Chapter 178: Game Boy
Faced with David's possible additional conditions, Baichuan Feng and Yulis both looked serious.
David, who was paunchy, took a sip of coffee and said, "Bai, do you know the service tenet of Marshall's Department Store?"
Baichuan Feng's expression moved and he had some guesses in his mind.
"The customer is always right." David didn't keep the secret. He put down his coffee and pointed at the table with his finger to emphasize.
"Mr. David, what you mean is..." Baichuan Feng became more and more certain in his heart, but he still wanted to hear the other party's specific requirements.
"After-sales" David said what he was thinking, "Bai, you know. These electronic products sometimes always have problems of one kind or another.
Maybe it’s a problem with the product, or maybe it’s a problem with the customer.
But for Marshall, the customer is always right.
So, Bai, to achieve this, after-sales service is the top priority.
Shirakawa Electric must be able to respond within 48 hours, at any location and at any time.”
Sure enough, Baichuan Feng thought to himself that such a request was indeed too demanding.
A 48-hour response may not be a big deal in the future, but it was only 1980, and there were no mobile phones or the Internet.
The so-called response can only be carried out manually.
The United States is so big that it is not easy to achieve this.
"Shirakawa Electric will follow in Marshall's footsteps and set up service points in major cities to handle customers' after-sales issues in a timely manner."
Although he knew that the cost of doing so would be huge, Baichuan Feng still had to take this step.
And even if it doesn't do it now, Shirakawa Electric will eventually take this step if it wants to further expand its influence in the United States in the future.
"Bai, I admire your decisiveness." David showed a satisfied smile on his face, then he stood up and stretched out his hand.
"Then welcome to join Marshall and become a member of the department store family."
"It is an honor for Shirakawa Electric. It is a pleasure to cooperate with you, Mr. Bob."
The two sides shook hands and formally finalized the cooperation.
Of course, for more detailed rules, Ulis needs to communicate further with the Marshall team.
The supermarket chain finally found a breakthrough, and Baichuan Feng's originally anxious mood instantly relaxed.
After leaving David's office, Baichuan Feng immediately started talking to Yulis.
"We have opened a breakthrough for Marshall. As long as our Walkman can be successfully put on the shelves, more and more people will definitely like it."
Not only Shirakawa Feng, but also Yulis is quite confident about this.
"So its market will open up soon, and then we will negotiate with other department stores and keep the price in the same range as Marshall's."
As long as the market can be opened up, it will be inevitable that Walmart and Target will also be there in the future.
"Also regarding after-sales service..." Baichuan Feng stopped in the corridor, frowning slightly.
“When choosing a site, try to consider the respective radiation ranges and save as much cost as possible.
A group of relevant technical personnel will first be transferred from the Neon headquarters, and local personnel recruitment should not be left behind.
At that time, the old employees will guide the new ones, and after the local employees are qualified, they will be immediately sent to after-sales points in various places."
"Understood, Boss." Julis nodded seriously.
He will also be responsible for the following tasks when there is no suitable candidate for the time being.
Although after-sales services require a lot of manpower, fortunately, Marshall only has a few hundred stores across the country.
Most of them are concentrated in prosperous metropolises, and the locations will not be too scattered. This way, the logistical pressure on Shirakawa Electric will be much smaller.
Moreover, the Walkman was not put on the shelves of Marshall stores simultaneously across the United States.
It will inevitably spread gradually from point to surface based on sales data and customer feedback.
All this also gave Shirakawa Electric time to react. Although the steps were small, at least they would not cause any harm.
As "Boss" was walking out in a hurry, Julis suddenly spoke.
"We may also consider building factories in the United States in the future. You know, those politicians like these the most.
And this will save us a lot of trouble, this is the tacit understanding of everyone."
Baichuan Feng nodded to show his understanding, "Julis, I will seriously consider your suggestion , but the premise is that our products sell well."
He also understood some of the unspoken rules, but now was not the time to consider building a factory.
Ocean freighter shipping charges are based on the volume of the merchandise, and walkmans are very small in size, so the shipping costs are not exaggerated.
The shipping costs of those color TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines are the biggest expense, which is another factor why Sony and Panasonic built factories in the United States.
Because the volume is too large, it is not cost-effective, and there will be various damages during transportation.
However, Shirakawa Electric does not have to worry about shipping costs for the time being, and there is no rush to build a factory.
After leaving the Marshall's department store, Baichuan Feng found James who was still waiting there.
"James, thank you so much for your help.
I have to say this solved a big problem for me. This is my little token of my appreciation. Please don’t hesitate to show off.”
As for James, Baichuan Feng also handed him an envelope as a reward.
In a pure capitalist country, dollar is the ultimate goal of all actions.
"Oh, man, you're so kind. I haven't even shown you how wild LA girls can be."
James took the envelope, twisted it to feel its thickness, and immediately gaped.
"Next time." Baichuan Feng patted his shoulder and said goodbye to him.
"Bai, next time I will definitely take you to experience the authentic Fernando Valley scenery, the authentic one!"
After returning from Fernando Valley, Bai Chuanfeng held another meeting with the people in the branch, mainly to explain the follow-up work.
He has said almost everything that needs to be said, and the rest can be carried out step by step.
He and Asuka Kobayashi are planning to fly back to Japan tonight, and the U.S. market will be temporarily managed by Hasegawa and Ulis.
As for higher-end professional managers, headhunters are still wielding their hoes.
The market development in the United States came to an end, and Shirakawa Kaede and Kobayashi Asuka also boarded a plane to Neon in the night.
…
Shirakawa Kaede, who had just arrived in Tokyo, didn't even have time to adjust to the jet lag before rushing straight to the office building where HAL was located in Akihabara.
“Is this our first generation handheld game console?”
"That's right, Shirakawa-kun, what do you think?" Although Iwata's face was haggard, his eyes were very excited.
In order to successfully port the two games to the handheld console within the limited time, Satoru Iwata almost skipped classes to write code.
Fortunately, hard work pays off and everything went smoothly.
Shirakawa Feng took Shirakawa Electric's first-generation handheld game console, Game Boy, and looked at it carefully.
About the size of a palm, the orange shell is very eye-catching. In order to improve the texture, a layer of metal-like film is coated on the surface.
Facing the light, the orange shell shines brightly. Tsk, I have to say that Shirakawa Electric has never disappointed people in terms of appearance design.
Turning over the front, a printed screen occupies most of the area of the handheld. On the left is a cross key for controlling the direction, and on the right is a circular function key.
The few small buttons above represent the auxiliary keys for game switching, the sound on/off key, etc.
In order to enhance the viewing experience, these areas are covered with a blue printed background with the "GAME&BOY" and Shirakawa Electric logos on them.
The most eye-catching thing is the cool-looking space fighter patterns on both sides of the screen.
Regardless of the actual content, the promotional pictures must be amazing.
This is the general appearance of Shirakawa Electric's first generation of handheld game consoles, which is quite simple compared to later handheld game consoles.
But compared to Nintendo's handheld consoles, it is definitely the Lamborghini of game consoles.
Not to mention the appearance, the printed screen is a circle larger than the other one.
Although Shirakawa Electric's handheld game console does not have a time function, it has added a sound function.
Corresponding sound effects will be broadcast during the game. Considering that the players are mainly students, Shirakawa Electric's handheld game console has also thoughtfully added a sound on/off button.
Is the teacher here? Are the parents here to check on the children? Just press the little button and the whole world will be peaceful in an instant, and you can play happily again.
Nintendo's handheld consoles do not have any of these features.
Shabby, really shabby.
"Have the patents for the cross keys been registered?" After playing with it for a while, Shirakawa Feng raised his head and asked a young man next to him, Akagi.
He is an employee of Shirakawa Electric's technical department, responsible for the design of handheld game console hardware.
He was the first to discover the logo on Aiwa’s circuit board last time.
Subsequently, it performed outstandingly many times at the creative selection conference held within Shirakawa Electric.
Seeing that he had great potential and in order to further train him, Shirakawa Feng handed the handheld game console project to him.
This kind of project, which is relatively low in both difficulty and cost, is most suitable for young people to practice.
When Akagi heard Shirakawa Kaede's question, he immediately lowered his head and answered.
“The square cross key, round cross key, and internal micro-structure adjustments have all been patented.”
"Yo, well done." Shirakawa Feng, who had transformed into a colonel, expressed his satisfaction.
That’s right, the famous cross key. Since your Nintendo hasn’t used it yet, I won’t be polite.
Now it is in the shape of Shirakawa Electric.
Not only that, Shirakawa Electric also registered several similar designs.
When Nintendo finally gets an idea and registers it with its brilliant idea, hehehehe...
It’s not that Baichuan Feng wants to be a patent troll, but he always has to be on guard against others.
Who knows if a small company will suddenly pop up in some corner and sue him for infringement in the future.
Therefore, all new technologies involved by Shirakawa Electric, whether in principle or appearance, must be patented first.
Never overestimate the integrity of your competitors, and never underestimate their greed.
If one day you develop a hostile relationship with one of the companies, then forget about applying their patents.
He did this to prepare for a rainy day.
After watching his own handheld game console, Shirakawa Kaede finally felt more confident about Nintendo, his potential rival.
Shirakawa Electric's handheld game consoles are far superior to Nintendo in terms of workmanship and appearance.
Moreover, its cost is only about 900 yen, which is lower than Shirakawa Kaede imagined. This may be because Shirakawa Electric has full industrial chain processing.
Anko Electric, Shirakawa Electric and HAL are responsible for everything from raw material processing to finished products and content design.
This also led to the cost of the handheld game console being reduced to an extreme level, even to less than 1,000 yen.
Shirakawa Kaede doesn't know the exact cost of Nintendo, but it is at least several hundred yen higher than Shirakawa Electric.
A few hundred yen may not seem like much, but that's how competitive it is.
Baichuan Feng already had an idea about the pricing of Baichuan Electric's handheld game console.
