By Nurdini Aqila Mazlan
This year, everyone was excited to celebrate Aidil Fitri together with families and friends after almost two years celebrating it at home due to the imposition of the movement control order (MCO) and the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Aidil Fitri was approaching, people started to get busy preparing to celebrate the occasion. Some people were busy with preparing kuih raya, some were busy doing the house chores, and the most important thing was of course everyone was busy looking for their Raya attire!
Recently, a new brand of clothing suddenly wen viral on social media and grabbed people’s attention. None other than the Bulan Bintang which received a lot of positive response and feedback from the public.
Everywhere we go, we tend to hear people mentioning about Bulan Bintang. The advertisement for this brand is everywhere on radio, social media and also in articles published online.
The founder of Bulan Bintang, Azzim Zahid Azmi or known to many as Meri, says that he has begun his journey in business starting from a very young age, since high school. He began with selling and designing T-shirts and surprisingly many of his friends like his designs and it started to get attention from many other students in different schools as well.
This is because they got a culture and trend during his time that the students would love to flex and show off their signature T-shirts. Therefore, Meri is noted as someone very creative and smart in taking the opportunity to expand his business.
“The usual process I did is to design the T-shirts and send them to the shop in Kuala Lumpur for silk printing,” Meri expressed.
The business spirit is already in his blood as he never gives up with the process despite his busy schedule being a student at Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Integrasi Gombak, Kuala Lumpur.
Meri, who has successfully graduated with a Bachelor of Mass Communication from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, continued his business journey after school by selling kurta at uptown Danau Kota when he was just 19 years old. He uses the money that he gets from selling the T-shirts to come up with the kurta business.
“I sold kurta because at that time many people sold it but most of them were in slim-fit size only and there was usually a big logo on the pocket. I saw no one selling regular kurta at that time, so I decided to sell it and began with only 300 pieces. Then, I increased the production up to 2,000 pieces.”
What is interesting about the Bulan Bintang product is that it has no brand logo on the pocket of its Baju Melayu. Some people, especially youth, do not like their clothes to have a logo, wordings and so on.
He received good feedback from people as he produced 10,000 pieces of kurta in 2021 and still managed to receive positive response from the people even though the government announced that we would be celebrating Aidil Fitri during MCO at that time.
He did this with all his efforts and support from friends. He has a strong backbone which are his friends from schools and universities. Besides, Meri also came from a good family background.
Being accused by some people who say that he used cables from his family to build up his journey, does not make him give up. He even clarifies that he does not use cables to be in this business journey. All of this effort is from him and his friends. However, what makes people really proud of him is that even though he is a son of Dato’ and Datin, he tries to be independent by doing business since he was in high school.
He has become a role model to other youngsters that life is not always as what we imagine. Not every child who has a well-known father or rich parents will always rely fully on them. In fact, his brother is also very independent. He is also doing his own business and the product does get positive response from people, which is Hausboom.
Her mother also loves to do business such as selling Kuih Raya. His family members come from a rich profile, but are very humble and down to earth. The most important thing is that they are business-minded people! Up until now, Meri managed to set up five branches of Bulan Bintang boutique which is located at Bangi, Shah Alam, Ukay Boulevard, Kelantan dan Johor Bahru.
When he was just 17 years old, he already thought of the integrated marketing tools which is the place he chose to sell the products and he provided a social media platform to promote his kurta if people want to buy it online, which is a strategic marketing plan.
As we all know, Bulan Bintang recently got viral and received positive feedback from the community because of their great marketing. They use celebrities to promote their Baju Melayu. Among the celebrities are Sharnaaz Ahmad, Shukri Yahaya, and Nadhir Nasar. For the women’s model, they use Nabila Razali and Siti Saleha. There are also Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung for kids.
Bulan Bintang has also improved its sales and even came out with another product other than just kurta. Among them are Baju Melayu slim-fit, Baju Melayu tailored-fit, Baju Kurung for Bulan Bintang sisters, and kids collections.
Its target customers are everyone in the family as the company provides all clothes for men, women and kids. Also, the size chart for Baju Melayu tailored-fit covers up to 5XL, which would fit people with the extra size. No one is left behind, and everyone can have smart fit clothes on them during Aidil Fitri. The price range is also affordable, which is RM189 for all types of Baju Melayu, adding only RM30 for 3XL, 4XL and 5XL sizes. While for the Baju Kurung, the price range is between RM189-RM369. And lastly, the price for the kids collection is between RM139-RM159.
The Bulan Bintang brand surprisingly managed to catch the Minister of Finance, Tengku Zafrul Aziz’s attention. He bought Baju Melayu from Bulan Bintang and had posted about it on his Instagram.
“Beli awai tak kalut! Terima kasih Meri dan Shaqir sudi ke MOF petang ni untuk COD Baju Melayu Bulan Bintang Exclusive saya.”
“Masa COD tadi sempat sembang dengan Meri mengenai Bulan Bintang. Perniagaan ini dimulakan 7 tahun lepas oleh Meri dan rakan beliau di uptown je, dan sekarang dengan kekuatan lebih daripada 100 orang pekerja, Bulan Bintang kini memiliki sebuah gudang, 5 buah butik dan lebih kurang 6,000 agen di seluruh negara termasuk Sabah & Sarawak.”⠀
“Antara pemangkin perniagaan beliau adalah langkah pendigitalan yang diambil, memastikan produk dapat dibeli oleh pembeli dari seluruh negara.”
He added, “Tahniah anak muda! Saya doakan agar perniagaan ini akan terus berkembang maju dan seterusnya menggaji lebih ramai #KeluargaMalaysia demi kemajuan ekonomi negara.”
This posting led many people to look forward to this young man in his business journey.
It can therefore be said that after seven years of hustle, finally the effort by Meri and his team had really paid off. ***
(Nurdini Aqila Mazlan is a third-year Bachelor of Human Sciences (Communication) student. The article is written as part of the individual assignment series for Corporate Writing class)