Chapter 270 – Advice for Zhang Ruiqiang
Feng Yu and the rest finished their dinner, and Secretary Zhao brought Feng Yu to Zhang Ruiqiang. The restaurant Manager Zhao also found out that Feng Yu was not only wealthy, but he was even close to Mayor Zhang too. Could Feng Yu, the son of some provincial official?
He was considering if he should return Feng Yu his change and also bring some fruits and drinks to him. He does not want Feng Yu to talk bad about him as Mayor Zhang could remove him from his position anytime.
“Mayor Zhang, why did you call me over? Oh, you know Zhang Han? What is her family doing? I remember that there is no leader with the surname Zhang in the City.” Feng Yu thought who the person from Zhang Han’s family was.
“City? You should think higher up.” Zhang Ruiqiang hinted.
Higher up? That means Provincial Government? There were no officials that fit the age with the surname Zhang. Those with the same surname were either in their 50s or 30s. They cannot be her father or grandfather.
Zhang Ruiqiang saw Feng Yu loss in thoughts and laughed: “What’s wrong? You like her? Her family specialized in catching gangsters and hooligans.”
“Provincial Police Chief? But that Chief Zhang is in his 50s.”
Since Zhang Ruiqiang knew Zhang Han, that means her father or grandfather must be a high ranking official. If it was her uncle or other relatives, they should not be so close. But someone in the 50s will be too old to be her father and too young to be her grandfather.
“Chief Zhang got his daughter late, and he had only a daughter. You really don’t want to consider? I can help you talk to her father. If she marries you, you will have a strong backing.”
“Mayor Zhang, if you carry on talking about this, I will leave. My friends are still waiting for me to play poker.”
Zhang Ruiqiang: “……” From Feng Yu’s tone, it seems that playing poker was more important.
“You are a businessman, and you are smart. Help me think of a solution to help Bing City’s tobacco factory.”
Tobacco factory? What’s wrong with the tobacco factory?
“Mayor Zhang, I don’t understand what you mean. I had just imported the machinery for the factory two years ago, and it is for the factory’s expansion. From your question, is there any problems with the tobacco sales?”
Feng Yu remembered in his past life that Bing City cigarettes were selling well during this period. At least it was selling well in the Northeast 3 provinces.
But soon, it was the cigarettes sales slowly declined. Feng Yu guessed that it was because of the drop in production and also there was a lack of branding which resulted in the factory making a loss.
“Our Bing City Tobacco factory had been around for quite some time, but the cigarettes it produces are of lower standards. We can’t even export it to other provinces. Some tobacco factories in the south make lots of profits and why is our Bing City’s tobacco factory performing so badly? Could it be there is something wrong with the production techniques? But they have bought the Soviet Union’s machinery from you. The City Government had also provided enough funds for the factory.”
Zhang Ruiqiang had come to Beijing to look for a way to help the tobacco factory. The tobacco factory cannot be struggling and making losses every year. The City Government cannot be supporting the factory forever.
The City’s restructuring of its state-owned enterprises had been mostly successful, but some enterprises had problems. The tobacco factory was one of the worst.
Feng Yu replied: “Mayor Zhang, I do not have a solution for you. The Soviet Union’s tobacco machinery is much better and more efficient than the old machines in the factory. The old machines were not wasted and were sold to Lin Province. I did not make a lot from this deal. I did not include the technologies together with the machine was because the Soviet Union cigarettes had a different favor from our cigarettes. Their cigarettes taste more like Marlboro. How many people in China like to smoke Marlboro cigarettes?”
“I am not saying the machinery you sold to the factory have problems. I need you to help me think of a solution. If the tobacco factory carries on making losses, it will shut down in two years.”
Feng Yu racked his brains to think of a solution. Coming out with a premium cigarette? No, the higher-ups will put a stop to it, and the factory might even be punished.
Coming out with a new cigarette favor? If the tobacco factory could do that, they would have done it ages ago.
Wait, there might be a solution which would work, but the City government must agree to it.
“Mayor Zhang, you remember how I marketed Tai Hua Premium Oil?”
“Humph! You still dare to mention that? You made everyone believed that you are the exclusive supplier for our Foreign Trade Bureau. I still have to explain to the leaders. Since when did we appoint you as the exclusive supplier? And why are you talking about this now?” Zhang Ruiqiang was fuming when he thought about this incident.
Feng Yu smiled: “We can make exclusive cigarettes.”
“What? Exclusive cigarettes? What are you talking about?”
Feng Yu suddenly remembered he had heard in his past life that Bing City’s tobacco factory had come out with exclusive cigarettes and the cigarettes were exclusively for the Provincial leaders. The cigarettes not expensive and it still tastes good. But the production was low, and it was hard to get it on the market.
Feng Yu could not remember which year he heard about this, but from Zhang Ruiqiang’s reaction, it should not exist now.
“Mayor Zhang, relax. Was the way I marketed Tai Hua Premium oil illegal?”
“It’s just soybean oil. Of course, it is legal. Why are you asking?”
“Then why can’t we promote our cigarettes as exclusive cigarettes? Will it be against the regulations? I think we can even print the words ‘Bing City Exclusive’ on the cigarette box and do away with other pictures. Let the consumers go and guess what the exclusive mean.”
“The sales will increase just by printing these words?” Zhang Ruiqiang was not convinced.
“It will surely increase! I guess the tobacco must have new techniques to produce cigarettes. Let them lower the production for those lower quality and filterless cigarettes and increase the production of the premium cigarettes. This ‘Bing City Exclusive Cigarettes’ should be priced like Zhonghua cigarettes and we can even price it 1 RMB more than Zhonghua.”
“1 RMB more than Zhonghua? Will people be buying it?” Zhang Ruiqiang’s eyes widen. Zhonghua Cigarettes was currently China’s most expensive brand of cigarettes.
“There will surely be people buying it, and I guess that the cigarettes will appear on your desk immediately.” Feng Yu hinted.
Zhang Ruiqiang thought about what Feng Yu said, and he understood what Feng Yu meant. Gifts!
Feng Yu wanted to position this cigarette as a premium cigarette brand. Even if no one were willing to smoke this cigarette, they would buy it as gifts.
This might work, but Zhang Ruiqiang felt that this was an unconventional method.
But if he does not do this, then the tobacco factory will continue to ask for funds from the government.
Feng Yu continued to persuade Zhang Ruiqiang: “Look at Hongtashan brand. How did this brand become popular? This brand of cigarettes was used exclusively as gifts. Also, Zhonghua cigarettes were marketed as the cigarette smoked by leaders. What’s wrong with our way of marketing? We can even let our factory’s salesmen ……”
Zhang Ruiqiang was persuaded by Feng Yu. He decided to go back and tell the Mayor. He felt embarrassed to use this method, but it was all for the tobacco factory’s workers.