Old Company, Modern Marketing Strategy: Lessons from Lee Kum Kee
工業貿易署 Trade and Industry Department
SME Case Series
CHI KIN (BENNETT) YIM
Old Company, Modern Marketing Strategy: Lessons from Lee Kum Kee1
Introduction
We are a very old company, but we recognise that our customers are changing, so we continually develop new products to reflect this.
David Lee, managing director, Lee Kum Kee Company2
The problem with a lot of family-controlled local brands that have a long history behind them is that it’s very easy to become old and run out of steam.
- Antony Chow, vice-president for Greater China, RSCG (an advertising agency)3
The sauce company Lee Kum Kee, one of the best known Hong Kong brands, certainly did not have the problem mentioned above, although it did have a long history that began in 1888, and was run by the same family through four generations. The company was founded by Lee Kam Sheung as a small oyster-sauce manufacturer in Guangdong Province, China. It relocated to Macau in the early 1900s, moved once more to Hong Kong after World War II, and was based there in the decades afterwards. Lee Kum Kee was already expanding beyond the Guangdong-Macau-Hong Kong distribution network in the 1920s to North America, when it was also making shrimp paste. In the 1970s and 1980s, after the torch passed to thirdgeneration leader Lee Man Tat, there was a diversification of geographical markets as well as products at a very quick pace. Lee Man Tat’s sons, who were educated in the West, inherited the leadership from their father in the 1990s, and the pace of modernisation and diversification continued while the Company’s marketing strategy remained as vigorous and
1 2 3
This Case is based entirely on public sources, including the Lee Kum Kee Website, URL: home.lkk.com. Nisha Gopalan, “LKK reveals recipe for success”, South China Morning Post, 1 October, 1996. Joanna Slater, “Spreading the Sauce”, Far Eastern Economic Review, 20 May, 1996.
Vincent Mak prepared this Case under the supervision of Dr. Chi Kin
SME Case Series
CHI KIN (BENNETT) YIM
Old Company, Modern Marketing Strategy: Lessons from Lee Kum Kee1
Introduction
We are a very old company, but we recognise that our customers are changing, so we continually develop new products to reflect this.
David Lee, managing director, Lee Kum Kee Company2
The problem with a lot of family-controlled local brands that have a long history behind them is that it’s very easy to become old and run out of steam.
- Antony Chow, vice-president for Greater China, RSCG (an advertising agency)3
The sauce company Lee Kum Kee, one of the best known Hong Kong brands, certainly did not have the problem mentioned above, although it did have a long history that began in 1888, and was run by the same family through four generations. The company was founded by Lee Kam Sheung as a small oyster-sauce manufacturer in Guangdong Province, China. It relocated to Macau in the early 1900s, moved once more to Hong Kong after World War II, and was based there in the decades afterwards. Lee Kum Kee was already expanding beyond the Guangdong-Macau-Hong Kong distribution network in the 1920s to North America, when it was also making shrimp paste. In the 1970s and 1980s, after the torch passed to thirdgeneration leader Lee Man Tat, there was a diversification of geographical markets as well as products at a very quick pace. Lee Man Tat’s sons, who were educated in the West, inherited the leadership from their father in the 1990s, and the pace of modernisation and diversification continued while the Company’s marketing strategy remained as vigorous and
1 2 3
This Case is based entirely on public sources, including the Lee Kum Kee Website, URL: home.lkk.com. Nisha Gopalan, “LKK reveals recipe for success”, South China Morning Post, 1 October, 1996. Joanna Slater, “Spreading the Sauce”, Far Eastern Economic Review, 20 May, 1996.
Vincent Mak prepared this Case under the supervision of Dr. Chi Kin