Chapter 116: Rubik's Cube Promotion Progress and the Pretty Girl's Telegram
Chapter 116: Rubik's Cube Promotion Progress and the Pretty Girl's Phone Call
Liao Liewen replied: “Yes, I originally thought that after Yang Wendong already had $50, he would not borrow a lot more, or even if he did, he would do it step by step.
But after chatting with him for a while, I learned that he not only wants to quickly expand production capacity in the short term, but also wants to move into the glue industry at the upper end of the supply chain.
And 3M seems willing to help him and provide technical support, but 3M obviously will not provide unlimited funding, so he still needs to rely on loans.
I have also put some specific information at the end of the file in your hand. If all of this is successful, Yang Wendong’s achievements will be immeasurable.”
After listening to this, Liao Baoshan carefully looked at the second half of the document in his hand, and then said: "His plan is good. If it succeeds, the future potential will be immeasurable.
But as a bank, we can’t just be optimistic just because someone else’s plan is good. When it comes to such a large amount of money, we need to check everything clearly.
This includes the rationality of his overseas resources and industrial investments. Otherwise, if something goes wrong later, with such a large amount of funds, even a bank of our size like Liao Chong Hing Bank would suffer heavy losses.”
"Yes, I will investigate everything later." Liao Liewen nodded.
If it is a general loan, banks generally will not check too much, and usually only look at the collateral, because small loans are not worth the trouble to investigate;
However, when it comes to large projects and people or companies that the bank is more optimistic about, it is still necessary to collect relevant information. This kind of thing absolutely cannot be carried out based solely on subjective judgment, there must be real evidence.
Otherwise, various century-old scams can easily come up with many scams that make people feel that there is a bright future. Even many banks in Europe and the United States have been deceived and become lessons for other banks.
Liao Baoshan smiled and said, “Well, I feel more at ease with you doing things. If these data are verified, then the loan can be considered.
But after all, even we can't take out such a large amount of funds immediately, so we need to wait a little longer."
"Yes." Liao Liewen nodded.
Although Liu Chong Hing Bank is one of the leading Chinese banks, it is still far behind several British banks. Its total deposits are currently only around 2 to 3 million yuan, and its loans of 400 million yuan are equivalent to 2% of the bank.
Not to mention that a large amount of the bank's own funds are still in real estate, and it is necessary to withdraw funds or attract funds from new depositors.
This all takes time, so it won’t be a waste of time if you investigate first.
The next day, after Yang Wendong arrived at the company, he went straight to Wei Zetao's office.
"Old Wei." Yang Wendong sat down with a smile and said, "I just received a call from Liao Liewen. Liao Chongxing Bank has preliminarily approved our company's loan application. I estimate that in a few days, after their board of directors agrees, it will enter the formal process."
A loan of 400 million is probably more than several hundred million in later generations.
If 3M had not provided long-term purchase order preferences, advance payments for goods and several fund transactions, even Liao Chong Hing Bank, which had relatively loose risk control, would not have agreed in the absence of sufficient collateral.
People just want to make a lot of money, and they will take risks on projects that can make a lot of money, but if they don’t have enough confidence, banks will not take risks.
After pouring a cup of tea, Wei Zetao said with a smile: "I also know a little about the situation of the senior management of Liao Chongxing Bank. When it comes to the board of directors, I guess it is only Liao Baoshan who has the final say."
"Hmm..., yeah, I guess they just want to go through the process." Yang Wendong also agreed with this point of view.
In Chinese companies, the founders generally have absolute say, even after they go public. In another twenty years, there will be dozens of large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the Hong Kong market, and basically all the companies acquired are British.
It's not just because of the rise of Chinese capital and the fall of British capital, or other political reasons, but British capital is accustomed to the Western business model and does not overemphasize controlling rights, which also gave Chinese capital a loophole to attack in the 70s and 80s.
Wei Zetao added: "In the United States, Qian Sheng has already visited the 3M glue factory in New York State. His initial feedback is that the quality of the production line is quite good."
"So fast? Thank you for his hard work." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Then let him prepare the specific information and send it to us by air express."
Wei Zetao said, "Okay, but he also wants to ask if you need to go there right now. After all, it's a production line worth more than $100,000, and he can't make a decision."
Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "Well, next time we talk on the phone, tell him that I will go to the United States, but I have to wait until he has sorted out all the information and thoroughly studied the production line and related patents.
If I go, I will try to get it done right away, or reach an agreement with 3M executives on major issues.”
In this era, a trip to Europe and the United States is definitely more difficult than in the previous life, but since the business has grown so big, I have to make a trip sooner or later.
It's not just because of the production line. He has been cooperating with 3M for quite some time, so he should pay it a visit. After all, it is a Fortune 500 company. He can't possibly expect their senior management to come to Hong Kong to visit him, right?
Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Okay, I will reply to him next time."
"It's a rare trip to the United States, and I just need to do something else." Yang Wendong said, "How is the Magic Cube doing at HKU?"
Wei Zetao replied: “I got the news from Professor Yang a few days ago that the magic cube also achieved good results at the University of Hong Kong.
By the day before yesterday, almost 200 people had bought the Rubik's Cube, and even those who didn't buy one were asking others to borrow it to play with, which shows that it is still very famous in the school market."
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "It's about the same as I expected. Although the Rubik's Cube is also a toy, it is not a regular children's toy. To be more precise, it is for adults, or at least teenagers over twelve or thirteen years old.
Its market, on the contrary, cannot be sold through conventional toy sales channels, which is also a headache for me. I don’t know what kind of channel distributors to find to sell the Rubik’s Cube. "Everyone who has played with the Rubik’s Cube knows that children are not interested in it at all. Even among adults, only a small number of people are interested in it. Most people will find that they can’t put it back together after playing with it, and probably won’t play with it again.
However, in this era, there are fewer entertainment options, and the Rubik's Cube may arouse the interest of more people.
The group that is most likely to get involved is college students. They have strong learning ability and desire for challenges, and they are more interested in things they don’t understand than middle-aged people.
Wei Zetao added: "Now the Rubik's Cube has begun to spread from HKU to other places. There are even a few people from outside the school who come to our stalls in the school to buy Rubik's Cubes. This is a good sign."
"Well, tell the colleague who is setting up the stall to pay attention to the buying patterns of the crowd." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
The Rubik's Cube can actually be sold on campus directly to internal stores or even to any teacher.
However, Yang Wendong still insisted on spending an extra manpower and renting a stall in the school to sell the cubes, just to allow the vendor to observe the buyers, buying patterns, etc.
These can be said to be first-hand information.
Although the Rubik's Cube was very popular in the past, it was difficult to promote this non-practical toy to the world, especially in an era without the Internet.
Therefore, he needs to run the Rubik's Cube as a normal commodity. After all, the memories of the previous life are of little use in promoting a toy.
As for resuming the competition, it is too early now, and it will be a matter of time after the Rubik's Cube restoration method is mastered.
Moreover, this kind of competition is simple to organize, and the prize money is not much money, but it is the most difficult to make it popular. Even in the era of mobile Internet, if you want to make a competition popular, you need to introduce a huge amount of traffic.
In this era, you still need to find a TV station, but they may not pay attention to you. Unless the Rubik's Cube becomes very popular, there may be a sufficient audience base to pressure the TV station, but this is another chicken and egg contradiction.
"That's no problem. He's also collecting data in this area." Wei Zetao paused and said, "Mr. Yang, I actually have an idea for promotion."
"Tell me about it." Yang Wendong asked.
Although the market for the Rubik's Cube is not as good as that for the Post-it Notes, this is the first ticket for me to enter the toy industry and the plastic processing industry. If I do this well, I can enter the larger toy market.
Compared to even a small portion of the toy market, the market for Post-it notes is not even worth looking at;
Of course, it is hard to say about the profit. The profit margin of Post-it Notes is extremely high. Unless the toy industry has also established a strong position in the terminal cultural field, or controls the toy channels like Li Jiacheng did in his previous life, it will still not be able to compete with Post-it Notes.
Anyway, the two businesses do not conflict with each other. In particular, toys will be one of the main industries in Hong Kong in the next 20 years and can provide a large number of jobs. Yang Wendong naturally attaches great importance to it.
Wei Zetao said with a smile: "In fact, this is what Mr. Yang did before. I know that when Mr. Yang promoted sticky notes, he sent them to some large companies;
Now that the Rubik's Cube is very famous at the University of Hong Kong, we might as well send it directly to universities in Europe and the United States, also for free."
"Casting a wide net to catch fish?" Yang Wendong smiled and asked, "But don't forget that sticky notes are very practical and easy to use. Anyone who gets them will be able to use them. Office staff will probably like them very soon.
But the Rubik's Cube itself has no practical value, otherwise I would not have offered a reward at the University of Hong Kong. If you don't give students benefits to motivate them, they might just throw the thing away after playing with it for a while."
Wei Zetao asked: "Can we also offer rewards at European and American universities?"
Yang Wendong spread his hands and said, "The reward is not a problem, even 10,000 US dollars is fine, but how can you make them believe that this is true? Without a promise of trust, it is equivalent to nothing."
Wei Zetao also pondered for a moment and said, "This is indeed a troublesome matter. The letter of commitment with our official seal is effective in Hong Kong, but it is useless in Europe and the United States."
Yang Wendong nodded: "So if you want to promote the Rubik's Cube, you can only take over the Hong Kong market first. Although this market is not big, if it can sell well, it may at least be popular in Europe, America, Asia and other places.
In this case, if we take the initiative to find dealers, they will be willing to talk; if we are better, maybe a few dealers will find us. "
Even for products that become popular in later generations, it is rare that users rush to buy them after they are launched. Scenes like the long queues when the Apple mobile phone was first released are also rare in the history of human commerce.
And this can be achieved because of the existence of the Internet, which has made the cost of information transmission thousands of times higher than before.
Post-it notes are considered good. They are not civilian products. Although the customer base is not small, there is a fixed direction. It is also easy to promote them with 3M's powerful channel resources. Otherwise, it would not be facing such a big production capacity shortage problem so soon today.
As for the Magic Cube, the future prospects are very good, but it is not possible for it to be sold out and known to the world in just a few months. In an era without TikTok, the opportunity is too great.
Wei Zetao thought for a moment and said, "In that case, I will follow the original plan and publish the story in Hong Kong newspapers after the Rubik's Cube becomes famous at the University of Hong Kong."
"Okay, let's do this for now and conquer the Hong Kong market first." Yang Wendong nodded in agreement.
In the past, it took several years for the Rubik's Cube to be invented and enter the global market. Now his resources, funds, and connections are much stronger than those of the original inventor in history, but he can only take it step by step.
First Hong Kong, then overseas; or if by chance you come across a channel like 3M, the company that created Post-it Notes, then it might just take off.
However, unlike the convenience of sticky notes, even if a powerful channel operator takes a fancy to the Magic Cube, if it cannot even take over the Hong Kong market, how can it have the confidence to discuss cooperation with others? Even if it cooperates, it will only get a small profit.
the next day:
"Ding ding ding" the phone rang.
Yang Wendong picked up the phone and said, "Hello, who is this?"
A gentle voice came from the other end of the line: "Excuse me, is this Mr. Yang? I'm Bai Yujie from the University of Hong Kong. We've met before."
"Bai Yujie?" Yang Wendong immediately thought of one of the twins. She was pretty enough in herself, and they were a pair.
It’s hard to forget this!
(End of this chapter)