Starting out as a drug dealer in 1988

Deep down, Xiang Mingyu admired Zhao Wenhao's business acumen, especially after their last conversation, which had further fueled his passion for business.

Xiang Mingyu really hopes that Zhao Wenhao can work in the Xuanzhou Food Processing Factory, so he is willing to help transfer Zhao Wenhao's household registration to the provincial capital.

In today's era, it is not easy to move your household registration from the countryside to the provincial capital.

Unfortunately, Zhao Wenhao was not interested in this, so he had to give up.

“First: the product. We need to start with the taste and packaging of the product.

If we only want to sell in Huining Province, then we only need to cater to the local tastes. But if we also want to sell to other regions, then we need to fully consider the various tastes of local people.

I suggest that the factory can first make a few types, then put them on the street for people to try, and let everyone who tries them say whether they are good or bad.

Afterwards, we will conduct a statistical analysis based on this data and ultimately determine the flavor that the public likes most.

In addition, we must design several different packaging styles. We can also make exquisite gift boxes for gifts for courtesy visits.”

At this time, Zhao Wenhao couldn't help but miss the Internet era.

The method he described is nothing more than big data analysis, but currently it can only be done through the most primitive manual methods.

"A taste test? Is that appropriate?"

Xiang Mingyu was a little hesitant. This method was completely beyond his concept.

In the planned economy era, materials were scarce and factories sold whatever they produced. As long as the difference was not too big, no one would consider these things.

What's more, Xuanzhou Food Processing Factory is a state-owned enterprise. How can it allocate the money for giving people free samples directly on the street?

If someone with ulterior motives secretly does something, Xiang Mingyu doesn't know how to explain it.

"Just classify this expense as publicity. It won't cost that much. I estimate that providing at most 3,000 sausages will give us a rough idea of ​​the cost."

Zhao Wenhao knew what Xiang Mingyu was worried about, so he explained it to him.

When he heard that only a few thousand sausages were needed, and the actual cost was only a few cents per sausage, which was only a few thousand yuan in total, Xiang Mingyu made the decision immediately.

"Uncle Xiang, what I'm most worried about is actually promotion. We must be willing to invest in this area. According to my idea, at least 10% of the turnover should be used for product promotion. Moreover, we need to continue to invest in the future."

"So much? I don't think it's necessary. We can just place an ad in a few mainstream newspapers and that should be effective. Also, I have connections at the provincial TV station. I can ask them to help produce an ad. It shouldn't cost too much."

When Xiang Mingyu heard that he had to spend 10% of the revenue on publicity, he was immediately dissatisfied.

In his opinion, so-called advertising mainly involves placing articles in newspapers, and television broadcasts can actually be omitted.

Why? In this day and age, how many households own television sets? Even in cities, most households do not have a television set, let alone in rural areas.

Zhao Wenhao understood what he meant and hurriedly explained, "We should not only consider the urban market, but also target the rural areas. Especially the wall advertising I told you about before, which deserves special attention."

According to Zhao Wenhao's idea, he would select two or three households in each village in the province to be the main body of wall advertising, so that the entire province could be covered.

Of course, this would cost a lot of money.

Even if one wall costs 100 yuan per year, it would cost millions or even more per year.

Moreover, the cost of paint and labor for painting the walls must be calculated separately.

Zhao Wenhao also considered the actual situation of the food processing factory. It was definitely unrealistic for them to come up with so much money all at once. However, it could be done in steps.

It is entirely possible to start from the surrounding areas of the provincial capital and then spread outward step by step.

“If so, how much would it cost?”

Xiang Mingyu was obviously a little overwhelmed. He could actually roughly estimate the cost, but he still wanted to find out the truth from Zhao Wenhao.

"At least 500,000. Anything less than that will greatly reduce the effect."

Zhao Wenhao pondered for two minutes and finally quoted the price.

"Five hundred thousand?" Xiang Mingyu was a little embarrassed and frowned involuntarily.

It’s not that the factory can’t come up with 300,000 yuan, but it has already spent hundreds of thousands of yuan on purchasing equipment in the early stage. If it spends so much on publicity, it will not be easy to get the support of the public.

Xiang Mingyu is the director of Xuanzhou Food Processing Plant, but the personnel relations of the entire factory are relatively complicated, and many things still need to be approved by the members of the party group.

He had already gone against the grain in launching new projects before, but if he insisted on going his own way again, it would inevitably cause a huge backlash.

"Let me think about it. Maybe we can do a smaller part. There's no need to do it on such a large scale."

Considering the actual situation, Xiang Mingyu was unable to agree immediately.

Zhao Wenhao naturally didn't say much. He was just offering suggestions; how to implement them was the food processing factory's problem.

Anyway, if he were to do it himself, he would definitely do it this way.

Since it is a new product, it is necessary to build awareness. If you are reluctant to invest money and expect to get unexpected results, it is not so easy.

Besides, someone is already making ham sausage, so there will be competition in the future.

In this case, it is necessary to completely suppress competitors so as to become the only dominant player.

“The third point is the issue of sales channels.

We can cooperate with the provincial supply and marketing company. They have supply and marketing cooperatives in many villages. We can negotiate a profit-sharing model with them.

Of course, if you have the guts, establishing your own sales channels would be best. But this isn't something that can be accomplished overnight, and the investment of both human and material resources is considerable."

Zhao Wenhao did not discuss the topic of publicity with Xiang Mingyu, but turned to the last one.

In this day and age, there are wide limitations. It is not like later when supermarkets are everywhere.

Therefore, there weren't many partners to choose from. With Xiang Mingyu's connections at the Provincial Supply and Marketing Company, he should be able to reach an agreement.

In fact, it was just as Zhao Wenhao thought.

"We have cooperated with the Provincial Supply and Marketing Company before. I will go to negotiate with them later. There shouldn't be any major problems." Xiang Mingyu said confidently.

Zhao Wenhao nodded. "There's nothing else to say. These are the only ones I can think of for now. You can discuss this among yourselves. Let's brainstorm. Maybe everyone will come up with a better idea."

In fact, Zhao Wenhao had other ideas.

But that mainly targets the institutional reform of state-owned enterprises. After thinking about it, he felt that there was no need to touch this bad luck.

Besides, such a suggestion is not something Xiang Mingyu can solve alone.