Chapter 127 Direct Sales Model and International Toy Fairs
Chapter 127 Direct Sales Model and International Toy Fairs
The newspaper boss laughed and said, "This thing is called a Rubik's Cube. It was developed by a company in Hong Kong. It has 6 faces and 6 colors. Once it is messed up, it is very difficult to restore it.
This company is offering a reward of HK$10,000. Whoever can find a way to restore the system will receive HK$10,000 in cash. Are you interested, handsome guy?"
"Is it true? Ten thousand yuan?" The young man was still full of disbelief. This number made him, a young man who had just entered society, feel scared.
The newspaper owner said, "I didn't believe it at first. There are a lot of lies in Hong Kong newspapers, but this one says that the University of Hong Kong once participated in the search for a way to restore the Rubik's Cube, but ultimately failed."
The young man asked in doubt: "The University of Hong Kong was involved? But does this mean the news is true?"
The newspaper owner said, "But the University of Hong Kong obviously believes that the 10,000 Hong Kong dollars reward is real. With so many students and even professors, they wouldn't do this without knowing whether it's real or not, right?"
The young man also thought it made sense, and asked again: "Could it be that this is also false?"
The newspaper owner shook his head and said with a smile: "If this is false, then the people behind this will offend the University of Hong Kong. How bored must they be? To do such a thing? They might as well just take out 10,000 yuan. Even Ming Pao, which published such news involving the university, should have done some research."
"That's right." The young man seemed convinced.
Ten thousand Hong Kong dollars is certainly a sky-high price for him, but it is a drop in the bucket for the two universities. There is no need for the people behind it to offend the only university in Hong Kong, or even the Hong Kong government behind it, for a mere ten thousand Hong Kong dollars. After all, the university is also the face of any local government.
The newspaper owner smiled, then took out a cube that looked similar to the one in the newspaper from under him and said, "Sir, would you like to buy one? Maybe you'll be the lucky one who gets the 10,000 yuan?"
"You're selling toys here?" The young man, who was just about to start reading the newspaper, was not surprised when he saw the Rubik's Cube in the hands of the newspaper owner.
The newspaper owner chuckled and said, "Usually our newspaper only sells newspapers and drinks or some snacks.
It’s just that this toy is quite small, and it happened to be advertised in the newspaper, so I got some here too.”
"Oh..." The young man didn't care and asked again: "How much is this Rubik's Cube?"
"3 yuan each." The newspaper owner said with a smile.
"You are robbing me!" The young man was almost shocked when he heard the price. Generally, plastic toys of this size are sold for a few cents.
You know, his day's salary was only 4 yuan. He couldn't understand why he spent a day's salary on a small toy. A newspaper only cost a few cents.
The newspaper boss said with a smile: "I am not trying to steal your money. I am just making 5 cents from you. This is the price when I buy the goods.
But boy, this is just a few dollars to gamble 10,000, which is much less than going to Macau for fun. If you buy one, you will never spend this money again in your life, so what does three or five dollars count for? "
The young man looked at the 1 and the four zeros on the newspaper, then asked, "Can you lend me your Rubik's Cube? I'll play with it for a while and buy it if I think it works."
"That won't do." The newspaper owner quickly refused, "Once you turn this thing around, it's impossible to restore it. Who can I sell it to? If I had the ability to restore it, I would have gone to collect the money long ago, and you wouldn't be able to see me today."
"That's right." The young man thought about it, then looked at the Rubik's Cube in the boss's hand and thought that he should try it, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I'll buy one."
Anyway, what the newspaper boss said is right. This thing only costs three or four dollars to buy once at most. What if you succeed?
"Haha, good." The newspaper boss quickly took out a wrapped Rubik's Cube from behind him and said with a smile, "Here, this is brand new. I wish you success soon and a prize of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars."
Three days later, at the headquarters of Changxing Industrial, Wei Zetao walked into Yang Wendong's office with a smile on his face and said, "Mr. Yang, the sales data of the Rubik's Cube in the past three days has come out. A total of 450 cubes have been sold."
Yang Wendong put down the Ming Pao newspaper in his hand, looked up and asked: "450? Is this our shipment volume, or the terminal sales volume?"
"It's the terminal sales volume. I specifically asked Zhao Chengguang to calculate it." Wei Zetao replied.
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "450 is not a lot, but being able to sell so many in three days shows that the Rubik's Cube still has potential."
The factory price of the Magic Cube is actually only 2.5 yuan, and 450 pieces only bring in a turnover of about 1000 yuan. Not to mention now, even before the advent of Post-it Notes, Yang Wendong had made tens of thousands of yuan by selling mouse traps.
Wei Zetao went on to say: "The high sales volume these days can be considered the effect of Ming Pao advertising. Next, we need to let the market grow slowly on its own. As long as some people have the Rubik's Cube, others can also see it, which will also drive some sales."
"But it shouldn't be a lot, it may be very slow." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "There are only 300 million people in Hong Kong, most of whom are poor. There may be only a few hundred thousand people who really don't care about spending three or five dollars to buy a toy.
It would be great if 10,000 people bought the product. I guess after this period of time, when the craze has passed, the sales volume will not be so good. "
"That's right." Wei Zetao frowned and said, "The core problem is that Hong Kong's economy is too bad. If it were like Europe and the United States, a student's pocket money could easily buy a Rubik's Cube."
"Yeah." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "I didn't expect the Rubik's Cube to have any success in Hong Kong. We are also going for the high-end route, so we're sure we won't be able to sell many in Hong Kong."
Wei Zetao also understood this truth, so he said: "Then there is nothing we can do now."
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Don't worry. Let's wait for Hong Kong to ferment for a while, and then we will send it to nearby places to try. If tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong can't crack the Rubik's Cube, then we will have a promotional selling point in Taiwan and Japan." Wei Zetao thought for a while and said, "This should be possible, but the problem is that Hong Kong is not well-known, and Japan is well-known. If we do it the other way around, the promotional advantage will not be that strong."
"That's right." Yang Wendong said with a smile, "So we have to start small and expand. The next step is to conquer the Taiwan market, and then consider the future."
Wei Zetao was very smart and understood it immediately. He said, "The core of this is Japan. If Japan still can't crack it, then we will have a promotional selling point all over the world."
"You can say that." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Japan is still somewhat famous in Europe and the United States, so my idea is to expand globally step by step."
Wei Zetao said: "Then should we choose the school first?"
"Well, let's start with the university." Yang Wendong paused and said, "In fact, we can consider a direct sales model within the school instead of through internal stores.
Just operating this way would also place high demands on the team and be difficult to manage.”
Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, but it is not impossible. The problem lies in how to select the right direct sales person in charge for each school.
It is not realistic for us to look for them one by one, and the universities are scattered and not clustered together.”
Yang Wendong said: "It's still the contradiction between which came first, the chicken or the egg. Only when you become famous will dealers come to you, but you need enough dealers to become famous.
So we can only push it forward ourselves and slowly conquer the markets one by one."
Wei Zetao thought for a moment and said, "If that's the case, it won't be a short time, it may take several years."
"This is normal." Yang Wendong said indifferently: "If you want to sell a product to the world, a few years is already considered fast.
Our sticky notes can sell so quickly because they are positive products that benefit social needs. Rubik's Cube and other toys do not have this feature. In addition, sticky notes have 3M's channels, while Rubik's Cube has no channels. "
"Yes." Wei Zetao smiled and said, "We are too impatient."
"Don't be too anxious. In fact, the Rubik's Cube is not used to make money for us." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "I made the Rubik's Cube, and I wanted to use this unique product to build our own toy channel.
You have also worked in the Hong Kong plastics market for 20 years. There are so many plastics factories and toy factories in Hong Kong, but none of them have their own channels. They are all working for some trading companies.”
In this era, it is difficult for him, a time traveler, to conquer some high-tech electronic products, at least in the early stage, because Hong Kong does not have such an industrial chain, at least not before the mid-to-late 60s, and even later there were only low-end industrial chains.
Therefore, products with low technical content but protected by patents or copyrights are the most suitable development direction for him, similar to sticky notes;
Another even larger market is toys, which may be hundreds or thousands of times larger. Toys are also one of Hong Kong's main industries in the future, and there is also a related industrial chain, which is very suitable for him to conquer.
However, the sales channels of toys in Hong Kong are controlled by traders, and Yang Wendong does not want to work hard doing the hardest work and earn the least money. Therefore, the Rubik's Cube is his way out. As long as he can gradually build up the reputation of the Rubik's Cube around the world, he can at least directly contact overseas toy dealers.
Of course, in most industries, dealers take the lion's share while manufacturers take the smaller share. Unless the manufacturers are very strong, they can be said to work for dealers. But things have to be done step by step. First, get rid of Hong Kong traders and communicate directly with overseas dealers. After one less intermediate person is involved, consider other things when the capital is strong.
After listening to this, Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, even Cheung Kong Industries, before the plastic flower, had actually already achieved the level of the top three plastic toy factories in Hong Kong.
As for the terminal channels, I only know one Canadian distributor. The rest are exported through traders. However, the toys of Cheung Kong Industries are of better quality, so they are sold at a higher price. However, traders still take the lion’s share.”
"Yeah," Yang Wendong nodded and said with a smile, "So don't rush to think that the Rubik's Cube will be like a sticky note soon. This is basically impossible. I would rather go slowly and use it to lay a good foundation for the future."
In fact, even if he actively promotes it with all his strength, it is still difficult to promote it. The Rubik's Cube was originally invented in the mid-70s, and it was not until the 80s that it began to spread around the world. Its sales process actually grew exponentially. It was not fast in the early stages, but in the later stages, it relied on its own spread among the people, and the speed became faster and faster.
"It is indeed difficult to promote a toy when there are insufficient channels." Wei Zetao thought for a moment and said, "In fact, there may be other ways to accelerate promotion, that is, international toy exhibitions. Famous toy buyers and manufacturers from all over the world will attend such conferences. Maybe we can give it a try."
"International Toy Fair?" Yang Wendong nodded and said, "That's possible. If we can meet dealers directly at the fair and ask them to promote our products locally, it will definitely speed up our plan of gradual regional promotion."
Wei Zetao added: "It's just that the cost of going to such exhibitions is very high. They are usually held in Europe and the United States. The airfare and accommodation costs alone are not low. The exhibition space rental is also very expensive. Many large toy companies are competing for such space.
A location further out is much cheaper, but not many people would go there, especially large toy buyers, who would basically only go to the central location.”
"Of course." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Why do you think lawyers and accounting firms like to rent offices in Central? Isn't it to show their strength?
Similar things actually happen in other industries. At this kind of exhibition, big companies may only look at the central position, while those without strength will not even look at it.”
Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, Mr. Li also wanted to go to Canada to participate in the International Toy Fair, but he calculated the price and it was too expensive;
At that time, the main toys of Cheung Kong were low-tech toys such as water guns. I thought it would be useless to go there, so it was not cost-effective and I did not go. "
Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know if there are any large-scale toy exhibitions in the world recently?"
Seeking monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)