Chapter 126 Rubik's Cube Promotion
Chapter 126 Rubik's Cube Promotion
After returning to the company, before the car had even stopped, Zhou Xianlong, who was in charge of the entire factory's production, drove out. When he saw the boss's car coming back, he approached and said, "Mr. Yang, Lao Wei, you're back."
Wei Zetao and Yang Wendong also got out of the car and asked the driver to park the car. After seeing Zhou Xianlong, Wei Zetao asked with a smile: "Old Zhou, where are you going?"
Zhou Xianlong replied, "Didn't you ask me a few days ago to find a warehouse like ours nearby and convert it into a factory to produce mouse traps? I just received a call from the agent and they found one that they think is suitable, so I'm going to go take a look first."
"So fast?" Yang Wendong asked in surprise. It's only been a few days.
Zhou Xianlong said with a smile: "Xiao Zhao urged me to do it urgently, so I contacted more than a dozen agents at once. These agents should have their own resources, and one of them may have someone who meets the requirements."
"Well, okay, you go and have a look first." Yang Wendong nodded, and then said, "Take Liming with you to have a look, after all, he is in charge of the mouse trap."
Now, Yang Wendong has thought for a long time about how to deal with his former friends and veterans of the pioneering period of his career.
First of all, their abilities are definitely not enough. After all, they were illiterate before, so even if they learn quickly, it will still take several years. If they learn well in the future, then we can talk about it later, but now it is naturally impossible for them to stay in senior positions in the company.
Therefore, mousetrap is a product that relies purely on manual production, and Yang Wendong hopes that this industry can boost employment for people living in the shanty towns.
Therefore, Zhao Liming was put in charge of the basic production, mainly to take care of the people who used to live in the squatters. However, there were still two people with some education to assist, plus Zhou Xianlong was responsible for all the production operations of the entire company and would provide continuous help to prevent any problems.
As for the customer business, procurement, and finance of the mouse trap, they were all handled by people who were hired later. This was due to their limited abilities. Yang Wendong, the boss, would not mess up his own business and support an incompetent person to take over.
The same is true for Su Yiyi. She is now more like an assistant in the company's financial department, following several other people to learn and provide assistance. Basically, she doesn't care about anything. After all, finance is more important. However, she can also be Yang Wendong's spy.
The only exception is Lin Haoyu. The fixed-property rat extermination business is completely handed over to him. Anyway, this business is purely to drive employment for young people in squatter houses. We don't expect it to make much money or to grow big, because the Hong Kong market is the ceiling and there is no way to expand.
Zhou Xianlong replied, "Okay, I was also planning to go to Factory No. 1, and I'll take Xiao Zhao with me."
"Okay, after you guys have decided, I'll go take a look." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
He is not as busy as before recently. After all, he has rented a new factory and he has to go and take a look and make the final confirmation.
The new factory will be officially started after the worship ceremony. The sticky note production equipment here has already filled the space, and the purchasing department has continued to place orders with Dongsheng Manufacturing. In the short term, everything will be stable. Only after the new factory is built will things surrounding the sticky notes occupy the company's energy again.
Zhou Xianlong said: "Okay."
After Zhou Xianlong left, Wei Zetao said, "Mr. Yang, the factory where Xiao Zhao works is the first factory of our Changxing Industry, so it is numbered 1, and ours is number 2. If Lao Zhou rents a new factory during this period, it will be number 3, and the new factory will be number 4.
It's number 4, a little bit"
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "It's indeed not very good, then let's change it to 6. I also like the number 6."
Hong Kong people, or Chinese people in general, don't like the number 4. Decades later, when mainlanders choose license plates, they try not to use the number 4, and prefer 6 and 8.
"Okay." Wei Zetao smiled. This was no small matter, so the boss had to make the decision.
The two walked into the workshop together. Their office was right at the factory entrance. It could be said to be an integrated office. Only after the new factory was built, they would have an independent office building.
Yang Wendong added: "We are in the early stages of expansion and have limited funds, which has led to factories scattered all over the place. When we have enough funds in the future, we will try to plan the locations of the factories. Then these factories will no longer be needed. Maybe they can be used as warehouses."
When faced with a sharp increase in market demand, it is impossible for any factory to quickly meet production capacity; there must be an expansion process; and if there is insufficient funding, various plans cannot be unified.
For example, if you don’t have enough money to build a factory first, you can only rent a house, or even a factory building that is large enough. In that case, you can only rent a smaller one and wait for a while until your financial situation improves before taking the next step.
This was obviously the case with Changxing Industrial at the beginning. Fortunately, due to 3M's strong channels and transaction certificates, they were able to obtain bank loans much faster in the early days. Otherwise, the development process would have been even slower.
This situation is actually the norm. Many companies have taken several years to gradually meet market demand. This is still considered fast, and it is most likely because the product structure is simple.
Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, there is still a lot of wasteland next to our No. 6 factory, which is the new factory. I have discussed with officials from the Hong Kong government's Lands Department. If there is demand in the future, we will buy land next to it."
"Well, that's good. Money can indeed solve most problems." Yang Wendong said with a smile.
We had no money some time ago, but now that the loan has been approved, many problems have been solved; the next step is to quickly build a new factory, purchase equipment, increase production capacity, and earn back the money from the loan, or to prove to the bank that Changxing Industrial has the ability to earn it back, then the bank will also provide funds later.
Once we have the money, all production capacity planning can be carried out in an orderly manner.
The two returned to their respective offices. Not long after, Wei Zetao came over again and handed Yang Wendong a document, saying, "Mr. Yang, this is the price quote for the homepage advertising space provided by Ming Pao."
"From Ming Pao? Yes, you've been to Ming Pao." Yang Wendong took the document and asked, "Did you meet Mr. Jin Yong?"
Wei Zetao shook his head and said, "No, I met another founder of Ming Pao, Shen Baoxin, and I discussed some cooperation details with him.
Later, after chatting with Shen Baoxin, I learned that Jin Yong is no longer in charge of Ming Pao. He is busy writing novels, writing 2000 words a day, and has lost a lot of hair.
"2000 words?" Yang Wendong nodded and said, "It's really hard work. 2000 words a day?"
The current literature is completely different from the online literature of decades later. From the perspective of quality, content depth, writing style, story description, etc., Jin Yong probably took much more effort to write these 2000 words than the or words in the online literature. Wei Zetao said with a smile: "It's about the same. Ming Pao is now relying on the newly published "The Return of the Condor Heroes" to sell newspapers. They are just starting out, and there are not even a few reporters now. There is not much content in the newspaper. Who doesn't buy Ming Pao to read novels?
If there is no novel content in a certain issue, no one will buy it. Even if we buy advertising from it, it requires that there must be 2000 words of novel content in the current issue. I guess other merchants are the same."
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Indeed, it is not easy to do well in the newspaper industry. Novels are just embellishments. In the end, we still have to rely on news content to make it big in the long run."
Wei Zetao also said: "Yes, but many people like to read Jin Yong's novels. As long as we slowly train the news team and make the news content good during the one or two years of serialization, then maybe this newspaper will be successful."
"Well, if capital is insufficient, this method is indeed the best method." Yang Wendong also agreed with this view.
This is how Ming Pao succeeded in history. It first established its brand by relying on the content of the novels and Jin Yong's own fame. Then it published news like a normal newspaper. Coupled with Jin Yong's huge influence, it was ultimately successful.
This tactic cannot be replicated by others. Several other newspapers in Hong Kong also rely on strong capital to first invest in building a team, creating content, and then channels. They pave the way with money and spend a long time, but in the end only a few succeed.
There are very few who actually profit from the capital level. However, many big capitals run newspapers not for profit. Most of them either want to have newspapers to promote their own products, or for "mouthpiece power."
Wei Zetao said with a smile: "No one else can copy this. This Hong Kong novel is still the best."
"Yes." Yang Wendong naturally agreed.
Wei Zetao said again: "Mr. Yang, can you please take a look at the content and price? If yes, we will advertise it like this."
"I'm not sure about the price. How does it compare with other competitors?" Yang Wendong asked, looking at the data on the paper.
Wei Zetao replied: "If we compare sales, Ming Pao is about the same as other newspapers. When they had novels, they could sell tens of thousands of copies a day. The buyers were people with relatively high incomes, which matches our Magic Cube customers."
"Okay, that's no problem." Yang Wendong looked at the content again and said with a smile, "This promotional content also includes toys that thousands of people at the University of Hong Kong have not cracked. It won't offend the university, right?"
"Not really." Wei Zetao shook his head and said, "As long as it's not fabricated, it's fine. I've also talked to Professor Yang about this, and he said it's nothing, but he asked me to add the name of the Chinese University, which is also true. There are actually many people playing with the Rubik's Cube at the Chinese University during this period."
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "It's okay to pull your colleagues into the water."
Wei Zetao added: “Unless someone cracks this problem in a short period of time, it will be a bit embarrassing for these two universities; if no one cracks it for a long time, and even other overseas universities cannot crack it, then no one will take it seriously.”
"That should be no problem." Yang Wendong put the document back in his hand and said, "That's it. Let's publicize it through Ming Pao first."
"Okay." Wei Zetao put away the documents and then said, "In fact, Shen Baoxin also told me one thing. He said that if we use Ming Pao to promote, the cost will be the lowest and the effect will be the greatest, because Ming Pao newspapers have the highest turnover rate."
"Turnover rate?" Yang Wendong didn't understand what it meant.
Wei Zetao explained: "One person buys a newspaper and gives it to others after reading it. This is very common in the newspaper industry and even the book and magazine industry. Ming Pao mainly relies on novels, and there are many people who like novels, but generally one out of ten people buys it.
So, although the sales volume is 10,000 copies per day, for advertisers, the number of customers they can see may be much greater than that of other newspapers with the same sales volume of 10,000 copies per day.
"That does make sense." Yang Wendong agreed after listening.
He still remembers that when he was in school, many classmates in the class liked to read the two novels "Kunlun" and "Soushen Ji". The price at that time was 5 yuan per book, and it was too luxurious for every student to buy one.
So everyone in the class contributed a few cents to buy a copy, and then read it one by one; but because no one could wait, they tore up the book and read it page by page.
Wei Zetao added: "Shen Baoxin deliberately revealed this, but the charges were normal. In fact, he just wanted to gain the favor of advertisers."
"It's a very smart strategy." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "If Ming Pao wants to grow bigger, it needs advertising fees, and then reversely cultivate the news team. So Ming Pao does not only rely on Jin Yong's novel writing ability."
Although Jin Yong's novels are great, it is definitely not possible that Ming Pao could have developed into one of the largest newspapers in Hong Kong just by relying on novels.
Wei Zetao nodded and said, "If they become bigger in the future, it will be good for us. I will contact them first and we can put it in the newspaper in a few days."
"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I have also told Zhao Chengguang that he will send the Rubik's Cube to many small stores throughout Hong Kong, including some large shopping malls."
The previous mouse traps were not presentable, so they could only be sold through low-end sales channels. Ordinary shopping malls would not sell them, and no one would go to shopping malls to buy them. Even in the past, large supermarkets would not sell such things.
The characteristic of post-it notes is that they are for office use, not civilian products. Therefore, most of them in Hong Kong are directly connected to Changxing Industrial, and only a few are given to Zhao Chengguang.
Today, the potential customer base of the Rubik's Cube is even more dispersed, and anyone can buy it. This requires reliance on various sales channels throughout Hong Kong, which naturally requires cooperation with Zhao Chengguang again.
Wei Zetao said with a smile: "It depends on how many people are interested in 10,000 Hong Kong dollars."
Three days later, a large square composed of countless small squares appeared on the front page of Ming Pao.
A newsstand in Admiralty, Hong Kong Island.
A man walked up and asked, "Boss, has Ming Pao updated the novel today?"
"Updated." The newspaper owner said with a smile, "I read today's content. Li Mochou is chasing Xiao Longnu and Yang Guo."
"You must read it then." The young man paid the money and took the newspaper. He saw the side and frowned and said, "What is this?"
Seeking monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)