After reading these comments, Gao Ming felt even more dejected.
Because this situation was fundamentally different from the previous public relations crisis!
Previously, Master Tian’s video had been hotly discussed, thoroughly analyzed, and repeatedly shared—this could be considered a theoretical battle.
It exposed the chronic problems of current real estate agencies, explained the fundamental reasons why these agencies remained essentially unchanged despite reforms, and even predicted their future development changes.
In other words, it made tenants understand that these agencies claimed to serve tenants while actually devising ways to earn more profits.
Of course, businesses earning profits is a legitimate matter—without profits, businesses cannot develop.
But a company also has values.
Does the pursuit of profit have a bottom line? If profit and responsibility are placed on opposite ends of a scale, which should weigh more?
Currently, the vast majority of domestic real estate agencies prioritize profit far above responsibility.
That’s why various incidents endangering tenants’ lives and health occur, and why we see strange operations that are financial schemes disguised as rental services.
Even when they emphasize responsibility, it’s merely putting on a show to better expand their market and form monopolies, ultimately for more profit.
Before netizens truly formed this consensus, they might have been fooled by Home Group’s rectification measures.
After all, it was like picking the tallest among dwarfs—other companies weren’t even doing as well as Home Group.
But after this theory was widely spread and accepted, netizens realized that Home Group’s rectification measures were far from enough.
However, if it were just this, Home Group would merely face more criticism.
After all, theory without practice is like having strength with nowhere to use it—knowing what’s good but being unable to find a place to put your money when you really want to support something.
But the situation was different now because a new model had emerged!
Chi Xing Studio’s “Reality Service Department” transformed “Real Estate Agent Simulator” into a platform completely different from Home Group, essentially breaking away from the traditional real estate agency business model and evaluation system, giving everyone a brand new choice.
And those previously hotly discussed online topics naturally all became supporting forces for this new platform!
Of course, after a new platform appears, having popularity and attention isn’t enough—there must also be sufficient resources.
After all, business rules in the real world are cruel. Without resources, advancement is impossible, and you can’t escape the encirclement of vested interests.
But Chi Xing Studio’s “Reality Service Department” had resources—it integrated resources from Shenhua Real Estate and Sloth Apartments!
No shortage of funds, no shortage of reputation, and no shortage of popularity.
The only shortage might be time.
Shenhua Real Estate had projects throughout the country. Just allocating a small portion for rental would create a good advertising effect. It wouldn’t be much compared to their massive annual marketing budget, and might even promote housing sales.
And once Sloth Apartments started the rent-to-buy model, their expansion speed would certainly accelerate dramatically.
Just like Tenda’s other physical industries such as Slackin’ Internet Café, Slackin’ Takeout, Tuoguan Fitness, and Headwind Logistics, the process of taking root in Jingzhou and cultivating a reputation was long, and they showed no aggressiveness during this period. But once the reputation formed and the model matured, their external expansion would spread like wildfire!
And this time, the blow to Home Group would be even heavier.
Previously, the stock price plunge was merely due to the public relations crisis.
Now, a powerful competitor was directly declaring war on them, and behind this competitor stood two giants and countless ordinary tenants who had harbored grudges for a long time!
Of course, in terms of scale and market share in the entire rental market, Home Group had nothing to fear, but the problem was that after this public opinion environment became fixed, Home Group was naturally at a disadvantage.
And for a foreseeable long period in the future, this would be a shortcoming that Home Group could never make up for.
As everyone knew, what Mr. Pei excelled at was striking his competitors’ weaknesses with heavy blows. The competition between GOG and ioi was a vivid example.
Gao Ming slumped in his chair, his mind blank.
Just then, the phone on his desk rang.
Urgent meeting!
One wave had not subsided before another arose. He had thought that after this announcement was released, it would at least bring the current public opinion storm to a close. Unexpectedly, this was just the calm before the storm, and a greater crisis was brewing.
Gao Ming silently stood up and headed to the meeting room.
At this moment, he suddenly felt like he was a microcosm of Home Group: clearly helpless, yet still having to pretend to be trying to change something…
……
……
December 4th, Tuesday.
In the reception room of Terrifying Lodge’s office area, Meng Chang was drinking tea and chatting with Chen Kangtuo.
Throughout yesterday and this morning, Meng Chang had inspected Terrifying Lodge’s roller coaster project.
This roller coaster, named “Operation Skylark,” had been completely built and had been in trial operation for some time, ensuring its safety as a roller coaster should.
Next was waiting until the end of the month for it to officially open to tourists.
Chen Kangtuo wore a confident smile: “How is it? Isn’t this project great? Could it become Terrifying Lodge’s next flagship attraction?”
Meng Chang nodded: “Indeed.”
Chen Kangtuo’s smile grew stronger: “Then… regarding promotional resources…”
He certainly knew why Meng Chang was here.
To define a promotional plan after inspection!
Currently, the marketing and promotion of most projects within Tenda Group were managed by Meng Chang. Even for companies not directly affiliated with Tenda Group, like Chi Xing Studio, Meng Chang was responsible for new product promotions.
Undeniably, this authority was quite important.
Promotional budgets determined a project’s initial popularity and recognition, and to some extent, influenced its success or failure.
For Chen Kangtuo, this “Operation Skylark” roller coaster embodied much of his heart and soul, from the initial burst of inspiration to the lengthy construction that spanned over a year. He had invested a lot of emotion in this project.
So, of course, he hoped this project would receive promotional support, and the more resources, the better!
Now looking at Meng Chang, he seemed to quite approve of this roller coaster.
If that was the case, shouldn’t he provide more promotional funding?
This logic shouldn’t have any issues, right?
However, Meng Chang took a sip of tea: “I don’t plan to create a promotional strategy for the ‘Operation Skylark’ project.”
Chen Kangtuo’s smile froze on his face: “Huh?”
“Didn’t you just say you thought highly of this project?”
Meng Chang nodded: “Yes, precisely because I think highly of it, I’m not creating a promotional strategy.”
Chen Kangtuo scratched his head, his eyes full of confusion.
Meng Chang explained: “Although Tenda is large and prosperous, the promotional resources we control are limited and must be used where they’re most needed.”
Chen Kangtuo nodded: “Yes, ‘Operation Skylark’ invested over 100 million, making it a significant major project within Tenda. Plus, Terrifying Lodge has been operating well and hasn’t received marketing support for a long time. Shouldn’t it be given some attention?”
Meng Chang calmly said: “Don’t rush, let me finish.”
“According to Mr. Pei’s marketing philosophy, we always aim to accomplish great things with minimal spending, achieving the best promotional effects with the least marketing funds. Even though Tenda now has more marketing funds, we can’t be wasteful.”
“You should know that Tenda’s projects aren’t classified by investment but by their deeper nature.”
“Some projects naturally become popular without any intervention; while others might not be accepted initially, but after certain operations, people’s perceptions completely reverse, leading to greater success.”
“Marketing funds naturally shouldn’t go to the former but should be concentrated on the latter.”
“Currently, the ‘Operation Skylark’ project is clearly the former—it will naturally become popular and doesn’t need me to create a marketing plan, which would be redundant.”
“Of course, there will be marketing funds for routine promotion, but that’s unrelated to my plan.”
“Moreover, Terrifying Lodge has other investors, so there won’t be a shortage of promotional funds.”
“In my view, ‘The Successor’ needs me more.”
What Meng Chang said was indeed one reason, but not the complete picture.
Another important reason was that he felt the “Operation Skylark” project couldn’t be promoted using the Pei-style promotion method—it couldn’t be “suppressed”!
With roller coasters, aside from safety concerns, they’re either fun or not fun, with hardly any middle ground.
And “Operation Skylark,” in Meng Chang’s view, clearly belonged to the very fun category, so there was no need to use the Pei-style promotion method.
Because the Pei-style promotion method was a dragonslaying technique, meaning it wouldn’t be effective for killing chickens or ducks.
Moreover, Meng Chang still wanted his commission.
Chen Kangtuo instinctively felt a bit unhappy. After all, who wouldn’t want to secure more promotional resources for their project?
But after pondering, he felt Meng Chang made sense.
As the head of the Advertising and Marketing Department, Meng Chang had to consider the overall picture, and now “The Successor” clearly needed promotional funds more than “Operation Skylark.”
Besides, Chen Kangtuo could find his own ways to promote, whether leveraging Terrifying Lodge’s existing reputation, negotiating partnerships with Mr. Li, or finding ways to collaborate with Tenda Games, utilizing the popularity of “Sea Fortress” DLC and “Mission and Choice.” These were all good approaches.
As a Tenda employee, one should consider the bigger picture and not have departmental biases, as Mr. Pei always emphasized.
Thinking about this, Chen Kangtuo nodded: “You make a good point. Alright then, you focus on ‘The Successor,’ and I’ll figure something out for ‘Operation Skylark’ myself.”