Chapter 109 More powerful than powerful
Schneider suddenly realized that his original thinking had actually fallen into a misunderstanding. He felt that products must have strong functionality and practicality to be easier to sell, but the current glass products are not the glass of hundreds of years from now. Products were completely reduced to daily necessities, and now the market and consumer groups faced by Chuanchuan Group are completely different. Today’s glass products are more akin to luxury goods, and to some extent they are a status symbol. Before this, this kind of products ignored an extremely important customer group, that is, readers.
In this era, reading and writing may not necessarily lead to wealth and power, but rich and powerful people can basically read and write. The high-end cultural market created by this has actually been ignored by Western glassware manufacturers. The glass products they bring are often mainly tableware, vases, and ornaments. Placing these things at home can certainly bring a certain sense of psychological superiority to the owner, and it also demonstrates the owner's economic strength. But having said that, these things This method of "showing off wealth" still seems a little low-level. In the words of later generations, it means that the quality is not high enough - no matter how many glass dishes are placed at home, it is just the appearance of a nouveau riche, and it does not show at all. What a noble and elegant temperament!
Now the glass stationery series launched by Chuanchuan Group has broken the original shackles, giving the wealthy and powerful officials, businessmen and gentry a brand new stage to show off. Just imagine in the study room when you are making friends with literature, or meeting with your subordinates or colleagues. A complete set of simple and bright glass pen holders, brushes, inkstones, and paperweights are placed on the table. How shocking the visual effect will be. This is simply a decoration. Sex and culture are perfectly integrated!
The introduction of glass stationery will undoubtedly greatly enhance the level of self-expression for the social elite. Schneider remembers that before he traveled through time, a businessman named Cook once said a famous line at a product launch conference, "More stylish than cool." "This is the perfect word to describe the market prospects of these glass products of Chuan Chuan Group - the glass products of this era are originally used by the middle and upper classes of society to show off, so why not try to change the coolness of these customers? Need to be higher?
Linking products to culture is definitely a very smart approach. Schneider felt that he really should visit his colleagues in the development department to thank them for developing such a promising product and at the same time open up his own sales ideas that had become blocked.
After the knot in his heart was opened, Schneider immediately returned to his normal ten-level power. He was so eloquent that his saliva flew everywhere. He first made the two shopkeepers dizzy with a bunch of professional and technical terms that he didn't quite understand. He talked about the artistic and cultural value of glass stationery, and boldly predicted that the emergence of glass stationery would greatly promote the progress of the cultural industry in the Ming Dynasty. He wished that the products on the table could be immediately elevated to the level of imperial tribute.
Tao Donglai smiled and listened to Schneider's nonsense, but he was thinking that this project was not only worth digging into to further enrich the product line, but also to establish the brand as soon as possible. The technical content of this kind of thing is too low. As long as the Spanish and Portuguese see the product on the market, they can feed the information back to Europe, and the possibility of imitations is almost 100%.
However, due to the transportation and communication conditions of this era, this information came and went, and it would take more than half a year at the fastest for European glass craftsmen to make imitations and ship them to the East. The Cross-Trade Group can seize this time difference and take the lead in occupying the market with its brand. Even if the West can create identical imitations, they will be just knockoffs. Moreover, Chuanchuan Group is much closer to the terminal market than its competitors. It can respond to market changes in a timely manner and adjust product varieties and specifications. This kind of response speed is absolutely impossible to achieve by competitors.
In order to prevent imitation products from impacting the market, Tao Donglai thought that the best way was to establish Chuanchuan Group's own product brand. As for glass products, the best product mark is to be engraved directly on the surface of the appliance. However, because the pace of chemical production is still lagging behind, there is no way to produce the chemical agents needed to etch glass. Tao Donglai decided to go to the glass kiln later to see if he could imprint the brand directly on the glass products by modifying the mold. The effect produced by this method will definitely be rough, and small items such as pen holders may have workmanship problems, but there are currently no similar products on the market, so there is no need to worry about being copied.
This situation will be improved in just a few months. Once the chemical production of Chuan Chuan Group catches up, it will only be a matter of time before higher-quality etched glass products appear on the market, and it will even be acceptable by then. Some expensive high-end customizations, such as the engraving of poetry on glass as envisioned by Schneider. Tao Donglai decided to explain this situation to the executive committee members at tonight's meeting, and at the same time requested that chemical construction projects be prioritized and strive to have these planned high-end products on the market as soon as possible.
After finally waiting for Schneider to finish the product introduction, the two shopkeepers started to ask about the prices of these glass products with longing faces. Schneider naturally had a plan for this, and he immediately introduced: "As for the price of the product, this is what we plan to do. First of all, we are going to set up a brand specifically for this... What is a brand, you ask? It's just like the name of your firm. It will make it easy for people to remember it and make sure to buy it later. In addition, we are planning to launch high, medium and low grade products to meet the needs of all walks of life..."
Schneider took out a few random things from his mind, and once again frightened the two shopkeepers. The stationery series, which originally had only a few products, was packaged by him in a few words, and the product categories immediately became richer. There are high-end products that are specially designed for high-level officials, wealthy businessmen, and celebrities, and there are also practical series that are common for officials and scholars, and there are also low-priced and high-quality civilian series that are targeted at lower-level scholars. Scholars whose family conditions are not so well-off can also have opportunities to improve their skills.
For some customers with special needs, Schneider is also preparing to launch more high-end limited editions suitable for collection. For example, next year is the Year of Wuchen, so we can launch a "Year of the Dragon Commemorative Exclusive Set" with a limited edition of 999 sets. Each set has an independent number to show its preciousness. For this kind of collection market, some "Tang Poetry Sets", "Song Poetry Sets", etc. can be launched from time to time, and even exclusive sets for a certain great poet, which will definitely satisfy the needs of literati with a collection habit.
The cultural added value of this type of product is extremely high, and the corresponding profit margin is much higher than that of ordinary series of products. The two shopkeepers are also experienced in the business. Schneider only needs to outline and outline the territory, and they can quickly figure out the key. They are completely in awe of Mr. Shi's whimsical business ideas. As for the price of goods, that is secondary, because Schneider has already said that there will be products for different consumer groups, and the price range will naturally range from low to high. The two shopkeepers were very anxious after hearing this, and wanted to buy a batch of glass stationery for sale right away.
But what Schneider said next made them not very satisfied: "We have only produced twenty sets of samples of the four-piece set of paperweight, pen holder, inkstone and brush that you just saw..." "Despise" I'm willing to buy them all! The price is easy to say!" Shopkeeper Zhang responded quickly, fearing that he would lose the opportunity.
Shopkeeper Li said angrily: "I made a good promise when I came here. Half of the good products are in the family. Why do you want to be alone when things get tough?"
"Two, two, don't get excited!" Schneider quickly stopped the two excited people: "I think it's better to follow the old rules, half half for each family, and the price, because it's just a sample, just ten taels of silver per set. What do you two think? ”
"That's great!" Shopkeeper Li glared at Shopkeeper Zhang, then clasped his fist towards Schneider and said, "I've put all my money on the boat, can we settle the account later?"
"Of course there is no problem." Schneider said with a smile: "But starting from this transaction, the cash settlement method between us needs to make a small adjustment."
After Schneider said these words, he took out a set of circulation coupons and put them on the table: "These are substitute banknotes issued by us. When you two trade with us in the future, please change the cash you bring to this The unused portion can be exchanged for silver at the settlement office at the port and taken away.”
After listening to the introduction, the two of them picked up the circulation coupons on the table and looked at them carefully. Shopkeeper Zhang first asked: "Is this dollar equivalent to one tael of silver?"
Schneider nodded and responded: "That's right, and the restaurants, restaurants, and hotels that will be built in Victory Port in the future will all use such circulation coupons for settlement. Please remember that in the buildings built by us Haihan people, In the city, this is the money that can be spent.”
Shopkeeper Li said: "What if the transaction is done outside Victory Port?"
"Then you can choose the settlement method according to your wishes, either cash or circulating coupons." Schneider didn't care about this. He believed that these Ming Dynasty merchants would be decisive once they realized the convenience of circulating coupons in transactions. Choose this more convenient transaction settlement method. As for promoting this advanced settlement method to the outside world, Schneider does not intend to rush it.
(End of chapter)