Becoming a brand name
Despite diligently consulting both his expert brushmaker father Lin Rengui and many cosmeticians in the process of transforming the historic Lam Sam Yick brand, the biggest obstacle to making a successful entry into the cosmetics market proved to be the company’s own history. Over the years, Lam Sam Yick had become almost inextricably linked to calligraphy brushes.
In 2004, Lam Sam Yick was invited to participate in an exhibition of ancient Chinese writing accoutrements by department store chain Shin Kong Mitsukoshi. During the exhibition, Lin took the opportunity to test consumer reaction to the company’s new cosmetics brushes. While many people were very interested, many also asked whether the brushes would leave black marks on their faces, a result of the company’s image as being mostly about calligraphy and ink brushes.
Frustrated, but inspired, Lin realized the company’s image needed a makeover to build customer loyalty. In 2008, he created a brand for Lam Sam Yick named LSY, marking the start of shaping a new, fashionable brand image. On the use of a seal script calligraphic style for the brand logo, Lin says, “Traditionally calligraphy has been associated with the pursuit of inner beauty, but with this new brand, we hope to combine the spirit of calligraphy with a sense of fashion, symbolizing the pursuit of both inner and outer beauty.”
Moving into the cosmetics industry, says Lin, had him feeling like he was riding a bicycle on a freeway—he had to work much harder than everyone else there just to keep up.
In the early days of the LSY brand, Lin and his wife Huang Yongjing traveled the length and breadth of Taiwan, attending 20-plus cosmetics exhibitions and trying to secure short-term space in department stores to display and promote their products. They also sent female staffers out to “go undercover” and check out the competition in department stores. Finally, to really pull in customers, they decided to set the prices of their brushes some 20% lower than the big international brands, pricing their brushes between NT$1000 and NT$5000.
Slowly but surely, LSY-brand brushes began to find a niche in the Taiwanese cosmetics market, not only in stores, but also online, and in 2012 the brand struck the jackpot, securing space in the hotly contested Nanjing West Road branch of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi.
That same year, Lin also obtained the chance to work with makeup artist Liu Yan, well known for her work on the women’s TV program Queen, developing a facial cleansing brush. He also signed an agreement with Japanese company Sanrio to license the image of Hello Kitty.
LSY’s exclusive Hello Kitty makeup brush set remains their top seller, moving as many as 1000 units a month. After almost eight years of hard work, LSY now accounts for some 40% of Lam Sam Yick’s sales.
Above the door of Lam Sam Yick Brushes hangs a sign using the calligraphy of former Control Yuan president and renowned calligrapher Yu Youren, an illustration of the esteem in which Lam Sam Yick’s brushes are held.