2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 304 Summer Marketing Plan
Zhao Xinyi was right!

That evening, Tan Jincheng received an apology text message from Liu Yifei: "I'm sorry, my reputation online hasn't been very good lately. My mother wanted to use my status as a spokesperson and your good reputation online to help me salvage my image. She made the decision without consulting you beforehand."

Tan Jincheng was speechless as he looked at the text message. Who said this rumored "doting father" wouldn't cause trouble? He's got a whole repertoire of ways to create hype.

Forget it, you've already posted it, what else can I do? Should I give you a serious scolding?
Besides, your bad reputation isn't good for the Fengchi brand either. Consider it a small reward for getting something for nothing.

"I won't hold it against you this time, but if there's a next time, you'll have to be my salesman for half a day at next year's Shanghai Auto Show and help me sell cars!"

What a disgrace! I, a popular female celebrity, spent half a day selling cars and am almost laughed to death in the industry, and you're still thinking of going again next year! Are you trying to take advantage of me forever?!
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"Haha, just kidding. Where are you now? I haven't seen any news about you lately."

"They're in closed training here, so there's not much news coming out."

"Oh, if you don't agree to sell the car, then bring me a gift when you come back as compensation. It should be a matching couple's item, so Qingqing and I can use it."

"That's fine. What do you want?"

"You decide what to bring."

"How about my album? When my album is finished, I'll let you and Qingqing be the first listeners."

You're kidding me. You call your album a gift?

"No way, that's not worth much. You're a big star who's taken so much of my endorsement fee, and you're only giving me an album as a gift? People will laugh their heads off. I want a gift worth at least 10,000 RMB."

"My autographed album isn't even worth 10,000 yuan???"

"Well, I need somewhere to sell it. Why don't you just transfer 20,000 yuan to me?"

"Can't you have any shame? You claim to be worth 10 billion yuan, and some media outlets have even said you're the richest person born in the 85s!"

"Making money isn't shameful; I'm not going to argue with you anymore, I'm going to sleep."

We can't talk anymore, or we'll really have to give away albums. That's not giving a gift, that's torture!

Liu Yifei was furious when she saw the QQ avatar that had gone offline. It was only 10 p.m. in China, how could she possibly sleep?

Does a big boss go to bed this early?
"Mom, do you think I sing really badly?" Liu Yifei asked, somewhat troubled.

"Why do you say that? What did President Tan say? Or is he blaming us?"

"He didn't blame us. I just said I'd send him one of my albums when I got back to China, and he immediately went offline, saying he was going to sleep. How could someone as busy as him possibly be sleeping at this hour!"

“He might really be sleeping, or something might be going on. You said he’s such a busy person,” Liu Xiaoli comforted him.

In fact, many people in the industry were not optimistic about the daughter's trip to Xiao Ri Ri, especially professionals who had heard her sing. But there was no turning back now that things had developed to this point, so they could only grit their teeth and continue.

We can't discourage her.
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"Going to bed so early? It's only ten o'clock. Let's chat a little longer."

"Didn't you say you were going to sleep? Huh, why is your profile picture still lit up?"

"When did I say I was going to sleep? And my profile picture has been online the whole time. What nonsense are you talking about?"

"Oh, I'll show you something."

After saying that, Gu Qingqing shared a screenshot of a chat, which was a screenshot of the chat between Tan Jincheng and Liu Yifei.

"What the heck? Why are you two still chatting? I was just kidding her. She said she was going to send me an album, and I was so scared that I immediately went offline and became invisible to her. Don't let it slip."

Holy crap, thank goodness we didn't talk about anything else. Is this guy crazy? He just posts chat screenshots like that? Doesn't he have any concerns about being invisible?
"Why can't we chat? We chat all the time. Besides, you've never even heard someone sing before, why are you so disgusted?"

Gu Qingqing, who was actually staring at the computer screen, was quite touched. She wanted matching gifts, and even when trying to take advantage of someone, she was thinking of her. This thoughtfulness was more precious than any sweet words.

Tan Jincheng couldn't say he'd actually heard of it: "You'll find out when the time comes whether the application has been approved or not."

"It's been approved. When are you coming back? Our advisor said he wants to meet the company's investors."

"I won't see you, but I'll be going back at the end of the month, probably around the 28th or 29th. But I won't be able to stay at home for more than a few days before I have to go to Shanghai. I'm going to Hangzhou on the 8th, so I probably won't be able to stay at home until mid-June."

"It's okay, our holiday is until the beginning of July, and we'll be busy with exams soon, so don't worry about me if you're busy."

With just one month to go, summer vacation and the hot weather will arrive, and electric vehicles will enter their peak sales season. Starting in June, electric vehicle manufacturers of all sizes and retail stores will begin preparing promotional activities for the peak sales season.

Last year, Flash Motors missed the peak sales season during the summer vacation. This year, they need to come up with some promotional plans to boost sales. Besides the usual promotional discounts, should they come up with something new?

A celebrity meet-and-greet? That seems like a good idea. These kinds of meet-and-greet events are common in later generations, but probably not many businesses hold them nowadays.

Of the three spokespeople, only Liu Yifei has attended one large-scale exhibition since the beginning of the endorsement. It seems that she hasn't made much of a real contribution to Flash, so it's time for them to contribute some popularity.

"You said the holiday made me suddenly think of a promotion plan. I'll talk to you about it in a bit. I need to find Liu Yifei again."

Gu Qingqing, who was in the dormitory, was speechless for a moment: "You just said you were going to sleep, and now you're looking for someone. How can you be so shameless?"

"What's there to be embarrassed about? Haha."

Immediately afterwards, Tan Jincheng quickly unblocked himself from seeing her online and then contacted Liu Yifei: "I just thought of something and got out of bed. Are you able to return to China soon?"

Liu Yifei quickly saw the message from Tan Jincheng again, and was exasperated: "Mom, President Tan has messaged me again, asking if I can go back to China soon? Should I reply to him?"

Liu Xiaoli also had a moment of doubt. Recently, the online public opinion had not been very friendly to them. Why was Tan Jincheng asking if they had time to go back to China? Was there some kind of publicity activity they needed to cooperate with? Wasn't he afraid of causing a negative impact?
"Please reply and ask how long ago 'recently' is being referred to."

"Around July, he sent it over. Flash Group was going to make a summer promotion plan, and planned to have three spokespeople hold several offline fan meetings in major cities across the country in July."

Each small fan meeting will only take up one day of the spokesperson's time at most. If each spokesperson holds three meetings, they only need to set aside three days, which will be enough. Tan Jincheng has not yet contacted Chun Ge and Jay Chou's teams, but he should be able to find three days no matter how busy he is.

The only variable is Liu Yifei. She's currently undergoing some kind of closed training in seclusion, and it's uncertain whether she'll be able to come back.

First, confirm the itinerary with Liu Yifei. Then, have the marketing department contact both of them tomorrow. Once confirmed, we can start working on the marketing plan. It's easy to choose the city that Chun Ge wants to visit. There's definitely the capital of Hunan Province, and then there's her home base, CD. The last city is yet to be decided.

If Liu Yifei can make it back, let her and Jay Chou vote online for the city they're going to; it'll also generate some buzz.

How many matches?

"Three shows are tentatively scheduled, which means it will take up to three days of your time at most. You should be able to get back without any problems, right?"

“It definitely won’t take me three days to get back from abroad. Then there’s the travel to various cities, which will also take up some time on the road. It might take about a week to go back and forth.”

"Then see if you can arrange it. If you can, give me an answer as soon as possible. Starting tomorrow, we will be working on the summer promotion plan."

"What about the other two spokespeople?"

"The other two spokespeople have already agreed, and we're just waiting for you. Once you confirm the time, we'll work together on the marketing plan, and we'll send you a copy. If you can't come back, I'll just be the other two spokespeople."

The other two spokespeople haven't been announced yet, but can I tell you about this?

When Liu Yifei heard that the other two spokespeople had agreed, she hesitated. Two of the three spokespeople had agreed, and she was currently at the center of a media storm. If she didn't agree, it would seem that she was afraid and unprofessional.

Liu Xiaoli shared the same thought; in fact, deep down, she didn't want to return to China during this period.

"Aren't you afraid of the public opinion surrounding me right now? Aren't you really afraid of the negative impact it will have on you?"

"Just tell me if you're coming back or not. Those few pieces of rubbish you've posted are nothing to Flash. You've seen the promotional plans for Zhongtai and the promotional plans we made during our Olympic sponsorship period, haven't you? If you haven't, look them up online. Flash's promotional team is much stronger than you think."

Honestly, your one-man agency is really terrible. Your professionalism is laughable to your peers, and even I, a layman, find it ridiculous.

This was the first time Tan Jincheng had given his own evaluation of Liu Yifei's work. Although he said that the girl's singing was indeed not very good and that entering the music industry was a bad move, that was from God's perspective.

The fact that a simple album release by a small group of people could lead to public opinion being directed at their fellow townsman who is now a huge star shows how incredibly incompetent their public relations are.

The record industry is declining, a fact that Tan Jincheng knows from an omniscient perspective. Only top figures like Jay Chou can still make a living, but even Jay Chou earns his money from digital music. The record company that Lao Liu collaborated with, Xiao Rizi, is a major international company.

From their own perspective, it was indeed a good collaboration, and it must have taken a lot of effort to help her obtain this resource.

It was from this mishandling of public opinion that her weakness as a non-professional was exposed. After that, she went to Hong Kong to develop her career, but then failed and returned to the mainland. This girl was completely vilified.

There are only so many resources in the industry. You've taken other people's resources and you don't have the ability to maintain them. Who else would they target if not you?
She really has the destiny to become a big star. She makes mistakes in her career planning every time, and has been relentlessly criticized for several years, but she still manages to survive.

"Can you help me resolve the online public opinion? If you can, I'll go back."

"This is nothing? Watch me turn the tables on you!"

It's just releasing an album on Xiao Ri Zi. Since netizens can't accept it emotionally and some people are stirring up trouble, let's make the trouble even louder. The main point is to make money from Xiao Ri Zi and then spend it back in China.

This is called earning foreign exchange! Isn't this also a form of patriotism?
What? You're not making money? Losing money is even better, it's just money for your daily life!
(End of this chapter)