CU iBUS (April 2013), CUHK Business School

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From an alternative option to fashion mainstream Credit: Ming Pao

Hong Kong Brand Series #09 Brought to you by the Department of Marketing, CUHK Business School CU: Prof. Leo Sin, Dr. Susanna Kwok, Department of Marketing I.T: Ms. Deborah Cheng, Vice President, Marketing and International Business, I.T Limited

T

he story of I.T all begins with a little shop named Green Peace which was founded by Mr. Sham Kar Wai and his brother Mr. Sham Kin Wai back in 1988 in Causeway Bay. Targeting their peers, the Sham brothers mainly sold Dr. Martens footwear and Levi’s jeans in their shop. They continued acquiring distribution rights of other foreign apparel brands and expanded their network by opening new shops. Their success was soon noticed by the NGO (nongovernmental organization) also called Greenpeace and was forced by the NGO to change their name. Renaming itself I.T, the new name was launched in 1997. At that point I.T began importing fashion brands from Japan while creating a line of their own in-house brands as well. From the then 200-squarefoot fashion distributor to the current day 1.4 millionsquare-foot fashion empire, Ms. Deborah Cheng, Vice President, Marketing and International Business of I.T Limited shares with you what makes I.T a sought-after trend setter.

Multi-layer, multi-brand, multi-channel CU: What’s so unique about I.T’s business model?

(Click here for the full version at University Hall of Branding, Chinese version only)

I.T: Lane Crawford or Harvey Nichols carries only imported labels, while stores like Bauhaus focus on


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