2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 691 A Bountiful 2009
The promotional activities of Weilai Auto during the New Year's Day holiday generated a great response.

On New Year's Day, photos of billionaire CEO Weilai Auto personally opening car doors for customers and lining up to take photos in front of the car flooded every corner of the internet.

As the marketing team from Weilai Auto took the lead and set the pace, car owners in Beicang and other areas posted group photos on the forum.

By New Year's Eve, the phrase "the CEO of Weilai Auto personally opened the car door for the customer" had already climbed to the top of Baidu search results, and news about Weilai Auto was also prevalent on Weibo, which was established last year.

A photo of Tan Jincheng, smiling broadly, posing with customers on the official Weibo account of Weilai Auto was widely shared and liked.

It's worth mentioning that the two female spokespeople from FlashTech also helped to share the post, and Liu Yifei even gave it a like. The addition of celebrities attracted a new group of onlookers.

The photo with Boss Tan reminded her of her shameful experience as a salesperson.

This novel marketing model has truly opened the eyes of netizens and taught traditional car companies a valuable lesson.

"There's nothing surprising about it. Actually, people can't let go of their pride. Look at the Koreans, they bow all the time, and the common people kneel down from time to time. Isn't that also a marketing method?"

After a busy afternoon, Boss Tan was exhausted, and he had dinner at the 4S store again.

It was a meal that Nie Ruoxi specially ordered from the hotel they frequented.

During dinner, the four chatted about the heated discussions that had taken place online that day. Gu Qingqing also mentioned that the two spokespeople had helped him retweet the post, which was considered a favor. When Weibo first became popular, these celebrities were managing their own accounts.

Many celebrities are unaware that even a simple repost can generate commercial value.

Some celebrities treat Weibo like their own personal social media, daring to say and post anything, which is much more interesting than the mechanical marketing of later generations.

Unable to sleep in the middle of the night, they can post several rants on social media.

Tan Jincheng takes this kind of marketing in stride. He thinks it's because Chinese people are too concerned about saving face. People like Koreans and those who are more concerned about their own lives don't care about this at all. They'll kneel down without hesitation as long as they can pocket the money.

However, it is precisely by exploiting this desire to save face that the greatest publicity effect is achieved at the lowest cost.

"That's right. Our store's sales today are equivalent to several days' worth. This is all thanks to Mr. Tan. Let's toast Mr. Tan."

Beicang 4S store sold more than 20 cars today, including those delivered and pre-sold. Their best performance before was 5 cars sold in a day. Today's performance is equivalent to almost a week's performance.

Many pre-sales were actually made because of Tan Jincheng. Some customers who originally only planned to look at the cars but had not yet decided to buy them placed orders in advance due to their emotions in this situation.

Moreover, this round of promotions includes other discounts, so even without considering the benefits from Mr. Tan's purchase, it's still quite a good deal.

"Can your production capacity keep up?"

With sales so good, Zhang Xupeng was a little worried that Weilai's production capacity might not be able to keep up. Today, the Beicang store delivered and received more than 20 orders, and he didn't know what the situation was like at the other 4S stores.

Based on this, selling four or five hundred cars a day is no problem. With a three-day New Year's Day holiday, they might be able to sell around 1000 cars in total. It looks like Yuechi's sales in January are going to increase again.

"Our production capacity can keep up. Yuechi has already transferred some of its production capacity to the Xiangcheng production base. Starting this year, we can easily produce 2 vehicles per month."

In addition, the expansion plan for 4S stores this year has already begun last month.

In 2010, there were 400 4S stores, and in 2011, there were 500 4S stores. This was all part of the expansion plan. The hot sales of Yuechi A1 also attracted many dealers, and some car dealers have already applied to join the franchise.

"I don't know if we can sell 10,000 cars in January. January is traditionally considered a peak season for car sales."

Tan Jincheng isn't too worried about production capacity. Once the Xiangcheng production base is fully utilized, there won't be a shortage of capacity. Now he's just looking forward to when the Yuechi A1's monthly sales will break 10,000 units.

In the two full months since its launch, the Yuechi A1 has maintained monthly sales of over 7500 units, and with such potential, it is fully capable of achieving monthly sales of over 10,000 units.

Starting from the first day of the new year, Tan Jincheng launched a marketing campaign, hoping to quickly get Yuechi into the club of monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles.

"So confident, huh?"

"Of course, my country's SUV market still has great potential. SUVs account for about 30% of the market overseas, but only 7% in China."

There is market competition, but the market is still growing, and it's been relatively easy to make money in the past few years. If we focus on the SUV market, there is still great potential for us.

Weilai is not afraid of competition. In a booming market, if you put some thought into marketing and some product innovation, you will always be able to stand out.

If you can also ensure the quality matches your price, then you can continue to make money.

Strictly speaking, joint venture brands like CRV and ARV4 are not actually competitors of the Yuechi A1; the competition among joint venture brands is much fiercer.

If we're talking about competitors to the Yuechi A1 in the current market, it's actually the Haval H3, which is priced at the lowest level. At the end of December, the H3 announced a new round of price cuts, bringing the price below 100,000 yuan, which quickly boosted its sales. Currently, with an average price between 89,800 and 109,800 yuan, the H3 is the strongest competitor to the low-end version of the Yuechi A1.

With price reductions and policy subsidies, a 2.0L Haval H3 can be had for less than 10 yuan. You can get a compact SUV for 10 yuan, and Great Wall's quality is also guaranteed to a certain extent, which is enough to tempt many SUV enthusiasts.

The unusual sales performance of Haval in December cannot be entirely attributed to that; the H3 also played a part.

New models have their advantages over older models, but they also have disadvantages, namely that they cannot significantly reduce prices. Models like the H3 and CRV, which have been on the market for several years, can promote sales and clear inventory through substantial price reductions.

However, the Yuechi A1 cannot do that. If a new car is launched and then immediately lowers its price, it will be extremely damaging to both existing consumers and the brand's resale value.

"That's enough. Take it slow. Don't worry too much about rankings and sales. Weilai has already established itself in the automotive industry, which is better than many domestic brands."

"That's absolutely right. You've already established yourself in something as difficult as car manufacturing, so all that's left is to take it slow."

The others comforted Boss Tan, and Boss Tan smiled.

"Speaking of which, 2009 was really a fruitful year. Not to mention the existing business, the two new companies we started are both on the right track."

Indeed, although the year-end financial report has not yet been released, Tan Jincheng has every reason to look forward to the 2009 annual report, as the automotive business, which he is most concerned about, is on the right track.

In the second phase of the two-wheeled electric vehicle business, Flash Motors still firmly occupies a leading position.

Since GXG won the Taobao Mall Double Eleven sales champion last time, his popularity has increased a lot. Taobao has helped GXG with a lot of publicity in order to achieve the advertising effect, and has also provided considerable support in terms of traffic.

Import and export trade also stabilized after November and did not continue to decline.

The mobile phone battery business continues to maintain strong momentum, and even the slowest sector, power batteries, has made breakthroughs. The newly added automotive and elderly care businesses are also on track.

As for investments, this year has been incredibly lucrative. The performance of several heavily invested stocks in Hong Kong is self-evident, and the performance in A-shares has also been good, with the increase in its own company, Flash Technology, alone being quite substantial.

The other companies in the ByteDance sector also performed well in their investments in the A-share secondary market, capturing most of the rebound in 2009 after the 2008 crash.

In the investment world, whether in the primary or secondary market, it has a considerable reputation. With the significant increase in returns in recent years, the amount of funds that ByteDance Engine can control has also grown larger and larger.

However, within the entire FlashDrive group, ByteDance Engine is the most low-profile company, hidden in the upper floors of the FlashDrive headquarters building for a long time. It also has a small number of employees, and Tan Jincheng's requirement for his employees is to make a fortune quietly.

Don't spout nonsense online if there's nothing to brag about, and also keep an eye on your family members so they don't show off everywhere.

People in finance already earn a lot, and when they perform well, they can earn far more than their peers. If they still have to show off everywhere, they'll only make themselves more hated.

Not only should the employees themselves keep their mouths shut, but their family and relatives should also keep a low profile. There are plenty of women in the financial industry who like to show off, and in the end, they only hurt their husbands.

"You must be really looking forward to the annual report now, right?"

Zhang Xupeng stared at his friends. There were only four of them at the table. At this moment, Tan Jincheng was completely relaxed. Without the mask he wore in front of others, he looked radiant and full of pride.

"Haha, of course, especially FlashTech's."

FlashTech is a publicly listed company. Sales figures for 2009 have not yet been released, but approximate data is available.

Compared to 2008, the sales growth rate of electric vehicles in 2009 should exceed 50%, which is much higher than the original expectation of 20% to 30%, and this has a positive effect on boosting the stock price.

However, there is one thing Tan Jincheng needs to solve for him this year, and that is the issue of the listed company's equity. The equity of the listed company must be made more concealed so that the growth of his wealth will not appear so fast.

In the world of wealth, seniority is also important. Looking at the list of the richest people, not many have a good ending. Last year's richest person was sent to work as a sewing machine after only a few months. The same is true for some of the richest people after him.

In this respect, we should learn from our Little Ma and Ding Yangzhu. After being the richest man several times, they realized that it wasn't really the case, so Ding disappeared from the wealth list. He is on the list every year, but he always keeps a low profile.

Ma Huateng was even smarter. His wealth didn't allow him to keep a low profile, but for a long time, his best position was second place, which allowed him to surpass many of the richest people in China.

Tan Jincheng is the youngest billionaire on the list, which already attracts a lot of attention. If his ranking is too high, it will definitely cause a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Take the so-called richest man in Yicheng, for example. Every now and then, some people from his hometown would go to the Shanchi Wangjiang Industrial Park for inspection. What for? Those who know, know.

Giving a little something isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this kind of behavior does affect the normal operation of a business. It's not a serious problem, but it's still a bit annoying.

Tan Jincheng always tries to avoid going back to Yicheng when he returns to Anhui Province for this reason. They are all from his hometown, and it would seem impolite not to see them, but seeing them would only cause him trouble.

2009 was a year of great success and high profile, but for Tan Jincheng, 2010 meant he had to proactively reduce his public profile.

(End of this chapter)