Chapter 150: Building a Brand
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“I’ll take one. It’s about time we replaced the coal stove at home anyway!”
“I’ll take one too. It’ll make a good gift for my mother-in-law.”
“I’m buying one. The coal stove at home is always going out, and it takes forever to light again.”
Before long, many people in the crowd were growing excited and scrambling to buy Kunlun coal stoves.
The two hundred stoves were sold out in no time.
“What? They’re gone already?”
“There really were only two hundred? No, that won’t do. You have to sell me one!”
“Do you think it’s easy for me to come all the way into the city for market day? Who’ll sell me one? You can buy another tomorrow.”
Those who had failed to get one began to panic.
“Everyone, please don’t rush or cause a commotion. Kunlun coal stoves will be available every day for the next week.”
“But once you miss this week’s promotional price, they’ll cost two yuan apiece from then on.”
Chen Huaijiang shouted through the megaphone, worried that the crowd might get out of hand.
The stall was dismantled afterward, but one Kunlun coal stove was left outside the Great Sluice Gate shop for the workers to examine.
“Brother Chen, is there anything you can’t do?”
“I never cook at home. I’m the sort of person who simply holds out my hand for clothes and opens my mouth for food, yet after listening to you just now, I nearly bought a coal stove myself.”
Inside the Great Sluice Gate shop, Chen Huaijiang lifted his cup and gulped down the water.
Black Tiger sighed from the side, while the younger men around him and the shop assistants all nodded in agreement.
They looked at Chen Huaijiang with undisguised admiration. That tongue of his was simply too persuasive.
Just like Black Tiger, they all felt that failing to buy one meant losing out.
Chen Huaijiang merely shrugged. In his mind, this was nothing.
If they ever saw the rock-bottom prices, cheating-wife prices, bloodletting prices, free giveaways, and “buying it means making a profit” slogans of later generations, wouldn’t they all be swindled into bankruptcy?
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A similar scene unfolded at the other three locations, although the staff there naturally lacked Chen Huaijiang’s gift for salesmanship.
Day after day, for seven straight days, two hundred Kunlun coal stoves were put up for sale each day, and every batch was snapped up immediately.
Afterward, the price did indeed return to two yuan, leaving those who had missed out filled with regret and frustration.
A few minor disputes even broke out at the dealerships. Some people wanted to buy a stove but could not accept the two-yuan price, since the stoves had cost only one yuan sixty during the preceding days.
The dealership staff had received strict orders from Chen Huaijiang: two yuan, no exceptions. Naturally, they refused to sell for one yuan sixty, and conflicts arose as a result.
Every couple of days, one of the dealerships would erupt into a quarrel, and sometimes even a fight.
At first, the commotion and arguments really were conflicts between customers and dealership employees. But later, everything was arranged by Chen Huaijiang.
The quarrels and fights were staged by hired actors and the dealership staff, all to create the impression that the product was scarce and that anyone who managed to buy one was getting an incredible bargain.
Had anyone from a later generation been there, they would have recognized it at once: hunger marketing.
“Why? Why did you sell these coal stoves for one yuan sixty last time, but charge me two yuan now? And you still claim you’re not looking down on me!”
“That’s right! Your shop is bullying us country folk. If you won’t sell them to us for one yuan sixty today, we won’t let this go!”
“We’re from Upper River Village. One of our villagers bought a Kunlun coal stove last time, and it works several times better than the one at our house. He swore up and down that he bought it for one yuan sixty and would never lie to us. Yet when we come here, you’re charging two yuan. If that isn’t looking down on us, then what is it?”
At the dealership in the West District farmers’ market, several countrymen dressed as villagers surrounded the shop and argued heatedly with the clerk.
“Everyone, I truly have no say in this.”
“The one-yuan-sixty price last time was a factory promotion. They were selling at a loss. One yuan sixty was barely the cost, without even counting labor, transport, or rent.”
“You can’t treat a promotional price as the regular selling price. If we did that, we’d all starve. People may be willing to risk their heads for a profitable business, but who would willingly run one that loses money? If you were in our position, would you do it?”
The dealership owner spoke with indignation, though his face was also filled with helplessness.
A large crowd had gathered outside, pointing and whispering among themselves.
“This is happening again. These people are really being unreasonable. The shop owner has explained it perfectly clearly: a promotional price isn’t the same as the everyday price.”
“Exactly. Everyone knows promotions last only a few days. The factory takes a loss to build its reputation. But once the promotion ends, they can’t keep selling at a loss forever. Otherwise, wouldn’t the factory collapse?”
“These people are completely unreasonable. The price of two yuan is written plainly on the Kunlun coal stoves. If they can’t afford one, they can buy a stove from the Coal Stove Factory or the Red Flag Factory instead.”
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The people gathered outside had been completely drawn into the “performance,” and as spectators, they offered their opinions one after another.
Just then, several handcarts and tricycles loaded with coal stoves entered the dealership. A young man approached the owner and spoke with him for a while.
The young man then instructed his men to place a large sign outside the shop. Taking up a megaphone, he shouted to the crowd:
“The one-yuan-sixty price is no longer available. We’ve just received the latest notice from the factory.”
“To thank all our customers for their enthusiasm toward Kunlun coal stoves, we’ll be giving back to consumers every Saturday and Sunday. Kunlun coal stoves will be available at a ten-percent discount.”
“Every customer who purchases a coal stove will also receive one chance to enter a lucky draw. There will be one first prize of one hundred yuan in cash, two second prizes of fifty yuan each, five third prizes of twenty yuan each, and numerous consolation prizes.”
The young man was naturally Chen Huaijiang himself. In hunger marketing, hunger was not the main point. Marketing was.
The discounted price was one yuan eighty—twenty cents more than the promotional price of one yuan sixty—but it came with a chance to enter the lucky draw.
The three hired actors hesitated slightly and put on a quarrel for show. In the end, they went into the shop and bought three coal stoves.
Each drew a prize. One got a “Better Luck Next Time” slip, another won a packet of sunflower seeds as a consolation prize, and the last drew third prize.
“I won! I won third prize!”
The middle-aged man who had drawn the winning ticket waved it excitedly, his face glowing with delight.
“What? Someone won?”
“My goodness! Those people are incredibly lucky. He actually won third prize—that’s twenty yuan!”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Heaven really does favor the lucky. Not only did he get the coal stove for free, he made another fourteen yuan sixty besides, along with a packet of sunflower seeds.”
When the third winner was announced, the onlookers became restless, their eyes filled with envy and jealousy.
Chen Huaijiang quickly handed the twenty yuan to the winner, creating a splendid piece of word-of-mouth publicity.
Many other customers entered the shop to buy Kunlun coal stoves as well. Of course, winning a prize afterward was far more difficult; almost everyone received either a “Better Luck Next Time” slip or a packet of sunflower seeds.
And so, Kunlun coal stoves established an unquestionable “premium” reputation in the Nanming City market. In a very short time, the citizens had come to believe that Kunlun coal stoves were superior to those made by the Red Flag Factory and the Coal Stove Factory.
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