Go back to the past and be a schoolboy

Chapter 113 Take One Step and See Three Steps
"Zhiyuan, you said that now that our fan has been made, how can we promote it later? The smell of wine is not afraid of deep alleys, because old alcoholics can smell it. We, who don't know our name and name, can smell it when we bring it out. Selling, I’m afraid it won’t work.” After dinner, Jiang Jiangzuo saw that no one was paying attention, so he pulled Cheng Nuo under the shade of a tree, and handed him a cigarette: “The foreign cigarettes brought from the United States, do you want some?” branch?"

"I don't know, so I won't waste it." Cheng Nuo pushed the cigarette over, and refused with a smile: "I've already prepared for sales, and I'm only afraid of one thing now."

He conveniently took the cigarette back and stuffed it into his own mouth, took out the matches, suddenly realized that the other party does not smoke, and it is really unethical to directly let the other party smoke second-hand smoke, so he put it back into the cigarette case, curiously: "What are you afraid of? Is it because of the after-sales problem, or the problem of other stores?"

Seeing his old friend's behavior, Cheng Nuo patted him on the shoulder in relief: "You can smoke if you want, and it's not indoors, I don't mind. What you said is nothing to me, what I'm afraid of is the output If it can’t keep up with the sales volume, it can’t feed the appetite of Shanghai people.”

Jiang Jiangzuo put the cigarette back into his pocket, and shook his head: "You just talk nonsense, anyway, bragging is not illegal, let me tell you, put some advertisements in "Shenbao" and other newspapers as soon as possible, this small amount of money should be paid, I can't bear the fact that children can't catch wolves."

"Don't worry, I know all of these things." Cheng Nuo smiled, didn't continue to explain, and got up and left with a wave: "It's better to smoke less, it's definitely not good for your health."

When it comes to journalism and marketing, the current era is still in the period of babbling, which is completely beyond comparison with the chaos of demons in later generations. It is hard for modern people who are bombarded by various media to guard against.

Considering that this is the first electric fan of Chinese people, it carries a lot of hope, and it will be included in history textbooks in the future. Some methods of blindly grabbing attention are obviously not feasible. Whether people in this era can accept it is one thing. It is another matter for history books to make future generations laugh.

One morning, Cheng Nuo called all the rickshaws who had made an appointment in advance, took Yang Jichuan, Jiang Jiangzuo and the others, and went out with two samples in their arms.

The destination was not too far away from them. It was at No. 255 Jiangxi Middle Road in Shanghai, a small five-story brick-and-timber building somewhere.

Jiang Jiangzuo and Yang Jichuan, each holding a fan, got off the rickshaw and looked at the signboard of the building with question marks written all over their faces.

"Zhiyuan, we didn't come to the wrong place. This place doesn't look like we can go in and do electric fans. There are several foreigners coming in and out during the parking. It seems that this foreign company should mainly serve foreigners. Right." Jiang Jiangzuo was puzzled.

As a person who has worked hard in Shanghai for many years, Yang Jichuan needs to understand a little more. He seems to be puzzled, but also seems to solve his doubts: "Lihe foreign firm? This is the most famous German-owned foreign firm in the Far East. In order to be able to climb this Even though it has been bought by Chinese people, it is still one of the largest commercial houses in Shanghai, and the products they buy and sell are all high-end goods. We are definitely not here for fun."

Cheng Nuo paid the fare for the ride, put away his purse, and walked over: "Old Yang is right, this firm is not only large in scale, but also has old qualifications, and the things he sells will definitely be sold in Shanghai the next day." There is a fire on the beach, but since we are here, their foreign firms are just serving the Chinese, importing domestic products, selling Chinese people, and completing the closed loop."

Speaking of which, Lihe Yangxing entered China in the year of the Opium War, but it chose Guangzhou at that time, and later set foot in Hong Kong. After the business grew, it realized the potential of Shanghai, so it established the head office there. Don't look at these five The multi-storey building is not obvious on paper, but it is actually the largest building among all foreign firms at the time.

On the surface, it is just a large-scale foreign firm. In fact, its shareholders are all large German companies, such as Krupp Steel Works, Zeiss Optical Instrument Factory, Emerk Chemical Company, etc. In addition to these, there are also American companies. Guthrie Automobile Tires, the Swedish Bofors Cannon Factory, the British Stony Oil Factory, etc., are quite strong.

This guy not only runs the wharf, but also does shipping work, ranging from ships and locomotives to small ones such as bristles and straw hats, and sells everything for money. He is a typical department store.Of course, if you have enough chips in your hands, you can also do other business with him. For example, when Yan Xishan was developing Shanxi industry, he bought the precision machinery and technology for manufacturing heavy weapons such as cannons and machine guns. A large number of German weapons were purchased here, and a tax police force of 3 people was formed, thousands of people more than that of the Kuomintang Central Army at that time, and the strength far exceeded that of the German Armored Armor Army. It has become a legend. .

Traditional Chinese chess pays attention to taking one step and watching three steps. The electric fan that Cheng Nuo worked so hard to make, of course, is not simply to take some money out of the hands of the common people, but to use this matter as a lever to leverage other major events , in addition to the development of AC motors mentioned above to facilitate the conversion of civilian use to military use, there are other considerations.

Now when I come to Lihe foreign company, I want to sell goods while building a good relationship with the Germans behind him, so as to explore the way for future "friendly" cooperation in advance.

"Professor Cheng has admired him for a long time. In the past six months, I have seen a lot of news about you. At that time, I was thinking about which compatriots have accumulated a lot of money. I didn't expect to see a real person who is so young. It is really a formidable young generation." Tian Huaxuan, the manager of Lihe Yangxing Waiting at the door for a long time, when he saw the Lord coming in, he hurried forward to greet him.

"Where is that? My little knowledge is not enough compared to Manager Tian, ​​who has a big family and a big business. Don't flatter me." The other party smiled and complimented each other. A piece of flesh fell off.

Everyone loves to hear good words, especially the flattery of cultural people to businessmen, which greatly improved Tian Huaxuan's image of the young man in front of him, and he couldn't help but sound more sincere: "This is not right, what you do is wrong One point, it’s all my own, I’m working for others, to put it bluntly, I’m just a gatekeeper for others, people don’t pay attention to me, they pay attention to the foreign firm behind me.”

Cheng Nuo took the fan over and greeted him with a smile: "The position of a manager is not something that anyone can take if they want to, it is also a job for talented people. No, our Huashang Electric Appliance Manufacturing Factory has produced a domestic electric appliance." Fan, bring it here specially, and let you, a well-informed big shot, show you how bad we are compared with foreign goods."

Such a big electric fan, as soon as Cheng Nuo and the others came in, Tian Huaxuan noticed this thing. Just now, he was still skeptical. , the smile on his face was also stunned. He glanced at Cheng Nuo, then quickly looked at the electric fan on the table, with disbelief on his face: "This thing is really an electric fan. You guys made it out of it?"

As the manager of a large foreign firm, Tian Huaxuan's subordinates deal in all kinds of hardware products, daily necessities, and electric fans. Although they may look rare in the market, they are actually sold in his own shopping mall. I dare to confirm that it is only in the subconscious mind. It is hard to believe that such a high-tech gadget was made by the Chinese themselves. Just looking at the shape, it is even more beautiful than the iron lump in the United States.

Cheng Nuo smiled and patted the fan lightly: "Seeing is believing is believing, Manager Tian, ​​there should be a power supply in our mall."

Seeing this, Tian Huaxuan hurriedly greeted the clerk and asked him to connect the power supply. At the same time, he said with a smile on his face, "Yes, there are, and our foreign firms can be counted in Shanghai Beach anyway. We have as many as we want."

In order to further show the excellence of his own products, when the clerk turned on the power and was about to turn on the switch, Cheng Nuo suddenly said, "Manager Tian, ​​I know there must be American products in our foreign company, or we can also take out one of them. How about we make a comparison?"

The reason why Tian Huaxuan came out to welcome him was that he wanted to get acquainted with this new star in the academic world at first, but after a good relationship, he might use each other someday, but he didn't expect that the more he talked about it later, the better his acquaintance would become.

Although these two fans who appeared suddenly looked very good-looking, in actual use, it was not optimistic whether they could be compared with the sincerity. If it wasn't for Cheng Nuo on the opposite side, they would have been kindly invited out.

Tian Huaxuan called the waiter, and said with a smile: "Professor Cheng, the electric fan, the common people don't think there are too many tricks, they have developed so many years ahead of us, it is really difficult to compare with us."

Cheng Nuo smiled confidently: "Don't worry, our Huasheng Electric Appliance Factory doesn't have these three tricks, so how dare we show it off in front of you, an expert. If Manager Tian thinks highly of us, then move here."

Yang Jichuan gritted his teeth, and echoed, "If Manager Tian is afraid that we might break things, I'd like to buy them directly in my personal capacity. Let's do a comparison on the spot. If it's a mule or a horse, you can tell at a glance."

This is too harsh to say, and the other party inevitably panicked when they heard it. Cheng Nuo winked at Yang Jichuan, told him to back down, and then stepped forward and said, "Manager Tian, ​​to tell you the truth, the three of us are here today." , is to talk about the business of this domestic electric fan, if we don’t compare with foreign products, how can we show the quality of our products.”

Here, Cheng Nuo specifically instructed that the fans manufactured by Watson Electric Manufacturing Factory are all made of high-quality materials, and all the materials are willing to pay for the cost. There are many old-fashioned fans in the previous life that can inherit the spirit of two generations. The most outstanding thing is A heavy word, we will never deliberately reduce the service life in order to make consumers buy it again. After all, in this era, electric fans are the only household appliances in many families besides electric lights.

Tian Huaxuan originally wanted to continue persuading them, but seeing the two people's stubborn temper, it was obvious that they couldn't be persuaded, so he waved to the buddy helplessly and asked him to bring a brand new fan.

The few people behind did not talk anymore, and the scene fell into silence for a while.

Not long after, the guy came over with a brand-new American product, skillfully plugged in the power, turned on the switch, and the two fans started spinning quickly.

I don’t know if I don’t compare it, but I’m shocked when I compare it. Against the background of domestic products, the Qiqi electric fan is just like Dongshi’s Dongshi imitation. The speed is much slower, the wind is weaker, and the structure is simpler.

In the end, even the manager had to admit that the products of Watson Electric Factory were better than the foreign ones.

Looking at this exquisite fan, Tian Huaxuan couldn't put it down: "Professor Cheng, Director Yang, how do you sell this fan? Is the price the same as that of foreign products? I think it has the strength to wrestle with the wrist, and it doesn't even matter if the price is higher."

"No matter how high the price is, it can be as high as 300 oceans, and no one can afford it. Even if they can afford it, they probably won't be willing to use it when they take it home." Cheng Nuo smiled and shook his head. Say it out: "We don't sell too much, and we don't sell too little. We just set it at 66 yuan, which is a good six or six."

Regardless of the fact that the price is only one-third of similar competing products in the United States, Yang Jichuan and his workers still make some money, and the combined cost is less than 30 yuan. After the output increases later, the production cost can be further reduced, and more profits will be made at that time.

Of course, this is only to guide the price, and Cheng Nuo doesn't want to care about the profit distribution and rebates of Lihe Matheson.

If you eat meat yourself, you have to leave soup for others, right?

However, when it came to marketing issues later, Cheng Nuo became more cautious, and directly came up with an idea, and asked Lihe Yangxing to do the same.

The strategy is very simple, that is, open the glass window on the first floor, put a fan from Watson Electric Manufacturing Factory, and put a set of numbers next to it, but it is a pity that they are all 0 at present. Turn on the fan and blow it straight at the crowd.

Customers, you look at me and I look at you, all of which are unclear.

The troublemaker poked his neck and asked curiously: "Little master, is this an electric fan? The style is so novel, we have never seen it before, and in which country is this produced? ?”

The buddy smiled, and didn't rush to answer. Instead, he finished the work at hand first, and flipped a 1 on the set of number cards.

Looking around, I saw more and more people coming around, even outside the window, there were quite a few people standing on tiptoes trying to find something from here.

"Sir, this electric fan is not made in other countries, but a serious domestic product. The quality is nothing to say. It's a strange and surprising brand. It's impossible to find anything after being beaten, but this thing can't just listen to us. Say, I have to make you feel right, from today, this electric fan has been running here until it stops, let's see how long it can last." In the end, even the guy himself didn't know what to do. I can't believe how long this gadget can last, and my tone is getting more and more emboldened.

Hearing this, the crowd completely exploded. They knew they were confident, but they didn't expect to be so careful. They were really not afraid of something going wrong in the next second, and they stopped by themselves. At that time, they really became the laughing stock of people after dinner.

"This is definitely impossible. I bought two at home. Two, oh, two American products. After running for a while, I couldn't stand the heat, so I stopped. No matter how I do it later, it will be enough for others to stop. I don't care, it's very hypocritical." A beautifully dressed woman raised her collar shoulders, pinched her orchid finger and pointed at the fan: "It's not that I don't support domestic products, it's really not optimistic. .”

A middle-aged man dressed as a scholar stepped forward, held his glasses to look carefully, and said seriously: "Such a petite figure, but the wind is stronger than that big guy, and it's not noisy. In my opinion, it's just like people. The same, they all took forbidden drugs, and they couldn’t live long at all.”

At this time, there was a sudden "snap", a white light flashed from a certain corner, and then a bunch of blue smoke came out. Someone took a camera and took a picture of the electric fan, and then the person who took the picture stepped forward and said: "Master!" Hello, I am a reporter from "News". I would like to ask if this is really our domestic product, or if we buy foreign products and put our own brand on it. If it is really a domestic product, where is our advanced technology and should we sell it? How much is it, and why is it selling at this price."

There were more and more people, and the scene fell into chaos for a while. In the end, another person in charge stood up. After several explanations, the crowd slowly dispersed, but most of them did not believe it.

I have never heard of this name before, and suddenly I want to come up with a mature product, claiming to be ahead of others, and boasting that I can directly wrestle with the industry boss, which is really difficult to generate trust.

This thing is like this, it is much better to be controversial than no one cares about it, and the quality will speak later.

However, at present, the Watson Electric Manufacturing Factory does not have enough goods, and there is no way to directly distribute the goods to the market. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we can let more citizens know its reputation in advance, and wait until the day when the purchase is released. If the electric appliance in the window The fans are still running, so naturally there is no need to worry too much about sales.

Cheng Nuo didn't know what happened downstairs at all. Right now, he was discussing other matters with the German in the secret room on the fifth floor.

"Mr. Cheng, if it weren't for you, no one would have been allowed in this room at all." The curtains were half opened, and only half of the sunlight shone through the gauze. The middle-aged man leaned on the chair, half of his face was bright and half dark , holding a goblet in his hand, constantly shaking the wine in it.

Cheng Nuo was not frightened by the aura at all. If the master didn't ask him to sit down, he would do it himself, and sat down on the sofa opposite, with his arms resting on the backrest: "So, Mr. August, this Is it a great honor for me?"

August held the goblet, shook it, and took a sip: "Perhaps, you can think so. Would you like some, this is the 'Riesling' brought from my hometown Moselle, I believe For the price of a glass of wine, many of you Chinese can’t afford a glass of wine after working for a year.”

Although he doesn't know much about wine, but judging by the pretentiousness, there is a high probability that this statement is true. Cheng Nuo smiled lightly, "Compared with French wineries?"

August's forehead was raised, reflecting a strange luster, and his words were very disdainful: "It's just like their country, which is full of gold and jade, how can their quality be compared to ours, if God is not so biased , the Germanic flag has long been planted on the Eiffel Tower."

Cheng Nuo crossed his legs, stretched his neck, and tilted his head: "It's a pity, you lost the Battle of Verdun, and God obviously favors the Gauls, cherish your bottle of Sling, and drink less. "

August still proudly raised his sparse head, and drank the wine in the goblet: "It's just them? It's hard to say who will die. Even if the empire really fails, they can't beat us." Locally, the Gauls have a century-old feud with the Anglo-Saxons."

Cheng Nuo shook his head. It was obviously pointless to continue arguing on this issue. He put his legs down and walked to the desk, pulled up a stool and sat down directly, and sprinkled the caramel prepared in his pocket: "Come here this time." It’s not a professor of mathematics, but an ordinary businessman, Mr. August, are you in the mood to do another big business.”

For this seemingly abrupt behavior, Auguste didn't take it seriously, picked up a caramel with great interest, sniffed it in front of his nose, and said in a peaceful tone: "No matter who it is, as long as you step into this door Everything can be traded, as long as there is enough weight, it doesn’t matter what is on the other end of the balance, and the same goes for human life, even for traders.”

Cheng Nuo scratched his head casually, frowning with a look of reminiscence, looking extremely cynical: "I seem to have forgotten something, hey, I remembered, didn't your German concession be taken back a few months ago, Tongji It's a pity that the School of Medical Engineering has also been disbanded, did the weight lose its effectiveness at that time?"

The sun shone on Cheng Nuo's body through the screen window, and it looked very harmonious with the hairstyle he had scratched into a bird's nest just now.

In the dark, August's mood was obviously not as calm as the surface. The occlusal muscles on both sides of his mouth couldn't help rolling over. He shook his head, peeled off a piece of caramel and put it in his mouth, unable to guess what he was thinking.

Separated by half a window, there are clear boundaries between sunshine and darkness, scoundrels and gentlemen.

He personally brought a new goblet, wiped it clean with a glass cloth, poured the dry white wine Riesling that had been decanted in the decanter, and pushed it in front of Cheng Nuo.

Cheng Nuo smiled, as if he had "no taste". To this wine, he was like a cow's drink. As his Adam's apple surged, he drank the wine in the glass in two or three sips, wiped it on his mouth with his sleeve, and said boldly: "Okay Wine is worthy of being the commander of wine."

Auguste was calm, unable to see any other emotions, nodded, took out the folder from the cabinet behind him, took out a pen and paper and said calmly: "Mr. Cheng, tell me, what business do we want to talk about? "

"Of course it's a very good business." Cheng Nuo crossed his hands and put them on the table, only the eyes of the other party. Unfortunately, looking at the darkness from the light, the ushering will only be darker, and he can't detect other information at all. He smiled: "This way Well, everyone is not familiar with it, let’s start with what you are good at, I am going to import some industrial equipment from your Germany, and export some finished industrial products by the way.”

The most taboo thing about playing chess is that you start with a good player. There is no reason to go straight up and make a big move. There must be a trial process, and it is quite unfavorable for future development to directly expose your hole cards.

So here is just to buy a few industrial equipment first, to explore the depth of the water.

Although the opposite is just a foreign firm, in fact, it has successively opened branches in Hong Kong, Tianjin, Hamburg, Hankou, Wuchang, Qingdao, Kobe, New York, Jinan and other places. There are agents or sub-agents in major cities in Asia, and this kind of network with a global presence is what Cheng Nuo is most coveted about.

Now the Academy of Sciences is weak, and its reputation doesn't even go out to East Asia, which is really not enough.

Although it is good to earn foreign money in China, it is not as refreshing as earning pounds and dollars. If you want to buy more things in the future, you will need a large amount of foreign exchange. Cheng Nuo, the current bank, also really believes that it is better to make a living than doing it yourself.

In this way, the two reached a temporary cooperation. The first batch of transactions were steel-making equipment and electric fans from the Watson Electric Appliance Factory. Once they went out and in, both parties made money. On the surface, the cooperation was quite harmonious.

It's just that Cheng Nuo turned his head and went into the bathroom, opened his mouth a few times, pressed his stomach to retch, and then vomited into the toilet.

When he appeared in front of everyone again, he would not have the cynical look just now, he couldn't be more gentle and courteous.

(End of this chapter)