Products and services in business operations

Products and Services for Internet Cafe

This is a paper that outlines a business plan for setting up an internet cafe, describing the industrial trend of the products and services available for the cafe. It uses 5 sources in MLA format.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DESCRIPTION

Business Nature

The following is a business plan for an Internet Cafe -- ABC Cafe. Unlike ordinary computer business, the genre of this business will belong to the entertainment industry. The products and services include Internet access for browsing, computer games, chatting, office work and beverage services. Instead of merely providing Internet Cafe services, the business will differentiate itself from competitors by providing a cafe atmosphere like those of a hip joint while providing Internet services. Hence, food stuff would be provided on the one side of the cafe while on the other side, computers will be placed in triangular tables to compensate for physical and virtual interaction by customers.

Equipments:

To encompass diverse market segments like office workers, students and games players, ABC Cafe would accommodate its diverse customers by installing high speed ISDN on its network. Top of the art equipments will be provided to the customers like photocopying machines, Xerox printers at every table, scanners, conferencing tools like microphones, cameras and headphones and fax machines. One of the most important aspects of Internet usage is the ease and ability to download latest software's, pictures, music etc. ABC Cafe will keep stock of external devices like floppies, disk drives and writable CDs so that its customers are provided with these when they need it without having to move from their Cafe.

INDUSTRIAL TREND

Industrial leaders

The entertainment service industry has become highly competitive. This is due to the trend in franchising cafes all over the world. Most of these cafes are so diversified it product differentiation is hard to keep up with. For example Hard Rock Cafe which started out with music bands in a cafe, today have access to the Internet, specializing in music joint providing eatery along with it. Similarly, Dave and Busters found themselves allying with other brands to provide diversified products and services to its customers. Any new entrants in this business would have to be highly versatile in their service in order to compete with such brand names. Investment of this nature would be costly but the rate of customers increases every month which makes this business viable. For example one Internet cafe invested close to $50,000 to start their business.

Opportunities

Industrial leaders like Hard Rock, Arcade, Dave and Busters etc. have used their brands to establish franchise all over the globe to create opportunities for their business. ABC Cafe will face fierce competition in this area as well as in the visual graphics where customers would want to watch television, music videos, news and live concerts online. These used to belong to the television network entertainment industry but today the media has changed spilling over the Internet. For example Dave & Buster's signed a franchise agreement with TGI Friday's.

Similarly, Hard Rock Cafe have also formed an alliance in the hotel business providing world class service to various hotels and branded restaurants. Hence, the opportunities are great for the Internet cum Cafe businesses. There are plenty of room to diversify as well as specialize in these areas.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Perhaps the most important aspects of this business would be the ability to expand through brand differentiation. Some of the industrial leaders like Hard Rock Cafe have been able to diversify their brands through product differentiation providing all kinds of products and services from music to access to the Internet to eatery outlets. On the other hand Dave and Busters seemed to have manipulated the audio scenario. If ABC Cafe were to expand its products then it would have little choice in branding less product differentiation. For example Internet access, game play, chats and musical downloads all are provided by its competitors, even though they are in ad hoc manner. What ABC can do is to focus on one product, for example game play and provide a whole new arena in interactive game play. The office service provision however, will seem out of place in the midst of such brand differentiation. Hence, ABC Cafe would have to decide whether it wants to cater to young hip crowd or more mature office going individuals. Whatever, the decision, it would have to foresee the future of the industry before it can settle on specific products to develop it. For example Arcade and Hard Rock Cafe are already providing this kind of products. IF ABC were to compete with these industrial leaders then it would have to offer something different from the mainstream Internet access.

Since Hard Rock, Dave and Busters, Arcade are constantly allying with other brand franchise their products are constantly innovating. Internet access, online retailing, downloads, and online music provisions have already been appealed to the masses. ABC Cafe would have to focus on the two major arenas in Internet access -- game play and office services. Both of these are gradually making into the entertainment industry but still are very much dominated by the computing industry. ABC's ability to bring them to the entertainment / hospitality industry would be an added advantage creating a competitive edge for it. Similarly, office service domains have been in the hands of secretarial and online services. Cafes have not touched them. If ABC were to expand in this arena then it cannot maintain its original course -- providing a whole host of services, entertainment plus office -- together.