Interviews
At the end of each chapter, the book will present an interview with a renowned brand-builder alongside a case study in branding. These interviews and case studies are arranged based on their relevance to the content of the respective chapters. Their purpose is to examine the topics covered in each chapter from the perspective of an experienced practitioner. The case studies depict real-life applications of market observations and show how some marketers have successfully weathered the storm to emerge as winners.
We have listed out all the interviewees plus a sample of the Q&A in this section.
Interview with
Terence Ling
Head of Strategy
TBWA Hong Kong
Mr. Terence Ling has over 20 years of marketing and agency experience, and is a chief architect of customer and marketing strategy for brands across diverse industries and regions. He is currently the Head of Strategy of TBWA in Hong Kong, overseeing a team of brand, social, PR, integrated, data, and media strategists.
Absolutely. The shrinking of the entire market in recent years has been quite apparent.
Some agencies have been slow in realizing that there are so many different types solution-providers today, such as online platforms, content providers, networks of key opinion leaders (KOL), and bloggers. These disruptors can be your best ally or worst enemy.
I think most traditional creative agencies do not see this change coming, which is why most of them have suffered drastically. They are slowly waking up …. no one sees integration as a luxury anymore. But at the same time, frankly, if you’re not good at one thing, linking all the good things together doesn’t mean you’re good at anything.
For too long, creative agencies have claimed to be the master of the business and relationship and promised to deliver effective communications to solve business problems. Ironically, these agencies have not held onto reliable business data, and many of this valuable information has been with the media side. This is probably due to the departure of media from the ad creation process, which leads to the lack of sharing brainpower for the good of the client.
Interview with
Arthur Chang
Chairman and CEO of UCO
Mr. Arthur Chang is the Chairman and CEO of UCO and has been operating the business for almost 10 years. Previously, he was the Vice President of Global Sales at Alibaba from 2007 to 2010. UCO was one of the few e-commerce operators that identified the retail opportunity presented by Singles Day and Mr. Chang understood the potential of this flagship marketing initiative through the Alibaba Group. UCO is able to take full advantage of the growth of e-commerce in China by genuinely understanding what, how, and why Chinese consumers purchase cosmetics products online.
It is indeed a disruption, as 30 percent of industry sales currently come from online activity and continue to grow. This represents a fundamental change in consumers’ buying behavior. This behavioral change is driven by technology, due to the penetration of mobile internet and smartphone supported by wider bandwidth, which allows the streaming of videos and other forms of communications. In fact, the way e-commerce is performed is also evolving with an increasing dependence on social content marketing. The roles that friends and KOL play are also instrumental to the advancement of e-commerce, making it a totally difference than browsing a traditional department store.
Interview with
Prof. David Tse
Visiting Professor, Business School The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Professor David K. Tse is a Visiting Professor of the Business School at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was the Chair Professor of International Marketing at the Faculty of Business and Economics at The University of Hong Kong. He taught for ten years at the University of British Columbia (1984-1993) after he received his BBA (Chinese Univ.), MBA, and PhD (Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1984). He returned to Hong Kong in 1993 and joined the University of Hong Kong in 1998. He has taught at universities in U.S., Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, and Mainland China. Since 2002, Prof. Tse serves as an Honorary Professor of Marketing at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, and at Fudan University.
Prof. Tse serves as an academic trustee in the Marketing Science Institute and a board member of the Sheth Foundation. He is a board member at the Institute of India, China, and America (Emory University), a research fellow for William Davidson Institute (University of Michigan), and a fellow for Center for Service Leadership (Arizona State University).
On the professional side, Prof. Tse serves as a non-executive director in medical technology start-ups
The current ideas about disruption may come from the root of disruptive innovation. Indeed, with so many changes in terms of how business is done, including but not limited to e-commerce, e-payment, AI, etc…. this is undoubtedly an era where disruptive innovation in everything becomes common.
Thus, the era of disruption may indeed be true. When extended to the market—shopping malls and physical banks will disappear, roles like tellers and receptionists will be replaced by AI, and the conventional way of doing advertising will fade away.
The conventional 4Ps are also changing: Product (from owning to sharing or experiencing); Price (highly competitive, real-time bidding), Promotion (content marketing is replacing traditional advertising), Place (e-commerce causes many shopping centers to close). All these changes will urge corporations to understand and approach the market differently.
Interview with
Kent Wong
Managing Director of Chow Tai Fook
Mr. Kent Wong joined the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group in 1977. Appointed as Managing Director of the Company in July 2011, Mr. Wong is responsible for the strategic planning and overall management of the group. With his diverse experience in business development as well as in operations and management, Mr. Wong is Chairman of the Jewellery Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and was named “CEO of the Year/Luxury/Asia” at the 2016 IAIR Awards presentation ceremony held by International Alternative Investment Review. He was also named as “Asia’s Best CEO (Investor Relations)” by Corporate Governance Asia, an authoritative regional journal on corporate governance, at its Asian Excellence Awards in 2017, 2018 and 2019 consecutively.
Customers’ preference in our key markets has changed rapidly over the last five years. Some themes are common, and some are specific to their particular needs. Nowadays, consumers are increasingly sophisticated in seeking more personalized products and exclusive experiences. This phenomenon is particularly true for relatively affluent groups. Younger customers, on the other hand, focus on mobile, social media, and online experiences as crucial benchmarks for evaluating their selection of brands. These two common themes are generally applicable across all of our key markets.
Mainland China shares these common themes and has the additional challenge of being a vast and geographically diverse market with dispersed retail channels that are forcing brand owners and retailers to reposition their network and channel strategies to stay relevant.
In Hong Kong and Macau, retailers have to deal with longer-term challenges, such as incremental growth in relatively mature markets, along with the evolving travel and spending preferences of inbound visitors.
In overseas markets, particularly Southeast Asia, we see potential opportunities that we have yet to explore fully. Southeast Asian countries have greatly benefitted from globalization trends. Their production capacity has increased rapidly in response to rising labor costs in Mainland China over the past few years. With the emergence of a larger and richer middle class in those Asian economies, we believe that there will be a huge demand for quality products and services.
As for the scale of the global diamond jewelry market, it stood at a sheering size of 82 billion in 2017, according to De Beers’ Diamond Insight Report of 2018. The United States alone has captured 50% of the global market share. Looking across the United States diamond market’s value chain, which is highly fragmented and organized around functions, we believe that there is ample room for us to add value to the upstream, midstream, and downstream through our built-in capabilities.
Interview with
Dr. Kanie Siu
CEO of Plan International (Hong Kong)
Dr. Kanie Siu is Plan International’s Chief Executive Officer for the Hong Kong office. She joined Plan International in January 2015. Dr. Siu is an expert fundraiser, marketer and administrator. She spent ten years working in marketing and public relations across several commercial industries before joining Oxfam Hong Kong (OHK) in 1998, where she helped pioneer the application of those skills to the non-governmental organization sector. In 2013, Dr. Siu was named OHK’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, a role in which she became responsible for fundraising, communications, and branding strategies in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Over the years, she also played a significant role in marketing and product development for the agency, which operates international development programs in China, Asia, and Africa. In 2015, she was appointed CEO of Plan International Hong Kong, one of the leading international development organizations with 80 years of history that is committed to fulfilling children’s rights and ending poverty worldwide. With her contributions to philanthropy in both Hong Kong and Mainland China, Dr. Siu has been named one of the awardees in the Second Global Outstanding Young Leader Award organized by YaZhou Zhoukan in 2017.
Due to fewer resources and budget constraints, we rely on free publicity and pro-bono support from different partners, namely the media, celebrities, advertising agencies, and ex-beneficiaries.
We make use of the stories we gather from Plan’s project site to appeal for media interviews or generate media content. The stories show what hardships disadvantaged children, especially girls, face in their lives. They also show how Plan has been helping them combat these situations. Harmful practices, such as early marriage and female genital mutilations, are seldom talked about in Asia. The media helps raise awareness about these problems and the role that Plan is playing.
In addition, we use the stories of our former beneficiaries to show how Plan had been helping children since the 50s and 60s. Hopefully, these stories can boost Plan’s positive image and increase its local relevance, encouraging the public to support Plan HK when they see our appeals in online and offline channels.
Interview with
Chong Got
Former Senior Corporate Director of Dah Chong Hong Holdings
Mr. Chong Got was the Senior Corporate Director of Dah Chong Hong Holdings responsible for overseeing the automotive (Audi, Bentley, Honda, Nissan, INFINITI, MAN, DAF, and Sinotruk) and luxury yacht businesses. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of Wallace Harper as well as the Vice-Chairman of the Dealers’ Advisory Board for Ford Motors. In 2013, he led the Bentley business in China to achieve worldwide number two in sales. He was named CEO of the year by Capital Magazine in the same year. Mr. Got was also the Chairman of the Hong Kong Motor Traders’ Association for three consecutive years. Mr. Got is currently a life coach and executive consultant. He is also a Managing Partner of MaLogic.
The way of building brands today is indeed very different from how it was done before. In the past, you could build a brand through advertising with a big production budget and big media spending. Looking for the most prominent outdoor billboard and putting up a giant poster is already something that an average brand cannot afford to do. Organizing an exclusive “by invitation only” event, placing an ad on the centerspread of some glossy lifestyle magazines, or featuring a top celebrity wearing your brand on the front cover were the usual tactics. But consumers are now more than a passive audience. Brands are built by experience and commentaries on the web.
Since word of mouth is so important throughout the customer journey for luxury items, brand-owners are paying more attention and investing the time and resources to provide the proper orientation or even coaching to customers. Nothing is more detrimental than a current customer who does not understand your brand passing on unfair comments to their peers. So, “don’t let your VIP customer kill your brand,” because their words carry weight. People will trust the comments of a user more than what they see and hear in advertising. Selling is just the beginning; luxury brands have to follow through and turn their customers into ambassadors who possesses the knowledge and depth that allow them to genuinely fall in love with your brand.
Interview with
William Shum
Founder and CEO of Memorigin
Founder and CEO of Memorigin Watch Company, Mr. William Shum graduated from Cornell University with master’s degrees in applied economics and management. After working as an investment banker for a year, Mr. Shum quitted his job to embark on his entrepreneurial journey. In 2015, Memorigin partnered with Disney to produce Avengers-themed watches that were sold worldwide. Partnering with blockbuster movies seems to be a winning formula by adding another entertaining and unique dimension to the timepiece. Mr. Shum was awarded one of the Young Industrialist Awards of Hong Kong in 2015 and the Global Chinese Outstanding Youth Award in 2016. He also won the Executive of the Year for Luxury Retail at the Business Management Excellence Awards in 2018.
The biggest challenge is to overcome the pressure that comes from everywhere—including from people who are close to you and do not want to see you fail. It can be a very lonely journey, and there are hundreds of reasons not to pursue it further. Many people will ruthlessly crush your dream and destroy your self-esteem. I was rejected by uncountable watch retailers. Sometimes, their facial expression and body gestures can be ten times harsher than words.
Interview with
Kent Wertime
Co-CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific
Mr. Kent Wertime has lived and worked in Asia for the past thirty years. During this time, he has held various senior Advertising and Marketing positions based in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Singapore. Mr. Wertime’s tenure with Ogilvy began in 1999 when he joined Ogilvy to head its Interactive division. He helped Ogilvy establish the largest Interactive agency operation in Asia, with offices in 12 markets. In January 2004, Mr. Wertime was promoted to President, OgilvyOne Asia. In March 2009, he moved to Japan and took on the added responsibility as President of Ogilvy & Mather Japan. In 2010, he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and in 2016 he was named Co-CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific. Mr. Wertime is an experienced writer and speaker. His first book, Building Brands and Believers, was published in 2002. In late 2007, Mr. Wertime co-authored a second book, DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media & Digital Marketing. His writing has also appeared over the years in The Asian Wall Street Journal, Media, Asiaweek, China Daily and Brand News. Mr. Wertime is a frequent speaker at industry conferences in Asia and around the world.
“Disruption” is a concern for a raft of businesses, but particularly for entrenched businesses that have been built on old business models without the benefits of digital technology. Therefore, many corporations these days are obsessed with young and nimble brands that have consumer cachet and have been built “digital first.”
There are some key options for companies that want to avoid falling behind and being disrupted. The first route is to acquire new, digitally built brands. Companies sometimes see this as the fastest way to transform, given the pain of change, the time it takes to create a truly digital-first brand, and the reality that even new brands can’t be built overnight.
Aside from acquiring brands, brand-owners are asking themselves how to create a seamless connection to consumers that will be intuitive, easy, and fluid. “Digital transformation” pops up in every meeting, with discussions on how to be digitally-enabled, socially-enabled, connected to eCommerce and e-payment, and how to distribute content effectively. Most companies are aware of the new and increasingly competitive landscape; the question is not whether to transform, but how to transform.
Lastly, a lot of existing brands pour tons of money into digital experience. Yet a further challenge is their legacy assets, agreement, and relationships that cannot be ignored. These includes things like long-term commitments to retail space, distributor agreements, franchise agreements, and the partnerships they have built over the years with substantial financial investment and ties.
However, the current marketplace is the reality. Young people may not ever visit a physical store to buy or look for what they want, and more consumers everywhere are shifting to online commerce. So, many brand-owners are in transition, many of them are going through the pains of change, but some of them are successfully adapting to new norms. It is fair to say that almost every brand needs to focus on transformation, or they will be dead.
Interview with
David Fong
Managing Director of Hip Shing Hong
Mr. David Fong is the Managing Director of Hip Shing Hong (Holdings) Co Ltd, a leading property group with a portfolio of hotels, office buildings, high-end homes, and over 200 retail properties. Mr. Fong obtained a master's degree in Business Administration from The University of Hong Kong and an Honorary Fellow of the City University of Hong Kong. Mr. Fong is currently a National Committee Member of CPPCC, an Honorary Trustee of Peking University, and a member of the Board of Trustee of Jinan University.
Mr. Fong is also the Chairman of Hong Kong Strategy, Chairman of Betting and Lotteries Commission, Life Honorary Chairman of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, a Member of Hospital Authority Board, a Council Member of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Vice-Chairman of Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF and an Executive Council Member & Trustee of WWF Hong Kong.
The two boutique hotels under the brand Madera ranked the top 40 among more than 600hotel/guest houses in Hong Kong. The first hotel, Madera Hotel, Hong Kong (HK), opened in November 2011. We adopted a design by a Barcelona designer, which is uncommon in Hong Kong. This helps differentiate us from most local developers who use US, UK, or Hong Kong designers.
Besides, I have personally provided a lot of input on how to deliver great customer experience, including an old gallery of Hong Kong and a local smartphone that people can use anywhere in the city. We never intend to compete on the hardware or even the location. We strive to offer a unique experience and touch so memorable that customers want to return. In a sense, we are not building hotels. We are building “friendships.”
Interview with
Eliza Wong
David Qing
CEO of MaLogic
Data Scientist of MaLogic
Trained as a professional accountant, Ms. Eliza Wong decided to embark on a career in the field of market research. With her talent in managing numbers, Ms. Wong has quickly risen to the leadership positions for prominent research institutions, including Synovate (Greater China) and GfK (Hong Kong and Taiwan). Before taking on the position of Co-CEO at MaLogic, Ms. Wong founded GMD (Go Much Deeper) with the goal of redefining the strategic role of research with the deployment of technology and big data. Ms. Wong has been actively involved in The Samaritans and puts her persuasion to use for worthy causes.
With his extensive experience in the market research industry, Mr. David Qing is involved in data analysis and market analysis for a variety of projects, including car clinic, brand analysis, product test, loyalty index, pricing stress test, segmentation validation, and media research. Mr. Qing had worked in Synovate & Ipsos for more than fifteen years. Apart from conducting technical work in the data analysis field, Mr. Qing was also responsible for department building and management in both local and national levels and involved in strategic planning for Greater China. He moved to the Decision system in 2011, which enabled him to be well equipped with statistics and modeling analysis skills. From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Qing was the Digital Information & Data Integration Director in GfK. He was also the market science head of GfK Great China, in charge of data analysis and providing solutions for market research. Mr. Qing is currently the Data Scientist of MaLogic.
EW: There are many successful deployments of big data in the U.S. and Europe, including credit checks by banks leading to more robust risk management, and more effective management of retail business, from reducing the level of inventories to upholding the freshness of products (e.g. Walmart and Tesco). The other obvious example is social media, which captures users’ substantial and continuous real-time data, allowing companies (e.g. Google and Facebook) to push the most appropriate content to them. In China, JD.com and Alibaba let consumers order groceries or clothes, and 80 percent of these products can be delivered to the customer within an hour. Big data has elevated consumer experiences tremendously by increasing convenience and fulfilling “unmet needs.”
DQ: Data has a lot of intrinsic value, but it is useless until that true value is discovered. The data has to be merged and integrated alongside meaningful dimensions. The true value comes from data analytics, which consists of learning, measuring, controlling the data that can eventually empower data-driven decision-making.
Interview with
Vincent Cheung
Vice President of Business Process Re-engineering Group of Canon Singapore
Mr. Vincent Cheung has had more than 28 years of sales and marketing experience in consumer and business imaging products. After working for a few years in different consumer product companies, Mr. Cheung joined Canon Hong Kong in 1998 as Marketing Manager of the Camera and Video Division. As an amateur photographer, he helped promoting photography culture in Hong Kong by setting up Club Canon in 2006, an online platform designed for photo, video and Canon lovers. In 2017, Mr. Cheung was assigned as Vice President of Office Imaging Product Group in Canon Singapore regional headquarters, overseeing 23 regions in Asia market. Currently, Mr. Cheung is the Vice President of Business Process Re-engineering Group in Canon Singapore.
Canon is in the midst of a grand strategic transformation designed to accelerate growth in our four new businesses: commercial printing, network cameras, medical and industrial equipment. From development to manufacturing, procurement, and all the way to the cultivation of human resources, we strive for complete success as a group. At the same time, in such mature businesses as cameras and printers, we are pursuing next-stage growth through the development of high-value-added products and cost reduction.
Canon is a global image technology company. It provides more services than consumer imaging, such as production printing, professional imaging, and medical imaging. By adjusting the business and managing the portfolio wisely, there will still be growth opportunities.
On a product level, we have to be the “friend” and not the “enemy” of smartphones, even though they have replaced some of our convenient models.
Sometimes consumers need a quality picture; we can offer software that will make a proper camera more compatible with smartphones, instead of trying to compete head-on with it.
For example, the new inkjet printer has no scanning function and therefore is cheaper, but it can easily connect with smartphones. The user can take a picture of the object, then our app will align the positioning and lighting of the photo taken when it is being printed. All in all, our product can be positioned as a cheaper solution that takes up less space, if printing and scanning are not frequently required.
The Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app is a free software application that allows customers using the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch and Android-based smartphones or tablets to enjoy a variety of PIXMA printing capabilities such as wireless printing and scanning. The customer can also use this app with cloud-ready printers to enjoy remote access to the printer over the internet and direct printing from cloud services.
Interview with
Wilson Chan
Director of MaadTech Consortium
Mr. Wilson Chan is the Director of MaadTech Consortium. He is also a Partner of Gravitas. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Ammirati Puris Lintas in Hong Kong. Mr. Chan has held senior positions at several international advertising agencies, including Saatchi & Saatchi, FCB, and BBDO. He also founded his own agency, Storm Communications.
The purpose and functionality of modern marketing remain consistent: to “create and manage customers, brands/products, and channels via market-customer insights and effective strategy implementation.” The essence of marketing has not changed from the analog age to the digital era, but new skillsets and application tools have emerged from the digital transformation.
There are two main disruptors to the previous practices. Firstly, the emergence of technology (Internet, World Wide Web, social media, IoT, etc.) impacts the lifestyle and behavior of consumers, notably due to millennials overtaking boomers. Secondly, the abundance of data allows marketers to improve accountability and efficiency, despite data usually being a completely alien (and intimidating) subject among marketers.
Interview with
Sunny Wong
Former Chairman of Carlsberg Greater China
Mr. Sunny Wong was Chairman of Carlsberg Greater China and then senior advisor to Carlsberg Asia from September 2011 to November 2014. He is now the Chief Advisor of the publicly-listed Tibet Water Resources Ltd.
Apart from his roles as Chairman and CEO of Carlsberg from 2006 to 2014, Mr. Wong was also the chief of its M&A team. He set the strategic M&A plan for Carlsberg’s long-term development in China and led a team in identifying potential targets, negotiating, closing deals, and conducting post-acquisition activities. Since 2002, the team has successfully acquired 59 breweries in 12 provinces in China and increased the production plants from one to 60, with a total workforce of up to 15,000.
Mr. Wong has a strong and successful background with more than 30 years’ experience in the China FMCG industry, of which more than 25 years were spent in the Chinese beer market for top international companies like Carlsberg and Bass Brewers. Mr. Wong is an Adjunct Professor who teaches strategic marketing for the Hong Kong Baptist University’s BBA program.
People are key because you build your brands through people.
You have to align your internal team in the same direction and work with partners such as the advertising agency and the trade. Without a shared unique and clear belief, there is no chance to convey brand stories across the market. Having a clear and well-defined brand makes it easier to reach alignment both internally and externally. You have to sell your brand to the team members within the organization before you sell it to the consumers! When I was the CEO of Carlsberg, the following were my principles for brand-building through people:
- I had to deliver the vision of the company and brand essence to all the new senior management during orientation programs
- General Managers in the region needed to be the key people conducting orientation programs for newcomers
- All new marketing programs needed to be presented to internal staff and business partners before the official campaign launched
Interview with
TK Wong
Founder of TKMW Creative
Mr. TK Wong is a veteran in the creative industry. He has been managing his creative agency, TKMW, for over ten years. Before starting his agency, Mr. Wong was the Head of Creative for Brand Union in Hong Kong. He was involved in the creation of numerous iconic brands such as Hong Kong Post, HK Polytechnic University, Vocational Training Council, China Resources, China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation, Jardines, and OCT.
The logomark is the signature of a company. It can represent a company’s name, vision, values, or founder.
When I approach a project, the first question I ask myself is – is this a “branding” or “design” issue? The problems we have to tackle differ depending on the nature of the project.
Branding and design can be separated in my view. A logo can exist without branding. It can simply be a nice design, like a badge you put up in your reception area.
Branding can also be fine without a logo per se, but it would work better with one.
A brand can exist without a strong visual component. Take General Electric, for example. You know what they do, but their name may not make consumers picture a particular visual, especially if they live outside the States. They may have heard the name and great things about it in the news but may not have any visual registration. They are not designers or marketers. How they learn and what they want to know about a corporation is probably quite different from us.
But visual clues help with memory retention. All iconic brands may own a color within their product category (e.g., Starbucks is green, McDonald’s is red, Oral B is blue, China Resources is yellow). And if you dig deeper, there is usually a story behind each logo. For instance, when I designed the logo for China Resources, a conglomerate that is engaged in real estate, retail, power, pharmaceutical, finance, etc., I started with an overall vision of the group rather than the graphic treatment. The logo of China Resources is made up of four characters that mean “people” since the group is committed to serving the people and adding values to their lives. Some people may not understand the symbolism right away, so we also communicate the backstory with them at appropriate times and through the right channels.
Interview with
David Lee
Chairman of Lee Kum Kee Family Foundation
Mr. David Lee started up the USA operation of Lee Kum Kee Sauce Group in 1982 when he first joined the family business after graduation. He served in various senior management positions of the Sauce Group over the past 30 years, including as Managing Director overseeing the Worldwide Food Division, Chairman and CEO of Lee Kum Kee (USA) Inc., Lee Kum Kee (Europe). He took up the chairmanship of the Lee Kum Kee Sauce Group between 2009 and 2011. Mr. Lee also has extensive experience in building the family governance system for the Lee Kum Kee family. He has been a Family Council member since 2002, and previously took on chairmanship in the Family Office from 2012 to 2014 and the Family Learning and Development Centre from 2006 to 2008. Mr. Lee was reappointed to the position in 2017. Mr. Lee has served as Chairman of the Lee Kum Kee Family Foundation since January 2013. He was awarded Chapter Honoree, Hong Kong Baptist University Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma for his outstanding business and managerial leadership in 2014.
Lee Kum Kee is a brand that has a very strong heritage and set of values. This is something that can be shared and felt by different stakeholders. Lee Kum Kee produces basic products, yet they are an essential part of everyday life. It is a genuine and non-flashy brand that enjoys an approachable image. At the same time, our dedication and commitment to quality have helped us uphold a premium position in the mind of consumers.
For a brand that is over a hundred years old, the “trustworthiness” element is most critical. The users’ own experience and positive words of mouth are what made the Lee Kum Kee brand what it is today. The whole product was created to give overseas Chinese the “taste of home” while most of them worked as unskilled laborers far from home, living a tough life. As such, the brand was actually imported back to this part of the world after it became popular overseas.
The brand obviously serves consumers in both the East and the West nowadays. Consumers around the world share one common interest, which is the desire for a tasty meal that is safe and authentic. Lee Kum Kee is the best companion for people cooking at home. It helps bring out the natural flavor of ingredients. The brand is synonymous with oyster sauce but has extended its product lines to cover hundreds of different kinds of condiments, making it a perfect complement to almost any dish.
Lee Kum Kee is a wholesome brand, and we are committed to giving back to the community. Our family foundation is dedicated to bringing happiness and harmony to families, which has been our mission since the very beginning.
Interview with
Edward Bell
General Manager, Brand, Insights, and Marketing Communications, Cathay Pacific Airways
Mr. Edward Bell is a seasoned marketing professional with a background in psychology and a Master’s of Marketing qualifications, with significant experience working in the frontlines of marketing in China and Asia, helping brands to find growth paths. He has worked for Adidas and several international advertising agencies in senior planning and management positions. Before joining Cathay Pacific, Mr. Bell was the CEO of FCB Greater China.
Digitalization has brought about severe market fragmentation that has never been seen before. The digital media has empowered both the users and marketers in many ways. You can start a business by leveraging the digital platforms offered by Google and Facebook without having to find a major investor. This has led to the influx of uncountable Direct to Customers (DTC) brands into the market.
While young brands without financial backup also stand a chance to compete, the flip side of digitalization is the proliferation of content, leading to a fragmentation of mentality.
It is harder to penetrate the mind of the audience these days. Even with a lot of marketing spending, there is no guarantee that one will receive the attention of the target audience. It is up to every individual at the receiving end to decide what to see and for how long, leading to hyper-segmentation.
The other trend is the emergence of tribalism within society, enabled by the technology platform. These tribes do not only live together geographically. They are digitally connected instead. When they share references and brand information, they nurture a self-reinforcing mechanism that relates to their own tribe. It is hard to penetrate the group as an outsider.
On the other hand, people do not have the time to view everything and respond to everything because of the information explosion. In reality, you may belong to a large network, but you may not have all the time to read and digest all the information available within the community. Due to the scarcity of time, you may only be able to respond to the people who are your friends. Brands have to understand how people are connecting and how the different circles overlap.
Interview with
Christopher Chan
Managing Director of FANCL
Mr. Christopher Chan is the Founder and Managing Director of Fantastic Natural Cosmetics Limited, the sole distributor of FANCL products in Asia, excluding Japan, as well as Gourmet Dining Group Limited and Nam Fai Woolen Spinning Factory Limited. Over the past two decades, Mr. Chan has applied his innovation and entrepreneurial acumen together with the operational experience he gained in other sectors to successfully expand the FANCL retail chain to over 240 outlets spanning Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore. FANCL has become one of the most popular beauty and healthcare brands in the region, distributing a wide range of supplements and health-related products in addition to its skincare and cosmetics lines.
Mr. Chan is a Registered Professional Engineer and Registered Structural Engineer in Hong Kong; and a Chartered Civil Engineer and Chartered Structural Engineer in the UK. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.
FANCL is synonymous with mutenka. This will always be one of the strongest motivations for people to buy our products. This is our brand DNA. We believe our customers subscribe to our values, not just the efficacy of our products. Yet we try not to repeat the obvious and aim to find innovative ways to explain this philosophy. We recently launched a new campaign centered around “zero preservatives” to highlight the benefits of resetting and restoring your skin’s glow for 100% Beauty. To invite customers to take part in this campaign, we created the #0to100Beauty Community as a platform where consumers can discover 100% beauty with 0 preservatives.
While “0to100” is an effective tactical campaign that reinforces the mutenka concept, we recognize that we need to articulate our philosophy and brand equity in a way that extends beyond product attributes and appeals to a global audience. This is why “Less is More” was created, not only to act as a brand tagline, but also to serve as the beacon for driving our business forward. It can also facilitate our geographical expansion to non-Chinese speaking markets. “Less is More” conveys a broader meaning and has taken mutenka from product differentiation to the level of image differentiation. It challenges our traditional belief in life that “more is more;” on many occasions, it is actually “less is more”. From a functional standpoint, after you have taken away the preservatives, you can have more beauty. This logic also applies to other issues, such as environmental protection – “less pollution, more fresh air.” The versatility of our tagline allows the brand to expand its sphere of influence while adhering to our core values.
Digitalization has become an integral part of our daily life. To follow the customers’ footsteps and leverage technology to our advantage, we have migrated our loyalty program to a digital format. iFANCL was launched to serve as an effective way to collect data as well as interact with our members. All the technical solutions are developed in-house as we want to lead on the technology front, which will help us gain the upper hand in all areas, from operational management to customer management.
The mutenka concept is more than just skincare and cosmetic products. It can be extendedto health supplements or even food. This allows us to gain a higher customer share and expand our customer base to include both genders. After all, the primary target customers for skincare products are female. However, health-related products can be consumed by any consumer regardless of their age and gender. This is also a great way to offer a total solution to our customers that embraces beauty inside and out.
To offer a different customer experience, we have unveiled the first-ever Hong Kong creative concept store that serves both beauty products and healthy dining. This spacious, innovative store, located right in the heart of Central in Hong Kong, is designed to be stylish and modern, marrying shopping and café experiences. The contemporary design of the creative store reflects FANCL’s brand personality —innovative with cutting-edge technology in its products and services.
Marketing is an ongoing learning process. We like to push the envelope and offer something new and exciting to our customers, from new products to new experiences. The expectation of consumers is continuously changing, and they have no obligation to stick to the same brand forever. It is up to us to decide how long the customers want to share the journey with us. Let’s ask ourselves what we can give to the customers before we ask for their loyalty.
Interview with
Ruthia Wong
Former General Manager, Greater China eCommerce for Mead Johnson Nutrition, Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (RB)
Ms. Ruthia Wong is recognized as a sound strategist with a strong ability to translate high-level strategy into practical implementation. She has over thirty years of marketing experience with a proven track record to drive business and profit growth in the fast-changing and diverse Asian business environment. Ms. Wong was formerly the General Manager, Greater China (e-commerce) of Mead Johnson, RB. Before that, she was the General Manager of Mead Johnson Nutrition, responsible for managing its China and Hong Kong businesses for ten years.
Ruthia Wong: Definitely … the infant’s nutrition market structure has gone through a major transformation following the boom of e-commerce and digitalization. Digital has become the key platform for reaching out, engaging, and finally closing the deal with the target audience. The business model, marketing, and selling approach inevitably have to evolve to be more digital-focused.
Interview with
Henry Yip
Former Chief Executive of the Jardine Restaurant Group
Mr. Henry Yip was formerly the Chief Executive of the Jardine Restaurant Group in Hong Kong and new markets. Under Mr. Yip’s leadership, Pizza Hut and KFC businesses have gained tremendous success both in terms of brand image as well as sales performance. The two brands have also won numerous marketing awards for their innovative ideas and operation efficiency. Mr. Yip is Chairperson of the Retail Training Advisory Committee and is dedicated to upgrading the industry standard and the quality of the talents.
To be more prepared is always better than just reacting to any challenge. A pandemic can put a halt to many business activities. If people are staying home and not going out, it will undoubtedly be detrimental to traditional restaurant operators who solely rely on customers’ patronization to their physical outlets. With two brands and three channels in our portfolio, we can adjust the ratio of sales contributions to our total business according to different market operating conditions. Besides our core brand Pizza Hut, we have another brand, PHD, which focuses more on the delivery and takeaway businesses. We roll out these two brands strategically according to different geographic locations to fulfill the different primary needs of the customers. The fact that we offer dine-in, takeaway, and delivery (the three channels) also gives our customers the freedom to pick the most desirable way to enjoy a mouth-watering, piping hot pizza. We have proven time after time that we can withstand tough operating environments caused by unexpected circumstances. The key is to managing all these different units with different, specific skillsets while being able to find good business synergies.
Interview with
Dr. Michael Chan
Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing
Dr. Michael Chan is currently a non-executive director of Café de Coral Holdings. He has been the Executive Chairman of the group for 25 years, which operated over 580 restaurant units around the world covering territories in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, and China. Dr. Chan is the Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing and is active in the business sector and public services, and also serves as independent director of six other public companies in Hong Kong. With his distinguished management leadership, Dr. Chan is the recipient of various awards, namely the Stars of Asia Award, the Executive of the Year Award, the Bauhinia Cup Outstanding Entrepreneur Awards, the Directors of the Year Award, and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Most business owners are operation driven, thereby spending most of their energy in the tangible aspects of their businesses, such as operation logistics. As such, they do not dedicate enough resources and attention to the intangibles of brand-building. Rather than leaving branding as a sole mandate for the marketing department, corporations should allocate resources with top-down commitment. The brand should even be a personification of the CEO, as a corporate brand does not only project a personality for the company, but also reflects its beliefs, philosophy, vision, and mission.
Interview with
David Yeung
Founder and CEO of Green Monday
Mr. David Yeung is the Founder and CEO of Green Monday, a multi-faceted social venture with a mission to take on the world’s most pressing crises: climate change, food insecurity, and public health (Image 10.1). He has pioneered the global sustainability movement Green Monday; the market-transforming, plant-based, retail, dining and distribution network Green Common; and the revolutionary food technology innovations Right Treat and Omnipork. His one-of-a-kind integrated platform engages and empowers millions of people, along with public and private sectors, towards green awareness, action and economy. His work has earned him the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award by the World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation. Other honors and recognitions include “Ten Outstanding Young Persons Hong Kong,” “50 Most Innovative Companies,” and “Idea of the Year.”
As a noted environmentalist and entrepreneur, Mr. Yeung has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Milken Institute Summit, TEDx, as well as financial and academic institutions such as Credit Suisse, UBS, and UCLA. International media coverage of Green Monday and Mr. Yeung has appeared in CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, and Forbes.
The pace of change happens so rapidly these days. The cycle of business planning and new product introduction has been drastically condensed. The smartphone has only been introduced to the market for slightly over a decade and it has already completely disrupted the usual way of doing business.
The traditional way of crafting a message for a defined group of the target audience no longer works as the consumer’s expectation is continuously changing. Your message can be easily outdated if you do not keep up with the pace of the consumers.
Marketing today is about “authenticity” – people can relate to KOLs and YouTubers. These people may not have the resources of a huge entertainment company, but they can become stars because they appeal to tens or even hundreds of thousands of fans – this is true disruption.
The same applies to my idea. I preach what I believe. Climate change and environmental protection are topics that touch the life and heart of many people around the world. They share the same concern as mine. Transparency is key when connecting with people. The cruelty and inhuman practice of factory farming is also a fact. I will let the people judge and draw their own conclusion. Manufacturers can’t brainwash people with advertising anymore – people look at product labels and do all the fact-finding about how and where the product was made. People subscribe to the idea of “wholesomeness,” and will voluntarily follow brands that share the same belief.
When we first started Green Monday, even the most enthusiastic supporters were skeptical because we were going against the norm. Now, Green Monday has become a global movement, and not because of us. It is driven by the people themselves, as they identify with the Green Monday brand, which stands for “authenticity,” “trustworthiness,” and “integrity.” We need to bear in mind that looks and taste are subjective, but integrity is objective.
Thanks to our persistent effort and the positive word of mouth spread by people, stakeholders such as restaurants and schools have joined the cause, too. This is how disruption happens in our case.
We do not come across as confrontational, arrogant, or snobbish. We take a humble approach because it is the action and results that count.
Interview with
Dr. William Leung, SBS, JP
Chairman of Legal Aid Services Council
Dr. William Leung has served as Executive Director of Hang Seng Bank, CEO of Sun Hung Kai Financial, and CEO of WeLab Bank. He has also held key positions in major financial institutions in Hong Kong and Australia, including American Express, Standard Chartered Bank, Visa International, and Mastercard International.
Dr. Leung serves a spectrum of community and public organizations. He is Chairman of Legal Aid Services Council, Chairman of Estate Agent Authority, Chairman of Hong Kong Creative Arts Centre, Emeritus Chairman of Hong Kong Dance Company, Vice Chairman of Hong Kong Heart Foundation, and an adviser of Our Hong Kong Foundation, just to name a few.
In view of his distinguished services, HKBU awarded him an Honorary University Fellowship in 2013 and a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013/14. For the same reason, HKU Space conferred upon him a Distinguished Alumni Fellowship in 2010, and VTC granted him an Honorary Fellowship in 2016. In October 2017, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and an Honorary Fellowship from HKU Space.
The Government of the HKSAR appointed Dr. Leung as Justice of the Peace in 2005 and honored him with a Bronze Bauhinia Star and a Silver Bauhinia Star in 2009 and 2016, respectively.
WL: Some people are dissatisfied with traditional bank branch services and find them very unfriendly. This group would need no encouragement to switch to a virtual bank. They would voluntarily sign up to try out the service of a virtual bank. As for the others, more effort would be required to attract and interest them. They would need to be convinced by appeals such as bank image, financial stability, pricing, user experience, etc.
Interview with
Dr. Anna Yip
Former CEO of SmarTone
Dr. Anna Yip is the former CEO of SmarTone, a leading mobile operator in Hong Kong known for its powerful network, superior customer service, and digital innovations. Entering the 5G era, SmarTone is blazing the trail for the new technology and Smart City development in Hong Kong.
Before she joined SmarTone, Dr. Yip was Head of Hong Kong and Macau for MasterCard Asia/Pacific and Managing Director for Strategy and Planning at the United Overseas Bank. Prior to that, she was a Partner with McKinsey & Company in Greater China where she was a co-leader of the Asia Financial Institutional Group and led the Asia Payments practice.
Dr. Yip is an independent non-executive director and Head of the Risk Committee of Bupa (Asia) Limited. She is also active in public service. Dr. Yip is an appointed lay member by the HKSAR Government at the Joint Committee on Student Finance, and a member of the Civil Court Users’ Committee of the Judiciary of the HKSAR Government. Concurrently, Dr. Yip is the Vice Chairman of the Women Executives Club of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Advisory Board of MBA Programs of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was formerly an appointed council member of the Open University of Hong Kong, and chairperson of the Audit Committee.
Dr. Yip earned both MPhil and DPhil degrees in Management Studies from the University of Oxford, and her undergraduate degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with First Class honors.
In the telco industry, digital engagement is changing some of the customers’ expectations and behaviors. In light of that, we introduced the first all-digital self-service mobile brand in Hong Kong in 2017. “Birdie,” which was specifically designed for millennials and tech-savvy customers, provides simple and easy service and onboarding through its online platform. Customers have access to various innovative features including the Birdie Farm (a popular proprietary online game developed for the brand).