1.

0 Introduction

As a requirement for our module, Public Relation Function taught by Puan

Sunita my group and I were given the task to locate a certain restaurant and interview
their Public Relation department and ask some questions regarding of the types of
promotion they have. This task is related to the competency Types of Early Bird
Marketing or Dinner Hours where we have to do research on what is the types of
early bird marketing or dinner hours. This task had to be done within 2 weeks since it
was given. After discussing for quite some time, my group and I decided and planned
to meet up with the Public Relation department of a famous local food establishment
at the front of Kuching Waterfront, James Brookes Bistro.

James Brookes Bistro is a local hotspot amongst outside tourist as it provides

excellent quality local cuisine and an amazing view of the Kuching Waterfront. This
place has been so famous that its now amongst the top 10 place to eat when visiting
Kuching the review website, Tripadvisor.com. So, with that reason we choose to
schedule a meet up with the Public Relation department and question them about their
promotion and how does it, overall effects their business.

Finally, we hope that everything in this report will meet the criteria and
requirement for this module. We sincerely hope so as it took a lot of effort and hard
work to do complete it, from start to finish.

2.0 James Brookes Bistros Background

James Brookes Bistro is a small little bistro and caf that is located right in
front of the riverfront on JalanTunku Abdul Rahman. The place was named after
James Brooke who born in 1803 and was the first white Rajah of Sarawak and its like

1
 a tribute towards him and his work during his time in Sarawak. This restaurant has
been operating since the year 1999; about 17 years now and during that time they
manage to gain a good image among tourist about their establishment.

According to tripadvisor.com, James Brookes Bistro and Caf has a review of

4/5 stars for their food, which is a mix of western food and some local Sarawakian
food but also receive some bad review about their service with 1/5 star rating, this is
usually cause by the incompetent staff and the lack of staff that have. But overall, this
establishment as managed to become one of the top 10 place to eat at Kuching, sitting
at 6th place currently. In short, this small bistro and caf is a great place for tourists and
locals alike to visit and relax with a cup of tea while enjoying the ambiance of the
riverfront view and traditional decoration that have, and also to the mellow jazz music.

3.0 The Aim of the Restaurant:

The aim of this little bistro is not more than to be the best restaurant they can in
Kuching. Their goal is to always provide good service and excellent food and be a
place where people, tourist or local can just come and relax while enjoying the
wonderful view of the waterfront, and also be a place that their customer will always
remember during their time in Kuching and recommend to other people who might be
coming here.

4.0 The person we interviewed:

During our time at James Brookes Bistro and Caf, we interviewed the current
manager of the establishment, Sydney James Vyner. He is currently 19 year old male,
his race is half Caucasian from New Zealand and half Bidayuh from Kuok. He is a
Sarawakian, born and raised. He has been working at the establishment for a year now
and manage to be promoted to manager of the establishment.

5.0 Promotion they provide:

The promotion which establishment provides are a Lunch and Dinner Set
Menu Promotion. The Lunch and Dinner Set Menu Promotion runs during the whole
week from 11am 1pm for lunch and 6pm 8pm for Dinner. All sets come with a

2
 complimentary drink, usually ice tea or coffee. This Promotion has been used since
beginning of 2015 and has bring good business for the restaurant with sale going up by
10% compare to 2014. But sadly, the 10% increase in sales wasnt enough compare to
the amount they had to spend to buy the ingredients for the set menu dishes, so they
decided to discontinue as of March 2016.

6.0 Methodology

6.1 Interview

We use this method to query the restaurant manager about the detail of their
restaurant, such the background, the history behind, how they promote their
restaurant, the special promotion they provide, and etc. By using this method
we obtained a lot of information about this restaurant, which we confirmed to
accurate and solid as he came straight from the mouth of the interviewer. In
addition, we also got acquainted with the restaurant manager as we can say hes
quite a friendly fellow. The question we ask during the interview are as
follows:
What is your name and your position in this restaurant?
How would you best describe about this establishment?
What are the special promotion you provide in your restaurant? For
example, do you provide Early Bird promotion?
Which dishes are your signature dishes?
Does the restaurant ever cater for a large event like weddings?
Whats the strategy of this establishment to help it keep in business?
Whats the history of this bistro?
Is this place halal?

7.0 Case Study

After doing much research about this topic of this module, these are what we have
found:
7.1 What is Early Bird Promotion?

One concept that has become popular in the early bird special for consumers
who are willing to dine before the peak dinner hours. Consumers are offered a
selection of meals at lower prices if they order before 6.00 p.m. or 7.00 p.m,
depending on the restaurant and the market. This is type of price promotion
that targets consumers who tend to be more sensitive about price. it is

3
 particularly popular in resort areas or destinations that are frequented by
tourist. Normally, restaurants win offer only a few menu items at the reduced
price and may serve smaller portions or eliminate an accompaniment such as
salad or side order.

7.2 Results from Case Study

After doing the interview of the manager of James Brookes Bistro, reading the
answer he given and then verify the outcome, these are the result of our case
study:

7.2.1 Customers
From what we learned from the manager of James Brookes Bistro and
observing it for ourselves, most of the customer dining in the
establishment are tourists, to be more precise outside of the country
tourist. Its no wonder the bistro is a hot spot amongst outside tourist as
its ranked at the top 10 places to eat in Kuching in tripadvisor.com; a
review website commonly used by out of towners. The customers that
gave their reviews in the website stated that James Brooke Bistro is an
excellent eatery that serves authentic Sawarakian food and a great place
to kick back and relax while embracing the majestic view of the
riverside.
Though, even with the great reviews by tourist the establishment still
struggles to attract any locals. As stated by the manager: Our prices are
quite high for locals, as you can see a bowl of Laksa here cost 12
Ringgit, and thats the main reason why most locals would not dine
here. A bowl of traditional Laksa cost like RM6 at any local food court
but at James Brooke Bistro, its double that price. But, the reason why it
cost that much is because the ingredients used in their dishes differs
from what local food courts stall uses. For example, James Brookes
Bistro uses only good quality fresh large prawns in their Laksa where
local food court stall would use the cheapest on they can find.

7.2.2 Reason for limited choices

Although James Brookes Bistro provides a variety of dish to choose
from, in their set menu promotion however, there are limited amount of
choices to choose from. For example, the lunch set menu promotion has
only 4 choices to choose from; Curry noodle with Ice Lemon Tea or

4
 Coffee(Hot or Cold), Mee Mamak with Ice Lemon Tea or Coffee(Hot or
Cold), Butter Chicken Rice with Ice Lemon Tea or Coffee(Hot or Cold)
and Fish & Chips with Ice Lemon Tea or Coffee(Hot or Cold). All them
also comes with an option of add-on salad and exchange drinks for only
RM 4.
Reason why there such a limited amount of choices are because they
wish to only sell dishes are quick and easy to prepare and cook, as lunch
time are usually the rush hour and they thought that customer wont
want to wait for something that will take a long prepare like Beef
Stroganoff which will take at least 15 minutes to prepare. So they only
decided to put dishes that will take 10 minutes or less to prepare into the
lunch menu as customer wont rather not waste too much of their time
waiting a dish.

7.2.3 Effect of Promotion

Compare to 2014s sales report and 2015s sales report, the
establishments set menu promotion has little to none differences in
terms of sales. In 2015s sales report, it only increase the total sales
made in that year by 10%. After much discussion and consideration, the
management department of the bistro decided to cut their loses and
discontinue the set menu in March 2016

8.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, we visited a place that we never visited before and learn a lot
about it. Furthermore, the place was surveyed to find out more about the data that need
to be collected such as the background where we studied the James Brooke Bistrio and
Caf as this is needed to be written in out report. Other than that, we learned the
various types of history and got to see the abundant of sculptures and beautiful
photographs that are available in the restaurant.

In addition, we can also implied what we have learned through our research
and interviews with the cafe manager in any business we might want to create in the
future. Through these interviews, we have revealed the answers that we have seek for
the question we wanted the answers to. We've questioned all sorts of questions based
on what we've learned. For example, the types of promotion which was offered by the
restaurant, how they promoted their promotion and more.

5
 Through this course work, we have to learn to work in groups. In addition, it
also can unearth our talent to be a very eloquent in asking the kind of questions as a
journalist who wanted to know all the secrets and issues and need the answer for it.
We can also use the method we learned from restaurant and implied it whenever we
wish to promote our own restaurant that we might wish to open in the near future.
Through various strategies, the restaurant is James Brooke managed to strengthen their
restaurant because it is a strategic and became the focus of visitors or tourists.

James Brooke, the restaurant also has received us with hearts that we openly
and treated with the utmost customer friendliness. Therefore, this restaurant also gave
us the inspiration to open a restaurant which we aspire someday based on proper
procedures and an attraction.

9.0 Attachment

The Manager of James Brookes Bistro

6
Us with the manager

Menu of James Brookes Bistro

7
 James Brookes Bistro

10.0 Reference
https://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Restaurant_Review-g298309-d940748-
Reviews-James_Brooke_Bistro-Kuching_Sarawak.html
Sydney James Vyner, Manager of James Brookes Bistro

8
9