In the initial stage of Lee Kum Kee's development, Hong Kong's consumption power was still low, and there was little demand for high-priced oyster sauce. Therefore, Lee Kum Kee adopted a unique market development strategy: starting from overseas markets, and then trying to expand the Hong Kong market. This is very different from the corporate philosophy of the time, and it is this flexibility that makes Lee Kum Kee have a good international reputation. Since the 1971s, Lee Kum Kee has made great efforts to develop the Hong Kong market. At first, it was sold in a retail store and several grocery stores in Queen's Road, and later it was widely distributed and sold in large quantities thanks to the rapid development of supermarkets.
since the 1971s, Lee Kum Kee has only won the world with two products, namely, old super oyster sauce and shrimp sauce. In the 1971s, with the increasing diversification of market demand, Lee Kum Kee immediately turned to the market-oriented marketing concept, implemented modern marketing management, separated the original quality assurance department, and set up R& D with more than 21 people. D department to strengthen product research and development. In order to get an excellent product concept, R&D personnel often have to do a lot of work, such as conducting target consumer surveys, learning from cooking professionals and retailers, and so on. Over the past 21 years, Lee Kum Kee has been constantly bringing forth the old and bringing forth the new, and has introduced sauces such as Zhepanda brand oyster sauce, XXO sauce, Chili sauce, chicken powder, oyster sauce with scallops, and a series of instant sauces such as soy sauce chicken sauce, bittern sauce and steamed fish soy sauce. The number of products has increased from the original two to more than 151. Among them, Lee Kum Kee won the HKMA/TVB Bronze Award of Hong Kong Outstanding Marketing Award in 1997 for the development and promotion of steamed fish and soy sauce.
As the saying goes, three points look and seven points dress up. In order to keep the old products from becoming obsolete, Lee Kum Kee lost no time in designing a new brand logo. Different from the early rustic appearance, the new packaging adopts the internationally popular straight-line design, which is more advanced and aesthetic, and more acceptable to consumers.
in p>1992, the company specially hired a professional design consultant company to redesign a set of packaging identification system for Lee Kum Kee, which unified the invitation paper and label, thus giving consumers a refreshing feeling and facilitating identification. In order to increase the selling point, in addition to printing basic information such as ingredients and weight, the poster also provides recipes and usage methods. In addition, the company also printed foreign languages on the invitation paper to show that internationalization is beneficial to export. Lee Kum Kee pays attention to modern marketing communication, and has carried out a series of advertising and sponsorship activities: inviting Ye Liyi, a Hong Kong singer, to shoot TV advertisements, and singing a big meal on TV every night to accompany you ... to increase brand awareness; Exclusive sponsorship of a circus performance in Hong Kong Ocean Park; Providing sauces for the TV cooking of Fang Tai and Martin Yan, famous people in the cooking field ... This is a bold attempt for a time-honored brand with a history of one hundred years.
Lee Kum Kee is a veritable family business, but its decision-making level has been modernized and internationalized through four generations. After studying abroad, the fourth generation of family members returned to Hong Kong in the 1981s, giving full play to their strengths in different positions of the group, which made the management of Lee Kum Kee standardized and scientific. At present, Lee Kum Kee has 511 employees in Hong Kong, while there are more than 1,111 people in China and overseas.
in the early 1991s, not satisfied with the success of condiment business, Lee Kum Kee used brand awareness to expand his brand and devoted himself to expanding real estate, catering, health food and transportation, so as to increase his market cake.
Lee Kum Kee Becomes Space Food:
According to Chen Bin, director of the Space Food and Nutrition Research Office of China Astronaut Research and Training Center, the Shenzhou-9 manned mission provided more than 71 kinds of Chinese food with astronauts in space, "which can ensure that astronauts will not eat heavy food within 4 days".
"Judging from the published Shenjiu recipes, there are some characteristics for astronauts to perform tasks, such as food needs without indigestible dregs to reduce the burden of the waste collection system in the spacecraft cabin; Less nutrients are lost after heating, and the shelf life is long. " He Li, a researcher at the Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety of China CDC, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.
In the published menu, home-cooked dishes such as dry-roasted Pleurotus eryngii, shredded pork with fish flavor, corn with pine nuts, moo Shu pork and beef tenderloin with black pepper are impressive, and the selected seasonings include seafood sauce, barbecued pork sauce, Sichuan-style Chili sauce, tomato sauce and Thai sweet and spicy sauce, all of which are "sweet, sour, spicy, salty and fresh".
According to Lee Kum Kee Group, which was selected to supply sauces, this enterprise provided more than 2,111 packages of sauces for astronauts. There is no essential difference between these sauces and the sauces on the public dining table. The special features are: firstly, they should adapt to the special packaging in the space environment; secondly, in the space environment, people's taste will change to some extent, and the taste of sauces will be appropriately adjusted according to requirements.
How does Shenjiu food suit the personalized taste of astronauts? Chen Bin said that when each food is developed, astronauts should be asked to taste it and fill in the "sensory evaluation form" first, and only foods with a score of 61 or more can be selected.
Two of the three astronauts are from Shanxi and one is from Henan. Because astronauts are in weightless environment, there may be a temporary deterioration of taste, and the taste of hometown can arouse appetite better. He Li said: "For example, ketchup can not only meet the general demand for' acid' in Shanxi, but also facilitate the supplement of vitamin C and lycopene."
One of the highlights of Shenjiu was the first visit to space by a female astronaut from China. He Li said that in the space environment, women lose bone density much faster than men, so they need to pay more attention to the intake of minerals, vitamins, calcium and iron. Appropriate dessert supplement can also meet the psychological needs of women.
"It has been proved that China cuisine with five flavors can soothe the stomachs of China astronauts better than western food, so that they can accomplish their tasks better. I think the successful experience in this area can also inspire and draw lessons from Asian countries with similar tastes. " She said.
Lee Kum Kee: the benchmark enterprise with zero defects in food safety
The condiment association awarded Lee Kum Kee the benchmark enterprise award in condiment industry yesterday, and only Lee Kum Kee won the award. This shows that the condiment industry has affirmed Lee Kum Kee's food safety work, which is space food and eaten by astronauts. Astronauts' food requires high safety. At the same time, looking back at our history in recent years, we are the sauce suppliers for the Olympic Games, the Asian Games and the World Expo. On all major projects, our food has undergone the most stringent inspection. The FDA of the United States came to our Lee Kum Kee factory for audit. We are the only company that passed the FDA audit with zero defects, and this is the only food company in China, which passed without any problems.
why can we be so good? I want to tell you about our food safety system. First of all, our company has very good values: "being pragmatic and honest, thinking about benefits and people", which is very important in our core values. "Thinking about others" has three meanings. The first meaning is empathy. When you do something, you should think from the perspective of others. It is very important for us food makers to think about how we cook food from the standpoint of consumers. Second, we have a good quality control management system. We have a system called one hundred minus one equals zero. Why doesn't one hundred minus one equal ninety-nine? That is, in quality control, as long as you do one thing wrong and can't do it well, your result is zero instead of ninety-nine. We have a very strict evaluation management system. In our raw material procurement and the whole supply chain management, we have a system called vertical supply chain, that is, from the field to the table, we start with raw materials and control from seed selection, and we train our own planting base. For example, pepper, we train from seed selection, then field management, how to cultivate, how to harvest, and how to carry out deep processing. There is a strict monitoring and quality control system throughout the process. At the same time, our supply chain system is very perfect. Food safety is very important in many cases. We guarantee the quality from raw materials.
the first is our values, the second is our quality control system, and the third is the supply chain system. I think this is a very complete and perfect thing. The combination of the three systems ensures that our food safety has become a model of the industry.
Tsinghua, a descendant of Li Huimin, the fourth generation of "Lee Kum Kee", gave a speech: How can Chinese enterprises "be richer than three generations"
"Many people say that' being rich is not better than three generations', and our family development should break this spell." Li Huimin, the fourth generation descendant of Lee Kum Kee, a century-old Hong Kong enterprise, said in a speech in Tsinghua University on the 31th that "sustainable development is meaningful for both individuals and society".
In the lecture hall of Tsinghua, the leader of Chinese businessmen that day, Li Huimin shared the secret of Lee Kum Kee as a family business that has been growing for a hundred years with the topic of "the cornerstone of culture": "Thinking about benefits and people" is the core value of our family. While considering our own interests, we also think about problems from the perspective of others and from a broader perspective.
At the beginning of the speech, Li Huimin patiently introduced the origin of Lee Kum Kee and the 26 members of the family business. He said that before 2111, Li Huimin and his brother and sister all worked in their own enterprises. "Everyone is the boss, and employees don't know who to listen to, so the family committee came into being."
In order to make this huge enterprise develop better, the family committee has formulated a "family constitution": the next generation must work in other companies for three years, the committee members should not exceed nine, and the "family constitution" can be changed only if more than 75% of the members reach an agreement. Li Huimin said that the "Family Constitution" has made detailed provisions, from the distribution of equity to the education of children.
Li Huimin called values and ways of thinking "software" for family development, compared with the "family constitution" and other hardware regulations. In addition to "thinking about benefits and people", "empathy and starting a business forever" are all taken as creeds by this family and enterprise. "We advocate' prevention of disease' and take various measures to ensure that our family does not get sick." Li Huimin said.
In the course of his speech, Li Huimin repeatedly emphasized that "it is not a business to be maintained, but a home", and advocated that family members always take the family as the core and understand that "we" is greater than "I" and "family" is greater than "family". He introduced that there is even a "three no's" rule in Lee Kum Kee: no late marriage, no divorce and no extramarital affairs.
In order to maintain the continuity of the family business, "Lee Kum Kee" has been imperceptibly cultivating the fifth generation who received western education since childhood, so as to enhance their sense of responsibility to the family. Li Huimin said that the family had arranged for the fifth generation members to attend the "Lee Kum Kee Tsinghua University Summer School" and so on, so that they could feel and accept Chinese traditional culture through studying the history and culture of China and a lot of outdoor visits.
After the lecture and interactive session, Professor Long Denggao, director of Tsinghua University's Chinese Business Research Center and doctoral supervisor, pointed out that family businesses will combine family ties and interests, which will not only generate energy, but also produce contradictions. This problem once plagued the "Lee Kum Kee" family. However, spanning four generations, after more than 1.2 years of development, this family business has nurtured its own unique management wisdom.
This lecture is the sixth lecture of "Tsinghua Lecture Hall for Chinese Business Leaders". Tan Tianxing, deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, and Chen Jining, president of Tsinghua University, met with Li Huimin and his party respectively before the lecture. After the speech, Zhuang Rongwen, director of the Economic and Technological Department of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, presented Li Huimin with a speech commemorative certificate on behalf of the organizer, and Han Jingyang, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua University, presented Li Huimin with a souvenir.
"Tsinghua Lecture Hall for Chinese Business Leaders" is jointly organized by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and Tsinghua University * * *, with the theme of "sharing wisdom, innovating and winning * * *", aiming at sharing the entrepreneurial development experience of Chinese businessmen, building a stage for successful Chinese businessmen to show their elegance, opening a high-level lecture hall for Tsinghua students to enlighten their thinking, expanding the influence of overseas Chinese enterprises and promoting the greater development of Chinese business.