How to compete with big brand name?

My answer to this is to think local. Do what Highland can't. Put up a local (physical) bulletin board for flyers and classifieds. Put photos of local people and events on the wall, bring in local musicians when you can. Provide space evenings and weekends for charity events. Name some special coffee drinks after local landmarks or people. Make deals with local businesses to swap discount coupons (or "bring your coffee receipt for a 10% discount"). Decorate with friendly down-home furniture instead of the typical Danish-modern blond wood, and go retro-eclectic to make it unique. Keep a roster of regulars and ask them if they want their "usual" to be kept on a list. Then, when someone comes in their name brings up their drink order immediately.
And finally, pay attention to statistics and use that to advantage. A local shop can be flexible, agile enough to launch a new program quickly. If something isn't selling, take it off the menu or run a special on it. If something sells well, offer something with it, "Pastry 15% off with large latte." Many of us choose to shop locally, and are ready to respond to any marketing push from our favorite corner coffee shop. It's a very receptive market, and it's one of the few that's not looking for the best price.

Major complaints laid against brand stores:
1. Prices. Specifically Vietnam, brand cafe generally is accused of more expensive than local cafe, all things consider. So try to keep your price low, comparatively, if you can.
2. Services. Do they still keep their professional level like the opening days or does it slip already? Recheck your own stores' level of services.
3. Experiment. Dont hesitate to sell different kinds of pastries from different bakeries and rotate them every ten days. The newness may compensate for the difference in quality of pastries. Brand cafe simply find that hard to follow.
4. Attractions. People go to one cafe not just to drink and eat, but because people go there habitually. "keep things local", "engaging your customers", "make them feel welcome", are some of the things barkeepers can do to make local customers return.

The best way is the engagement of the owner in customer care.

Hi Ms. Thanh Nguyen

What is your potential customers? How many regular customers do you have? It doesn’t make sense to try to compete with such a dominant brand unless you have a plan to increase more market share and develop your coffee shop nationally or even internationally. I think the more narrow your niche, the better you can serve your customers.

If I owned a coffee shop, I would focus on fulfilling the customer's needs rather than finding ways to compete with other shops. Define what makes your coffee shop stand out from the crowd (the flavor of coffee, strange names, place, space, good services...) so that ones will choose you over a competitor and concentrating on these features to develop marketing strategy.

Moreover, it seems not to be very wise to compete on price. In my opinion, you should focus more on providing friendly customer services.

Last but not least, choose the right staff to employ. I have tried so many coffee shops and I can see that many of them do not make much efforts on satisfying their customers. Much of staff's behaviors are really bad and sometimes unpleasant, even rude. I always find my way back to those which has staff usually smile with its customers. Employing these people can help drive your business forward.:)

Cheers

.theo em thì một quán cafe được mở tại đúng địa điểm thích hợp (thường thì gần các cty văn phòng) và với chút phong cách riêng (như nhạc, không gian trang trí và một chút đồ ăn thức uống đặc biệt) thì có thể cạnh tranh với Highlands, GJ's hay Coffee Bean

.chúng ta có những quán cafe kinh doanh thành công như Paris Deli, Terrace ngay sát Highlands (tại Saigon Centre) .rồi những quán cafe kế bên GJ's tại hồ Con rùa cũng rất đông khách