1. The Quiet Cup Sometimes a little silence is all you need

2. What is The Quiet Cup Other than the basic coffee shop which provides coffee and snacks and seating area, The Quiet Cup will have 2 or 3 aesthetically setup sound proofed rooms. Target Customers The customer for this type of shop will be college students who are working on projects together. The customer base will also include entrepreneurs or businessmen like realtors etc.. who need to host meetings but dont have their own office. The rooms will be done up very well in order to make a good impression on the customers of the person booking the room. Product The Quiet Cup tries to provide a space for privacy for conducting business and other interactions in safe, calm and enjoyable setting. The main product is still the coffee and eatables. There will also be a traditional coffee shop setting.a Pricing The pricing of the coffee and other standard products would be the same as any other place. addition we would rent the meeting rooms out for a small fee.However in Promotion A standard reward points system where frequent users can be given discounts on products. Placement Extensive marketing and advertising in Colleges where a student discount can be provided on both meeting rooms as well as coffee and other snacks.the 3. Website and Phone Application The website and phone application will allow the following Booking of meeting rooms. The application will show the available times and dates and customers can book the meeting room using that. This will save money in terms of employees not having to entertain phone calls. The app will be setup to send alerts incase a meeting room that a customer wanted but was occupied has now been cancelled. A kind of waiting list will be maintained. The app will also show the menu and types of coffee available. A customer booking a meeting room will be able to setup a lunch meeting or make sure that coffee/snacks are available when the meeting starts. Essentially the employees will be like assistants to execs in a company. 4. Customer Segmentation College Students Age: 19 - 26 Income: Low Primary requirement: quiet place to study, probably late, get snacks/coffee while studying in groups Time of Day of usage: early to late evening Frequency: seasonal, more close to exam time Possible spending on Beverages and food: Medium Restriction on location: must be close to school Most important factors: quiet, whiteboards, markers etc. provided, open late. Reason for repeat: easy access to refreshments during long study sessions No. of people/group: 8/10Independent Businessmen Age: 30 - 50 Income: medium to high Primary requirement: place to hold meetings in a professional looking meeting room Time of Day of usage: working hours Frequency: throughout the year Possible spending on Beverages and food: high in order to please clients Restriction on location: none but would be better in upscale areas Most important factors: Being able to talk to clients, give presentations, projectors Reasons for repeat: Being able to provide clients with a convenient place to talk and discuss business No of people/group: 3/4 5. 4P - Marketing Mix Product The Quiet Cup is a coffee and tea place which will serve gourmet coffee and tea along side tasty snacks. The place at its core is similar to any other coffee shop hangout. The differentiating point is that the shop will have 2 or 3 rooms which can seat 8 to 10 people which will be study/meeting rooms which will be sound proofed. Price Other than the price of the of the coffee and snacks which would have to be standard and competitive in order to make a profit, we need to charge about $5-7/hr, for each room assuming 2 rooms at a 4 hr.. occupancy/day/room if we want to recuperate the cost of building the room in a year. Promotion We would have to use promotional methods like Google ad words in order to get the attention of people searching for something similar on the web. Advertising in college magazines, startup conventions etc. would have to be used. Hopefully word of mouth will become the norm. Place We would try to link up with Yelp as a preferred vendor so the shop shows up high on the search lists. We would try to link up with meetup.com so that our app is recommended when someone downloads that app. This would give us a in on people coming to know of our service. 6. Phone Application The phone app would be downloadable from App store or Google Play. The price would be for free since the application is just an extension of the service. People would be able to view the menu, book lunches for meetings. People would be able to check meeting room availability They can book/cancel a meeting room. This feature would be similar to Outlook that most of us use. They can send meeting invites to people in study groups. Any special requests like flowers etc. would be setup through the app for a charge. Meeting SMS like below could be used to send reminders to people on the invite. If required the meeting could be recorded and the app could be used to download the recording from a secure server later on. The app could hook into twitter feeds and Facebook posts so someone who wanted to organize a study session could broadcast it. 7. Porters 5 Forces Potential Entrants This is the biggest threat of all since there are many established chains like Starbucks etc.. which could easily provide the same service. Since they already have the brand name this could be a big problem. Suppliers Other than the suppliers of coffee and other beverages in the shop there isnt any other form of threat from suppliers. Buyers Power Since we are essentially a coffee shop which is already a saturated industry we are hoping that the extra service we provide would appeal to a specific set of people. However we cannot make this service as the primary source of profit since that would definitely make it too expensive and turn away customers. Threat of substitutes The threat of substitutes that exist is more people moving to Web Meetings and other forms of technology. However some face to face meetings are essential and we hope that the market will remain for this. 8. Competitors Starbucks Provides coffee, other beverages and light snacks. Very well known brand. Has a big presence in almost every city and metro area. Does not have anything specific to meet the needs of our target customers. Can provide the cheapest beverage prices due to large volume of purchase of raw materials.FedEx Kinkos Provides cubicles and office supplies and printers etc.. which can be used by renting them. Do not provide meeting rooms or an exclusive meeting room setting. Do not provide beverages and food. Target customer is someone working independently who needs copy services, Wi-Fi etc. for a short time. 9. 5 C Analysis Customers The Quiet Cup will try to attract students working in groups and business men looking to hold meetings and other client interaction in a private setting. Collaborators We can use college magazines and organizations like CommNexus in order to spread the business name and advertise to a specific segment. Competition Primary competition is from other coffee chains that may open up similar stores in what is limited locations from success. Since they already control a lot of real estate they can get an upper hand. Other competition is from companies like Kinkos that provide similar services like cubes, printers etc. however our business is a bit different. Context Entrepreneurship is a growing occupation and most people who start out cant afford offices and meeting rooms yet have a need for them. Company The Quiet Cup hopes to be the first to market such an idea and with the ideal location in a few cities wants to get a dedicated clientele. 10. SWOT Analysis Strengths First to market with the idea. Coffee shops have proven themselves as place to hang out. We can leverage on that. Weaknesses Idea can be replicated easily. May end up getting into price wars in an already highly competitive market place Opportunities Although it is a highly competitive industry it is still a growing market. Entrepreneurship is also growing with the younger generation. Threats Location is key. Being able to get prime location in major cities is difficult. Also the concept will be useful only in major cities like SFO, San Diego, Seattle, NYC and some others. 11. Location The proposed location of this shop is near the La Jolla Village square mall. Although there are other coffee shops nearby, the proximity to UCSD would allow us to target the college students. Also while being close to a college we cant be inside since that would be a barrier for business men/ entrepreneurs who are looking to hold business meetings but do not have their own office. 12. Marketing Data Spoke to a friend who is trying to start of on his own. My own experiences when I have needed a space (in my case it was for phone interviewing). Observations Coffee shops where lot of people (students and people working together) are meeting to trying to get work done. Internet research regarding growth in entrepreneurship plus my experience talking to people.