Create Your Own Concept

Concept by Equalizer

In a country where the general beleif is, if its foreign, it must ridiculously hard to recreate; we get a flood of tasteless monotonous franchises, most of which are relatively unheard of. What makes big cosmopolitan cities like London & New York different, is exactly the opposite. Competition means that businesses must differentiate on all levels to set themselves apart from each other. This means that new ideas are naturally created to set new standards. Ideas that not only driven by business sense, but also passion, which is the most important recipe for success. Numbers are good to have, but how do you quantify the potential of a relatively untested idea?

Most people in Kuwait venturing in the food industry suffer from two main problems, first they want to hit it big with no effort thus buying a franchise, or two copy an existing successful idea and try to carve your way through. Unfortunately, in both cases it adds nothing to the market worth mentioning. The solution is to create local concepts that are driven by passionate restaurateurs and entrepreneurs.

I will try to breifly outline for all you folks out there how to go about and create a successful concept, that along with your passion will make your dreams come true. This is especially usefull if you dont have an idea to begin with.

• Market Study: This study is the most important, as it acts as a map which gives you a birds eye view of everything around in the market. You will be able to identify underserved areas and quantify the size of that market. For example the biggest age group is 10 to 18 year olds. The highest consumption of that group is ice cream. The number of ice cream parlours in the city is not more than 1% of total food service operations. You then immediately realize that there is something worth investigating. You do a quick survey of all the ice cream parlours and find out why they haven't grown to meet demand, or why their demand is not high as it should be. You might realize that those parlours are positioned for a completely different older market. There you know you found a gap in which you can position your self and find a nice warm home you call your business.
• Concept Development: This stage requires you to pin down all the neccessary elements of the idea from a macro level. Once you have identified your market, you must analyse their needs. For the case of the ice cream parlour, you realize that a young crowd requires that flavours are adventurous, yet familiar, not alien. You realize that the brand identity, must reflect colors, typfaces, illustrations and graphics that appeal to such young crowd. A very important aspect is the pricing. The target price to volume, or in our case price per scoop of ice cream must be affordable, as the young crowd are usually on a budget. A comparison to the market is essential in this case. Now you have a general guidline for you concept.
• Product Development: Working backwards form a target pricing level, you can then develop the recipes for the product, offcourse using your own talent and creativity. Before you become wildly creative, you must know how much that scoop should cost you. Generally in high volume operations a food cost of 40% is acceptable. For example of the scoop of ice cream sells at 500 fils, then the scoop should not cost more that 200 fils. Using that 200 fils as a benchmark, you can start creating your recipes given that you know the cost of every ingredient you use. This usually is the most time intensive stage as you must test and retest over and over again until you have perfected your idea.
• Branding: Branding is not just about the logo, it is about all the graphic medium that not only represents your products, but accentuates it. This means a consistent strong message from the logo, packaging, uniforms, store graphics, design, and all collateral. Never go cheap or do it quick. Try to be very creative and make sure you are involved, because end of the day no one understands the concept better than you.
• Feasibility Study: This where all of the above along with important data regarding the setup costs and running costs such as rent, salaries, equipment, constrcution etc. is measure against the potential expected sales. This will tell you whether your idea actually makes business sense or not.
• Business Plan: This should encompass all of the above and include an actual action plan that outlines all the dates and neccessary procedures for the whole project to be executed.
  
• Marketing Plan: A proper marketing plan should guide you as to which is the most cost effective way to promote your business and make sure that you attract your market. It will identify channels such as print media, radio, internet, word of mouth, sponsorships etc.

Now that you have a general idea of how to create a concept, I would expect someone to take this seriously and does a more thourough investigation of the above mentioned steps and does us all a favor by improving the food scene in Kuwait.

I think I can give you a free head start. Milkshake Laboratory. The name is different, catchy and appeals to a sophisticated high end market. The possible products could be the following:

• Strawberry & Shortcake Shake
• Rapberry, White Chocolate & Dulce de Leche Shake
• Brownie and Chocolate Fudge Shake
• Green Tea Malt
• Dark Valrohna Chocolate and Mint Shake
• Chocolate Cheesecake Shake
• Banana Honey & Coffee
• Espresso Shake
• Lavender & Vanilla Shake

I think you get the point, and I need not go further. The design should be clean and crisp and modern, emphasizing on the quality of the shakes and using the colors of the shakes as indicators of variety.

Good Luck !