Pei Qian nodded. “Yes, is there any problem?”
Chang You’s expression was quite fascinating, changing from confusion to bewilderment, and then from bewilderment to thoughtfulness.
After several changes, Chang You finally gritted his teeth. “Alright, Mr. Pei, I’ll do exactly as you say!”
He turned to leave.
Pei Qian quickly raised his hand. “Wait.”
Chang You: “Yes? Mr. Pei, do you have any other instructions?”
Pei Qian coughed lightly, considering how to organize his words.
He discovered that the situation seemed to be getting increasingly problematic.
In the past, when he made a rather outlandish suggestion, his subordinates would repeatedly confirm with him and ask about operational details before reluctantly going to execute it.
But today, Chang You came in without asking a single question, just went through his internal struggle, and was ready to go execute!
This wouldn’t do.
Pei Qian wasn’t reassured.
If subordinates didn’t question the plan, how could Pei Qian know whether they truly understood it?
Such things could start with a tiny error and end with a huge mistake!
Pei Qian thought for a moment and tentatively asked, “Tell me specifically what content you’ll cover in this press conference.”
Chang You confidently replied, “I’ll focus on emphasizing the shortcomings of this phone—one being expensive, one being heavy.”
“Then I’ll tell all the audience that our phone is expensive because we used the following materials, and list all the specifications.”
“Rest assured, Mr. Pei, each point will be sufficiently concise, just revealing the key information to customers.”
“Then, regarding the weight, I’ll display our phone’s weight and compare it with some common items to give everyone an intuitive concept of the phone’s weight.”
“Then I’ll tell all the audience that the reason it’s heavy is mainly because we have a large 5800mAh battery…”
Pei Qian felt somewhat disappointed.
Fortunately, I asked one more question.
This guy did misinterpret my meaning!
According to Chang You’s approach, he would first point out the shortcomings and then transform these shortcomings into advantages. For example, with the weight, he would first self-deprecatingly mention the half-jin (250g) concept, and then highlight the phone’s advantages: big battery and long battery life.
This technique, in simple terms, was first suppression, then elevation.
How could this work?
If the press conference was held this way, it absolutely wouldn’t qualify as a failed press conference!
After brief consideration, Pei Qian said, “You’re heading in the right direction, but the specific details still need more deliberation.”
“My suggestion is this.”
“The press conference process should be the reverse of most phone brand press conferences.”
“Start by showing the price.”
“Don’t netizens like to comment ‘excuse me, I’m leaving’ nowadays? Let them post that right from the start; they don’t need to wait.”
“Use one slide to briefly cover all our phone’s advantages. The time spent on this slide shouldn’t exceed 5 minutes.”
“After that, focus on discussing the phone’s shortcomings.”
“First, it’s expensive. We not only need to emphasize that this phone costs eight thousand yuan, but also emphasize that the phone doesn’t support installment payments, and it will never have price reductions in the future!”
“Second, it’s heavy. We need to provide not just the specific weight data of the bare phone, but also the weight data after applying screen protectors and cases. Then we need to compare it with the weight of some real-life objects and tell everyone which demographic groups will feel hand fatigue when holding it with one hand!”
“Moreover, after entering this stage, we can’t indirectly introduce the phone’s advantages anymore, because we’ve already introduced them before!”
“Phrases like ‘our phone is heavy because we used a 5800mAh battery’ absolutely cannot appear at this stage!”
“When talking about shortcomings, just talk about shortcomings. Nobody asked you to praise yourself—less gimmicks, more sincerity.”
“Of course, just these elements are not enough for a press conference.”
“Think carefully, are the phone’s shortcomings only that it’s expensive and heavy? There’s no perfect product in this world. If you can’t see the shortcomings, it only proves your vision is limited!”
“Find enough shortcomings to talk about for half an hour!”
“In short, the press conference should be controlled to within one hour, though I wouldn’t object if it could be even shorter.”
“Many phone manufacturers’ press conferences are long and tedious, spending ten minutes on tiny features. That’s too disrespectful of the audience’s time. We must eliminate this phenomenon!”
“That’s about it. Did you get all that?”
Pei Qian looked at Chang You with a smile.
Chang You’s expression once again went through the process from confusion to bewilderment and then to thoughtfulness, before nodding again. “Good, I’ll make the PowerPoint according to this!”
Pei Qian: “…”
He still felt a bit uneasy, but having said this much, he could hardly make the PowerPoint himself, could he?
So he nodded. “Fine, go prepare then. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime.”
…
At 3 o’clock, He Desheng arrived on time.
He held two stacks of business plans in his hands. “Mr. Pei, this stack contains the better investment projects I’ve compiled, and this stack contains the more dream-oriented investment projects compiled by Mr. Ma. Please take a look.”
Pei Qian took the two stacks of business plans and flipped through them briefly, his brows furrowed.
All text, making his head ache.
Ah, that’s what’s wrong with people these days—they write business plans too seriously and too reliably.
This makes it very difficult for Mr. Pei!
Pei Qian couldn’t help but sigh. What a great project Xueba Kailai had been, much more reliable than these projects, but… how did it end up making money too…
While flipping through these business plans, he casually asked, “How is the Xueba Kailai project doing recently?”
He Desheng hurriedly said, “After Xude Education took over the Xueba Kailai project, they made some major changes.”
“First, they forced all their students to register for this app, and also required them to get their family and friends to register, mandating daily logins, which caused an outcry among their students.”
“Then they arranged for the app to be redesigned and renamed to ‘Xude Xueba,’ adding features to the app, promoting some of Xude Education’s courses, creating shortcuts for enrollment, and so on.”
“As a result, active users plummeted, there was widespread criticism online, and now the people at Xude Education are probably also having headaches…”
Pei Qian had been casually flipping through the business plans, but hearing this, his eyes suddenly lit up.
Isn’t this exactly the scene he had been dreaming of?
What he hoped for was precisely this: plummeting activity, insufficient income, continuous losses!
Pei Qian seemed to understand something now. The project he came up with didn’t have any inherent problems, and there weren’t many operational issues either. The reason it made money was that he perhaps hadn’t waited for the right time!
Xude Education indeed knew what they were doing. As soon as they took over, they made the project lose money. It was truly enviable!
Pei Qian immediately pushed all the business plans aside. “I’ve decided.”
He Desheng was stunned, then a look of admiration and longing appeared on his face.
“Mr. Pei, you’ve already found a reliable project after just five minutes of browsing? That’s incredibly efficient!”
He Desheng couldn’t help but give a thumbs up, praising investment genius Mr. Pei.
Pei Qian chuckled. “Use this money to buy back the Xueba Kailai project!”
Where you fall, there you roll!
It doesn’t matter if we made money; we can just spend however much we earned, and that’s that!
He Desheng was dumbfounded.
Buy it back?
Currently, Yuanmeng Venture Capital still holds 20% of Xueba Kailai’s shares as an internal shareholder. If they wanted to acquire shares, they would have priority.
And after all that trouble, Xude Education had discovered that this project was both burning money and drawing criticism, with no possibility of turning things around in the short term. If someone were willing to take over now, they would cut their losses.
Even if they wouldn’t sell now, they definitely wouldn’t be able to hold on after another week or two and would sell then.
But precisely because of this, there was no need to buy it!
This project was already a mess. We’ve already successfully cashed out at the high point, so why go back and wade into troubled waters?
He Desheng was confused and tentatively asked, “Mr. Pei, specifically, how much should we buy? 34%, 51%, or 67%?”
Pei Qian waved his hand. “Of course, buy as much as possible. It would be best to buy up to 100%!”
“Oh, and while you’re at it, spend some money to poach the person in charge of this project from Xude Education. Let him continue to be responsible for this project.”
Pei Qian now understood that whether the same thing could succeed depended on the person!
If they bought this project back and handed it to He Desheng to manage, it might come back to life again.
They needed to poach the person who had made this project fail at Xude Education, let him continue to run the project, and ensure that the previous failure to ensure absolute safety!
He Desheng looked bewildered, but since Mr. Pei had already been so clear, there seemed no need to ask further questions.
After considering for a moment, He Desheng nodded. “Alright, Mr. Pei, I’ll arrange it right away!”
…
After seeing off Chang You and He Desheng, Pei Qian felt much more at ease.
See off one more person, and today’s work tasks will be complete!
At 4 p.m., Lin Wan arrived to discuss what kind of promotional approach should be adopted for the game “BE QUIET.”
“Mr. Pei, have you played the game? Do you have any opinions or suggestions?” Lin Wan asked.
“Uh…” Pei Qian really wanted to say he hadn’t played it yet, but that seemed a bit beneath his dignity, so he vaguely said, “There shouldn’t be any problems. Let’s get straight to the point.”
Lin Wan nodded. “Alright, then I’ll first talk about the promotional strategy I’ve thought of.”
Pei Qian listened attentively.
For the game “BE QUIET,” Pei Qian had initially proposed a sufficiently wrong—a horror game without a storyline that required an internet connection.
Unexpectedly, Shangyang Games had created it!
But creating it didn’t mean players would buy into it. Pei Qian still felt that a horror game that was both online and without a storyline should be neither scary nor fun, and should have no appeal to either horror game enthusiasts or regular players.
However, they couldn’t be careless about promotion either.
“The Lonely Desert Highway” was a garbage game in itself, but due to accidentally stumbling upon an appropriate promotional method, it suddenly became popular.
Pei Qian didn’t want such inexplicable things to happen again.
For the game “BE QUIET,” they had to stifle it from the very beginning, starting with the promotion!