Chapter 725 A Call from Home
Today, Song Yuanchao proposed to launch a pure water project, which surprised Ying Annie and Ruth.
But if you think about it carefully, this project is actually not bad. Apart from the Laoshan mineral water brand, the current domestic market for water beverages is basically blank. Annie Ying and Ruth both came to the mainland from abroad, and they know much more about it than ordinary people.
At present, Sit's beverage industry has entered a rapid development stage, and the popularity and market share of its products are rising steadily. It is indeed a good idea to take this opportunity to launch the pure water product as soon as possible.
But they were also hesitant because the cost of launching this project was very huge. Although Si Te's financial situation was good, he had spent a lot of money in the past two years. He often spent the money he earned with his left hand and even borrowed a lot of money from the bank.
The blank in the purified water market also indicates the limitations of this market.
People's ideas today are not the same as they were a dozen or twenty years later, when people had just solved the problem of food and clothing, or were even in the process of solving the problem. Spending the same amount of money as a drink to buy a bottle of purified water is simply a waste of money in the eyes of many people.
It’s okay for drinks, after all, drinks are carbonated and have flavor, adults and children love to drink them, and it’s normal to spend money to buy a bottle to try it.
But what is purified water? Isn't it just boiled water in the eyes of ordinary people? How much does it cost to boil a pot of water at home? You can drink as much as you want after it cools down, or even fill a pot with a kettle when you go out. Why spend money to buy water? Isn't that crazy?
The habit of drinking water and other beverages is almost non-existent in the minds of Chinese people nowadays. Coupled with the deep-rooted tradition of hard work and simplicity, this naturally creates a market gap and makes the market much smaller.
Once Sit spends a lot of money to introduce a full set of pure water equipment and launch this project, what if the products produced cannot be sold? This is also a problem they are concerned about.
In response, Song Yuanchao told them not to think too much about it, and he also gave a small business story to illustrate it.
This story is about two shoe-making companies each sending a salesman to a backward island country to develop a new market. When one of the salesmen arrived there, he found that no one there had the habit of wearing shoes and everyone had been barefoot for generations.
After a round of rounds, the salesman went back home in despair and reported to the company that there was no market for shoes here at all because no one wore shoes, so who could they sell their shoes to?
But the other salesman was different. When he saw this scene, he was extremely excited. He quickly telegraphed the company saying that this was a very broad market and no one here wore shoes. If these people could wear their company's shoes, it would bring huge benefits to the company.
The source of this story is "Reader". Now " Reader" is still called "Reader's Digest", but it will change its name in a few years because its original name is exactly the same as the name of a famous American magazine. The United States expressed dissatisfaction with the overlapping names of the two magazines and raised objections. Therefore, starting from the seventh issue in 1993, "Reader's Digest" was officially changed to "Reader".
Readers is the ancestral home for the sale of chicken soup for the soul in China. Every issue will contain various chicken soup stories, and they are very popular.
Song Yuanchao often read this magazine in his previous life. When he was young, he thought many articles made sense. But as he grew older and accumulated social experience, Song Yuanchao gradually lost interest in this magazine. After the age of , he seldom read this kind of thing anymore.
But even so, Song Yuanchao still remembers some of the little stories in the magazine, and the story he just mentioned is one of them.
This was his way of telling Ying Annie and Ruth that the water beverage market cannot be simply judged from the existing market. In most countries around the world, water beverages account for a large proportion of beverage products. China is a country with a large population and is bound to be a major beverage country. With the continuous development of the country and changes in people's lives, the original market structure and people's habits will also change. Referring to Western countries, the market for water beverages will be huge in the future.
Song Yuanchao can be sure of this because he knows that the richest man in China in the future will not be Lao Ma or Xiao Ma, but the boss who sells water.
He became the richest man by selling water. Doesn’t this prove the potential of this market?
Besides, Song Yuanchao had already had his own plan to launch this project. Now, due to changes in the beverage market, Sit's main competitor in beverages is Jianlibao. It used Song Yuanchao's previous layout and means to reverse the unfavorable situation and later came from behind to compete fiercely with Jianlibao.
Except for the southern market, Jianlibao has a clear advantage over Sit, but in other areas Sit has surpassed Jianlibao and is now the leader.
But this competition is for the carbonated beverage market. Sit cannot pin all its hopes on carbonated beverages and must establish a more proactive beverage brand as soon as possible.
In this way, the water beverage project was built in Song Yuanchao's mind. He was very clear that in the future, the focus of the beverage division might be that water beverages would have a greater future than carbonated beverages.
In addition, Song Yuanchao had already received news that a Hong Kong company had started building a factory in Pengcheng. This beverage company, called China Dragon, would produce water beverages in the future. Its product brand was known to many people in later generations, and it was Yilibao.
In the mid-to-late 1980s and into the 1990s, this brand of water drink was very famous and was the first choice for many people.
Later, two other brands came from behind and grabbed most of the market. The owner of one of the brands became the richest man who later became rich by selling water.
It is a step late for Sit to launch this project now, but in terms of the company's strength and its channels, coverage and influence in the beverage market, Sit still has great advantages.
This is also the reason why Song Yuanchao decided to launch this project as soon as possible. It is better to do it early than late. The sooner it goes into production, the sooner it can occupy the market.
With Song Yuanchao's insistence, the water beverage project was approved. Next, Song Yuanchao will convene a meeting of company executives to determine and implement it.
However, Song Yuanchao did not plan to continue to keep this project in Nanjing, but in Gusu.
Suzhou's geographical location is better than Nanjing and it is also close to Shanghai. In addition, Lin Daoyuan's secretary Xiao Shao works there, and Song Yuanchao's old friend Zhang Weidong is also there.
By the way, when we talk about them, we have to mention Shenghua Telecom, because Shenghua Telecom and Suzhou were the first to start cooperation, and with the cooperation of the local government, the cooperation progressed very smoothly. At the beginning of this year, Shenghua Telecom formulated a new cooperation method, and Suzhou was also the first batch.
As Shenghua Telecom laid out its channels in the mainland market, its business volume began to grow substantially, which brought certain benefits to the local area and was also one of the political achievements of Xiao Shao and Zhang Weidong.
But this political achievement can only help Xiao Shao gain a foothold in Gusu. After all, the cooperation in telecommunications only benefits a small part of it, and the impact is not significant compared to the overall economic improvement of Gusu.
Song Yuanchao had long promised Xiao Shao that he would give him a big project if he had the chance, and now the water beverage factory project is the best big project.
Setting up a factory in the area of Suzhou close to Shanghai has a convenient geographical location and complete infrastructure. With the care , there will be no problem in setting up the factory.
Moreover, it is obvious that once this factory is established and put into production, it will bring enormous benefits to the local area.
When the senior management of Si Te Company approved the project, Song Yuanchao immediately called Xiao Shao. Upon hearing the news, Xiao Shao was so excited on the phone that he almost booked a train ticket to Jinling to meet Song Yuanchao in person to discuss the implementation of the project.
Song Yuanchao told him not to worry, he could definitely guarantee the implementation of the project, but Si Te also had conditions. This project was not small, and if it were not for his relationship with Xiao Shao, it would be impossible to put the project in Gusu.
Xiao Shao had been a secretary to a leader for so many years, so he was naturally a smart man. He understood what Song Yuanchao said as soon as he heard it. He immediately told him on the phone that as long as the project was implemented, everything would be fine. He just told him how he needed his cooperation. They were not outsiders, and it was thanks to Song Yuanchao that he thought of him for this project.
Song Yuanchao told him on the phone that he should make preparations first and inform his superiors. He and his company's people would go to Gusu for an on-site inspection in the near future and they would discuss the matter in detail then.
After hanging up the phone, Xiao Shao was inexplicably excited. Unable to sit still, he stood up and walked around the office several times, lit a cigarette and took a deep puff, calmed down his excitement, then thought for a while, picked up the phone and called Zhang Weidong.
Qin Zhengguo just came back a few days ago. This time he stayed in the United States for nearly two months.
Setting up the company in the United States took up a lot of his time and energy. In addition, he also had to discuss some cooperation with Ying Anlun and conduct in-depth research on the market there. He was very busy these days.
Finally, everything has come to an end. There is nothing major happening in the company at the moment. The next specific work will be handled by the professional managers and George below, and he does not need to continue to keep an eye on it.
It was only after returning to Hong Kong that Qin Zhengguo learned about Sheng Hua and Da Liu. After listening to Xu Hui's report, Qin Zhengguo was stunned at first, and then burst into laughter.
He didn't expect that such a big thing would happen in Hong Kong just two months after he left. Song Yuanchao originally considered that the matter was over, and it took a very short time from making up his mind to implementation. There is a time difference between Pengcheng and the United States, and communication is not convenient now, so Song Yuanchao did not discuss it with Qin Zhengguo in detail and made the decision directly.
Qin Zhengguo did not mean to blame Song Yuanchao. They were not only brothers, but also educated youth comrades who had experienced life and death. Besides, Song Yuanchao was the real boss of Shenghua, and it was entirely Song Yuanchao's right to make such a decision.
What's more, Sheng Hua gained a lot of benefits from this incident, and it also taught Da Liu a lesson, making Da Liu owe them a favor.
But Qin Zhengguo felt a little regretful that he was not present for such an interesting event.
After resting in Hong Kong for two days and adjusting to the jet lag, Qin Zhengguo was just planning to find time to meet Liu for a drink and make fun of him when he received a call from his hometown.
