonly found in Singapore while the minority might be afraid of the taste.

Favorite Food

According to the survey (Question 10), Chilli Crab is the most favoured Singapore food, followed by Satay and Sambal Stingray. Therefore, we should be more aware of their supplies and ensure it will always be available.

Reasons to visit a restaurant again

According to the survey, 96% would visit a particular restaurant if they are satisfied with the food and 79% would do so if they are happy with the price. Other reasons such as the facilities and the availability of Wi-Fi will also affect customers' decision in dining at a restaurant.

Frequency

In the analysis from Question 11, we realized 35% do not dine at a restaurant so often. This can be due to the higher food costs in restaurants as proved in Question 13, with pricing being the second most important factor when it comes to dining. With food being the most important factor, assumption was made that restaurants neglected the variety of food. However, the average rating of 3.2 out of 5 shows that majority do dine at a restaurant, probably occasionally.

Preferred Choice of Location

According to the survey, 58% responded on their preferred choice of the restaurant’s location (Question 14) to be near neighbourhood while the remaining 42% are made up of town area. This can be due to the majority who still prefer to travel short distance even though location is not their main priority as proved in Question 13.

Form of Advertisement

Apparently, 42% shows that they are attracted to online advertisement and 38% by television advertisement. Thus, assumption was made that majority are often on the net.

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Singapore Style Sushi

Based on the result from Question 16, 39% of the respondents are in favor of having Singapore style sushi while 56% are neutral. This shows that the majority is not against the idea of Singapore style sushi and is willingly to try it out as proved in Question 19.

Price

Majority would pay a price of up to $3.50 for a plate of sushi. Furthermore, as proved in Question 12, the price is the second most important factor people will consider before visiting a particular restaurant again. Thus, assumption was made that people will not spend too much on food.

Rice Base

From the survey, we can see that 74% of the respondents still prefer Japanese rice, followed by 43% on white rice and 30% on chicken rice. Thus, assumption was made that majority prefer rice that is simple and less oily.

Conclusion

With the summarized survey, the idea of Singapore style sushi is not against by majority, especially young adults (no matter which gender). Hence, the idea has a large potential growth in the market. Majority are also willing to give it a try. Therefore, it will be a wise choice to set up Sushi Ninja, a Singapore style sushi concept restaurant, in Singapore using media or social network to attract more customers. Singapore style sushi will also help to spread and enhance our unique Singapore cultural of having a wide range of cuisines.

SECONDARY RESEACRH

Sales of Food & Beverage Services

[Refer to Figure 1] Singapore’s Food & Beverage (“F&B”) industry has been growing throughout the year from 2013 to 2014 with the sales (seasonally adjusted) increased by 0.7% in March 2014 compared to the previous month and 0.6% in March 2014 compared to March 2013. This shows that there is an increase in customer sales in the F&B industry in Singapore and the economy is getting better.

[Refer to Figure 2] Although the F&B industry is blooming, statistics have shown that only “other eating places” and “fast food outlets” have increased 5.2% and 2.2% respectively in March 2014. Both restaurants and food caterers decreased 3.2% and 3.0% respectively.

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Future Growth of Industry

According to an article on "Singapore F&B companies target expansion in Asia through FoodAsia2014" published on iesingapore.gov.sg, consumerism in Asia is on the rise. Within ASEAN itself, there are over 615 million customers, with a combined customer expenditure estimated to exceed $1.5 trillion in 2015. Singapore's F&B exports to the Asia-Pacific region are also on the rise, growing at an annual rate of 7.8% over the past five years to reach S$7.1 billion in 2013. These shows that Singapore’s F&B industry will continue to grow, driven by large domestic markets and a growing middle income group. Therefore, the future growth of Singapore’s F&B industry is promising.

Conclusion

The F&B industry plays a vital role in Singapore’s economy. With the ever increasing population in Singapore, there will be more people eating out and has given rise to an incredible range of F&B outlets, from up market eateries and restaurants to inexpensive cafes. The industry offers tremendous entrepreneurship opportunities because of its low entry barriers. However, it will also lead to the industry being highly competitive. Therefore, it is important for Sushi Ninja to stay competitive. With the USP of Sushi Ninja and the consumerism on the rise, Sushi Ninja has potential business viability and growth opportunities in Singapore.

COMPETITORS ANALYSIS

Although Sushi Ninja has its own unique selling points, it is critical to know more about its competitors who will have a huge impact on its business. Hence, having a better understanding of the business environment will help Sushi Ninja to come up with business strategies, solution or plan to attract more customers.

In general, competitors can be split into two categories which are the direct competitors and the indirect competitors.

Direct Competitors

Direct competitors refer to those companies that offer similar goods or services within the same market or those with the same targeted customers or demographics.

For Sushi Ninja, any shops or restaurants in Singapore that are related to Japanese cuisine are considered direct competitors. In this case, we have decided to only focus on three direct competitors which are Maki San, Sakae Sushi and Sushi Express.

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Maki-san

Profile

Maki-san is the first store in Singapore that allows customers to customize their own sushi and salad which first started off in Singapore, 2 years ago. Customers will have over 80 ingredients to pick from and only the chosen ones will go into their sushi roll or salad bowl.

Strengths

The concept is simple. Customers will only need to tick the various choices on a given paper, and bring it to the counter to have the sushi or salad made on the spot. They also have ready-customized sushi roll for people who wants to save the hassle to customize their own.

Instead of the usual Japanese ingredients, Maki-San included a twist of other ‘Asian’ types of toppings such as chicken floss. They also have monthly special such as Char Siew Sauce and dressing. On top of that, the sushi roll will be contained in a simple and yet artistically beautiful box.

The location of Maki-san is located in a shopping mall that is within walking distance of the nearest MRT, Dhoby Ghaut. Furthermore, the prices are reasonable and affordable with just $6.90 for a small roll and $9.90 for a large roll. Students from the nearby school such as NAFA can venture over for a treat without feeling overly broke.

Weaknesses

Maki-san is only available in one shopping mall that is located at town. It might not be convenient for everyone, especially during weekdays.

Although Maki-san has included localized dressings, majority of the choices are still Japanese ingredients. It will usually still be the common Japanese sushi, with a slight mixture of different ingredients, which can be found almost everywhere in Singapore.

Furthermore, the serving size is standard and not catered to individual’s needs. People are forced to choose either small or large sushi rolls which may not be ideal to everyone’s.

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Sakae Sushi

Profile

Sakae Sushi is one of the largest Japanese restaurant chains in Singapore, operating since 1997. It is well known for its trendy and quick-service kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi concept. Sakae Sushi had also won numerous awards such as the Singapore Promising Brand Award, Singapore Service Class Award and Singapore Innovation Award.

Strengths

Since Sakae Sushi had a long history (more than 15 years), it has already established a strong brand identity and built strong customer loyalties. Sakae Sushi has already secured a certain portion of market share.

Sakae Sushi has about 34 outlets widely spread around Singapore; they have their restaurant set up in both town and neighborhood area which is convenient for all. They also have a delivery system for people who are lazy to travel.

Furthermore, Sakae Sushi has over 200 varieties in their menu and will often introduce new variety of dishes to cater different customers’ needs.

Sakae Sushi has different kind of promotion at a different period. One of such example would be the credit card promotions. During June 2013, there is up to 50% discount off selected new menu items with a minimum of $40 spent when customer use OCBC card to pay for their bill. These promotions will help to reach out to different segment of customers.

Weaknesses

In term of pricing, Sakae Sushi is slightly more expensive compared to other Japanese restaurants such as Sushi Express, which offers all their sushi at $1.50 only. Another example is a plate of ikura sushi cost about $6.00 in Ichiban but cost about $6.30 in Sakae Sushi.

In addition, recently more reviews have shown that the standard of food in Sakae Sushi had drop. According to a website TripAdvisor, many mentioned the food quality and services of Sakae Sushi are inconsistent.

There is also a lack of strong Japanese culture displayed in the outlet. One such example is the non-Japanese staffs’ outfit and they do not greet customers in Japanese. Despite having a strong brand, Sakae Sushi only offers finished products. This means that customers’ cravings will not be fully satisfied by a dish.

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Sushi Express

Profile

Zensen Sushi Express Group (“Sushi Express”) is rooted in Japanese style. Their company’s policy is to “provide quality food at affordable prices”. There are more than 300 restaurants worldwide and have more than 60 outlets in Singapore itself. Sushi Express set up their first restaurant in Singapore in 2011.

Strengths

Sushi Express has the advantage of having the reputation and experience since it has been in the food industry since 1996. One of them will be having strong buying power by carefully selecting ingredients imported from overseas - enables them to provide high quality sushi at low prices. Such ingredients include tuna from Norway, shrimp from Thailand, scallop from Japan and rice from California.

With the capability to expand from one restaurant to more than 300 restaurants worldwide, it shows that they are able to capture the people’s attention and appetite. The USA is famous for having all types of food and being able to maintain its name there, is a big achievement itself. In addition, Sushi Express has been in Singapore since 2011 and till today, there are more than 60 outlets. This shows that Singaporeans do love their restaurant and due to this popularity, they are able to expand in here.

In 2010, Commonwealth Magazine conducted a survey of Taiwan’s top 500 service companies and Sushi Express ranked fourth for revenue in Tourism and Restaurant category. This shows how strong it is in Taiwan and if they keep this up, it is not impossible for them to succeed worldwide.

Weaknesses

One weakness Sushi Express has is that it is nearly the same as other Japanese restaurants. The reason is that it is sticking to its roots which are the Japanese style sushi. They do offer “specialty rolls and spicy items that evolved elsewhere”, as quoted from their website. However, this will not be as special as our Singapore style sushi.

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Indirect Competitors

For indirect competitors, it refers to businesses that offer different alternatives to satisfy the same customers’ needs.

Sushi Ninja is a restaurant which aims to satisfy customers’ needs for food. Hence, Sushi Ninja has infinite indirect competitors. All shops that sell foods can be considered as Sushi Ninja’s indirect competitors. Therefore, we will only focus on two main categories which are food courts and other restaurants. The two indirect competitors we would be focusing on are Kopitiam and Xin Wang Hong Kong Café.

Kopitiam

Profile

Kopitiam Investment Pte Ltd (“Kopitiam”) was set up in Singapore in 1988. Since then the company has expanded at a phenomenal rate. Today, Kopitiam is a leading name in the local food industry. It is well-known for providing a comfortable, modern dining experience at competitive prices.

Strengths

Kopitiam has already obtained a strong brand identity with impressive record of accomplishments. Being a local company, it has knowledge on the demands of local customers. There are more than 80 outlets in Singapore and also 1 in Shanghai, China. Kopitiam has outlets ranging from small, medium and large.

It has gathered a mixture of different cuisines at every Kopitiam outlet - Japanese food, Korean food, Western food, etc.

Besides providing a wide range of variety, every Kopitiam outlet will have different interior themes which are inspired by local, cultural, historical and social traditions; providing customers a unique experience in each Kopitiam outlet.

Kopitiam has also come up with various dining schemes to attract customers such as Kopitiam Card which make people dining experience more convenience. With the Kopitiam Card, people does not need to dig their wallet pay, they can just “tap and go” as it is a dining stored value card.

Weaknesses

Although Kopitiam has a wide range of different cuisines, its quality and service will not be comparable to restaurants.

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With the huge crowd, people will not be able to enjoy the sense of occasion and atmosphere with all the people and noises. Especially when it is a family occasion dinning out for Sunday lunch or a romantic candle lit dinner for 2.

Every stores in Kopitiam is self-service; customers will have to do everything themselves. Customers will also need to find their own seats and it will be inconvenient for people who are dining alone; they have to leave their seats to buy their food.

Xin Wang Hong Kong Café

Profile

Xin Wang Hong Kong Café (“XW”) is operated by experienced Hong Kong Minor Food Group. It is an Asian restaurant with a mixture of Hong Kong and Cantonese cuisine. There are 17 outlets in Singapore.

Strengths

XW is one of the few restaurants that open till late night in Singapore. Furthermore, a few outlets are in the neighborhood area. It might be the nearest and the only place for people to satisfy their late night cravings.

With the wide range of food choices, people in Singapore are able to have a taste of the typical Hong Kong and Macau cafes dishes. Local Singapore favorites such as dim sum and tea-time snacks are available too.

They will make an effort to bring in dishes customers like in Cantonese cuisine; making XW different from other Hong Kong Cafes in Singapore. There are also attractive promotions such as the $9.90 set meal which is relatively cheap.

Weaknesses

Despite being different from other Hong Kong Cafes, the quality and taste of the food are not up to most customers’ expectation; many feedbacks stated the food quality and service are inconsistent. Furthermore, certain outlet has limited space, making the waiting time longer. One such example is the outlet in Plaza Singapura.

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Competitor Comparison Matrix

Price Locations Ingredients Flexibility(Mix & Match)

Experiences Total Rating

Sushi Ninja

12

Sakae Sushi

8

Sushi Express

10

Maki San

8

Pricing is an important factor that most customers will look into before deciding which restaurant to visit hence it is critical to compare our pricing with our competitors to come out with our pricing strategy and remain competitive. We also need to consider our location; how easily accessible. Sushi Ninja is confident in its variety of ingredients by having a dinning scheme that allows customers to choose the exact ingredients they desire. Lastly, it will be the dining experiences customers will get by dining at our restaurant. Hence, we need to find out our strengths and weaknesses as compared to our competitors to further enhance our business plan.

In terms of pricing, Sushi Ninja will be slightly more expensive than Sushi Express. Sushi Ninja is the weakest in terms of location, having only one outlet at the moment. However, we are planning to open our outlet in a popular neighborhood area such as NEX which has a high human traffic flow and is easily accessible. We believe this will help to attract many customers since our targeted market is young adults.

Nevertheless, Sushi Ninja is the strongest in terms of ingredients, flexibility (Mix & Match) and experiences. For ingredients, Sushi Ninja is a restaurant that specializes in creating sushi roll with local delights – sushi roll will never be the same. For flexibility, Sushi Ninja allows customers to mix and match the exact ingredients they want. Lastly, for dining experience, Sushi Ninja allow customers to make their own unique sushi which is the best unique selling point that differentiate Sushi Ninja from Maki San.

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MARKET SEGMENTATION

Market segmentation is dividing a market into smaller groups of buyers with distinct needs, characteristics or behaviors with each of them reacting differently to the marketing mix. There are 5 bases for segmenting the customer markets which are Geography, Demographic, Psychographic, Benefits Sought and Usage Rate. We will only focus on the three bases that are the most relevant to us - Geographic, Psychographic and Benefits Sought.

Geographic Segmentation is about the location of our business, the market size, the market density and the climate of our location. Since we are a new restaurant, it will be better for us to locate our first restaurant at popular neighborhood malls with cheaper rental as compared to malls in the city. Hence, we decided to locate our first restaurant at NEX whereby it is surrounded by a number of schools.

Our market size will be 2.376 million as we are not only targeting young adults, but also people of all ages. Our market density will be about 3346 people per square kilometer. Although there are many F&B outlets in NEX, our main targeting audience is still the young adults, aged 15 to 30, and most of them are students. Hence, setting up in NEX will allow us to be closer to our main target market, making Sushi Ninja a step ahead in capturing their attention. Thus, NEX is a good choice.

Psychographic Segmentation refers to a person’s personality, values, attitudes, interest and lifestyle. Most customers are looking for good food at reasonable price. Our restaurant offers excellent food quality at an affordable cost. Furthermore, sushi roll that is filled with Singapore food is not found in any places. With most young adults being adventurous, they are willing to try new things. Most young adults have also added a new activity in their life which is called food hunting. They basically go around Singapore looking for cafes, restaurants and food stands to try out all the food that these places offer. This will then attract them to our restaurant since it is new and our food is unique.

Benefits Segmentation refers to the benefits that a customer looks for when buying the product. We are a sushi restaurant that allows customers to customize and create their own Singapore style sushi. One of the benefits that the customers are looking for is the unique and new experience that can only be found in our restaurant. The experience of making your own sushi that is not found anywhere in Singapore. Our next benefit is to have sushi roll that is mainly filled with Singapore local food. Sushi Ninja offers both Singapore local food and Japanese traditional sushi ingredients. Thus, customers can use their creativity and mix these two flavors and make the best out of them too.

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TARGET MARKETING

Target Marketing refers to developing measure of segment attractiveness. There are three strategies for selecting target markets which are Undifferentiated Strategy, Concentrated Strategy and Multi-segment Strategy. We decided to choose concentrated strategy.

Concentrated Strategy is focusing marketing efforts on only one segment. This means that we will develop a product that caters to the needs of that particular group. In our case, we started a make-your-own sushi restaurant for those who are looking for experience of making your own sushi and also for those who loves Singapore and Japanese cuisine and would like to try both of them together.

MARKET POSITIONING

Sushi Ninja should be positioned as slightly high quality and at moderate price so that majority of the customers will be willing to try it at a reasonable price. Although it may not maximize the business’ profit, it will be a good start off point to attract new customers for our newly set up business.

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Low Price

High Price

Perceived Low quality

Perceived High quality

MARKETING MIX

PRODUCT

Product-Service Continuum

Sushi Ninja is a Hybrid Offer as it offers 50% product and 50% service, with sushi as the product and waiters as the service.

Levels of a Product

Our actual product will be Singapore-Style Singapore. There will be over 50 variety of high quality local and Japanese food on our conveyor belt and menu. Consumers will be able to take any ingredients from the conveyor belt and add into their sushi roll. The

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Service:Waiters

Hybrid OfferProduct:Sushi

Core Product:Hunger satisfaction

Actual Product:Singapore-style sushi(sauce, ingredients, rice)Make-your-own sushi experienceHigh quality food

Augmented Product:DeliveryAmbience (music, colour, environment)

best thing in Sushi Ninja is consumers are free to use their creativity to customize the way they want their meal to be; be it adding the ingredients into the sushi roll or just eating the ingredients by itself.

Product Characteristics

Sushi Ninja’s Singapore style sushi is a shopping product. It is a product that customers do not buy as frequently as convenience goods. Our products usually cost more than convenience goods and customers will have certain expectations, so they will do some research prior to purchase. The research will include comparing product features and price with our competitors.

PRICE

Customers’ Value Perception

We plan to use customer-oriented pricing to estimate their value perception. Our target audience is young adults, aged 15-30 years old. Based on a survey conducted, the results showed that majority of them are willing to pay up to $3.50 for a plate of sushi. Therefore, in order to successfully attract most of them, the maximum amount charged per sushi plate should not be more than $3.50.

Internal Factors Affecting Price Setting

Sushi Ninja has decided to use cost-plus pricing which is to add a standard markup to the cost of the product. For example, the price of Chili Crab Sushi will be higher than the price of Stingray Sushi since the cost of crab is more expensive than stingray. In addition, Sushi Ninja is a newborn business with low profile and little reputation. Hence, the most important marketing objective is the informative objective which is to improve awareness of the product or company. Based on this objective, we will need to set a reasonable price for our product to attract new customers. Therefore, our product price will also be based on the marketing mix strategy we derived to achieve the objective.

External Factors Affecting Price Setting

Sushi Ninja is in the monopolistic competition market which has plenty of competitors. Therefore, in order to differentiate Sushi Ninja from others, it will have to spend more on product development and marketing that will increase the overall cost. Sushi Ninja will need to either price their product at a lower price from competitors to attract more people or increase price to earn back the marketing cost. In addition, there are lots of popular Japanese restaurants in Singapore with different pricing strategies. One such example is Sushi Express who sets every sushi plate at a price of $1.50, allowing them to attract many customers. Based on the survey we conducted, it shows that majority

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are price conscience. Thus, Sushi Ninja will definitely be affected by its competitors’ pricing strategies. Sushi Ninja will need to decide on whether to compete with its competitors by setting a lower price or at a similar price.

Conclusion

Based on customers’ value perception, the maximum price Sushi Ninja will charge per plate will be set at $3.50. For internal consideration, using the cost-plus pricing, Sushi Ninja will split the products into three pricing categories based on their cost. The red plate ingredients will be $2.50, black plate will be $1.90 and the white plate will be $1.50. There will also be various promotion prices such as student discount. For external consideration, we cannot afford to set our prices lower than Sushi Express. Hence, our minimum charge for each sushi will be set at $1.50 which is same as Sushi Express to attract customers.

Pricing Strategies

Sushi Ninja adopts the variable pricing strategy and “what the traffic will bear” strategy. Variable pricing strategy means that the price of our products will depend on the group of customers we are dealing with. One such example will be the student’s price strategy - 15% discounts will be given to students that dine in the restaurant. “What the traffic will bear” strategy means that the prices will be based on the highest price the customers are willing to pay. Sushi Ninja had conducted a survey and the results has shown that majority of them are willing to pay up to $3.50 for a plate of sushi. Therefore, Sushi Ninja will set its product price at a maximum price of $3.50 per plate.

PLACE

Our channel of distribution will be through our own outlet. Based on our survey result, it has shown that majority prefers our outlet to be available in neighborhood area. Thus, we will have our outlet located near to our customers. As we are a newly set up restaurant with lower reputation compared to our competitors, we will have to find an optimal spot.

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Some important factors to consider include:

Cost NEX is a popular neighborhood mall with a lower rental cost as compared to those malls in the cities. It will be cost effective and practical. The cost is estimated to be around $15,000 to $20,000.

Accessibility Being in a mall, our location will be visible and easily accessible to customers. Furthermore, it is sheltered with a lower parking fee as compared to city areas.

Human Traffic Flow NEX is surrounded by many schools, making it a popular mall for students to hangout. This will also allow us be closer to our target audience.

With good human traffic flow, which attracts more prospective customers and thus, higher rental returns for us.

PROMOTION

Role of Promotion

In different business’ stages, promotion goals will vary. Basically, there are three stages of promotion; the informative stage, the persuasion stage and the reminder stage.

Sushi Ninja is currently at the informative stage which is the introductory stage since it is a newly opened business. At this stage, the main objective is to increase people’s awareness towards our product, Singapore-style sushi, and our company. During this stage, the messages on the promotion will aimed towards letting the market find out more about the company, how the product works, product pricing and product information. For Sushi Ninja, the main message is to let people know more about Singapore-style sushi - the uniqueness. Another main message is that Sushi Ninja is a restaurant that allows people to customize and make their own sushi. Therefore, during this stage, more advertising channels will be used in order to build the company’s image and increase people’s awareness towards us, leading to a high expenditure. (More details will be discussed under “Promotion mix”)

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The second stage will be the persuasion stage. This stage is when competitors will start to copy our idea. They might come up with a different kind of sushi with even more variety. Hence, the objective of this stage is to develop customers’ loyalty. In this stage, the quality of our product will determine the loyalty of our customers, whether they will stay with Sushi Ninja or change brand. Thus, Sushi Ninja will focus on building a strong relationship with its customers and maintain high quality ingredients. This will also reduce the risk of customers switching brands.

The last stage will be the reminder stage. The main objective is to maintain customers’ awareness and keep the public interests towards Sushi Ninja. It is to reinforce the previous promotional information to remind customers’ information about us such as the name of our products or where can they find us. Sushi Ninja will get feedbacks from customers or public responses to attract new customers and retain existing customers.

Promotion Mix

Sushi Ninja will focus mainly on advertising and sales promotion.

For advertising, we will focus on social media and print advertising to be cost-effective. Firstly, we will have banners, flyers [Refer to Figure 3] and posters (at bus stop and in shopping malls, refer to Figure 4a, 4b & 4c) that will cost around $450. Secondly, for the social media, we will make use of popular social networking platform such as Facebook and Instagram. A Facebook page (Sushi Ninja) will be created for Sushi Ninja to consistently update its latest news and information. General information such as location, opening hours, contact numbers, web links will be shown too. We will run advertisement on Facebook too. We planned to use the cost per click bid which is to get people to click on our advertisement and know more about us. We will set a daily budget of less than $200. The fees charged will be based on how many clicks we received, up to the amount we set as our budget. In this way, we will never exceed our budget and is effective in helping us keep track of our advertisement expenses. Other than Facebook, we will also create Instagram (@SushiNinjaSG) where we will share latest pictures and videos of our restaurant. All these will help to promote Sushi Ninja and increase its reputation.

With more young adults searching for good food through the Internet, we will promote Sushi Ninja through food blogs. We will sponsor a few famous food bloggers. We had identified the top five bloggers in Singapore which named is Ladyrionchef, DanielFoodDairy, ieat.ishoot.ipost, Johor Kaki and Miss Tam Chiak to help us promote our restaurant. We will invite them to try out Sushi Ninja and if they are satisfied, they can share their experiences on their blog or other platform such as Instagram account. This would provide more opportunity for people to learn about Sushi Ninja. This is also a

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great way to get people referring others and minimize new customer’s doubts in Sushi Ninja’s food quality.

For sales promotion, Sushi Ninja has come up with various promotions such as the student price, happy hour or holiday specials. For the student price promotion, a 15% discounts will be given to students. As for the happy hours, it will be set into two sections; lunch and dinner. The lunch period will be from 12pm to 2pm while the dinner period will be from 5pm to 7pm. During the happy hour, special offers such as 10% off every sushi plate will be given. Examples of holiday specials will be Christmas Day Special, where there will be 20% deduct of the total bill.

Sushi Ninja will also participate in various public relation campaigns. Since Sushi Ninja is a Singapore-style sushi restaurant, it will participate in campaigns like local delights or Singapore food heritage which help to promote Singapore cuisines. In the coming years, Sushi Ninja will participate in Singapore 50 th anniversary local food campaigns too.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants may refer to any people involved in the delivery of services. Sushi Ninja is a restaurant. Thus, the employees will include the management committee, chefs, servers and miscellaneous employees. The management refers to the manager or assistant manager which is responsible for the employees’ performance and daily operations of the business. The chefs are in charge of cooking the food and there will also be kitchen staffs to assist the chefs. The servers refer to the waitress and waiters, who will take orders and deliver food to the customers. Lastly, the miscellaneous employees refer to those such as the cashier or the delivery person. The cashier is responsible for the collection of payment and the delivery person is responsible to deliver food to the right customer.

PROCESS OF SERVICE

There will be two ways for the customers to get their sushi roll. The first method is called “Creative Mode” whereby there will be an ability to see the process of the preparation of your food. Customers will order the rice base through our mini tablet and we will serve it to you within 5 minutes. After getting the rice base, customers can take their desire ingredients from the conveyor belt immediately. Lastly, customers will get to wrap and roll their own unique sushi roll, providing them a unique experience.

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Order our self-designed sushi roll

Choose the default size of small, medium

or large

We will wrap and roll on your behalf

However, if customers are not interested to create their own sushi roll, they can select our alternative method called “Normal Mode” whereby there will be an ability to see the dispatch of your order. Customers can order our special self-designed sushi roll through our mini tablet and we will serve it to you within 10 minutes.

Our service crew will be stationed in different areas to improve effective and efficiency to our customers.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

The rice ordered from our mini tablet will be served in a uniquely designed bucket as shown in Figure 5. The bucket comes in different size ranging from small, medium to large while the number of sushi mats served will be based on the number of people. In this way, families or people in groups can choose to order the large bucket and share the rice among them.

We have also designed a simple double-sided menu [Refer to Figure 6a & 6b] which includes a 3 steps guide in creating a sushi roll and a list of ready-made sushi rolls that contains rolls that has already been customized by us. It will include sushi rolls such as Chilli Crab roll, Stingray roll, Satay roll, Otah roll, Veggies roll and Hainanese Chicken roll [Refer to Figure 6a]. Other than these 6 main ingredients, there will be over 50 other Japanese and local ingredients on our tablet’s menu and conveyor belt. To promote our products and attract new customers, we have also come up with various posters designs. One such example is the Opening Promotion Poster [Refer to Figure 7 and Figure 4a]. Finally, we will also maintain the food hygiene standards in Singapore to promote good hygiene practices. All these ensure customers will have a wonderful dining experience in Sushi Ninja.

COMPANY GENERAL INFORMATION

Sushi Ninja is an exempt private company as being a private company will have less stringent regulatory requirements and we will not need to file our business’s accounts with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). If our annual turnover

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Order your rice base

Take your ingredients from the conveyor belt

Wrap and roll your own sushi

PartnersExecutive Board

Executive Director (CEO)

Loke Yu Ning

Finance & AccountingYeo Zi Hui

Operations - Front Manager

Ow Yeong Jie Yi

Restaurant SuperviorHor Zi Ying

Chefs Servers Miscellaneous Employees

Sales & MarketingNur Umairah Bte

Mohd Asri

Administration HRYang Yan Xia

is less than $5million, we are also exempted from statutory auditing requirements which will help us to save money as we need not hire an auditor. Resolutions can also be passed in written which means saving the time taken for meetings. It will also be cost-effective as we are not required to hire a qualified person to be the company's secretary. In addition, Sushi Ninja will also apply for the halal certification as we wish to reach out to more customers regardless of their races or religions.

SUSHI NINJA ORGANIZATION CHART

MANAGEMENT TEAM

As Sushi Ninja is a newly set up business with limited capital, we will try to do as much as possible by ourselves. It's the most cost-effective and sensible way to do things in the beginning. Hence, our core management team will only comprise six members at the moment.

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Yu Ning will be the CEO. She will ensure the needs of employees, customers, investors, communities, and the laws are met.

Zi Hui will be in charge of finance & accounting. She will take care of all financial issues including bookkeeping.

Jie Yi will be in charge of operations - front manager. She will handle day to day operation and ensures a safe, happy and smooth running work force.

Zi Ying will be the Supervisor. She will be at the restaurant to enforce and watch the day to day goings on, helping with problems and supervising staff.

Umairah will be in charge of sales & marketing. She will take care of sales marketing and advertising. She will ensure efficient development and implementation of the Marketing strategy.

Yan Xia will be in charge of administration HR. She will take care of general administration and human resource such as staff training.

The servers and miscellaneous employees will also be filled in by our six members but we will be hiring one Head Chef and one Sous Chef. Our Head Chef has 6 years of experiences and strong knowledge of all Japanese Cuisine, both traditional and contemporary cuisine style. Other than Japanese cooking, he also acquires the knowledge of other cuisine such as Asian, French, Italian and Western. His past experiences include working in a 5 star hotel, staff training, new menu development and cost control. He had also helped with new restaurant opening. He had worked in different countries before such as China, USA, UAE and Singapore.

Our Sous Chef has 2 years of experiences and had acquired the knowledge of both Singapore and Japanese Cuisine. His past experiences include inventory control, cost control and new menu development. He had worked in several countries such as Singapore, Japan and Italy.

MANPOWER REQUIREMENT

Since Sushi Ninja is a new start up with limited funds, we will try to minimize our manpower requirements. Currently, we will only hire a Head Chef that is responsible for preparing Japanese Cuisine and a Sous Chef that is responsible for preparing Singapore Cuisine. We will also hire a delivery man that will deliver food orders. Meanwhile, other positions will be filled in by our six members, making it cost effective. There will be 1 cashier, 1 kitchen assistant, 3 servers and 1 supervisor. One of the servers will also be the delivery man. However, in June, we will hire one more delivery man when our business gets better. There will be no shift arrangement as we will only hire full time staffs. In future, we might hire more employees if our sales increase.

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LOCATIONS & MAPS

Based on our survey’s results, we have decided to open Sushi Ninja in neighborhood mall, NEX shopping mall. The location has a high traffic flow and is easily accessible with MRT and bus interchange around. Furthermore, NEX is close to plenty of schools such as Nanyang Junior College and hence, opening in NEX will make us closer to our target audience and attract the young adults.

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OPERATING HOURS

Since Sushi Ninja will be located at NEX shopping mall, we will have to take into considerations of the mall’s opening hours. Hence, we will have Sushi Ninja run from 11am to 10pm daily.

FLOOR PLAN & STORE LAYOUT

Nevertheless, we are a new business with only a limited amount of available funds. As a result, our design on our outlet must be done on a budget. Our store will be 791 square feet and the layout design will adapt a similar layout as our direct competitor, “Genki Sushi” with it having a relatively small floor plan compared to majority of the Japanese restaurant [Refer to Figure 8]. However, instead of having a one way conveyor belt, we will make it into a circle. [Refer to Figure 9]. This will ensure all customers have the same exposure to all our delights.

Kitchen Area

The most important area of a restaurant will be the kitchen. The kitchen will be 150 square feet. This will allow the kitchen area to include space for all the equipment needed to prepare the meals, as well as accommodate the chefs needed to prepare the food.

Dining Area

The dining area will be 581 square feet with 41 seats. It is aimed to have enough room to accommodate as many customers as possible, while allowing enough room so people can eat comfortably. Hence, different numbers of sofa seater will be available - Six-Seaters, Four-Seaters and Single-Seaters.

Basin

Since Sushi Ninja allows customers to make their own sushi, basin will be available for hygiene purposes. It need not be large, around 10 square feet, but keeping it clean and streamlined is a must.

Waiting Area

If customers are made to wait for their tables, having a waiting area that allows customers to rest while they wait, is a great way to retain them. The waiting area will be around 50 square feet.

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Payment

Being a smaller restaurant, Sushi Ninja will have its cashier at the front of the restaurant to optimize the limited space. This will provide enough room to accommodate both incoming and outgoing customers. It will also avoid missing out on new customers if the entrance is too busy with customers making payment.

Traffic Flow

Besides having all the required areas, Sushi Ninja will also take traffic into consideration. The flow of our wait-staff is vital to the satisfaction of your customers. No one wants to wait an hour for their meal, and the colliding of servers can be disastrous.

With reference to Figure 10 (Two entrance marked by X), the arrows show how employees should move throughout the restaurant for an efficient flow of traffic. This will ensure lesser waiting time for customers’ as the servers can reach the tables from the kitchen without much hassle, and prevent colliding of servers.

Table Setup

For hygienic purposes, there will be gloves provided on every table for customer to use freely when they were making the sushi. The tools for making the sushi such as makisu (bamboo mat used to roll the rice) and plastic kitchen knife [Refer to Figure 11] will are provided. Sushi Ninja will also install a tablet on every table for customers to submit order and view the menu (includes all the ingredients and food). Consumers can also call for staff service and view their total bill and orders via the tablet. [Refer to Figure 12].

MANUFACTURING & PRODUCTION PROCESS AND INFORMATION

Sushi Ninja’s main selling point is the Singapore-style sushi and hence, we will be focusing on the preparation of the Singapore-style sushi. The first process will be the sourcing for our ingredients. We will be outsourcing our ingredients and hence, the suppliers’ creditability is very important.

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Some of the most important criteria we will be looking at are:

1) Safe Quality Food Standard. Make sure that the ingredient supplies are in good quality. For example, the crab must be fresh.

2) Hygiene Certification or Rating. Make sure the ingredients supplies are clean and safe for consuming.

3) Financial Stability. Make sure our suppliers are financially stable as financial risk will tend to affect the supplier’s ability to supply ingredients, affecting our business’ operation.

4) Operational CapabilitiesMake sure our suppliers have the ability to meet the current and potential capacity requirements.

The second process will be the preparation of the ingredients and production of the Singapore-style sushi. All the preparations will be done in the kitchen by the chefs. The most important factor will be the hygiene issue. Every day before opening and after closing, we will clean the whole restaurant, especially the kitchen, thoroughly. One such example will be to wash all our dishes and utensils with hot water and dish washing liquid. We will also provide sufficient equipment for our chefs, such as different chopping boards and knives, to prevent cross infection.

We also set up some basic kitchen rules such as staffs who work or help out in the kitchen, must always wear a mask and hair cap. When preparing the food, all of them must wear gloves and remove unnecessary items such as jewelry. Other than kitchen hygiene, personal hygiene is also very important. We will make sure our chefs maintain cleanliness and tidiness. Hence, by fulfilling the above principles, we make sure all our ingredients are being handled properly.

Currently, we have a few suppliers in mind. For Japanese ingredients, our top choices would be Kirei Japanese Food Supply Pte Ltd and iMei(Exim) Pte Ltd. Both of them are the leading suppliers of Japan freshest and finest foods. For the other ingredients, such as poultry and seafood, we are currently considering Omni Group, Song Fish Dealer Pte Ltd and Eastern Harvest Foods Pte Ltd.

In order to be cost-effective, majority of the kitchen equipment such as freezer, cabinets or tables will be bought from a second hand shop; quality of the equipment will be taken into consideration. However, for hygienic purposes, our kitchen utensils such as pots or knife will be brand new.

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CONTINGENCY PLAN

Potential Problem SolutionLoan funding falls through. Other funding sources, including bank

loans, have shown an interest in capitalizing the business.

A similar restaurant opens near our outlet and pulls customers from us

More aggressive promotional campaigns.

Lack of ingredients supplier Develop a business agreement with at least two suppliers for ingredients to provide us an alternative source of ingredients for in case the first supplier fails.

We have selected a few alternatives such as Kirei Japanese Food Supply Pte Ltd and iMei(Exim) Pte Ltd for Japanese ingredients. Meanwhile, there are Omni Group, Song Fish Dealer Pte Ltd and Eastern Harvest Foods Pte Ltd for other ingredients.

CAPITAL MODEL

Based on calculation, Sushi Ninja total capital requirements will be $145,000. The payback period is estimated to be 1.3 years (15 months). This means that Sushi Ninja will be able to recover its original investment of $145,000 within a year.

We have decided to source our funds through three methods - personal resources, venture capitalists (VC) and business angels.

For personal resources, our six members’ team will contribute $10,000 each which will total up to $60,000. Meanwhile the remaining amount of $85,000 will be sourced from external investors (VC & Business Angels).

For VC, we have decided to source an amount of $55,000. Other than providing financing to us, they will also offer mentoring which will greatly help startups companies such as Sushi Ninja to gain access to professional management skill and expertise - double benefits.

Although most venture capital firms prefer to invest in late-stage startups or mature companies, there are more than 100 venture capital firms in Singapore which means Sushi Ninja has many opportunities to locate a suitable firm.

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VCs usually expect an ROI of at least 25% to 30% per year. Based on our estimation, our ROI is more than 40% for consecutive three years which exceeded their expectation. Sushi Ninja’s payback period is estimated to be less than 1.5 year which is a desirable situation for VCs who are not interested in long term financing. With Sushi Ninja’s strong unique selling points, the chances to attract VCs to invest in us will be high.

For business angels, we have decided to source an amount of $30,000. It will be easier to source from business angels as they are willing to take high risk and are interested in offering early-stage investment to start-up like us. Angel investors also tend to invest in start-ups with certain competitive advantage in the market; Sushi Ninja is qualified with its strong unique selling points. In addition, typical individual business angels invest between $25,000 and $100,000. Thus, the amount of $30,000 that is needed by Sushi Ninja is considered reasonable. Therefore, the success rate of souring from business angels is higher. Other than funding, they will also offer mentorship and strategic guidance to us.

We have decided to use the Singapore Investment Network to find our angel investors. The Singapore Investment Network’s site provides access to one of the Singapore’s largest database of angel investors, who are regular investors in many industries across Singapore. Furthermore, the website is easily accessible and user-friendly in helping us to locate potential investors. All we have to do is to submit an online proposal form to the angel networks and investors will be able to read it and they may contact us if interested.

REVENUE MODEL

Our primary revenue stream (local sales) is derived from our restaurant sales which are through our physical outlet located in NEX. Our secondary revenue stream (local sales) is derived from our delivery sales. Other than dining in our physical outlet, customers can also order online. In the first month of year 1, our sales delivery is estimated to be zero (do not have much reputation yet). However, in the second and third month, our sales delivery is estimated to be 5% of our primary revenue stream. For the subsequent months, our sales delivery will be increased to 10% of primary revenue. As our reputation grows, we will raise our sales delivery to 10% in year 2 and 20% in year 3; primary revenue is expected to increase too.

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RATIO ANALYSIS

Gross Profit Margin

Sushi Ninja’s gross profit margin has decreased from 91.69% in year 1 to 87.83% in year 2 and 87.43% in year 3. This might be due to the cost of goods sold (75.10%) that have increased at a greater rate than sales (19.53%) which lead to a lower gross profit margin. However, it has maintained the gross profit margin in year 3. Therefore, Sushi Ninja will need to sell more volume to adjust and it will still be able to pay its operating and other expenses and build for the future.

Net Profit Margin

The overall Sushi Ninja’s net profit margin has increased throughout the three years, to a percentage of 26.53% in year 3. Sushi Ninja has costs that have increased along with sales which lead to a higher profit margin. This is an indication that Sushi Ninja’s earnings are good and it is improving.

Return on Equity (ROE)

Sushi Ninja’s ROE has increased throughout the three years, to a percentage of 39.86% in year 3. This shows that Sushi Ninja is using its investors' funds effectively and the ROE has been stable. Thus, the ROE is generally favorable.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Sushi Ninja’s ROI has increased throughout the three years, to a percentage of 146.48% in year 3. This shows that the investment gains compare favorably to investment cost.

Payback Period

Sushi Ninja has an estimated payback period of 1.3 years (15 months). This shows that Sushi Ninja’s investment position is desirable.

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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, people will always need food for survival and productivity and will continue exchanging money for food products. This means that the food and beverage industry is lucrative. Having said that, everyone has their unique preference when it comes to dining, especially on the food, price and service. Furthermore, people will always follow the change of trend and are willing to try new things.

Proper understanding and analysis of Sushi Ninja shows that although there are plenty of strong competitors out there, there are still many aspects that can differentiate Sushi Ninja from the others, such as the uniqueness of Singapore style sushi and the experience of making your own sushi.

The potential of Sushi Ninja is akin to a newly discovered diamond. At first sight, it will not appeal to many but through tedious cleaning and polishing, people will realize its potential to shine. With this in mind, Sushi Ninja must aim to nurture all its unique aspects to unlock its potential and raise its standing within the competitive world.

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Appendix

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/news/press_releases/mrsmar2014.pdf

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/reference/monthly_digest/mdsmay14.pdf

http://www.iesingapore.gov.sg/Media-Centre/Media-Releases/2014/4/Singapore-FB-companies-target-expansion-in-Asia-through-FoodAsia2014

Figure 1a

Figure 1b

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Figure 4a

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Figure 4b

Figure 4c

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Figure 5

Figure 6a

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Figure 6b

Figure 7

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Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 9

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Figure 10

Figure 11

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Figure 12

Sushi Ninja Corporate Website

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http://sushiininja.wix.com/sushininja

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