The atmosphere at the venue suddenly transformed from deadly silent to extraordinarily lively, leaving Pei Qian completely bewildered.
He couldn’t accept the reality for a moment, unable to understand how all this had happened.
Fortunately, there were two professionals right in front of him.
The interest of the two guys in front had obviously been piqued. The slightly older one directed his younger companion to grab a phone while commenting: “What a setup! Outuo Technology’s product launch is indeed full of marketing tricks!”
“They’ve crafted different presentation strategies for different managers. I wonder if this was Jiang Yuan’s own idea, Manager Chang’s idea, or… Mr. Pei’s idea?”
“It must be Mr. Pei’s idea!”
“I remember that when Chang You was at his previous company, he also held some product launches, but his comedic talent didn’t seem fully activated, and he didn’t pull off anything this good.”
“That means Outuo Technology’s launch for these two phones must have had Mr. Pei’s guidance behind the scenes, which is why it achieved such a great effect!”
The younger guy lowered his head and operated his phone: “Hmm, that makes sense.”
“Hey! I got one!”
“The inventory this time seems much larger than last time, it’s not hard to get one. They’re still in stock now.”
“But that might be because fewer people were paying attention online this time. After all, they only said this was a new technology exchange meeting, and no one knew there would be phones for sale.”
“But looking at this situation, once the news gets out, it probably won’t last more than an hour.”
“Hey, you mentioned Mr. Pei’s guidance? That this launch was full of marketing tricks? What tricks? I didn’t notice any.”
The slightly older guy said: “Didn’t you notice? This new manager Jiang Yuan has much worse natural conditions compared to Chang You. His speaking skills aren’t good, so he obviously couldn’t use Chang You’s approach for the launch.”
“But he made excellent use of his own natural conditions to create a completely different style!”
“Jiang Yuan gives the impression of being a bit stage-frightened and not very confident. When explaining the new technology, he was so serious that people were dozing off. But this lowered everyone’s psychological expectations.”
“If Manager Chang had done this launch, everyone would have been waiting for his punchlines, so when the phones were actually revealed, people wouldn’t have been so excited.”
“So this is about tailoring different approaches for different products and different managers at launches, maximizing audience engagement!”
“Not only that, but the pricing strategy for these phones is also worth pondering. If I’m not wrong, the inventory should be mainly concentrated on the high-storage version and the ‘Mission and Choice’ custom edition. The standard version is just functioning as a price anchor, making everyone feel the high-storage and custom versions are especially good deals, thus boosting sales for those two versions!”
“Compared to those phone manufacturers who sell memory more expensively than gold, the difference is clear as day!”
“They’re all making money the same way, but those manufacturers just make people feel disgusted. If you want to save money and buy the low-storage version, there’s not enough storage and you’re constantly deleting stuff. If you want more storage space, compared to the low-storage version, you might pay several hundred more for just a few dozen gigabytes, which feels like a rip-off.”
“But Outuo Technology’s approach directly eliminates consumer hesitation. The actual phone pricing might be the same, but consumers feel much better about it. That’s brilliant!”
“Moreover, this phone has exclusive optimization for Tenda mobile games, giving users a wider field of view in GOG mobile game than other phones, making it even more attractive!”
“This phone… is likely to be even more successful than the E1…”
Listening to the discussion between the two guys in front, Pei Qian felt dizzy.
What the hell!
How did this become “Mr. Pei’s idea”? What does this have to do with me?
Although Pei Qian heard fragments of their conversation and found many of their statements puzzling, he could be certain of one thing: the launch that he thought was foolproof had encountered some unexpected problems.
It was out of control! Completely out of control!
But that wasn’t all.
On stage, Jiang Yuan finished introducing the phone’s price, the unique features of the “Mission and Choice” custom edition, and Tenda’s game optimizations for the G1 phone. The launch was entering its final stage.
“Regarding the inventory for this G1 phone…”
“First, I want to solemnly declare that we at Outuo Technology have always been strict about cracking down on scalpers, which can be seen from the various regulations when the E1 phone was released.”
“When the E1 phone was released, the supply was limited because we were still a small company without much capital for turnover, so we could only stock up batch by batch.”
“Now, although our financial situation has improved significantly, because the G1 phone uses many new technologies, there’s still considerable pressure on the supply chain, so we still can’t stock up on a large scale like other major manufacturers.”
“If the phones sell out, please don’t worry. Like with the previous E1 phone, we’ll expedite production and strictly limit scalpers. As long as everyone waits patiently for a short while, you’ll definitely get your phone.”
“Additionally, we’ve allocated a portion to our offline stores. You’re welcome to visit our offline stores to experience the actual devices and make reservations. The store addresses and locations are on the big screen.”
“That concludes this launch event. Once again, I sincerely thank everyone for coming!”
“Please exit in an orderly manner. Free gifts are available at the entrance.”
After finishing everything, Jiang Yuan let out a long breath.
Mission accomplished!
Although new phone launches only happened once a year, each lasting only an hour, for Jiang Yuan, this was clearly the most challenging part of his job.
Fortunately, with Mr. Pei’s supervision, everything had gone smoothly!
Although the launch had ended, the enthusiasm of the crowd had clearly not subsided.
Pei Qian had been about to leave, but after hearing Jiang Yuan’s final words, he stopped and looked incredulously at the big screen.
The screen showed store addresses and locations, which were obviously Tian Mo’s!
It was no secret within the company that Mr. Pei had established a sales department and opened a new Tenda store in the mall.
The store had been displaying E1 phones year-round, which were obviously supplied by Outuo Technology, so it was perfectly reasonable for Jiang Yuan to know the store’s location.
And after the G1 phone’s official release, placing some demo units in the offline store for customers to view and experience was also a natural course of action.
Everything seemed fine, but Pei Qian felt like he’d been struck by lightning out of the blue sky.
“No!!!”
“Tian the Black Dog, you must hold on!”
Pei Qian could no longer remain calm. He immediately left the launch venue and rushed toward Tian Mo’s store!
…
Meanwhile, Tian Mo and Zhuang Dong were playing games in the store.
Tian Mo was on the sofa outside, Zhuang Dong was in the experience area inside. They were playing different games, but with equally serious and focused expressions.
The key point was that besides playing games, there really was nothing else to do.
Even if they wanted to swat a fly or catch a mosquito, there weren’t any in the mall.
Actually, in the first few days after the store opened, foot traffic was decent, with quite a few people wandering in, but basically nothing was sold.
The reason remained the same: interested young people had already bought the corresponding products online; those who weren’t interested originally, after being discouraged from buying, basically lost their purchasing intention.
Of course, there were exceptions. Someone had heard about the fully automated smart argument machine before, and after seeing it in person, thought it was good and insisted on buying one. Tian Mo tried to dissuade them, but they wouldn’t listen, so he had no choice but to sell it to them.
But such people were a minority.
Although the store had broken the record of zero sales, selling just a few items sporadically wasn’t worth reporting to Mr. Pei.
Customers would come once, find nothing worth buying, and not return.
Plus, today was the first workday after the holiday, so the entire mall had low foot traffic and seemed a bit deserted, making the store even more devoid of customers.
So Tian Mo and Zhuang Dong had nothing else to do but follow Mr. Pei’s instructions to seriously play games, trying to complete all the games in the store as soon as possible.
Suddenly, footsteps came from outside.
Tian Mo put down his controller and looked up to see two delivery guys from Headwind Logistics pushing two large boxes to the store entrance with a cart.
“What’s this…?” Tian Mo was puzzled.
One of the delivery guys said, “Oh, these are the new phones from Outuo Technology. We just brought them from the warehouse. They said some demo units are for customers to experience in the store, but some are also actual stock that can be sold directly.”
Tian Mo nodded, helped the delivery guys unload, then selected a few phones as demo units and placed the remaining unopened phones in the storage area inside.
There were already some demo units on the counter before, but they were all E1 phones. Tian Mo only kept a small portion and replaced the rest with the new phones, then changed the price tags.
“Hmm, this phone looks pretty good, and the screen is so big.”
“But it’s really expensive!”
“This one is actually ten thousand yuan, which is unbelievable…”
“Most people probably can’t afford it, we’ll have to wait for rich customers.”
Tian Mo played with it in his hands but didn’t pay much attention.
After all, the E1 phones had been displayed in the store for so long without a single sale. With the recent low foot traffic in the store, Tian Mo felt that even if they were displayed, not many people would come to look. With such a high price, who knew when they would all be sold.
Tian Mo sat back on the sofa and picked up his controller to resume gaming.
After some time, footsteps were heard from outside again.
However, these footsteps seemed much more hurried.
Tian Mo was surprised. He turned his head to see two guys, one after the other, taking two steps where three should be, arriving at the door. After looking up to confirm the Tenda logo, they immediately said, “Boss! Do you have OTTO’s new phones here? Give me one!”
Hmm? Customers!
Tian Mo quickly stood up: “The demo units are all on the counter. You can experience them a bit before making a decision.”
The two guys saw the demo units but had no intention of trying them out. Instead, they urged: “No need, I’ll pay now! Scan code or swipe card?”
Tian Mo was shocked. So urgent?
But this doesn’t align with our work principles!
Tian Mo displayed a very friendly smile: “Please allow me to first introduce you to some issues with this phone…”
The two guys finally couldn’t stand it anymore: “Stop wasting time! Hurry up, we each want one. We already know all the shortcomings from the launch event. Quick, give us the phones! We want the custom editions!”
Tian Mo didn’t know what to say. Although Mr. Pei had emphasized that customers must be told about product flaws, when customers were so insistent, what could a salesperson say?
Tian Mo had no choice but to take out two unopened phones, both “Mission and Choice” custom editions, and hand them over.
The “Mission and Choice” custom edition’s packaging was a full size larger than the standard version, with a completely different appearance that was very distinctive.
The two guys were absolutely delighted. They immediately paid by card and left happily, as if they had obtained a great treasure.
Tian Mo had wanted to squeeze in some words about the phone’s shortcomings but couldn’t find an opportunity to speak.
He shook his head and was about to sit down when hurried footsteps sounded from outside again.
“Boss, do you still have G1 phones?”
“I want the custom edition. If that’s not available, the high-storage version will do!”
Tian Mo was bewildered.
At first, he tried hard to follow procedure, but these customers were clearly in such a hurry that they couldn’t wait for him to complete the entire process. They practically wanted to grab the POS machine themselves and start swiping.
And they all wore expressions full of hostility.
What? You, the store manager, want me to think twice?
If I think twice and the phones sell out, will you take responsibility?!
The first batch of customers specifically asked for custom editions and high-storage versions. Although these two versions had more stock than the standard version, they quickly sold out.
Later customers could only ask for the standard version, but soon, the standard version sold out too!
Tian Mo barely had time to explain much before customers frantically bought up all the phones!
Every customer who got a new phone was overjoyed, with no intention of lingering, turning around and leaving in style.
A few who came late and couldn’t buy phones were so upset they were pounding their chests in frustration, insisting on buying the demo units from the counter. Tian Mo had to talk them down, promising to prioritize sending phones to them when the next batch arrived, finally managing to pacify them.
Later customers queued up one by one to register, hoping to get their hands on the phones as soon as stock became available.
Some customers, after learning there was no stock, reluctantly went to play with the demo units at the counter. But the more they played, the more they regretted not coming a few minutes earlier.
Tian Mo kept records while feeling perplexed.
How did the previously deserted store suddenly become so packed that water couldn’t flow through?
What was going on?
I didn’t do anything!