How To Be The Top Ramly Burger Seller In A Pasar Malam
July 3, 2008 · Reading Time: 2min 15sec · Print This Article
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For the global reader, here’s a definition list:
- Ramly Burger: The Southeast Asian (Mostly Malaysia and Singapore) equivalent of Wendy’s Burger in the US. Commonly cooked on the spot and sold in Pasar Malams….
- Pasar Malam: Night Market in Malay Language. These night markets are set up in neighbourhoods and heartlands (imagine a moving circus) and last from 3 days to 3 weeks.
This article is about becoming the top Ramly Burger seller in a Pasar Malam. Of course, that would be easy, if you didn’t have another stall selling the same stuff that you are selling less than 10 steps away (typical Pasar Malam, maybe about 400m length, would have about 5 such stalls.) With so much competition selling seemingly the same thing, how do you attract customers?
I was at a Pasar Malam recently (this article inspired by the events) and caught a curious sight of a Ramly Burger stall whose queue can be compared to a 4D sweepstakes/lucky draw/gambling queue. What made this interesting was that to my left and right I saw a few other Ramly Burger stalls with little or hardly any customers. How do we explain?
Herein lies the beauty of marketing, and some primary observational research, while drinking my sugar cane drink of course….
How To Be The Top Ramly Burger Seller In A Pasar Malam
- Branding. This winning stall not only had the big banners which everyone else had. The dude selling and cooking the burger was this muscular abang (guy) wearing a Ramly Burger yellowish bandana, with an apron. Not sure if he’s gone to any business course, but he certainly knew the power and methods of making a seemingly common product uncommon. Another case study would be starbucks, managing to sell coffee at about 8 times the price you’d normally pay for almost the same thing at the nearby coffeeshop. Anyhow, he was like the perfect Burger Ramly icon, if Burger Ramly needed its own Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, and was dressed to kill.
- Prime Location. Real estate experts know this one. This stall was located at a few focal points which optimised its location. There was the traffic junction, the train station, and the carprak behind it. Oh, and it had a gap from the next stall which made that long queue possible in the first place.
- No Hard Selling. Targeted promotions. The stall was selling like hotcakes and occassionally made the “Burger Ramly Burger Ramly Mari Mari” yell. It had a cool image to it, and did not seem desperate. The stall knew when to advertise and when to smile at persons passing by. In other words, it wasn’t a machine gun. It was a Ramly sniper.
As for the taste, because the Pasar Malam lasted about 3 weeks, I savoured about 5 stalls in total. Lo and behold, the above winning stall wasn’t exactly the most delicious. In fact, in terms of taste, it scored 3rd in my rankings. However the experience it marketed to customers upselled its product offering.
As a sidenote, because it cannot compete with the other stalls in terms of price (prices are rather fixed), it innovated its product and its product layers. I’ll elaborate more on product layers in my next article. Meantime, if you enjoyed this article, then hey, you enjoy marketing too!
Final words though… do you think Ramly Burger should open proper eating chains and outlets?
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Great article fihz! Would like to hear more on your analysis of real world business/marketing practices being carried out…