Chapter 42: Planning

Lu Hanming is a native of Yuncheng who enjoys wandering around in his spare time; he has a very wide social circle and has mastered a great deal of local commercial information. With his help, Di Ye only needed one morning to get the flagship store's renovation finished.

"Brother-in-law, you really are a living map. You should be a reporter for the *Yuncheng Evening News* or Yuncheng Television Station; it's a waste of your talent at the Literary Publishing House."

"I'd like to be a reporter, but unfortunately, I don't have the connections. Getting a permanent staff position is too difficult."

"If you really want to be a reporter, I'll help you find a way later."

"Forget it. Being a reporter is too tiring; it's not as comfortable as being an Editor."

Lu Hanming's ambition is almost zero. Sitting on a second-hand sofa to the right of the flagship store, he examined the row of second-hand television cabinets in front of him and said, "Xiao Ye, you've gathered so much second-hand junk; it's too crude. It doesn't show any class."

Di Ye opened the second-hand beverage cooler at the shop entrance, took out two cans of cola, handed one over, and said, "I have other ways to improve the class."

"What ways?"

"Wait until Huang Ya gets back."

Lu Hanming is now a die-hard fan of Di Ye and doesn't mind him being mysterious. After cracking open the cola and taking two sips, he remembered something, stood up, and said, "Today's *Yuncheng Evening News* should be out. It has the film review you wrote in it. I'm going to go buy a copy to see."

"Buy an extra copy; I want to see it too."

Not long after Lu Hanming left, Huang Ya returned from the Tianma Cinema next door with a movie poster for *Red Sorghum*. She was also a bit thirsty, took the cola can from Di Ye's hand, took a small sip, and said, "Manager Zhou agreed to cooperate with us, but the ticket price won't be discounted—25 yuan per ticket."

"If there's no discount, so be it. Can he provide the posters?"

"He gave us a business card for a printing factory and told us to contact them ourselves. We can print as many as we want."

"That guy is really stingy!"

Di Ye grumbled, placed the *Red Sorghum* poster on the sofa, pointed to the furnishings in the shop, and asked, "What do you think?"

Huang Ya looked around and saw that the four walls were covered with movie posters and celebrity promotional pictures. Although it was a bit cluttered, it created the atmosphere of a fan circle. In the middle, a row of shelves served as a partition, dividing the space into two.

The right side was the reception area, furnished with several sets of sofas and eight half-person-tall television cabinets; the left side was the business registration area, with four counters with glass partitions lined up in a row. Behind the counters sat a medicine cabinet with many small drawers, and on the outside of the drawers were white labels with various movie categories written on them, such as "Martial Arts," "Romance," "Sylvester Stallone," "Cheng Long," and so on.

"It's pretty good, but the office supplies are too mixed; it's a bit incongruous."

"It will be fine once we put the items on display. For example, on these television cabinets, we'll put eight 25-inch televisions to loop movie trailers and highlights. For example, these shelves will be filled with VCD Players, and we'll stick celebrity photos on the outside of the medicine cabinet..."

After Di Ye introduced the follow-up layout, he added, "On the day of the grand opening, I'll find some extras to line up at the door to create a bustling scene. By then, no one will pay attention to these second-hand office supplies."

"Where are you going to find extras?"

"After your younger brother returns from Guangdong Province, go to Radio Factory No. 3 and shout it out. At 20 yuan a day, I reckon we can get a hundred people."

Huang Ya couldn't help but laugh and said, "Old men and women won't do; it's easy to give the game away. We must find young people... By the way, Xiao Shan called me yesterday. They are leaving Guangdong Province this afternoon and should arrive before 7:00 tomorrow evening."

"Did they manage to buy the *Red Sorghum* discs?"

"They did, 50 sets in total."

"50 sets should be enough. Out of that Hollywood Classic Movie Catalog I gave to Bi Wanxi, how many titles did he manage to buy?"

"About 80, I think. He basically bought all the ones you marked with an asterisk."

Di Ye felt that having 80 classic movies to hold down the fort was enough to attract a wave of film fans, so after Lu Hanming returned with the newspaper, he began to arrange the specific operations.

First, he wrote the advertising slogan "Yingfeng invites you to watch a movie!" on the *Red Sorghum* poster Huang Ya had brought back. He had Lu Hanming use this as a template to go to the printing factory that afternoon to print 500 copies, and then hire a group of people to act in the middle of the night to plaster the posters all over Qingyun Road.

After hearing this, Lu Hanming reminded him, "Doing this damages the city's appearance; you'll definitely be fined."

"According to the *Yuncheng City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Regulations* formulated in 1993, those who distribute or post advertisements in public places without approval shall be fined between 500 and 2,000 yuan if the circumstances are serious."

In the 90s, city appearance management was far less strict than in later generations, and there was no penalty of "confiscation of illegal gains," so Di Ye was fearless. He deduced, "Tomorrow, the *Yuncheng Evening News* will publish news about Qingyun Road being plastered with advertisements overnight. The day after tomorrow, it will publish news about our company being fined 2,000 yuan. The day after that, it will publish our company's letter of apology, and the day after that, it will publish news about our company inviting sanitation workers to watch a movie to make up for our mistake..."

Ever since leaving home on New Year's Eve, Huang Ya had never imitated Zhou Xingchi again, but at this moment, she couldn't help but reveal an exaggerated expression and said with a smile, "You really are cunning!"

Di Ye also laughed, spread his hands, and said, "In short, 2,000 yuan to buy an advertisement that makes the whole city know who we are is a very good deal."

Huang Ya also thought it was a good deal, but she felt that the advertising slogan wasn't good. She said, "Yingfeng has just been established; no one knows what our business is, nor do they know exactly where the shop is. If we only write that one sentence on the poster, won't the effect be poor?"

Lu Hanming finally understood why Di Ye had asked him to go to the *Yuncheng Evening News* to reserve space in advance. He shook the newspaper in his hand and said with a smile, "Xiao Ye arranged this two days ago. Tomorrow's *Yuncheng Evening News* will carry a full-page advertisement for Yingfeng, which includes our specific business and detailed address."

"But not everyone reads the *Yuncheng Evening News*."

"Isn't that even better? People who don't know will ask around everywhere, thereby creating an even greater dissemination effect."

Huang Ya thought that made sense, then asked, "Yingfeng invites you to watch a movie—is it because of this slogan that you asked me to cooperate with Tianma Cinema and buy 1,000 movie tickets?"

"Yes, I plan to give 4 movie tickets for *Red Sorghum* to every Super VIP Member who tops up 2,500 yuan."

"Why do you want to do that?"

"We have only sold 500-plus VCD Players so far, yet over 800 people have signed up for the 'watch whatever you want during the first lunar month' membership. Why? Because watching a movie with a few friends is more interesting than watching it alone."

Di Ye transformed into a marketing mentor and said eloquently, "If I give a Super VIP Member 4 movie tickets, they will definitely invite friends to come to Tianma Cinema to watch *Red Sorghum* together. Since our shop is right next door, nine times out of ten, they will drop by our shop to take a look after the movie. This way, 1 spreads to 3, 3 spreads to 9, and the potential user base will expand like a snowball."

Lu Hanming disagreed and said, "Not necessarily. They could also bring their own wives and children to watch the movie, or just sell the tickets directly."

"Of course that's possible, but the number won't be high. Firstly, because *Red Sorghum* is an action movie, housewives aren't very interested. Secondly, because VCD Players are a hot commodity right now, once people have this thing at home, nine times out of ten they will show it off to relatives and friends—they'll want everyone to know. And those 4 movie tickets provide them with the perfect prop for showing off."

Lu Hanming was convinced and recalled, "That's true. I remember after my family bought a color TV in 1988, my dad would often pay out of his own pocket to buy cigarettes and alcohol just to show off and invite friends over to watch TV dramas together."

Huang Ya re-deduced the plan, felt there were no problems, and agreed to proceed this way. She asked, "Are there any other tricks?"

"There are. My dad and the others can produce about 200 VCD Players a day now, but I plan to only release 100 slots on the sixth day of the first lunar month to create the phenomenon of supply falling short of demand..."

Di Ye brought out the "monkey-teasing" techniques of the later internet era—things like advance reservations, lottery draws, and invitation codes—and explained them all to Huang Ya, letting her choose a few that were easy to execute.

Huang Ya took two full pages of notes, but still wasn't satisfied, and continued to ask, "Anything else?"

"There is one more trick, which is to use the influence of the social elite to gild the VCD Player, making the general public chase after it fanatically. I'm going to find Professor Liu this afternoon and ask him to help contact a few professors from Yun University to come to our place and sign up for Super VIP Memberships."

"You must be the only student in the world who uses their Graduation Thesis Advisor as a money-making tool. Professor Liu will probably want to cry when he sees you."

"That's not necessarily true. He might just grin from ear to ear when he sees me."