Zakka Loft, Ipoh

Café . Ice cream parlour . Arts & Crafts Supply Shop

Zakka Loft Entrance

Business Hour: 1.00 p.m. - 11.00 p.m. (Closed on Monday)

Contact Number: +60 13-525 3591

Address: 103, Jalan Sultan Yusuff, 30000 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

(Direction to Zakka Loft is attached at the blog sidebar)

Google Map Direction Image

GPS Coordinates of location: 4°37'04.2"N 101°07'03.5"E

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Interior Panorama view of  Zakka Loft

Zakka Loft - Japanese words that simply defined as:

Zakka - All sort of thing (in English) and  Loft - A space (in English)

Zakka Loft is located in Ipoh Garden East Ipoh which is located near the Tesco extra hypermarket. It is a café that is famous in selling their signature handcrafted ice-cream and also serving complementary products like: cakes, drinks, bags, soft toys and accessories.

Food and Beverages menu of Zakka Loft

Display fridge of handcrafted icecream

Prosperity handcrafted ice-cream basket - RM 48.00
(Promotion during Chinese New Year season only)
Handcrafted Ice-cream basket with 6 flavours - (Bailey's Cranberry, Brandy Prunes,Milo Oreo, Horlick Chocolate Chips, Lemon Passion Fruit and Vanilla Bean Mars and Snickers  ) ordered during the food review session with The Gateau Eatery


It was sold at RM 48.00 in a prosperity basket during Chinese New Year. Usually, each scoop will be charged for RM 7.00 for non-alcohol flavour while it is RM 8.00 for alcohol flavour.


Food History

Bailey’s cranberry is a liquor made handcrafted ice cream with the Irish whisky - Baileys Irish Cream. By adding with dark red and sour of cranberry, and the sweetness of sucrose, drinker of cocktail will know the collocation of it the sweet aroma of whiskey, it make you memorable about it.

Brandy Prune is another liquor made handcrafted ice cream with Brandy wine from Dutch. Prune is also benefit to fight against cardiovascular diseases, you can now be able to gain health benefit by consuming dessert.

Milo Oreo and Horlick Chocolate Chips are not only the kid favourites but somehow a lot of adult also love it. Although the ingredient is crunches into small pieces you can still be able to taste the crispy of Oreo biscuits and the chocolate chips. Milo is one of the historical beverage for Malaysia, although it is originated from Australia, it has now became the inseparable daily consumption of the locals. Thus, Milo flavored dessert would be best to serve the local community. 

Lemon Passion Fruit is a sour handcrafted ice-cream that is made by fresh ingredients with no artificial colour and flavor added. Unlike the other ice-cream, it is relatively sour than the others served in Zakka Loft. It is most suitable during the warm weather to cure our thirst.

Vanilla Bean Mars & Snickers is made by fresh Vanilla beans without adding vanilla essence. Snickers bar consisting of nougat with caramel, peanut and milk chocolate are added in the ice-cream to increase the taste, it is perfectly matched with pure vanilla flavor with crunchy Snickers bar in cubes.

Customer Feedback:

Peng Koon (The Gateau Eatery Crew) - For Baileys Cranberry, the ice cream full with whisky smell with the red colour cranberry, it tastes a little sour. I simply love the aroma of Baileys.

For Brandy Prune, it tastes a little bit of liqueur, the sweetness of prune is just nice matching the liqueur and the flesh of prunes is soft and tasty.

Sheng Hui (The Gateau Eatery Crew) - For Milo Oreo, taste of Oreo strong than the Milo, but the Oreo biscuit pieces make the whole ice cream become full with the Oreo, I really love the Oreo in vanilla milk ice cream. While for Horlick chocolate chips the chocolate chip are very crispy and it quite solid shape, you can see the every single chocolate chips inside the ice cream. I love the crispy chocolate chips.

Kean Hong (The Gateau Eatery Crew) - Vanilla Bean Mars & Snickers has very strong fragrance of vanilla. When taste it, I feel something like milk chocolate and the sweetness of caramel, quite sweet. Lemon Passion Frui, the sour of lemon and passion fruit is very nice but only can smell the lemon flovour, but its ok, the sour make me feel refresh and energetic.

Group photo of The Gateau Eatery Crews at Zakka Loft

Introduction of Zakka Loft and Food review on the handcrafted ice-cream served




Value Proposition

Zakka loft is a Japanese artsy café that spreads art and craft. Currently, the owner holding the classes for teaching art and craft and music class for ukulele lover. Besides that, the café is serve with a variety of homemade recipe like handcraft ice-cream, Japanese style Bento, desserts and beverages. The café design is colourful and creative. Every part of the café was decorated with different concepts. You can see every piece of design are truly unique and elegant. The place is interesting that you can discover more about the beauty of handcrafting. 

Zakka Loft have its handcraft ice-cream with their own secret recipe. There are variety of unique flavour that is available such as cinnamon sugar, lemon cream, lavender, and Earl Grey flavour. We ordered a prosperity basket with 6 different flavour of handcraft ice-cream which are Bailey’s cranberry, Brandy prune, Milo oreo, Horlicks chocolate chips, lemon passion fruit, vanilla bean mars & snickers. They are using fresh ingredients to produce premium ice-cream which it is taste very fresh, smoothly and creamy, with n any artificial flavour. The whole basket of ice cream is cost RM 48.00 while it can be priced at RM 7.00 - RM 8.00 per scoop.

Pâtisserie BoutiQue, Ipoh

 Café · Bakery · Dessert place

Pâtisserie BoutiQue entrance

Business Hour: 11.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. (Closed on Wedenesday)

Contact Number: +60 5-241 1385

Address: 103, Jalan Sultan Yusuff, 30000 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

(Direction to Pâtisserie BoutiQue is attached at the blog sidebar)

GPS Coordinates of location: 4°35'48.6"N 101°04'38.7"E

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Interior Panorama view of  Pâtisserie BoutiQue

Pâtisserie BoutiQue - French words that simply defined as:

Pâtisserie - Pastry (in English) and  BoutiQue - Shop (in English)

Pâtisserie BoutiQue is located in the heritage town of Ipoh city. It is a café that is specialized in making homemade desserts and also serving complementary product like: appetizers, drinks and savoury food.

Food and Beverages menu of Pâtisserie BoutiQue

Desserts ordered during the food review session with The Gateau Eatery

Soufflé Pancake with Matcha Gelato - RM 18.00

History of Matcha Soufflé Pancake

Soufflé is a baked-egg dish from France in the early eighteenth century. Soufflé pancake is a fusion cake owned by Pâtisserie BoutiQue, the soufflé is baked in a mini pan unlike the authentic soufflé that are baked in ceramic cups. The dish is then serve with a scoop of in-house gelato with the flavour choices of Vanilla or Matcha. The other complementary ingredient added are, Nutella, crunchy almond chips, blueberry, strawberry and some powdered sugar. The fusion has carried out an outstanding texture that cannot be tasted in the authentic flavor.

Customer Feedback

Munny (The Gateau Eatery Crew) - It is my first time trying Matcha soufflé pancake, it is not too sweet, the soufflé is really soft and fluffy, it is perfectly matched with the Matcha gelato. There are Nutella added to increase the flavor of the dessert, the combination is well matched with toppings on the pancake. Fruits served on it is fresh and the almond chips are crunchy and aromatic as well.

Mocha Mousse Cake RM 14.00


History of Mocha mousse cake

Mousse is a French word that means ‘foam’ in English. It is a creamy and foamy textured dessert made by whipped egg white or whipped cream. For this Mocha Mousse Cake we have tasted in Pâtisserie BoutiQue, the mousse cake is incorporated with espresso and chocolate flavour. The uniqueness of this cake does not only come from the smooth and favourable mousse however, a layer of cake and crunchy base made by chocolate glaze and cornflakes has added extra credit to the overall texture of the cake.

Customer Feedback

Wei Khun (The Gateau Eatery Crew) - The mocha flavor and mousse matched well. A little bitterness of the espresso has neutral the sweetness of the chocolate. The texture of this cake is relatively solid than the others we have ordered, however it has delighted my tastebuds with the heavy flavour.

Charcoal Durian Cake - RM 14.00

History of Charcoal Durian Cake

Durian is known as the ‘king of fruits’ in Malaysia, thus Pâtisserie BoutiQue has introduced this brand new Malaysian favourite – Charcoal Durian Cake with fresh ‘Musang King’ durian and edible charcoal made sponge cake base. The creamy durian flesh are applied in between the cake layers and finally the outer layer is covered with fresh whipped cream with fresh almond chips topping.

Customer Feedback

Esther (The Gateau Eatery Crew) - Full with the durian flesh in between each layer of charcoal cake. Also the deligate flavour of charcoal cake has carried out the durian fragrance with creamy texture. I was not a big fan of durian but this cake has made me change my perception towards durian.

Group photo of The Gateau Eatery Crews

Introduction of Pâtisserie BoutiQue and Food review on the dessert served

Value Proposition

The moment when you walk into Patisserie Boutique café, it gives you feeling like you are in the café in Paris. Their interior design is vintage, simple yet unique. You can see the Eiffel Tower figures, poster and also wall stickers surrounding the shop. This café is serving appetizers, sandwiches, pastas, desserts and drinks. However, we found out that their cakes are the highly recommended  for tourist. The dessert we have ordered are Mocha mousse cake, Charcoal Durian Cake and Matcha Souffle Pancake. 

Matcha Souffle Pancake is dessert that is served with a scoop of Matcha ice cream, almond chips, Nutella and mixed of fruits. The ice-cream is homemade thus it is fresh and no artificial flavor added. This dessert is unique when the Matcha ice-cream mix with fruit and pancake, it may taste a little bitter yet lingering sweet. It is highly recommend for those Matcha lover. Although it is priced at RM 18.00, it is definitely worth a try with the luxury ingredient added in the innovated and specially owned dessert by Pâtisserie BoutiQue.

Charcoal Durian Cake is the cake that made by real fresh durian with no artificial flavoring added. Besides, charcoal cake has added nutrients in the cake, serving with the durian filling, the sweetness is just nice for kids, adults and also elderly. The combination of fresh durian with charcoal sponge cake has brought a great combination of Malaysia local fruits kings with charcoal flavor that create a special taste that people won’t forget it once they taste. RM 14.00 is a very reasonable price to taste such a unique and nutritious cake.

Chocolate mousse cake is frothy and creamy dessert make with whipped egg white and chocolate cream. The creamy chocolate mousse is between the layer of chocolate cake. The base of the chocolate cake is made by crunched cornflakes glazed chocolate. It is topped with some pistachio and blueberry to increase the visual effect and increase the variety taste of cake. The taste is dense and suitable for heavy taste lover. You can hardly get a cake that priced at RM 14.00 with this premium quality cake.

Group Evaluation of the businesses

A. Your group opinion and why you selected these two places 

Nowadays, many the people are prefer to enjoy tea break during their free time. Most of the people would like to choose to have a coffee or a piece of cake in the café or coffee shop. 

They will spend their time to read books, chatting and gathering with friends in the coffee shop. Thus, ‘coffee shop culture’ arise in these few years, especially there are many coffee shop located in the town. Every coffee shops has its own design and concept that attract people to visit. Therefore, we had choose two famous café which is Patisserie Boutique and Zakka loft. Both café are located in Ipoh, Perak which are well known of their dessert.

 Patisserie Boutique is a Parisian theme café that serve their customer with signature homemade cake such as charcoal durian cake and mocha mousse cake. All of their cake are handmade by the chef with innovation and creativity which will attract cake lovers to ahead. Besides that, the café also serve coffee and savoury such as pasta, sandwich an also croissant. The exterior design of the café is full of climbing plants and blossoming plant that shows the common scene along the street of Paris in the summer. The interior design of the café features the black and white French theme that is provided with cool ambience.

Zakka Loft is an artsy café that brings a variety of homemade recipes desserts and DIY stuffs. The café is famous of its homemade ice cream, cakes and waffles as the dessert. Besides that, the café also comes with the DIY touches which is unique and new that designed by the owner such as dolls, bags and accessories. The interior design of the café is unique as the mirror is covered with rainbow curtains and cosmic blue paint on the wall that creates an exciting atmosphere for the customers. Moreover, it also has a section that contain interactive games to enhance interaction between people. 

B. Classification of e-commerce by the nature of transactions or interactions

Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft using Business to Consumer (B2C) as the nature of interactions with their customers. B2C is a model of commerce that businesses promote and sells its product or service directly to their customers. B2C marketing and social media marketing is an important element that both café use to reach their target customer in terms of interactions. 

The target customer for the Patisserie Boutique is those who like to enjoy their brunch and afternoon break with a drink of coffee and savoury or dessert lover who like their cakes as well. For the Zakka Loft, their target customer will be the dessert lover who like pancakes and homemade ice cream and also for those who like the DIY stuff that the business owner created. It is important that businesses should have their own target market to ensure that they can develop positive image to generate repeat purchase and also customer loyalty. Besides that, good customer service also used to maintain the relationship of B2C interactions for the businesses. The staff friendliness of both café represent the good customer service as they will greet you with smile and welcome when you enter to their shop and also take the order of your items patiently.

Furthermore, businesses today understand the trends of social media that able to offer them potential way to reach the customers. Therefore, social media marketing becoming a significant element for B2C businesses to increase its reputation by offering their product and services to generate sales and revenue. Both café is using the social media such as Facebook Instagram and blog to update and sharing their business information to the social media users. By using social media as a tools for B2C businesses, they able to create the awareness, engagement, creating content for the business and also reach its target market effectively that enable the businesses to go viral in the social media to generate interaction.

C. Business model

Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft are using brick and mortar stores as their business model. Brick and mortar is a traditional business methods that businesses deals with its customer face to face in a building that’s the business own or rents. Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft basically serves its customer face to face by the waiters. In order to visit the café, customers have to go to the café and dining in. Besides, both café are emphasizing on the face to face interaction with customer. Face to face customer service can build strong relationships and enhance understanding between both parties because they can interact with customer and understand customer’s need and wants. High satisfaction of customer will lead them to be loyal to the particular business. Both café also have waiter to serve the customers. While the customers reach, waiter will guide their customers to the seat and serve the menu. Beside that, waiter will introduce the popular dish of the café to customers according to their preferences. 

In Patisserie Boutique, their famous dishes such as cake will be displayed in front of the counter and let customer to choose which they prefer on it. The cakes are made by their own chef and different series of cake will be changed from day to day. Besides that, their main meal, desserts and beverage will made whenever customer order in order to keep the freshness of the food.

For Zakka Loft, their popular dessert is their homemade ice cream. The ice creams are also display in front of the counter. After customer order, they will send the dessert to the customers’ table.  Their ice creams are homemade and the flavor of the ice creams is come from natural ingredients. Besides that, the owners of Zakka Loft are expert in DIY handcraft items. Their shop is selling those handcraft items and customer are able to purchase it as well. 

D. Basic approach used in marketing and advertising

Both of the cafes is using social media to market and advertise their products. The reason why they choose social media to promote their business is because they can connect and reach the consumers in a faster and convenience way by providing the latest information of the business information they offer and customer can instant access to the information. Besides that, it is cost saving that businesses can advertise their products through the registration of Facebook pages without any fee or charges made. Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft has their own Facebook pages that allow them to update the latest information such as new dessert and also promotions for their followers. Thus, customer service will also improve since they receive feedback and review from their customer in the pages that allow them to make adjustment and improvement in terms of the food quality and service. 

Moreover, there are also numbers of blog review available for Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft that contains about the business information such as atmosphere, food quality, customer service and also location provided. The available of blogs enable businesses to carry out market research approaches through direct hearing from customers. Blog is a websites that consists of posts that include the personal diaries, review of a places that bloggers visited before. By using the blogs, businesses can be viewed by different visitors if bloggers posted about the review of the business. Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft has its review in those Malaysia famous food blogs such as Kent food hunt, travelicious, motormouth and others to ensure the businesses to reach new customers, build business images and gathering feedbacks and testimonials. 

Besides that, Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft using search engine optimization (SEO) and viral marketing as its online advertising approach. The search engine optimization allows the users to find the information easily of the businesses by just key in the specific words in the search engine such as Google search and others. They also using viral marketing such as positive word of mouth through the bloggers and also visitors to advertise their business. Users can refer to the review by the bloggers and visitors in the social network to understand the food quality and service before they decided to visit. 

On the other hand, Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft also using mobile marketing and advertising which is mobile application such as Instagram, Foursquare and also TripAdvisor to advertise their businesses which provide latest information of the products and services, location of the business and also review of the food quality and services. By using the mobile application to advertise the business, it allows businesses to increase visibility and accessibility of the information to the users, enhance the social network relationships with the customers and also generate repeated business. 

E. Recommendation to improve business through e commerce

We suggest that Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft should provide online reservation of food or tables for the customers. The cakes in Patisserie Boutique are quite limited in quantity since one cake just can serves for around 10 slides to the customer. With online booking, customers able to check for the cake of the day and make reservation immediately. By carry out online booking, Zakka Loft also allowed its customer to check the ice creams of the day. If the customer knows their favourite flavour will serve on that day, they will reserve the ice cream and visit the café. Besides that, both café are lack of seat during weekends or public holidays. To overcome the problem, both café should provide reservation service of seat for customers respectively. 

We also suggest that both café can use location based e commerce as one of their e commerce approach. Ipoh is the state's administrative capital of Perak and well known for tourism. Many foreign visitors will visit Ipoh for food and interesting place but sometimes they are less understanding on the local culture. Tourism industry of Malaysia is becoming the drive of the economic development as it is getting larger due to the percentage of visitors of foreigner is increasing over the years. Patisserie Boutique and Zakka Loft can place their advertisements to the foreign visitors through Facebook suggested sites when they identified those foreign visitors is near to their shops through GPS. Through this approach, it can helps both café to attract more customers and also to increase their reputation effectively. 

References

The Lean Marketer. (2015). Social Media Marketing: B2B vs B2C. Retrieved 25 February 

    2016, from http://theleanmarketer.com/social-media-marketing-b2b-vs-b2c/

Marketing School.org. (n.d.). What is business to customer marketing? Retrieved 25 February 

   2016 from http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/b2c-marketing.html

Search Engine Land. (n.d.). What is SEO? Retrieved 26 February 2016 from 

   http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo

Digi Day. (2015). Why the mobile ad market is so dependent on app installs for growth.

   Retrieved 26 February 2015, from http://digiday.com/platforms/mobile-ad-market-

    -dependent-app-installs-growth/