His fans own copies of Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, but now kung fu movie star Jackie Chan (
One of the world's most famous Chinese celebrities hopes to parlay movie superstardom into a merchandising and retail empire that encompasses everything from clothing to cookies.
The action star's expanding business portfolio includes a clothing label, Jackie's Kitchen restaurants, a sushi eatery chain, Jackie Chan signature club gyms and most recently, a line of chocolates and nutritional oatcakes.
Chan's ambition doesn't end there -- he aspires to be a Martha Stewart-like marketing juggernaut.
The actor's goal is "total lifestyle branding," said Bon Ng, the business executive Chan has charged with developing his brand.
"Our coverage will be wide," Ng said, noting Chan hopes to expand into furniture and kitchenware.
It's not Chan's first foray into business. Chan said he opened car repair shops, gyms, gift shops and restaurants 20 years ago, but they failed because he wasn't savvy enough in business.
"I thought since I could make movies, I tried business on my own. I didn't know how to calculate, how much things I bought cost, how much a month's rent cost ... I lost several million, then millions again," he told reporters at a celebration of the third anniversary of his clothing line. Now, Chan said he's hired professional businessmen to do the nitty-gritty work, while he makes strategic decisions.
The popularity of his products also coincides with the rise of his stardom. Chan cemented his international superstardom in the late 1990s with the Hollywood action comedy Rush Hour, costarring Chris Tucker.
He has now been on the US talk show circuit and appeared on the prestigious US comedy show Saturday Night Live. US cities have designated Jackie Chan Day. The Toronto and Los Angeles police departments have named him an honorary policeman.
Jackie Chan is such a potent symbol for Hong Kong that local tourism officials have asked him to promote the territory as a travel destination.
Now Chan is hoping his strong name recognition will translate into a successful, all-encompassing product lineup.
It's an approach known in business parlance as "brand extension." Companies venture into new areas of businesses by leveraging the credibility of their existing products.
"Many companies know the value of their brands doesn't just lie in their product categories," said University of Hong Kong business professor Bennett Yim.
But Yim said so far it's a controversial formula that hasn't been proven. He said one form of safe brand extension is to venture into complementary products, such as a shaver maker launching a shaving cream.
Chan seems to have avoided that strategy by eyeing a "lifestyle" brand -- although he has diversified his entertainment products, unveiling his own cartoon series that pits Chan against bad guys in a battle for 12 magic talismans.
But Chan is capitalizing on his wholesome, healthy image. Case in point is the "Jackie Chan signature club" gyms, a partnership with California Fitness, part of the US-based 24 Hour Fitness health club chain. The gyms will offer special Jackie Chan workout classes.
Another example is Chan's line of cookies for the health conscious. Chan says he may even open "Jackie Chan supermarkets" in the future. He claims consumers will naturally think that any food product that bears his name is healthy.
"You don't know what product to trust, but many of my audience and fans will trust me," he said.
Chan's products also highlight his Chinese heritage. Chan's Chinese stage name means "becoming a dragon." His clothing line's logo blends the Chinese character for "dragon" and "Jackie." Chinese calligraphy appears on his T-shirts and jeans.
Chan and his business executive, Ng, said they didn't know revenue figures offhand but said Chan's business ventures are growing.
Chan said "Jackie's Kitchen" has four outlets in South Korea and one in Hawaii, with an imminent launch in Australia. Talks are underway for another eatery in Las Vegas, he said.
Meanwhile, Chan's clothing label boasts 40 shops in mainland China and the label's children's line is available in US department stores, Ng said. Expansion plans will cover Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea.
Ng said Chan is targeting young professionals between 25 and 35.
But for now, Chan says he still earns more money making movies and that remains his top priority, adding he donates his business profits to charities because it's icing on the cake.
"I feel guilty about that money ... But the money I make from jumping from the second floor, this hard-earned, blood-and-sweat money ... I'll save for myself," he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”