International Marketing: Ya Kun Kaya Toast's UK Expansion Strategy

This report evaluates Ya Kun Kaya Toast's targeted market in London, providing a thorough analysis of its marketing mix and strategic recommendations for international expansion. Originating in Singapore, Ya Kun is synonymous with coffee culture and aims to extend its brand to the UK coffee shop market. The report explores market entry strategies, particularly franchising and licensing, and addresses challenges faced by small firms in developed markets. Utilizing the Ansoff Growth Matrix, it details market penetration and development strategies, including product, place, promotion, and price considerations. The report concludes with key international marketing concepts essential for Ya Kun Kaya Toast's successful entry into the competitive London market. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
International Marketing
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background of the company......................................................................................................2
Evaluation of targeted market................................................................................................4
Market entry recommendations..............................................................................................5
Factors helping the company for entering a developed market.........................................5
The identification of the challenges faced by the small firms in the coffee industry for
initiating a development of their business in the developed markets.................................5
Factors that contributes towards the entry mode selections for the small forms in the
coffee industry for starting their business in the developed markets like London.............6
Marketing strategy recommendations....................................................................................6
The Market Penetration......................................................................................................7
The Market Development..................................................................................................7
The Market penetration......................................................................................................8
Marketing mix........................................................................................................................8
Products..............................................................................................................................9
Place...................................................................................................................................9
Promotions.........................................................................................................................9
Price..................................................................................................................................10
International marketing concepts.............................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The growth and the failure of an organization in the international market generally
depends on the planning of the marketing strategy by the thorough analysis of the external
parameters and the utilization of the internal competencies. The report illustrates the
evaluation of the targeted market of the company Ya Kun Kaya Toast in London together
with thorough explanation of its marketing mix and recommendations for marketing
strategies in the current scenario (Lee, Guan and Chan 2017). Based and originated in
Singapore, Ya Kun is basically synonymous with the culture of the coffee. From the shops of
the heartland coffee towards the modern day counterparts, the café has been serving endless
number of cuppa joes. One of the very establishment of the city of the Singapore is the Ya
Kun Kaya Toast. This home grown local brand of Singapore has become one of the most
quintessential spot for the breakfast and renowned through out the world. The assignment
focuses on the expansion of the comoay or the business to the London, United Kingdom
Background of the company
This home grown brand had its origin from the dreams and the hard work of Ah Koon
who tumbled up to the soil of the Singapore and started working as an assistant at a hainanese
coffee stall. After picking up the tricks of the trade, Ah Koon aroused his entrepreneurial
spirits to initiate own startup with two fellow Chinese immigrants for starting their own
coffee stall business. Though the partners backed out, Ah Koon still managed to run the
business (Ya and Berger 2018). The business started with serving coffee, tea, eggs and toast
and soon various categories of people including merchants, police inspectors, boat operators
started liking his product and the coffee shop business was at a rise. The business started to
grow with the involvement of lots of hard work and sacrifices of Ah Koon. The business
flourished after successful operation of 15 years. Ah Koon named the stall as Ya Kun and

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bragged the award for the most courteous stall in Lau Pa Sat. The Ya Kun Kya Toast coffee
stall emerged as one of the famous or renowned café best known for the coffee and the Kaya
toast. This chain of cafes mainly started as the coffee stall before the era of World War II and
was initially registered as the business under the proprietorship of Loi Ah Koon in 1944. In
the current scenario, Ya Kun currently has numerous and large number of franchisee that
operates through out Singapore, South Korea, Japan , Indonesia . Philippines and China.
Through out the years, the coffee stall grew and flourish in a very renowned and familiar
name due to the reason of its delicious and hot coffee and kaya toast (ut Postremum and
Delineatio 2016). The Ya Kun is basically the Romanized version of the Loi’s name. In the
year 1988, the coffee stall moved out to the far east square and became the one and only
chain flagship outlet. In the context of the expansion and the franchising of the coffee stall,
the business developed its first overseas outlet in the year 2003 in Indonesia unveiling the
targeted menus and the range of the coffee they deliver. After the death of Loi Ah Koon, the
business was taken over by his youngest son who carrying on the legacy of his late father
towards exemplary success. With some of the innovative strategies that encompasses the
procurements of the intellectual property rights in the targeted domestic and the international
market for the purpose of copyrights, intellectual properties and other trademarks, the
franchise program got successful and implemented towards a successful turn to the coffee
stall business (AsiaOne 2019). The company, Ya Kun Kaya Toast comprises of two of the
main companies. These are Ya Ku Singapore that generally manages the factory and the two
of the major corporate outlets and the activities related to franchising. The corporate culture
of the company is very warm consisting of conservative and people centric attire. Although
the company forbids its members and the management system for disclosing the financial
figures as per the yearly basis, article daily from the city of the corporate office of the
business revealed that the company has an annual revenue of more than S$8 million as per

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the reports of 2012-2013 with the employee turnover of 300 employees through out the
corporate office at Singapore (Lee, Guan and Chan 2017). The assignment thus mainly
focuses on the international expansion of the business and the coffee shop and its expansion
of its market in London, United Kingdom market.
Evaluation of targeted market
From the profile of the company, it is evident that from the humble beginnings as one
of the modest coffee stall in the year 1940s, the brand named as the Ya Kun Kaya Toast has
emerged or turned out to be identical and unequaled with the Kaya toast, the aromatic and the
charismatic coffee and the tea that are generally enjoyed amidst a comfortable ambiance. The
coffee chain has continued to delight their valuable fans and attraction to the tourists in a
larger note.
As per the targeted market of the expansion of the coffee chain, the market of the café in
London, UK has been getting more focused and more challenging. With the continuous
robust growth of the market of café’s in London, the coffee shop market in UK grew by the
amount of 7.3% during the turnover of 2017 to £9.6bn. It is to be noted that the Coffee shop
market constitute as one of the most robust business sectors in London (BBC News 2019).
This will help the company, Ya Kun Kaya Toast to expand its business and revenue through
out the upcoming business years. Furthermore the international coffee shop market in London
has some of the basic fruitful characteristics that will furthermore be beneficial for the coffee
chain to expand and reach its success.
Through out the towns and the cities across the United Kingdom, the rising number of
the coffee shops leading to continuous growth of the sector has emerged as one of the top
business opportunities in London. As per the current marketing reports by the news daily, the
coffee shop or the café industry in the United Kingdom is basically worth more than £9

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billion with more than 20, 000 outlets of the coffee shop through out the different corners of
the country (Tam 2017). As per the current predictions by the marketing analyst, the number
of the coffee shops can easily overtake the number of the pubs in London within the year
2035.
The targeted market for the Ya Kun Kaya Toast, not only consist of the cafe chain at the
specific parts of the city bust also in the transport hubs, the retail parks, the university
cafeterias, the offices, the hospital court and even at the residential and commercial
neighborhoods of the country. Furthermore there has been a growing presence of the
independents coffee chains which is a silver lining among the growing and the challenging
market place of London for Ya Kun Kaya Toast which will help the business to expand.
Market entry recommendations
There lies some of the most essential derivation for the recommendations that the Ya
Kun Kaya Toast must adopt for entering their targeted competitive market. One of the most
essential recommendations is that the company must use the process of franchising as the
method for entering the coffee shop market of London.
Factors helping the company for entering a developed market – The culture play a very
crucial and essential role in the decisions that pertains towards the strategy of the market
entry that is chosen by the firm. Hence for Ya Kun Kaya Toast, who intends towards the
development and the establishment of its business in the coffee shop industry of United
Kingdom must ensure for the gaining of a comprehensive understanding of the character
traits of the customers of London (Yahya et al. 2016). Furthermore it must also gain it
understanding on the basis of the cultural features and the preferences of the London market
for the implementation of the appropriate entry strategy.

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The identification of the challenges faced by the small firms in the coffee industry for
initiating a development of their business in the developed markets – On the basis of the
market identification and the analysis of the targeted market, it has been thoroughly revealed
that the entry decision to the market of the coffee shops in London is a costly procedure. With
the slightest of unsure decisions and actions, it can lead the company, Ya Kun Kaya Toast
towards the wastage of the resources and the instances of jeopardize of the capital
investments. It is thus important for Ya Kun Kaya Toast to conduct thorough cost benefit
analysis regarding various of the method entry for pertaining and finalizing their decisions of
entry and expansion. The company should also consider the fact that elaborative and
expensive strategies for the entering of the international market might not be the most
appropriate or the ideal way and more simpler approaches like exporting can also result in
better options.
Factors that contributes towards the entry mode selections for the small forms in the
coffee industry for starting their business in the developed markets like London - The
company, Ya Kun Kaya Toast must also go through thorough evaluation of the strategies and
the planned moves of their competitors who aims towards international expansion and the
expansion in the competitive and the growing coffee shop market of London (Gunawan,
Haswanto and Achmad 2015). By following this course of the actions, the company Ya Kun
Kaya Toast can develop an informed evaluation of the success regarding various strategies
related to the market entry with the benefits of the hindsight’s that can help the company to
take up reasonable and well informed decisions.
Marketing strategy recommendations
There lies various different strategies for entering a developed market. In case of the
market entry of Ya Kun Kaya Toast in London, the two of the most desired and effective
market entry strategy is franchising and licensing. These are being considered as feasible

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market entry strategies since it allows the business to ensure that all the necessary SOPs were
met and the company did not require any of the incremental amount of the capital
investments (The Business Times 2019). On the other hand, the process of licensing in case
of Ya Kun Kaya Toast is considered as important since it tends to include an various number
of diligence procedure allowing the management for undertaking the decision of expansion in
a more timely and swift manner.
In the consideration of the targeted market entry strategies and the data presented as per the
appendixes, The Ansoff Growth Matrix can be used for the explanation of the marketing
strategy of Ya Kun Kaya Toast.
Existing Products New Products
Existing
Markets
New
Markets
From the above matrix, some of the recommended strategies for Ya Kun Kaya Toast in the
four major stated fields are as follows.
The Market Penetration - Ya Kun Kaya Toast company must introduce the strategy of the
convenience grab and go concept with the catering to the customers takeaway trends. The
objective must fulfill the faster expansion towards gaining of the greater market presence and
the brand awareness.

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The Market Development - Ya Kun Kaya Toast company must utilize the strategy towards
the gaining of the brand acceptance and the capture of the youth market.
The Market penetration - The company must initiate new stores and coffee shop outlets at
the tourist spot of the targeted region. It main aim is to reach out to the tourist and the local
customers of the region to get the Ya Kun Kaya Toast brand known before venturing to the
other suburban regions and the office areas and university campuses. Furthermore the
strategies must include the wider and the broader range of the food menus together with the
option of the healthy menu (Tarulevicz 2018). Since the new targeted market consist of
various cultures and people from various tastes, the company Ya Kun Kaya Toast must shift
their focus also towards some of the other beverages especially tea. Since the customers and
the inhabitants of the county are becoming more sophisticated towards their choice of drinks
and daily beverages, the expansion of the café and the business must include the strategy
focusing in the quality and the categories of the servings. This strategy is recommended for
the Ya Kun Kaya Toast for targeting the customers and the young teenager of the country
who are health conscious and seek some of the options of healthier drinks (Kong 2016). Thus
to summarize, some of the recommended strategies are product differentiation, introduction
of the new method of the collection, new WiFi options for the customers, s and innovative
customer experience, strong marketing techniques including extensive product innovations,
dominance in the sponsorship and advertising and expansion of the menu of Ya Kun Kaya
Toast as per the local delights of the targeted market of entry.
Marketing mix
The marketing mix of Ya Kun Kaya Toast (4Ps) supports the industrial position of the
company as one of the rising chain of the coffeehouse in some of the countries including
Singapore, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and The Philippines.
The marketing mix identifies some of the main components of the marketing plan of the firm.

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The Ya Kun Kaya Toast will use its marketing mix as the ways for the development of its
popularity and brand image. The process of the marketing mix that constitutes of 4 Ps
indicates the essentiality of the marketing tool as the way for the promotion of the correct or
the right products and the correct places.
Products - The Ya Kun Kaya Toast product categories include their famous toast products
notably, the Kaya Toasts, soft boiled eggs and coffee. This is the traditional menu of the
company since decades which took on Singapore like a storm. The brand rang its bells with
many of the foodies and got flexible for adapting the tastes, cultures, the preferences and the
practices across the quality of their existing menu (Ya Kun Kaya Toast 2019). The company,
Ya Kun Kaya Toast extended its rage of menus furthermore including ice blended drinks,
beverages for the younger generation, more spreads for their toasts and kaya cookies.
This product mix is the result of the innovation in the business. The ongoing process
of the product innovation of the Ya Kun Kaya Toast aims to offer new products and the new
menus to attract new customers in the targeted new market range.
Place - The company offers most of the ranges of the products through the sitting
arrangement in the Ya Kun Kaya Toast coffee shops. This component of the tool of the
marketing mix determines the venues or the places where the customers can actually access
their products (Riorini 2016). With the initiation towards the adaption to the technologies and
the chaging times, the company aims to introduce the take away facility together with the
home delivery system. Through the rising technological factors, the company furthermore
targets to offer some of its products through online services .
Promotions- As per the current business model of Ya Kun Kaya Toast, several promotional
tools have been identified for the enhancement and the stimulation of the buying behaviors of
the customers. Some of the major factors included in the promotional mix are as follows.

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 The outdoor advertisements
 Sales promotion or coupons
 Sales promotion and food fairs (Ya Kun Kaya Toast 2019)
 Media Advertisement and television commercials
 Official website
 Public Relations
The company aims to achieve the communication and the growth strategy by emphasizing on
the outdoor advertisements, printing media, sales promotion, websites for reaching to the
target market and the target customers. The company furthermore uses public relations for
succeeding in the business. Campaigns related to the product and the brand launch aims to
spread awareness in the London market. This part of the Ya Kun Kaya Toast marketing mix
highlights the core importance or the significance of the advertisements, promotion and the
role of the public relations together with the strategy of the sales promotion for the company.
Price -
The company uses a very minimum and reasonable pricing strategy. This home grown
country emerged through many credits from the customers at Singapore and thus their pricing
strategy takes the advantages of the behavioral tendency of the people to go for affordable
purchase and also for the teenagers on the basis of the tasty toasts and the coffee range (Ya
Kun Kaya Toast 2019). The Ya Kun Kaya Toast aims towards the creation of realistic pricing
strategy for keeping an eye on the targets and identification of the requirement for the
modification of their plans of the marketing plans.
International marketing concepts
As per the discussion of Gillespie and Riddle (2015), in case of the form decision of
any organization for taking an entry to the overseas market, there includes a wide range of

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options for it. These options tend to vary in respect to the risk, the cost and the degree of the
control for exercising over it. Gerschewski, Rose and Lindsay (2015) on the other hand stated
in his discussion that the strategy of the market entry is basically the process where the
company initiates entry in the new market. The author in his illustration stated that the
context of the international expansion can furthermore be achieved by various ways of
licensing, exporting , freelancing, joint ventures, distributorships and the entirely owned
subsidiaries. In the context of the modes of entering the foreign market, De Mooij (2018) in
his research argued the ways of entering in the foreign market that tends to have some of the
substantial influences and effects on the international operation of the firm. Eriksson et al.
(2015) in the context of the entry of small business in an already developed market illustrated
the importance of the joint ventures that allows a form or a business organization for access
valuable information’s and reduction in the uncertainty of the resources.
Thus from the above analysis, the target market of Ya Kun Kaya Toast company that is the
London has been evident and explanation of the behavior of the overseas and the
international marketing mode has been understood.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that franchising and licensing together with the
identification of the cultural, economical and the physical factors of the targeted market are
some of the feasible options targeting the expansion and the growth of Ya Kun Kaya Toast.
The appendix below summarizes the data related to the pricing strategy, the ongoing range of
marketing mix of the company illustrating a pathway for the successful reach of the targeted
segment of the company.

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References
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Business News - AsiaOne. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.asiaone.com/business/ya-kun-
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at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-26677290. [Accessed 03 January 2019].
De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
Eriksson, K., Johanson, J., Majkgård, A. and Sharma, D.D., 2015. Experiential knowledge
and cost in the internationalization process. In Knowledge, Networks and Power (pp. 41-63).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Gerschewski, S., Rose, E.L. and Lindsay, V.J., 2015. Understanding the drivers of
international performance for born global firms: An integrated perspective. Journal of World
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Gillespie, K. and Riddle, L., 2015. Global marketing. Routledge.
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Identitas Berhuruf Cina pada Restoran dan Cafe Di Bandung. Jurnal Komunikasi Visual
WIMBA, 3(1).
Kong, L., 2016. From Sushi in Singapore to Laksa in London: Globalising Foodways and the
Production of Economy and Identity. In FOOD, FOODWAYS AND FOODSCAPES: Culture,
Community and Consumption in Post-Colonial Singapore (pp. 207-241).

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Lee, P.M., Guan, C. and Chan, C.M., 2017. Koufu: Fortune of an Entrepreneurial Singapore
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REINVENTING STREET FOOD IN SINGAPORE. Revista de Administração de
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[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/keywords/ya-kun. [Accessed 03
January 2019].
ut Postremum, A.P.A.I. and Delineatio, D.T.R., 2016. Editors: Harri Kettunen & Antti
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at: http://www.yakun.com/. [Accessed 03 January 2019].
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sector: Challenges faced by SMEs in Singapore.

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Appendix
Pricing Strategy for Promotion
Key Competitors
Demand in the international market

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Word Econo
World Economic Outlook
Country GDP Growth
Rate
Population GDP/CAPITA IMPORT EXPORT
Indonesia 695 6 255,712 2963 111,100 146,300
London 313 7.5 66,720 2,0011 59,900 50,720
Singapore 217 15 4,740 42,653 156,900 191,300
Ya Kun Product expansion

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Website