Chen Yang was carried back by Lei Baoguo after a miserable time at his eldest aunt's place.
Chen Yang didn't rush back to Shanghai. The next period would usher in an era of wild growth for Baijiu (Chinese white spirits). It's hard to imagine that later, after Moutai went public, its stock price would reach the ceiling of A-share listed companies, even influencing the direction of the entire Chinese stock market with its company's performance.
A bottle of liquor costing thousands or even tens of thousands, with only a small annual output, led to Moutai's market value exceeding one trillion yuan, no less than any central enterprise directly under a national ministry.
This is China's liquor culture and the influence of brand building.
"Only buy the expensive, only buy the brand" will be a way for a large portion of wealthy Chinese people to show off their status in the future.
The same bottle of liquor, priced at ten thousand yuan versus one hundred yuan, may be better at ten thousand yuan, but not a hundred times better. The primary driver is human vanity.
The profit margins for high-end Baijiu are astonishing. The cost of those bottles selling for thousands or even tens of thousands might be less than a tenth of their selling price.
Once you build the brand, control the output, offer special aged vintages, create some buzz, and advertise with slogans like "ancient brewing methods" and "centuries-old cellars," you can sit back and collect money after opening up the market.
In late July, the acquisition of Xuan Distillery was completed, with Shen Futang appointed as the factory director and the sole legal representative. Chen Yang directly brought in several university graduates from Feishi to handle marketing.
He formulated a strategy: for the next three years, Xuan Distillery would not make a single yuan in profit. All revenue generated would be invested in advertising.
From radio stations to television channels, Chen Yang had these university graduates knock on doors one by one. Advertising wasn't as prevalent then, and many TV stations didn't even offer such services.
The media promotion platforms people could access were far fewer than in the future. Chen Yang could achieve advertising effects worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan per second with minimal investment.
Concurrently, Chen Yang planned to have his father-in-law brew several batches of aged liquor and change Xuan Distillery's previous cylindrical glass bottle packaging to a more exquisite design.
Chen Yang even planned to visit Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, the "Porcelain Capital," to specifically commission a batch of blue and white porcelain liquor bottles. This batch would be positioned to rival Moutai, emphasizing a high-end, sophisticated, and classy image.
Chen Yang recalled seeing such liquor in Jiangxi during his past life: Siet Oriental Charm. The bottle was indeed beautiful, but its promotion was lacking, and the Baijiu market had already been carved up by other major distilleries, preventing it from gaining significant recognition.
However, with his father-in-law's Xuanjiu, with its clear fragrance and elegance, combined with his promotional efforts, "National Liquor Moutai" might not be impossible to rival with "National Cellar Xuanjiu."
The first year would be dedicated to brewing liquor and planning promotional copy. Initially, advertising would be broadcast on Qinghe City's television stations. The second year, it would expand to the entire Anhui province.
Then, it would directly launch on CCTV. Two years of accumulation would pave the way for an explosion in the third year.
Chen Yang meticulously planned the development for each year and instructed the university graduates on how to write Baijiu copy, such as "Xuanjiu Fang, a distinguished bloom, intoxicating the world for three thousand years," "National Cellar Xuanjiu Fang, a thousand-year heritage," and "Xuanjiu Oriental Charm, classic and enduring."
Subsequently, Xuanjiu's advertisements would rapidly blanket major television stations across the country.
This would be followed by sales channel development, a daunting task Chen Yang entrusted to the Wenzhou merchants, who were professionals in business.
Chen Yang often outsourced sales activities at his factory directly to Wenzhou businessmen.
He was now well-known throughout the Wenzhou business circle, with a status no less significant than in Qinghe City. He was the bread and butter for these Wenzhou entrepreneurs, and their profits depended entirely on the opportunities provided by Boss Chen.
This greatly reduced Chen Yang's enthusiasm for market expansion. It was simply because the Wenzhou merchants were too effective. Wherever they went to explore markets, they had fellow townsmen, and their operations had already reached a certain scale.
Even in new markets without fellow townsmen, they would go in groups to develop them. They weren't afraid of hardship or fatigue, were incredibly resilient, and possessed excellent marketing skills, which forced Chen Yang to adjust his strategy.
Sometimes, it wasn't always beneficial to earn every penny yourself. Spreading oneself too thin could lead to a lack of oversight and cash flow problems.
Wasn't that the case with Wanda back then? They built Wanda Plazas everywhere. If it weren't for Sunac taking over, they likely would have gone bankrupt.
Large supermarkets like Walmart and Bubugao also declined rapidly during the e-commerce wars. They weren't even considered rivals; a slight ripple effect could cripple their revenue, pushing them to the brink of collapse.
Chen Yang's original intention was to have sales channels. Since the Wenzhou merchants could handle it, he decided to focus wholeheartedly on production, increasing capacity. This way, more would be sold, and he wouldn't mind sharing some profit with the Wenzhou merchants. They could have the meat, and others could have the soup.
As Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory grew, it became easier to recruit talent. Chen Yang hired university graduates with high salaries to tackle television-related technologies. He even organized some outstanding individuals to study technology at the University of Hong Kong and with television manufacturers in Hong Kong.
To operate in the real economy, one must be willing to spend money and invest in research and development. Without technology, one will eventually be eliminated by others – this was a lesson learned from Huawei.
This approach is indeed difficult, but not doing so will eventually lead to being bottlenecked by others, turning you into their prey. They could devour a large portion of your hard-earned profits with patent fees alone.
It wasn't just televisions; it was also air conditioners and refrigerators. In the next five to ten years, Chen Yang's plan was for Zhenhua to capture half of the entire Chinese home appliance market.
He aimed to sever the tentacles of any foreign company reaching into the domestic market. Even if they couldn't completely repel their invasion, they absolutely could not be allowed to profit effortlessly in the Chinese market.
Our opening up came at a cost, and our development was achieved through bloody lessons. Many joint ventures have essentially squeezed out all the survival space for local enterprises.
Chen Yang did not want to end up like Beibingyang, Jianlibao, Tianfu Cola, and other brands in the future, which were swallowed by foreign capital to the last bone.
They possessed strong technological support and immense financial resources. Core technology was Zhenhua's only current weakness. What Zhenhua could do was to seize the market while these foreign companies had not yet entered and realized the potential purchasing power of the Chinese market.