2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 138 Far ahead
Often, as a reborn individual, one's concept of time is rather vague.

Even though it's been a decade or two, it feels like there are two points in time flowing through my mind: one is the past, and the other is the present.

Tan Jincheng only remembered that his elder brother Long had endorsed Xinri, but he couldn't recall which year it was. When he was researching the market and collecting information, he subconsciously overlooked this point. After all, Xinri's advertising and marketing had never been considered top-notch in the industry, and it was far inferior to Aima.

Thus, a peculiar record was born in this lifetime: a new electric scooter company with an annual production capacity of 30000 units became the first company in the industry to invite a celebrity to endorse it.

It was a full year ahead of the previous chip day, and four years ahead of Aima's hiring of Jay Chou as its spokesperson—far ahead! Far ahead!
The "celebrity" they invited was none other than Chris Lee, who was currently the most talked-about celebrity. In other words, they were riding the coattails of a trending topic.

Television media was not yet in decline in 2005. Two major provincial satellite TV stations, several local TV stations, and the internet simultaneously launched advertising and promotional videos to coincide with the live broadcast of the Super Girl finals.

In a short time, Flash's Baidu search index rose rapidly, which also attracted close attention from its peers and the Beicang local government.

Online, there is very little information available about the Flash series, but the celebrity endorsement it has chosen generates a lot of buzz, leading to polarized opinions about Flash, an unfamiliar electric vehicle company.

"What kind of crappy company is this? They actually hired Chris Lee as their spokesperson, how incredibly low-class is that?"

"Hahaha, this is hilarious! What kind of combination is this? Hiring a contestant from a talent show who hasn't even debuted yet to be their spokesperson? They must have money to burn!"

"Wow, she has great taste. She got an endorsement while still in the competition. Her debut is definitely in the bag."

"Is the boss of this company also a corn fan? Haha, let's call their customer service hotline and ask if they have any signatures."
-
"With such a severe polarization in public opinion and such fierce mutual insults, aren't you worried?"

During her lunch break, Gu Qingqing would usually come to Tan Jincheng's office to sit for a while. In addition to asking him some operational questions, she would also chat about the recently launched FlashDrive advertising video.

"I'm overjoyed, what's there to worry about? Online topics need to be controversial to stay popular."

We're not going to browse those websites where "the poster is a good person and may you live a long and peaceful life." What we want is controversy, preferably constant arguments, so that we can keep the buzz going. Wasn't Xiaomi's early stage also about fans and haters arguing with each other?

Gu Qingqing was taken aback after hearing this. She didn't know why, but she always felt that Boss Tan's views on the internet were different from others. However, what he said was not wrong. Recently, when she went online, she could see Shan Chi's presence on places like Tieba, Mop, and Tianya.

In terms of brand influence, Boss Tan has indeed gone from being unknown to being the talk of the internet.

Fans say the company has good taste, the commercials are cool and capture the essence of their idols, while opponents say what's the use of a good commercial if their idols are still just red-haired monsters.

This company's products are just like your idols—very low-quality. I absolutely refuse to buy them.

The neutral observers simply watched the spectacle, but their comments on the promotional video were quite positive, praising its cool and stylish design. The black body with the lightning bolt logo looked incredibly futuristic in the renderings, though they wondered how much the car would cost.

Since Flash has not yet been officially released, its pricing and online/offline promotion methods have referenced some of the marketing strategies used in the later Double Eleven shopping festival, maintaining a certain sense of mystery in its pricing and promoting it as ? 99 yuan.

Like a series of combined punches, a dazzling array of promotional methods naturally attracted the attention of competitors. Tan Jincheng had already anticipated this, knowing that once the product was officially launched, the pricing of FlashDrive would also attract the attention of competitors.

Although it has not been officially released, the pricing of Flash is not exactly a secret to those who are interested. With a little inquiry, it can be found out. Currently, not many people within the company know the final release price of Flash, but there is no guarantee that it will not be leaked to retailers.

If you want to distribute your products, you have to tell people what price to sell them at. Once there are many retailers, even if you sign a confidentiality agreement, it won't help. Most of the store owners are ordinary people who don't have this awareness at all. They'll reveal the information if you give them a little benefit.

"2299? 1999? Is this insane? Is this some kind of pricing scheme?" Yu Ling, Marketing Director of Xinri, frowned.

With a production capacity of 30,000 units per year, ChipLife is hardly a competitor, but this pricing is really disrupting the market and could trigger a chain reaction throughout the industry. If other large companies follow suit, it will be troublesome.

Aside from the extreme pricing, what attracts Ling the most is the company's marketing plan. The offline marketing plan has not yet been collected, but it is nothing more than giving dealers discounts, rebates, preferential payment methods, etc.

Their unique internet marketing approach is something no other company in the industry has yet adopted. They leveraged the most controversial figure from the Super Girl competition to place advertisements online and collaborate with Ji Ji's team to create hype, sparking heated discussions among netizens.

In just a few days, the brand FlashCheer's popularity on the internet soared. Its brand awareness went from zero to zero, and from zero to explosive growth in an incredibly fast time. Although Yu Ling didn't understand the internet very well, she knew that such popularity was very effective for brand promotion.

Another advantage is the extremely low cost. Judging from the posts on the forum, some of these posts might be paid shills, but most are spontaneous efforts by netizens. Just as Yu Ling was pondering whether to add this company to her watchlist, her subordinate came over with a document to report: "President Yu, we found it. This company is registered in Beicang, Ningbo. The boss is only 20 years old, surnamed Tan, and is from Yicheng, Anhui Province."

After saying that, he handed over a document, which Yu Ling took and looked at carefully for a while.

As a large-scale physical enterprise that has been an industry leader since 2002, it is not difficult to obtain information about the boss of a competitor through legitimate channels. In fact, this is no secret when registering the company.

"Damn, 20 years old and already owns three companies, parents are just ordinary state-owned enterprise workers, what kind of monster is this?" Yu Ling couldn't help but swear.

The three companies were all established within these two years, and their debt ratios and other information were unavailable. It was impossible to determine their actual strength or background, so Yu Ling did not dare to act rashly.

“After graduating from high school, I had a year of downtime. This experience is somewhat similar to that of my boss, except my boss only has a junior high school education. Who knows, he might be the next generation’s boss,” Yu Ling muttered to herself.

After thinking for a moment, Yu Ling said, "Keep an eye on this company's actions for now, and report any changes to me immediately."

"Ok."

That's all we can do for now. While the best way to win in business competition is to defeat a weak opponent, you can't act rashly if you can't ascertain their background. However, we could try to poach the person in charge of marketing from them.

With over 100 million internet users now, it's time to learn about internet marketing strategies and keep up with the times.

Yu Ling is racking her brains trying to poach the owner of Flashcart, while the owner of Flashcart has been having a much better time lately, with the brand gaining popularity and rows of electric scooters displayed in the warehouse.

The more than 100 workers in the workshop produce day and night, regardless of whether people or cars are sold. Their down-to-earth attitude is obvious. Moreover, he also has two other trading companies in the area that are doing well.

Enterprises that do practical things and can solve employment problems should definitely be given certain support. After the street enterprise office came to inspect once, Tan Jincheng's life became much better, mainly reflected in the bank's attitude towards Shanchi Auto Industry.

The funding problem that had been troubling Tan Jincheng for a long time was finally solved. Tan Jincheng was so happy that he even considered buying a few days' worth of QQ splash screen ads. However, after inquiring about the price, he gave up. These things were too damn expensive, and the review period was extremely long.
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August 11, 2005, Thursday, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, Qixi Festival.

Around 11 a.m., Zhang Xupeng carried a cake into the office building of Shanchi Automotive Industry. At the stairwell, he ran into Gu Qingqing coming out of the restroom. Gu Qingqing felt a little awkward when their eyes met.

"Long time no see, Mr. Zhang. What brings you here today?" Gu Qingqing greeted him.

"Oh, it's Xiao Tan's birthday today. He bought me a cake last year, so I'm returning the favor to him this year," Zhang Xupeng said with a smile.

He hadn't been here for a long time. The reason was that Zhang Xupeng had been frequently going to Zhili, Huzhou, to expand his children's clothing business recently. Otherwise, he would have gone along to join in the fun when FlashChe was filming an advertisement.

"Oh? Today is Boss Tan's birthday? I've never heard him mention it." Gu Qingqing asked in surprise.

"I guess he's forgotten about it himself. He's been so busy lately. I'll go up first."

"Oh, okay." Gu Qingqing said after a moment's hesitation.

After Zhang Xupeng left, Gu Qingqing was conflicted. It would be fine if she didn't know, but it wouldn't be right for her to not show any appreciation as a friend. But she didn't have anywhere to buy a gift right now.

Most Chinese people celebrate their birthdays according to the lunar calendar, and I imagine Boss Tan is no exception. I didn't expect it to be on Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day). And these two brothers have such a good relationship, remembering each other's birthdays. It's amazing.

In a daze, Gu Qingqing returned to her seat, pondering what to do. Pretending not to know was definitely not a good idea; she should at least go up and say happy birthday. But a dry "happy birthday" seemed too insincere.

"What should we do? There are factories all around here, and not a single decent shop, hmm?"

Unconsciously, Gu Qingqing's gaze fell on the Parker pen she was spinning in her hand. It was a gift her father had specially given her for her birthday last month.

"It seems okay?"

(End of this chapter)