On the other side, Pei Qian turned off the livestream and finally felt at ease. He was no longer at the company but had come to Slackin’ Internet Café, watching the final segment of the street food competition on his phone. Since the competition wasn’t over yet, the company had already finished work for the day. Pei Qian had repeatedly ordered that employees shouldn’t work overtime, and of course, he couldn’t break the rules himself, so as soon as work ended, he punctually sent everyone off, leaving with the employees.
Arriving at Slackin’ Internet Café, he ordered dinner and watched the conclusion of the street food competition while eating. The final result of the street food competition basically aligned with Pei Qian’s expectations. The event cost quite a bit, bringing in famous street food vendors from across the country, renting a luxury hotel, plus expenses for ingredients, photography, and other costs. The event itself didn’t generate any heat for Tenda. Though the Cold Noodle Lady brand appeared, it was harshly criticized by the judges and completely devalued, achieving entirely negative advertising effects.
As expected, the Cold Noodle Lady brand would only become even colder. In the restaurant industry, the most important factor is returning customers, and the key to attracting them lies in taste and reputation. Now Cold Noodle Lady’s reputation had collapsed, the previously hyped taste had been exposed, and fewer people would go to Cold Noodle Lady stores to eat, meaning the money for maintaining normal store operations was essentially wasted.
Pei Qian even had bolder ideas. If Cold Noodle Lady remained in this completely dead state, purely losing money without profit, then afterward Pei Qian could tentatively do some promotion and spend more money. Advertising burns money much faster than normal operations! Of course, the prerequisite was confirming that Cold Noodle Lady was completely dead, that no amount of advertising could save it. For now, he couldn’t rush; he needed to observe.
Thinking of this, Pei Qian felt better, and even the food at Slackin’ Internet Café tasted sweeter than usual.
…
That evening, soon after Qi Yan returned home after finishing follow-up work, she received a message from a colleague. “Today’s competition video has been edited and uploaded.”
Qi Yan immediately replied: “Okay, thanks for your hard work, get some rest.”
According to Meng Chang’s original plan, this video needed careful editing to meet variety show standards, adding various effects to ensure program quality. But Meng Chang’s plan no longer counted. Qi Yan had called He Desheng for instructions, and he said this video didn’t need much effort – just basic editing before uploading online.
So after the event ended, Qi Yan’s colleague began editing without adding special effects, directly uploading it online. When Qi Yan got home, the video had just passed review. Checking it, the video had almost no views as she expected. Qi Yan couldn’t be bothered with these matters anymore; in her view, this street food competition was finally over, with no follow-up.
This video would likely be buried in the internet’s ocean like most online videos. Of course, they could spend money to promote it to the homepage, but that seemed unnecessary. Though today’s competition was relatively successful, Qi Yan couldn’t understand the point of such activities, deeply doubting her future career path at Cold Noodle Lady.
Just then, she received another message from a different colleague: “Sister Qi, many people online seem to be discussing this competition, and some are analyzing its deeper meaning!”
Seeing this message, Qi Yan looked confused, a question mark floating above her head. Discussing the competition made sense, but analyzing its deeper meaning? This street food competition was originally just a marketing activity to promote Cold Noodle Lady. What deeper meaning could it have?
With these doubts, Qi Yan searched online and quickly found what netizens were discussing. Though Cold Noodle Lady had gone cold, online discussion remained high. As a representative internet restaurant brand, Cold Noodle Lady had advertised across the internet at its peak, and various bizarre marketing activities left deep impressions on netizens.
Later, netizens engaged in heated debate about whether “Cold Noodle Lady” was a new business model or a scam, until Cold Noodle Lady’s recent closure gradually settled the discussion. So whenever news related to Cold Noodle Lady appeared online, many netizens still participated in discussions.
This time, netizens discussed “where Cold Noodle Lady goes in the post-Meng Chang era,” with the street food competition serving as a catalyst. The most shared and discussed was an article titled “From the Street Food Competition, Observing Cold Noodle Lady’s ‘Breaking’ and ‘Establishing.'”
This article, published less than an hour ago, already had tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments, rapidly increasing. Qi Yan found the author’s name familiar. Looking at their previous articles, she discovered this was the same author who wrote “Cold Noodle Lady’s So-Called Internet Thinking is Merely Pretense”!
That previous article written before Cold Noodle Lady’s collapse was a perfect finishing blow. The phrase “Meng Chang is like a child in the passenger seat pretending to drive, thinking he controls the car’s direction and charging passengers as the driver; but in reality, neither the car nor the road is under his control” could be described as devastating, delivering a heavy blow to Cold Noodle Lady’s public opinion.
Qi Yan had read this article then and greatly admired the author. At that time, though Cold Noodle Lady seemed fine on the surface, undercurrents were already stirring. It certainly had many problems, but not everyone could see them clearly. This article’s author not only saw through Cold Noodle Lady’s core issues but also conveyed them using plain language and perfect metaphors. This was definitely an expert.
Now, surprisingly, he wrote another article about Cold Noodle Lady. What would this article say? Cold Noodle Lady was already stone cold. If the author just announced the correctness of his predictions or kicked them while down, the article would be unnecessary. With some confusion, Qi Yan clicked to read the article.
“Cold Noodle Lady went bankrupt as this author previously predicted. Reportedly, Meng Chang owes millions in debt, becoming a debtor with unknown whereabouts. This proves this author’s foresight and confirms that Meng Chang’s emphasized ‘internet thinking’ and ‘following the times’ were merely pretty words that could fool investors but not business laws.”
“Many say Cold Noodle Lady is finished with no hope of recovery. This author thought so too until today, but after gathering industry information and seeing today’s street food competition, I suddenly changed my mind.”
“Allegedly, Tenda Group has acquired 70% of Cold Noodle Lady’s shares, gaining absolute control. Though unclear what Mr. Pei values in Cold Noodle Lady, this author can say with 100% certainty that Mr. Pei has found the method to break the deadlock for ‘post-Meng Chang era’ Cold Noodle Lady, and this street food competition is the beginning!”
…
Reading this, Qi Yan felt confused and surprised. As someone inside Cold Noodle Lady, she clearly knew this street food competition’s situation: it was originally a marketing activity designed by Meng Chang to promote Cold Noodle Lady. So this article’s analysis seemed absurd. How could the street food competition be Mr. Pei’s method for breaking the deadlock?
But thinking again, Qi Yan realized this possibility existed. Mr. Pei specifically inquired about changing from recorded to live broadcast and having judges honestly and strictly evaluate Cold Noodle Lady. Was it necessary for busy Mr. Pei to concern himself with such minor matters? Could these two tiny changes not be Mr. Pei’s whim but have deeper meaning?
Qi Yan hurried to continue reading.
…
“This author previously analyzed that internet restaurant brands like Cold Noodle Lady share similar problems: heavy marketing, light product. Simply put, they overboast while their products can’t reach marketing hype levels.”
“This author once said that in any era, no one is much smarter than others. Even clever people can only fool consumers temporarily, not forever. Whether Cold Noodle Lady’s grilled cold noodles taste good, everyone has their answer. No matter how good the marketing, if the noodles’ flavor doesn’t meet expectations, it’s ultimately a house of cards.”
“Cold Noodle Lady’s problems also reflect Meng Chang’s greatest flaw as an entrepreneur: he kept looking up and far ahead but never stayed grounded.”
“Thus, Cold Noodle Lady’s failure was inevitable.”
“But after ownership changed, through this street food competition, Mr. Pei conveyed an entirely new business philosophy: being realistic, valuing products, respecting talent!”
“This differs vastly from Cold Noodle Lady’s philosophy under Meng Chang – essentially, they’re completely opposite.”
“In this street food competition, we saw: Cold Noodle Lady’s grilled noodles competed with excellent vendors from across the country, with judges showing no favoritism toward host Cold Noodle Lady, objectively and even harshly pointing out numerous problems with Cold Noodle Lady’s noodles.”
“This demonstrates two things:”
“First, Meng Chang era Cold Noodle Lady’s taste has a definitive answer. It’s better than average roadside stands but far from as good as Meng Chang claimed.”
“This amounts to official conclusion, completely negating Meng Chang’s excessive marketing tactics, honestly telling all consumers the truth about Cold Noodle Lady’s food taste.”
“Second, by negating Meng Chang era’s business philosophy, it simultaneously announces establishing a new business philosophy!”
“Meng Chang constantly boasted about Cold Noodle Lady’s grilled noodles, but today’s competition exposed the truth. Whether cooking temperature, seasoning amounts, or water spraying timing, Cold Noodle Lady’s chefs did poorly, even worse than some excellent vendors.”
“This shows Meng Chang’s ‘strict taste requirements’ only existed in words; he didn’t truly study grilled noodle flavors.”
“What Mr. Pei conveyed was: future Cold Noodle Lady will strictly control details, further improving noodle taste and flavor; while being realistic about taste, eliminating false advertising!”
“Most crucially, valuing talent.”
“This street food competition gathered excellent vendors nationwide. Mr. Pei showed eager talent-seeking attitude through this competition, discovering folk experts truly skilled in snack preparation, giving them better platforms to showcase abilities!”
“So this street food competition, seemingly ordinary marketing, has profound significance behind it.”
“View it as a summary: summarizing and criticizing Meng Chang’s wrong business philosophy; or as a declaration, announcing Cold Noodle Lady’s future correct business philosophy!”
“How will Cold Noodle Lady develop? Can this stone-cold brand revive under Mr. Pei? Let’s wait and see!”