Domestic

Holiland looks to new strategies in online market

By Bao Chang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-26 10:51

Using his photograph of the majestic bird for inspiration, Luo Hong's white swan cake will be introduced to the market during the second half of this year to diversify Holiland's portfolio of goods in the high-end market. The company introduces its black swan cake series to the market last year. [Provided to China Daily]

 

That isn't to say he has turned his back on photography. Returning with him is a picture he took of a swan on the River Cam in Cambridge which will be the inspiration for a new cake he intends to market later this year as part of his diversification into premium cake making.

It's Luo's belief that if a company doesn't have different brands to meet different customers' demands, it cannot be successful.

Following on the success of the black swan series, white swan cakes will feature top-class decorations and accessories. The price will be between 400 and 10,000 yuan, putting it into a class of its own. A cake weighing 1.5 pounds (0.68 kilograms) is priced at 469 yuan. At 21 cake, one of the most popular online cake shops, a cake weighing the same costs 169 yuan.

The wedding cake in the swan series will set customers back 10,000 yuan. Fittingly, as part of the service, it will be delivered to the wedding ceremony by Rolls Royce free of charge.

"Cakes and photography are two parallel interests in my life. Sometimes they cross paths. The launch of swan cakes is a combination of my business and personal interests," Luo said.

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To make white swan cakes as exquisite as possible, Luo asked the developers to capture minute details from the queen of birds.

Luo is confident about the cake's sale prospects and expects they will account for 50 percent of Holiland's total annual revenues.

Luo says photography brings him happiness, inspiration for design and also a low-cost marketing strategy. Some of his photos adorn subway walls after the Beijing municipal government decided this year to improve the city's culture environment.

"It's good for our business," Luo said. "People who talk about the swan pictures will also be curious about my swan cakes."

Luo knows that in baking it is wise to follow produce what customers like best. One of his products featured a bear decoration but he got rid of it because some of his friends in the finance industry said it brought back unhappy memories of the bear market during the financial crisis last year.

As one of the largest cake shop chains, Holiland also faces the problem of "brain drain". The high turnover of skilled employees means that Holiland is always in danger of losing key intellectual capital in its core competency areas. The company needs to develop knowledge management strategies to capture, share, and preserve knowledge and integrate knowledge management into its strategic plans, said Luo.

This year, the entrepreneur paid 5 million yuan to American leadership expert, John C. Maxwell, to give a speech about leadership to all employees at Holiland on July 28 and 29 to improve the management skills of his employees.