Bing Lee is an Australian retailing company, a chain of superstores specialising in consumer electronics, computer and telecommunication goods. Bing Lee is the largest privately held electrical retail business in New South Wales with 41 stores (13 franchised) and a turnover of about $490 million. The organisation has future plans to have stores in every Australian state.
The Lee family, from Grandfather Bing through to father Ken and son Lionel, comprises classic outside-the-square thinkers, and that’s one part of the story of how it has created an enduring retail brand. It all started when Lionel’s grandfather Bing Lee and dad Ken purchased an electrical repair business in Fairfield, in Sydney’s southwest, in1957.
“Bing and Ken saw a future in the electrical business, particularly with the release of television in 1956,” Lionel Lee says. “That, plus they saw the ambitions of the waves of migrants, and that suggested to them that the demand for electrical appliances would be strong for many years to come.” The location for the first business showed that the Lee family understood market demand. “Fairfield was right in the middle of the hostels housing many of the migrants when they first arrived in Australia,” Lionel Lee says. “As migrants themselves, both Bing and Ken understood how migrants would want to improve their lifestyles and along the way take advantage of the many benefits of household electrical appliances.”
The early phase of growth was conservative, with Bing keen to stay close to the migrant community. As those communities moved beyond Fairfield to places such as Merrylands, Villawood, south to Wollongong and west to Blacktown, Bing Lee moved with them. When Bing died in 1987, Ken Lee became more expansionary.
“We began to open stores in places that were not necessarily migrant strongholds but more mainstream,” Lionel Lee says. “Between 1987 and 2007 we’ve opened more than 20 stores between Canberra in the south and Port Macquarie in the north. With that expansion came a brand development program taking us from our Chinese-Hong Kong roots to a mainstream brand with a distinct Chinese flavour.”
Start-up businesses that quickly achieve an impressive growth story have to have a competitive advantage. So, what was Bing Lee’s? “Its original competitive advantage was providing credit to migrants who couldn’t get finance through regular sources,” Lionel Lee says. “
Bing and Ken trusted the migrants. The migrants trusted them and that mutual trust was the core of the business in the early days.” While Bing Lee has reached the heights that a publicly listed vehicle would be proud of, it remains a family business.
This could explain its success. “Essentially, the business has grown of itself over the years,” Lionel Lee says. “It’s still a family business. We treat the business as a family. Our staffs are family. Our customers are family. If you’re not a part of the family, you’re not really Bing Lee.”Lionel’s younger brother Greg Lee runs the Carlingford store and their cousin Gary is the company’s whitegoods buyer. Lionel was destined to be part of a family business from a young age. “I attended my first board meeting with my father when I was 10 years old,” he says. “It was during the school holidays. Mum put me in a suit and tie, and when dad and I arrived, I was put under the board table and told to be quiet, sit still and listen. I finished my HSC in 1983 on a Thursday, started with the business on Friday and I became CEO on the death of my father in December 2007.” Typical of businesses built to last, Bing Lee has had the security of a leadership team of six, who have run the business with Ken Lee for many years. This means the operation sits on solid foundations, despite the death of its inspirational co-founder.
While the retailer has carried the brands that sell themselves, a big part of this success story has been the marketing of Bing Lee with only two advertising consultants in the business’s history. “The first was Wayne Bell, who took us into the ‘Kung Fu man’ territory with ‘the best prices this side of Hong Kong’ punch line,” Lionel Lee says. “In those days it was right for Bing Lee, using our Chinese heritage and focusing almost entirely on price. It positioned us correctly within our then limited geography, mainly migrant suburbs, and stockholding.”
After Bing’s death, as Ken Lee began to expand the business rapidly, the marketing as well as advertising changed to reflect this. “First, we began to stock a lot more brand-leading products; and, second, we started working with big-brand suppliers to enhance our mutual interests,” Lionel Lee says. “Third, we had to move away from straight price advertising and competition because price alone could send you broke. And, fourth, we had to become more mainstream so that we can appeal to all Australians.” To do this they engaged Barry Anderson, head of Grey Advertising. “He’s taken us down the “best advice, best price’ and ‘everything’s negotiable’ routes,” Lionel Lee says.”He’s also instilled family into the advertising, first with Ken and now with Yenda in Sydney and me rurally. “We use the electronic medium to position and get us on shopping lists.”Press and catalogues are about selling.”
Bing Lee started advertising on radio but really didn’t take long to dive into television commercials, with its first ads broadcast in the late 1970s. Both media have been and still are important to the brand’s development. And while the retailer has all the apparent professionalism of the big retail names, the management team has always preferred a family approach, even when it comes to its externally sourced marketing.
It is worthwhile to mention that this has been created inside a hotly competitive market with big names such as Harvey Norman, JB HiFi, the Good Guys and Clive Peeters, to name but a few. However, in business, as in sport, you don’t become a champion playing in B-grade.
Around the turn of the century, the franchisee concept was introduced to the business especially in Australia. Today 16 of the 40 Bing Lee retail outlets are run by franchisees. Bing Lee also has the management rights to the “Sony Centre” concept in NSW and the ACT and currently has stores located in Chatswood, Drummoyne and World Square in Sydney’s’ CBD.
To know more about the organisation, please visit their website at https://www.binglee.com.au/
Bing Lee also has a dedicated YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/BingLeeElectrics
Sponsorships
Bing Lee sponsored the Bulldogs Rugby League Football Club until allegations that players were allegedly involved in a gang rape in Coffs Harbour. Bing Lee signed a 2-year sponsorship deal with A-League club Sydney FC in February 2007. On Sydney’s Home strip the front is taken up with Bing Lee, and on the away jersey it is on the front and back of the right leg of the shorts. In July 2009 Bing Lee re-signed for another year along with Japanese electrical company Sony as Sydney FC’s major sponsors. The firm is also one of the major sponsors of the Sydney Swans AFL team and sponsored channel 7’s The Amazing Race Australia.
Currently Bing Lee is proud to be partnering with New South Wales Netball and their two teams the New South Wales Swifts and Giants Netball in the 2017 Suncorp Super Netball competition.
Bing Lee Electrics divides its products into the following categories:
Bing Lee’s vision statement focuses towards a different customer service goal that everyone in the firm share, where everyone is treated as a family. The company’s vision for the future is to be the “top electronics retailer in Australia that not only provides bricks and mortar stores but also specialised in online shopping”.
Bing Lee’svalues reflect who they are as individuals and as an organisation. They serve as a compass for the actions and are the guiding principles with which all the staff members carry out their duties and responsibilities.
You were appointed last year as the sales team manager for the division that includes TV and whitegoods in one of their stores. You have a team of 4 full-time and 4 casual sales people in your division. Your full-time team members are John Citizen, Jerry Citizen, James Citizen, Jane Citizen. Your casual team members are Mary Citizen, Ali Citizen, Susan Citizen, and Singh Citizen.
TV and Whitegoods Sales Division KPI/Target: $50,000 sales per week.
TASK INSTRUCTIONS, REQUIREMENTS AND MARKING CRITERIA
TASK 4: Liaising with various stakeholders of the organisation. The last section includes TASK 4A. Prepare a formal communication and liaison with stakeholders; and TASK 4B. Evaluate and take corrective action on unresolved issues and problems using an action plan(Each carries 5 marks, 10 marks)
I considered it better to convey to you all regard the organization`s expectations about you employees.
As a sales employee, it is your duty to help the organization to increase their sales. Each of you will have specific targets with respect to the requirements of the organization and it is compulsory for all of you to at least make sales amounting to 20000$ for each employee per month. This can be done by converting the leads to bookings or making continuous calls to the customers and trying to pursue them to make the sales. Even the calls made will be tracked accordingly.
Apart from acquiring new customers, it is extremely important for the firm to retain the old phones. This can be done by offering nominal discounts to the consumers and keeping them updated through monthly calls about new products and promotional offers.
After the saes has been made, the service made to the given consumers should be such that the they would like to make repeated sales. The employees can mail the customers and confirm with them whether they have been happy with the services or not. The customer retention is an important KPI which will be tested accordingly.
Time management also needs to be taken care of as time plays a key role in deciding the outcomes. Lastly, the employees need to be extremely punctual and reach the store on time and leave post their shift. An adherence to the given aspect will lead to better outcomes for the employees.
References
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