This document compares two furniture businesses - Heng Furnishing in Penang and The Curiousity Shop in Kuala Lumpur. Heng Furnishing was founded in 1973 and sells modern furniture while The Curiousity Shop started in 2005 and specializes in vintage pieces. Heng Furnishing has four employees, annual revenue of RM800,000 and caters to local customers. The Curiousity Shop has two employees and breaks even, attracting designers and restaurants. Both businesses face competition and depend on seasons but employ different strategies like pricing and advertising. The analysis concludes Heng Furnishing is more commercially successful due to its longer history and operations. Recommendations include expanding Heng Furnishing's shop and more advertising

1. ENGLISH ii
EFFECTIVE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
A TALE OF TWO BUSINESSES – A
COMPARATIVE
ANALYSIS OF 2 BUSINESSES OF SIMILAR
INDUSTRY
IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS

2. Group Members
PANG KAI YUN
SAM WEI YIN
NG HUOY MIIN
TRACE GEW YEE
LIEW POH KA
LEE KAILYN
LEE SHZE HWA
YEO KAI WEN
0319802
0320364
0319097
0320369
0320424
0320273
0320053
0319844

3. Description of the
Furniture Trade in
Malaysia

4. History of Furniture

5. Undergone dynamic transformation
2,400 furniture companies
One of Malaysia’s biggest
revenue earners
Offers a rich variety of options
Quality designs that suit the lifestyle and
taste of different generations
Adopting green
manufacturing methods
Incorporate sustainable and
chemical free fabrics fibres
Penetrating high end applications
Trade in MAlaysia

6. DESCRIPTION
OF THE
BUSINESS

7. Heng
Furnishing
The Curiousity
Shop
VS
(Penang)
(Kuala Lumpur)

8. Heng Furnishing
Location
23-E Mk13, Jalan Ayer Itam, 1500, Penang

9. Heng Furnishing
Found in 1973 (42 years)
Founder Yeoh Hun Beng
Named after the owner
Demand from the locals
Passed his business to his son,
Yeoh Tze Xiang

10. DESCRIPTION
• Home base
• One branch
• 4 employees (locals)
• Opens daily from 9am to 9pm
Customers
• People who live nearby
• Average 30 customers in 1 day
• Depends on festive seasons
• Annual revenue figure of roughly RM 800,000.00

11. Main product and services sold
• Ready made furniture
• Interior decoration
• Monopolize the mattress because his father is
interested in mattress
Future plan

12. Sofa
Rectangle
Dining Table

13. Round
Dining Table
Bed

14. Mattress
Cupboard

15. The Curiousity Shop
No.134, Jalan Sungai Besi, 57100, Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah
Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur.
Location

16. The Curiousity Shop
Founded in 2005 (10 years)
Founder Danny Ho and his co-partner
Started this business with their hobby
Name the shop as ''The Curiousity Shop''
because they want the customer to be
surprise when they walk into the shop.
When there is a “surprise”, they will be
“curious”

17. DESCRIPTION
• Commercial base
• One branch
• 2 employees (locals)
• Warehouse (Sungai Besi)
• Opens from 10am to 10pm daily
Customer
• Regular customers
• Designer, developers and restaurants owner
• Depends on festive seasons
• Break-even condition

18. Main product and services sold
• Vintage furniture
• Decorative objects, lighting, collectable item, painting and
fabric
• Provide different services to their customers such as
restoration, recreate, redesign, interior design, mass
production, rental and consignment
Future plan
• Hope to build a better and stronger team

19. Lighting
Collectable
Item

20. Decorative
Objects
Painting

21. Wooden
Racker
Sofa

22. Competitors
of Heng Furnishing

23. Heng Furnishing
Kingkoil Corporation Sdn Bhd
• Incorporate in 1983
• The leading manufacturer and
supplier of high quality sleep
related products in Malaysia
• Services a network of over
2,000 furniture dealers,
interior decorators, hospitals,
hostels and hotel chains in
addition to the export market
VS

24. Newton Furnishing & Interior
• Located in Jalan Air Itam
• Produced office furniture
• Services include furniture
dealers and retail
Heng Furnishing
VS

25. Dekea Furniture Design Centre
• Located in Jalan Air Itam
• Modern furniture and
provide interior design
Heng Furnishing
VS

26. STRATEGY EMPLOYED

27. Pricing
Service and product
different
❖ Reasonable and affordable ❖ Provides standard service
that every furniture shop
has such as delivery service
❖ Provide interior design for
customers
Strategy Employed

28. Strategy Employed
Quality of Service Advertising
❖ Provides very good quality
service
❖ Owner very friendly
❖ Workers will communicate
with customers and understand
their needs and provide advices
for customer
❖ Facebook page and official
website
❖ Overview of the company
❖ Description of their product

29. Competitors OF tHE
CURIOUSITY SHOP

30. The Curiousity Shop
Stanzo Collection
• “Stanzo” is an Italian term,
which literally means
“rooms”
• Retailer
• Scandinavian design and Zen
style furniture
• Contemporary lighting
VS

31. Harvey Norman
• Australia company
• A giant provider of a wide
range of Electrical,
Computers, Furniture and
Bedding products
• Prominent international
presence
• Stresses on 4-in-1 concept
The Curiousity Shop
VS

32. Stoolicious
• Located at the lower ground
floor of 1 Mont Kiara
• Sells all sort of colourful
stool, from adult stools to
baby stools
• Baby chair, coffee table,
trolley and corner rack
The Curiousity Shop
VS

33. STRATEGY EMPLOYED

34. Pricing
Service and product
different
❖ Reasonable comparing to
others furniture shop that sell
vintage furniture
❖ Provides a lot of service such
as as restoration recreate,
redesign, interior design,
mass production, rental and
consignment to customers
❖ Decorative objects, lighting,
collectable item, painting and
fabric
Strategy Employed

35. Strategy Employed
Quality of Service Advertising
❖ Provides excellent quality service.
The owner and his partner treat
their customer with respect with
interacting with them in a
friendly way
❖ Listen and understand what their
customers want and need
❖ Facebook page and official
website
❖ Uses facebook to interact with
their followers. They will create
special events and limited-time
promotions and invite their
followers, and it helps them to
grow their fan base

36. Comparative Summary
(Difference)

37. Difference
Heng Furnishing Differences The Curiousity Shop
1973 When it was founded 2005
Yeoh Hun Beng Founder Danny Ho
1 Number of Founder 2
Demand of local
What prompted to start
this business
Hobby
Heng Furnishing is
located in a double storey
building at Jalan Ayer
Itam, Penang
Location
The Curiousity Shop is
located in a commercial
building at Mont Kiara,
Kuala Lumpur
Eight hundred thousand
RM 800 000
Annual Revenue Figure Break even

38. Heng Furnishing Differences The Curiousity Shop
0
Number of
warehouse
1, at Sungai Besi near
HELP University
4 Number of employees 2
Around 30 Number of customer -
People live nearby
Who are the
customers
Designer, developers
and restaurants owner
6 Number of competitor 3
9am-9pm Business Hour 9am-7pm
Difference

39. Heng Furnishing Differences The Curiousity Shop
Mattress Future Plan Build a strong team
Modern furniture Type of Product
Vintage furniture,
decorative objects,
lighting, collectable
item, painting and
fabric
Services and quality Strategy
Different product and
services
Home base Business Operation Commercial
Difference

40. Comparative Summary
(Similarity)

41. Similarity
Heng Furnishing Similarities The Curiosity Shop
0 Number of branches 0
Furniture Main Product Sold Furniture
Lead by the owner Leader Lead by the owner
Depends on season Best Seller Depends on season

42. CONCLUSION
Heng Furnishing more commercially successful
• Established earlier
• Long-term customers who live nearby
• Sell modern furniture
• Longer business hour
• Pricing is reasonable

43. Obstacle faced by new business
Publicity Customers Location

44. Nature of the Market
Perfect competitive
• No barriers to entry
• New firms can enter and exit the market freely
• No pricing power

45. RecommendatioN

46. Heng Furnishing
• Provide private parking for the customers
- No parking at the roadside
- Parking in front of the shop is always full
- Prepare private parking

47. - Walkway is very narrow the shop is full of furniture
- The shops look very messy because there is too many
furniture inside and it is not organize
- The signboard of the shop is quite small and hardly
visible
- Expand their shop so they can display their
furniture neat and tidy
Heng Furnishing
• Expand their shop

48. The Curiousity Shop
• Do more advertising about the shop.
- Located at a corner inside of the highest
floor of the shopping mall
- Exposure of the shop is very low
- Lack of advertisement and publicity
- Very few people in the shopping mall
- Advertising and publicity can be taken
another further step through mass media
such as newspaper and television

49. The Curiousity Shop
• Rearrange all product based on categories.
- Does not arrange their furniture properly
- Looks very messy and unorganized
- Hard for the customers that are searching for the specific
category
- Arrange all the products based on categories.
- This will make the shop look tidy and neat
- Easier for the customer to search the products they are
looking for

50. Reference
• N.Gregory, M, (2007), 14, In Principle Of Economics (4th
ed.,pp. 289-
309). Thomson higher education.
• Manser, J. (1994). 9. In Economics: A foundation course for the built
environment (pp. 84-86). London: E & FN Spon
• MARADE. (n.d.). Furniture. Retrieved from http://www.matrade.gov.
my/en/foriegn-buyers-section/69-industry-write-up--products/621-
furniture. Accessed on 14 May 2015.
• Aronson, J. (1965). The encyclopedia of furniture (3rd ed.). New York:
Crown.
• Hiew, J., & Yap, J. (2008). INTERIOR SPACE. MY HOME INTERIOR
AND IDEAS.
• Tang, T. (2011, May 1). Nature comes home (D. Tan, Ed.). Eco Chic,
58-87.

51. Reference
• Morley, J. (1999). A history of furniture (1st ed.). Bulfinch Press.
• Furniture Design History. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2015, from http:
//www.onlinedesignteacher.com/furniture_design/furniture_design%
20history.html
• The 73 by Heng Furnishing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.the73.
com/content/home/index/site:the73-link:1427. Accessed on 29 April
2015.
• The Curiosity Shop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thecuriousitygallery.
blogspot.com/. Accessed on 10 May 2015.
• D.Ho (Personal communication, May 13, 2015)
• TX.Yeoh (Personal communication, May 2, 2015)

52. Thank You !