Lee Kum Kee

Lee Kum Kee

Old Company, Modern Marketing Strategy

Sauce of Lee Kum Kee, one of the most famous brands in Hong Kong, has a long history, which began in 1888 and led by the same family for four generations. The company was founded by Lee Kam Sheung as a small oyster sauce manufacturer in Guangdong, China. He moved to Macau in the early 1900s and moved to Hong Kong again after World War II, he remained based there for decades later. Lee Kum Kee is beyond the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau distribution network in the 1920s in North America, where he was also making shrimp paste. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the torch is passed to the third generation of leaders Lee Man Tat, there was rapid geographic market and product diversification. Sons of Lee Man Tat, who were educated in the West, inherited the leadership from his father in 1990, and the pace of modernization and diversification continued while the marketing strategy of the company remains robust and adaptation. Company has overcome the crisis of consumer confidence – is called the 3-MPCD crisis – in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and continues to thrive. By early 2003, Lee Kum Kee has developed more than 200 sauces. Its distribution network covered 60 countries on five continents, and its products are available in more than 80 countries. What are the lessons of strategic brand management, we can learn from the way Lee Kum Kee developed, maintained, and expand the reach of its products in a century? What are the lessons of the crisis management makes a call of a 3-MPCD crisis offer?

New products, brand building and market expansion

In 1992, the company launched a super premium gourmet sauce called XO sauce, which was made from dried scallop, ham and dried shrimp, and had a variety of applications in noodles, porridge, dim sum, sushi, stir fry dishes and other dishes. The sauce’s popularity was a great triumph for the company. The sauce was later diversified into additional variants such as XO Seafood Sauce and...