Volume 7 I've Been Here Chapter 1017: Success through Copying
Nan Yi had not been to Shanghai for a long time. He could not think of any way to make money. Either the business was too big and would take a lot of time to prepare, or it was too small and he was unwilling to waste that time.
Standing on the balcony-like embankment that curves into the river at the South Bund, you can see pairs of beautiful people to the left and right, but Nan Yi is the only one that looks out of place.
Facing the river breeze, Nan Yi took out the phone book, flipped through it, found Zhao Tianyang's number and dialed it.
After the call was connected, Nan Yi heard the voice of a drinking game coming from the other side, "Boss Zhao, where are you having fun?"
After the noise on the other end of the phone disappeared, a tentative question came out, "Boss?"
Nan Yi laughed, "Boss Zhao, you are a forgetful person. Have you forgotten my voice so quickly?"
"How is that possible? I drank a little and can't hear clearly. Boss, what do you want to talk to me about?"
"Nothing, I just happened to come to Shanghai for something. I haven't seen you for a long time, so I wanted to ask you to come out and sit with me. I heard you were socializing, so I won't disturb you. Let's meet again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
"No, no, no, I'm not socializing. I just have a few friends and a few of them. We get together regularly. Boss, where are you? I'll come find you."
"How convenient?"
“How convenient.”
"Okay, go to the left of the security booth on the South Bund riverside, it's the third balcony."
Zhao Tianyang came very quickly and stood in front of Nan Yi in less than a quarter of an hour. Compared to a few years ago, the student look on his face had faded, and the aura of an elite emanated from his whole body, with a slight smell of alcohol.
After looking at Zhao Tianyang for a while , Nan Yi smiled and said, "I haven't received your wedding invitation yet. Is it because you haven't held it yet, or did you forget to invite me?"
"In terms of feelings, I am still the same as before, nothing has changed." Zhao Tianyang responded with a smile.
"How about your career? Is everything going well?"
When Nan Yi mentioned his career, Zhao Tianyang showed pride on his face, "We are already in the eighth position, and we are only one step away."
"Good boy, you are amazing." Nan Yi raised his hand and punched Zhao Tianyang's shoulder blade, "You will soon be a member of the billion-dollar club."
Zhao Tianyang showed a long-lost shy smile, "I have everything I want to thank you, boss."
"Okay, don't call me boss. I'm not paying you a salary now, and you don't need to thank me. You are where you are today because of your own ability."
"I have to thank you, boss. Without the capital you gave me back then, no matter how capable I was, I would not have been able to achieve success so quickly." Zhao Tianyang said seriously.
"Okay, okay, I'm grateful for your thanks. Tell me, do you do anything else besides stock trading?"
"I opened a Sunshine Investment Company with 20 million yuan in capital at the beginning. Now there is less than 2 million left. The rest of the money has been invested."
"What industry did you invest in?" Nan Yi asked with interest.
"We have real estate, medicine, and building materials. To control risk, we have diversified our investments and have not placed a heavy bet on any one company."
"If you don't place a big bet, the rate of return will be lower, but the risk is also lower. As a sideline business, this is a good way to operate." Nan Yi sighed, "This time I came to Shanghai to deal with some trivial matters that have no end. If you have any projects that don't require a large investment, I can invest a little to make up for the losses."
"Yes, I have. These days I am discussing investment with a company. That company wants to develop a diagnostic test kit for hepatitis B. I plan to invest all the remaining funds of Sunshine Investment in it. Boss, if you are interested, I can help you make the connection."
"What direction? HBsAg or HBeAg?"
"It seems to be HBeAg. I don't know much about the technology. The reason why I am interested in this company is that several of the main founders are graduates of Hudan University and have extensive connections in Hudan. The grandfather of one of the female founders is a master in life genetics and was once a school leader of Hudan University."
"Oh? Interesting. When will you meet with that company again?"
The "company" mentioned by Zhao Tianyang made Nan Yi very interested. If all the information was correct, this company would be a good investment target.
"Tomorrow afternoon at two."
Upon hearing this, Nan Yi called Chen Wenqin to his side and introduced her to Zhao Tianyang: "Chen Wenqin, my personal secretary. If it's convenient, I'll let her go with you tomorrow."
"no problem."
There is no need to spend too much time reminiscing about some old things. Nan Yi and Zhao Tianyang chatted by the river for half an hour before breaking up. Nan Yi could not stay in Shanghai for a few days. He was too lazy to go back to the almost sealed-off Fang Mansion. He ordered a drink at Wonderful Restaurant on the first floor of Dongfeng Hotel and stayed upstairs that night.
The next day, Chen Wenqin stayed behind, and Tiger Cub was sent out to get information. Nan Yi took Tianxian and Gangxu with him to kill time in "Dream Time".
Grandma Fang Mengyin may not want "Dream time" to be too lively, or she may want to show her style. Now the most ordinary cup of coffee in the store costs 85 yuan. This is not a rip-off, and the gross profit is less than half, which is still within the scope of conscientious charging.
With such high consumption, it is conceivable that there would not be many customers visiting on weekdays, and it has been reputation as a "black shop" outside.
It’s actually quite nice and quiet.
Nan Yi was on the second floor, holding a copy of "Story Club" in his hand. He turned to the cover and saw three copper coins printed on it. He smiled knowingly, picked up the phone and called Li Xiangrong.
"Xiangrong, let me give you an outline. Think about it and see if it can be made into reality."
"Master Nan, please speak."
"A poor country boy, let's call him Zhuzi, followed his fellow villagers to Beijing to work, but he couldn't find a stable job and could only do odd jobs to make a living. One day, he received a job of moving and lifting things in an antique shop.
While moving things, he accidentally broke an antique vase worth two or three hundred thousand yuan. The owner of the antique shop was not an easy person to deal with. He started to curse at Zhuzi and demanded compensation.
The noise was a bit loud, and soon a group of people gathered around to watch the fun. Lao Li, the owner of Xinrongzhai, was also alarmed. He listened for a while, figured out the cause and effect of the incident, and felt very sympathetic towards Zhuzi. So, Lao Li turned his gaze to the broken vase, and on the inner wall of one of the porcelain pieces of the vase, he saw the word "Nan".
Old Li was surprised, "Could this be the new Nanfang that has emerged recently?"
After careful observation, Lao Li was sure that the broken vase belonged to Nan Fang, and he argued with reason and rescued Zhuzi.
Zhuzi is a young man with a sense of justice. He remembered that Lao Li had done him such a big favor. Whenever he had free time, he would take the initiative to help in Xinrongzhai. After a while, Lao Li found that Zhuzi had a talent for antique appraisal, so he took him in as his apprentice.
Maybe Zhu is a rare antique genius. In just two or three months, when Zhu went to the stall to verify what he had learned, he found a bargain for fifty yuan... I can't think of any antique that would be suitable for the time being, anyway, it will be something worth 70,000 or 80,000 yuan.
He kept picking up bargains, and over time, his net worth reached tens of millions. He then diversified into real estate and hotels, and soon became a billionaire, and the first person in Beijing to make a fortune from antiques.
Li Xiangrong: "Master Nan, do you want to create a role model for others to emulate?"
"Yes, after Zhuzi became rich, he had to act in a high-profile manner, with luxury cars and villas, giving back to the community, making charitable donations, and marrying beautiful women. In short, he wanted to make people itch and wish they could be Zhuzi themselves."
Li Xiangrong: "I understand Master Nan's intention. I wonder what the Nanfang you are talking about is?"
"It is used to attack dissidents. We don't have much goods. For those items that are not under our control and whose owners are unwilling to board the ship, we will put a few fake valuables on the market to lower the price."
"Master Nan, it's not easy to make a fake that looks real. Take porcelain for example. The patterns and shapes are easy to control, but it's hard to control the temperature. No matter how good the craftsmanship is, it's hard to guarantee that a few flawless pieces will be produced in one furnace, let alone replicas."
Nan Yi chuckled, "I know it's hard to make a fake, but how difficult would it be to add a symbol on real porcelain using micro-carving techniques, or to add a word or scrape off a little ink in an inconspicuous place in a landscape painting?"
Li Xiangrong considered it for a moment and said, "This isn't difficult, but it's a pity to destroy the real thing."
"I just proposed a concept. Whether it will be implemented or not depends mainly on your opinion. Nanfang can be a joke, but the pillars still need to exist. Xiangrong, in my eyes, antiques are not much different from stocks and futures. They speculate in the market and buy low and sell high.
There is one good thing about the antique business: the threshold is higher than that of stocks. Ordinary people will not step into it unless they are blinded by greed. It is just a game of wealth concentration and redistribution, and there is no need to have too much psychological burden.
Speculating in antiques is more noble than speculating in phone cards. Yesterday on the street I overheard someone say that an IC card with a face value of 100 was being speculated to be over 400. It looks like it’s almost reaching its peak. Those dealers are going to run away.”
"It's just a short break. It's so easy to make money, why would I let it go? I can change the pattern after a while and continue." Li Xiangrong said disdainfully.
"Haha, that's none of our business. You can enrich the outline I just mentioned. When you're done, I'll have a psychology expert come to you to discuss it. Once it's finalized, we can go find the right pillars."
"Master Nan has no candidate?"
"No, you are in charge of everything. Don't treat the pillars as puppets. Go for a win-win situation."
"You're welcome."
After ending the call with Li Xiangrong, Nan Yi continued to sit on the second floor until the barista Wang Tao came to call for dinner.
Wang Tao is the honey badger who is the trouser leg soldier of the Quail Squad. She retired last year. She randomly threw a dart at China using a world map. She changed to a map of China and threw it again, which happened to hit Shanghai. Therefore, Shanghai became her retirement place.
It has to be said that it is quite a coincidence that Wang Tao's parents are both from Shanghai, but they went to support the Third Front construction in their early years. She was not born in Shanghai, and her original household registration was not in Shanghai.
Wang Tao was a member of the Nan clan's first batch of armed personnel. She participated in many missions. Not only did she have high salaries and subsidies, but she also seized a lot of valuable spoils during the missions. Wang Tao did not have any expensive hobbies, so she saved a lot of money over the years and became a wealthy woman.
Now she has returned to her hometown as an overseas Chinese in Thailand to contribute to her real estate business. She has bought more than a dozen houses in Shanghai in one go, all in places with strange names, such as Lujiazui and Xujiahui. She has also bought five or six storefronts, and the rent she collects is enough to cover her expenses for the whole year.
When she was bored, she often went to "Dream Time" to kill time. After a while, she became familiar with the barista from the original store. Somehow, Wang Tao actually learned how to make coffee. When she finished her apprenticeship, the original barista handed in his resignation and left.
The general meaning of the letter is that it is "Dream Time" and there are only a few customers a day. It is too idle and he does not want to waste time here. He wants to go look for poetry and distant places.
Just like that, Wang Tao became the barista here.
The dining place was on the second floor, and after a while, Wang Tao came up with a tray of food.
Three dishes and a soup, takeout ordered from a nearby restaurant.
“Are you getting used to your retirement life?”
"I wasn't used to it at first, but now I've adapted to it." Wang Tao said lightly.
"After a while, if you feel you can do it, find a partner."
"I have no idea yet. Habits formed over twenty years are hard to change. They scare people."
"There is always a process." Nan Yi said gently: "Take your time."
"What's the process?" A hand appeared behind Wang Tao and took a piece of braised pork from the plate. After a few smacking sounds, another voice of disgust was heard, "Too much oil."
"I'm asking you if you understand the rules. There are eight pieces of braised pork in total. You eat one piece. How are we going to divide it between the two of us? "
"You don't have any."
Long Huiqing turned around, bringing out a gust of fragrant wind, and sat down next to Nan Yi. She snatched the chopsticks from his hand, then snatched the rice bowl and started picking at it, scraping out the rice grains that were not touched. She took two bites of vegetables and one bite of rice, snatching Nan Yi's right to eat.
Nan Yi moved his seat to another corner of the table, pointed at Long Huiqing and said, "You are so arrogant. You'd better have outstanding achievements to appease me. Just one night of pleasure between us cannot offset your current transgression."
"Don't talk about what happened that night. I'm married. If my husband heard it, it would destroy the relationship between us. Are you responsible?" Long Huiqing retorted.
"If you don't want to mention it, then don't mention it. Tell me about your achievements."
"The result is that I have thoroughly understood the concepts of embellished clothing and conspicuous consumption. The sales of Longqing Jewelry will experience an explosive surge."
"Stop bragging. Do you really think you are a gifted female academic? Do you think you can understand conspicuous consumption by visiting black communities in the United States?"
Luxury consumption is a culture, the essence of which is to take the noble route and create a noble atmosphere, but the target customers are by no means the real top wealthy class. The market is supported by a large number of urban white-collar workers who cannot afford yachts and planes but want to attract attention.
In Hollywood movies, black people on the street are always dressed in gold, driving flashy cars, and wearing flashy jewelry. Compared with white people with the same income, black people spend 25% more on "visible consumer goods", and this extra "flashing" is saved from other consumer goods.
This is not just because blacks are more flamboyant than whites. In fact, the 25% more "conspicuous consumption" by blacks than by whites is entirely because blacks are poorer than whites. Even among blacks, poor people are more flamboyant than rich people.
This rule actually applies across races, including blacks, whites, and Mexicans.
It is not just consumer goods that can be used to show off. Education, a beautiful wife, my father is XX, and friends who are powerful and famous can all be used to show off. Of course, like consumer goods, these resources themselves have great practical value, and being able to show off is an additional value.
No matter what you are showing off, the principle of showing off itself is the same. If you want to show off happily and enjoyably, you must choose the right occasion and audience, and you must also have certain skills.
Conspicuous consumption, or the economics of conspicuous consumption, is a required course for Nan who works in the retail industry, especially for middle and senior management who have anything to do with luxury goods. In China, there are two words that can accurately summarize the economic analysis of "conspicuous consumption" - wearing fine clothes at night and showing off because of poverty. The purpose of wearing fine clothes is to show you and get satisfaction from it; the reason why I show off like this is because I am poor, and more importantly, you are also poor.
At this stage, the economic behavior and economic model of the United States are indeed leading the world. Many economic phenomena that will occur in other countries, whether good or bad, have mostly appeared in American history. Many projects or business models can be completely copied to economically backward countries. Relying on copying, after a few years, there is a great possibility of becoming successful and famous, and then you can show off and publish an autobiographical novel "I Succeeded by Copying".
Nan Yi has observations and memories from his previous life, as well as more systematic observations and research report analysis in this life. He is standing at a higher level and can see the essence behind some phenomena more thoroughly. His cognition is reflected in Nan's operational arrangements.
The fact that Long Huiqing, the head of Longqing Jewelry, was sent to the United States for further study and inspection is a reflection of the subtleties, aimed at allowing her to understand the essence of "showing off" and to easily grasp the "poor and boastful" mentality of customers.
After all, the sales of jewelry are not supported by wealthy wives and lovers, but mainly by women who spend half a year's salary to buy a necklace, and the men behind them. How to make these "women" show off happily is a major topic that Longqing Jewelry needs to study.
Long Huiqing picked up the food and ate the rice faster. After taking a few bites, she put down her chopsticks and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "I'm not exaggerating. The marketing department of the company has come up with a marketing plan to establish a diamond ring brand and launch an engagement diamond ring. The slogan is that a man can only customize one in his lifetime."
"Um?"
Nan Yi felt that this gimmick sounded familiar.
"It's a good gimmick. You can also work on the homophony of the price, such as 2513.14, love me forever, and you can also combine it with the popular code words on the paging station now."
In the process of popularization of pagers, some well-known numerical codes emerged due to convention and the promotion of paging stations. Simple things can be directly replaced by numbers, which can save the person answering the call the cost of returning the call and also add interest.
"We have already thought of this." Long Huiqing said, taking out a jewelry box from her bag, opening it, and taking out a diamond ring. "One of the Magpie Bridge series, prepared for this year's Chinese Valentine's Day. After comparison, we feel that Shanghai people are more cosmopolitan and will accept new culture faster. Therefore, on this year's Chinese Valentine's Day, which is August 2, we will plan a collective proposal event in South Bund.
At that time, TV stations and newspaper reporters will appear on the scene, and stories related to the proposal protagonist will appear in several best-selling magazines.
The brand is called DL, double L, taken from 'Love for the whole life', and D can also be interpreted as Darry, Diamond + Marry, together it is 'Darry Love', take a look, this is the logo design."
Long Huiqing took out a design draft and handed it to Nan Yi.
Nan Yi took it and took a look at it. The logo was a simple style of deformed English letters. If one used his imagination, one could imagine a man and a woman leaning on a ring, which was in line with the brand positioning and was pretty good.
Generally speaking, it is enough for a logo to convey one message. It cannot convey more than that. Some company logos contain many meanings. What does this straight line represent? What does that curve represent? What does the color represent about the company? In fact, it is all nonsense.
Those were all made up by the copywriters who lost several hairs and stayed up all night, and they were made up based on the logo after the logo was finalized. There are several employees in Wangbei Media who are dazed at work and dazed at overtime. The salary is very high. As long as the money is paid, any woman with body odor can be made into Yang Guifei.
Whenever a big case comes, Wangbei Media will seek help from the mind control team, analyze the customer's preferences through customer information and behavior, and strive to reach the customer's mind more accurately.
"Very good." Nan Yi handed the design back to Long Huiqing. "Although I haven't seen the final results, you have ideas and execution. Your MBA was not in vain. Give me a detailed report after the Qixi event. I need to evaluate some things."
"Okay." Long Huiqing put the ring and the design draft back into her bag, fixed her hair and said, "I'm leaving first. I'm going to Jiahe in the afternoon to look at shops with the franchisees there, and I'm going to tour Nanhu Lake at night."
Longqing Jewelry is in a period of great expansion. While opening its own directly-operated stores in major cities, it is also expanding its franchisee team. It is in its early stages, and Long Huiqing, the helmsman, needs to be at the forefront and personally contact high-level franchisees (the contracts signed have a relatively high annual purchase volume).
"Um."
After Long Huiqing left, Nan Yi took a new bowl and continued eating.
In the afternoon, Nan Yi took a nap. After waking up, he suddenly didn't want to enjoy the quietness anymore. He went down from the second floor to the first floor and chose a seat near the bathroom to sit down with the only table of guests in the store - two old men dressed very fashionably, in their sixties, with no signs of weathering on their faces. They probably didn't suffer much in their middle age. When they were young, they might have been rich kids or white-collar workers.
After observing for a few seconds, Nan Yi stopped reading and opened the Story Club, picking out the advertisements inserted inside. Unfortunately, all he saw were serious advertisements, and he didn't see the essence of the electric poles and toilet baffles that he had imagined. He guessed that they would only appear when the economy went into recession in a few years.
Today, the sales of "Story Club" are estimated to be more than ten billion yuan, but the bottom line is still there. In his previous life, Nan Yi ordered a "Chen Haonan-style machete" through the small advertisement above. He remitted the money, but has not received the goods yet.
One of the reasons why he cared about the advertisement of "Story Club" was that he was waiting for the liar who deceived him to appear. No matter whether it was the same person or not, as long as he saw the same advertisement, he would treat him as the liar and make sure to dig him out and deal with him properly.
Of course, this was just a side issue. He was mainly concerned about the products of marginal brands and what products were advertised in publications like Story Club.
On the other side, Chen Wenqin has already arrived at Zhao Tianyang's Sunshine Investment.
After some pleasantries, Zhao Tianyang got down to business. "Ms. Chen, how should I introduce you to the other party?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Wenqin opened her bag, picked out a business card holder engraved with a mulberry leaf pattern from among several business card holders of different colors, opened it, took out a business card and handed it to Zhao Tianyang.
Zhao Tianyang took the business card and looked at it. There was a mulberry leaf pattern in the center, with the middle hollowed out and the three English letters "Tbc" written on it. Below the pattern were three words "Teng Bilian" arranged vertically, and nothing else. Turning to the other side, it was even simpler, with the name "Chen Wenqin" written vertically in the middle and a phone number in the lower left corner.
After examining the business card, Zhao Tianyang asked curiously, "Miss Chen, do the three words Teng Bilian have any special meaning?"
"No, it's just the transliteration of Ten billion. Because Teng Bilian's parent company is called Yiwan International, so when we named it, we chose a name with the same style." Chen Wenqin said lightly.
Zhao Tianyang pondered over it, "Ten billion" can correspond to T and B, and the last C is "Capital" or "Club", it can be explained as Ten billion capital or Ten billion club, or maybe it is just a pun.
If Nan Yi heard Zhao Tianyang's inner voice, he would only say that he was overthinking it. He was not interested in bringing together wealthy people to form a club or university. What was the purpose of the rich people working together?
Southern experts hate conglomerates and chaebols the most. They believe that capital is evil, and greed flows from every pore. If anyone dares to show signs of developing in this direction in the country, without waiting for the country to take action, he will rush to act as the vanguard and start scolding those who have ulterior motives and blast them to death.
"Where is the office of Teng Bilian Company located?"
Chen Wenqin said awkwardly: "Wherever my bag is, that's where the company's office is."
Zhao Tianyang laughed cheerfully and said, "How could the boss's company be a shell company? It's just that nowadays, all businesses need to be presented in a nice manner. Without a good office or a nice car, some doors will be harder to enter and some faces will be harder to look at. That's the trend."
Chen Wenqin heard this and showed a proud expression on her face. "Teng Bilian does not have a wide door to welcome guests from all directions. It only has a narrow door. We will be very cautious about every investment and every investment object. Enterprises that only focus on external splendor and not internal are not among our investments."
There are still few companies in China that are so arrogant and picky about capital. Teng Bilian can act very detached. If you miss this opportunity, there is always another one. No company is worth chasing for investment. There are many "enterprises and mines". If one company doesn't want it, there will be companies begging for it.
Zhao Tianyang laughed awkwardly, feeling a little envious of Chen Wenqin. How much confidence does it take to run a company like this? Anyway, he couldn't do it and didn't dare to.
The two chatted for a few more sentences, and when the time came, the person they were waiting for showed up on time.
"Mr. Guo, let me introduce you. This is Manager Chen from Teng Bilian Capital. Teng Bilian is a subsidiary of Coconut City Yiwan International. Yiwan International is a large company in Coconut City, and it pays nearly 100 million in taxes every year. Manager Chen, this is Guo Guangkun from Huxing Industrial. Mr. Guo is a top student who graduated from Hudan University. He gave up literature and went into business in just a few years, but he has grown his business to this level. He is quite impressive."
Zhao Tianyang introduced both parties and after a brief greeting, the topic was brought back to the right track...
…
