Have you eaten Lee Kum Kee?
In 1888, Lee Kum Sheung invented oyster sauce and founded Lee Kum Kee in Nanshui Town, Guangdong Province. As a family business with a history of 125 years, Lee Kum Kee has become a well-known brand, and its products have grown from the first two to more than 220 products today. 1988 was a turning point in Lee Kum Kee’s development. The brand started appropriate marketing with mission and vision and distributed products to overseas markets.
Brands face many challenges in the process of globalization:
1. Product: Because people in other countries may not be familiar with Chinese or Cantonese cuisine, let alone the incomprehensible oyster sauce. For some Americans, oyster sauce is strange, just as the Chinese will never accept blue cheese. All foreign markets have different understanding and acceptance of “pure” Chinese cuisine. For example, Hong Kong’s most famous dish is dim sum. Therefore, based on Ace sauce products, the brand has developed new products suitable for local tastes. For example, the brand has developed Sriracha Mayo sauce, lemon soft chicken sauce, halal-certified Panda brand umami oyster sauce and Babao vegetable sauce for the US, Australia, Malaysia/Indonesia and Japanese markets. This reflects our patience and respect for the local culture; you can’t expect everyone to cook/eat our way. Many foreign consumers do not have the habit of pickling food or take it for granted that Chinese cuisine is what they see in the takeaway department of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. To reverse his consumption concept, Lee Kum Kee regards the popularization of food knowledge (making consumers accustomed to sweet and sour sauces gradually fall in love with other regional dishes, such as Dongpo meat sauce in Hangzhou) as an essential long-term strategy.
2. Product’s name: To introduce Chinese liquor, which is very popular in China, into the American market, Houston has changed the name “baijiu” to “Byejoe” so that American consumers can pronounce it. On the other hand, Lee Kum Kee has always carried a self-explanatory Asian label. The brand believes that the localization of this brand name is a better choice in the eyes of Americans. But localization of brand names has pros and cons. For brands, it is best to maintain Hong Kong heritage and Asian feel. Lee Kum Kee launched a logo that Americans understand well: the red bridge symbolizes the culinary ambassador to the West. The core value of an enterprise is “Si Li Ji Ren” (meaning “taking into account the interests of others”), which means that whether you are a person or doing things, you must first stand in the other side’s position and consider the other side.
According to Euromonitor data, Lee Kum Kee was the number one oyster sauce brand in the world from 2007 to 2012. According to Nielsen’s survey, our market share in Hong Kong is as high as 70% or more. Maxim’s Group, Café de Coral, and Cathay Pacific are all our corporate customers here.
