Chapter 174 Pricing Strategy
Pushing open the door of the conference room, a middle-aged man in his thirties was sitting at the end of the long table.
He was wearing a suit and tie, with shiny hair, a gold watch occasionally showing from his sleeve, and a striking and unique brooch on his chest. His outfit looked very sophisticated.
"Mr. Morishita, my name is Shirakawa Kaede, and I would like to thank you for your care for Shirakawa Electric." Although this was his first time visiting the American branch of Shirakawa Electric.
But Baichuan Feng still acted as a host to show his hospitality.
"I heard in the United States that a new company had emerged in the industry, but I didn't expect that Mr. Shirakawa was so young and promising."
Morishita stood up and greeted him while extending his right hand.
Baichuan Feng was slightly stunned, then quickly stretched out his hand and shook hands with him.
After spending so much time in Japan, I almost forgot that shaking hands is the mainstream international way of greeting.
However, Yoichi Morishita has been in the United States for a long time and seems to have completely adapted to the cultural communication methods here.
"Morishita-san, thank you for your praise. I'd like to ask you to help Shirakawa Electric open up sales in the United States."
No matter what the other person's personality is, Baichuan Feng will first offer a string of nice words. After all, no one doesn't like to hear nice words.
Sure enough, when Mr. Morishita saw that Shirakawa Kaede was very humble, he nodded slightly with a look of satisfaction.
"It's all for the economic development of Japan. It's to help local companies expand their markets and improve their competitiveness in the United States. This is exactly the original intention of establishing this association."
“It is an honor for Shirakawa Electric to join the association .”
As expected of a civil servant with a government background, just look at the way he speaks, the height at which he speaks is something that even Shirakawa Feng cannot catch up with.
After all, he just wants to make money.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, both sides sat down again and started talking about the main topic of the day.
"Does Shirakawa-san have any thoughts on the sales of your company's products?"
Yoichi Morishita took out the documents from his briefcase and sorted them out while asking Shirakawa Kaede about his initial views on the US market.
“I can’t really say I have an idea, but if possible, I hope that Shirakawa Electric’s products can enter chain supermarkets.
Open up the bottom-level sales channels and try to expand them to most cities in North America."
Yoichi Morishita smiled and said he had quite a big ambition.
Being able to enter mainstream supermarkets and distribute products in North America is a privilege only afforded to internationally renowned companies.
As for the current Shirakawa Electric, to be honest, the difficulties are extremely great.
“Shirakawa-san, your company’s ambition is admirable.
The association will contact several distributors who have good relations with Japan and ask them to have preliminary communication with your company.
As for first-rate supermarket chains, the association can only provide the contact information of some of their responsible persons.”
Yoichi Morishita can understand Shirakawa Electric's ambitions, but he is not too optimistic about them.
Just kidding, there are only a few unknown companies that can enter large supermarket chains right away.
Sony and Panasonic have all been working in the United States for many years to reach their current scale.
It is extremely difficult to achieve success overnight.
"Thank you so much," to be honest, Shirakawa Feng was already very satisfied that the Electronics Industry Promotion Association could provide so much help.
These distributors may not be very large, but as long as they can negotiate with one, it will be a breakthrough for Shirakawa Electric.
As for the first-rate supermarket chains, to be honest, Baichuan Feng didn't expect to be able to enter their product catalogs just by virtue of the association.
If that were the case, would Sony, Panasonic, and others set up branches in the United States or even build factories locally?
It was beyond Baichuan Feng's expectation to get the contact information of the heads of these first-class supermarkets.
"Morishita-san, I'm sorry to bother you today. I took the trouble to fly to Los Angeles. I will reimburse your travel expenses no matter what. Please accept it."
As he spoke, Baichuan Feng took out an envelope and gently pushed it in front of him.
Huh? When did I fly to LA? Haven't I been here the whole time?
Morishita Yo was stunned for a moment before he reacted, and then his eyes involuntarily fell on the envelope.
"Ahem~" He cleared his throat, "Regarding this part of the expenses, I will report it truthfully to the association."
"That's right, Mr. Morishita is truly a man of high character." Shirakawa Kaede expressed his admiration with tact.
Yoichi Morishita took the envelope dignifiedly, touched it, and found that it felt good.
The moment I put away the envelope, I took a quick glance and it was still green.
More and more satisfied, Yoko Morishita handed the sorted information to Shirakawa Kaede, and then reminded him meaningfully.
"Mr. Shirakawa, please consider carefully some of the conditions that seem tempting before making a decision.
Although those distributors have a good relationship with the association, businessmen always pursue profits.”
"Baichuan has learned your lesson." Baichuan Feng nodded seriously. It seems that the colorful world of capitalism is not as beautiful as it seems.
After seeing off Yoichi Morishita, Kaede Shirakawa gathered all the sales staff of the Shirakawa Electric branch for a meeting.
On the one hand, it is to understand the progress of the work here, and on the other hand, it is to coordinate the arrangements for the next tasks.
After listening to the report from Hasegawa and others, Shirakawa Feng also understood the current situation.
At this time, Shirakawa Electric's development of sales channels here is, well, better than nothing.
They are all very small distributors whose influence is limited to a certain city.
We are still a long way from achieving our goal of covering most cities in North America.
"Hasegawa-san, you will be in charge of contacting the distributors at the Electronics Industry Promotion Association.
As for Yuris and I, let's go and meet with the heads of those supermarkets.
Everyone worked together separately, and other personnel continued to conduct market research at the city level.
Especially in cities where Sony Walkman is already available, they may be the most successful markets for us to promote Flashman."
Sony's Walkman is currently on sale in North America, but it has only been on sale for less than two months.
Shirakawa Electric was a step late, but there was nothing they could do due to the size of the company and its limited resource channels.
However, the markets that Sony has already developed may also be a good opportunity for Shirakawa Electric to take advantage of.
But no matter what, in the end, it can only follow Sony and eat soup.
Shirakawa Kaede was not satisfied with this, so he chose to establish a branch of Shirakawa Electric in Los Angeles.
Sony's main base is currently in Chicago, so the reason for this is intentional.
It's that Shirakawa Kaede still has the ambition to compete with Sony, instead of always following behind the other party and eating the leftovers.
It is important to have dreams. After all, this is also a major driving force for company employees to move forward.
No one had any objection to Baichuan Feng's arrangement.
The distributors in the association have good relationships with each other, so the negotiation intensity shouldn't be great, which is just right for Hasegawa.
As for those chain stores, they must be a tough nut to crack. It is most appropriate to take Yuris, a native, with him.
However, Shirakawa Electric needs to change its strategy regarding the products it promotes.
Thinking of this, Baichuan Feng had already taken out three machines and placed them on the table.
“President, this is…” Hasegawa’s eyes widened immediately when he saw two of these models for the first time.
"This is the next generation of our Walkman, one low-end and one high-end."
Then Baichuan Feng introduced to them in detail the parameters, performance and positioning differences of the two products.
As for the other one, it is the first generation product of Shirakawa Electric, although the appearance does not seem to have changed much.
However, it has also been upgraded on the original basis, and the audio effects have been significantly improved compared to the first generation.
Everyone took over the new generation Walkman passed down by Shirakawa Feng and took turns playing with it.
It has to be said that although the first generation of Walkman was already very good-looking, the second generation not only retained this advantage, but also had a significant improvement in texture.
Especially the SFM-01, which stands out from the crowd.
Yuris fondled the SFM-01 in his hand and said, "Boss, such a great product should have been released earlier.
Believe me, no one can resist such a beautiful machine, especially music lovers.”
As a native, Juris knows everyone's preferences too well. This small all-metal body will definitely appeal to many people's aesthetic tastes.
The unparalleled texture and outstanding appearance design will definitely make people fall in love with it at first sight.
“Of these three models of Walkman, except for the first generation, which can be supplied in large quantities, the other two models will not be mass-produced until after July .
What do you think about their pricing? "
The new generation of products has not yet been released locally and is tentatively scheduled to be released in July.
Moreover, the products supplied to the U.S. market need to be localized, and it is estimated that it will take until after September before they are actually shipped to the other side of the ocean.
As for their pricing, the low-end FM-01 is priced at 18,800 yen in the local market.
The first generation SK-01 was priced at 25,000 yen as a mid-to-low-end supplement.
The high-end SFM-01 is priced at 42,000 yen due to its excellent performance.
Looking at the three models, they basically cover the three levels of high, medium and low.
This will also be Shirakawa Electric's basic strategy for the development of portable players in the future.
Try to cover all audience groups as they are the main force of consumption and should be targeted as much as possible.
As for whether there will be more professional portable players in the future, that depends on market feedback.
Shirakawa Electric is currently conducting research in this area. If there is strong demand from electronics enthusiasts, it is not impossible to consider higher-end products.
Of course, the current priority is overseas promotion. Considering the issue of tariffs, the pricing of this part is worth discussing.
"My initial idea is to price FM-01 at $109, SK-01 at $149, and SFM-01 at $249."
After hearing Baichuan Feng's pricing for the United States, everyone started to calculate silently.
The three pricing ranges are relatively reasonable, at least there is no vague overlap between them.
“Boss, I think our pricing can be a little higher.
Especially the SFM-01, even if the price rises to $280 or even $300, people who like it will still choose it without hesitation.”
Yuris thought such pricing was too conservative, and he had studied the products of Sony, Shirakawa's only competitor.
It is no exaggeration to say that Shirakawa Electric's three products are definitely better than Sony's.
He didn't understand the parameters and performance, but it was not difficult to make a choice just based on the appearance.
What’s more important is that any of Shirakawa Electric’s three products is smaller than Sony’s!
Damn it! Don't they understand that small means advanced, small means fashionable.
Even if Yuris were to choose for himself, he would choose the smaller and more stylish one without hesitation, rather than the "stupid and bulky" one like Sony.
