Extraordinary Genius

Chapter 38 – Sales of Wind and Rain fans

In Bing City, many people have noticed the strange advertisement in Longjiang Daily. Every day, there are only a few sentences in a full-page ad.

Today the ad wrote: “Hot summer, cool breeze.” Yesterday was: “Hot sun in the sky, time to give some quality gifts.” The day before yesterday …...

But at the bottom of each ad, there is a slogan: “Wind and Rain fans, your summer's good partner!”

For five consecutive days, everyone who read the newspaper will see this unique advertisement. This advertisement quickly became the talk of the town. People talked more about this ad than the news about the homicide case.

Hearing people talking about the Wind and Rain fan on the street, Feng Yu knew his advertisement was successful. Now, when someone mentioned electric fan, people instinctively will think of Wind and Rain fans!

On the fifth day, the production of the 20,000 electric fans are completed and Feng Yu made the 80% payment. But Feng Yu did not take out all the fans. He only took out 2,000 fans from the factory.

Everyone at the Motor Factory is curious. Even if it is 80% payment, the motor factory has also made some profits. Why this Feng Yu paid for the fans but did not collect all the fans? Could it be Feng Yu wants to return the goods?

Director Li discussed with Director Zhao. They conclude that even if Feng Yu wants to return the goods, they will not accept it. They even reminded Feng Yu about the remaining payments due at the end of the month. If they did not receive the remaining payments, they will keep all the remaining fans at the factory.

Even if they can’t sell these “defective” fans, they can always give these fans to their workers as their salaries. Anyway, the factory had already covered their cost.

Feng Yu did not pay any attention to the Motor Factory. The reason he only collected 2,000 units is that he does not have enough space in his warehouse. After sending the 1,400 units to the various stores, Feng Yu still have 600 units remaining in his warehouse. If Feng Yu had collected 20,000 units, he will 10 more warehouses to store these fans. Since the fans are still sitting in the Motor Factor, Feng Yu can save on inventory cost.

On the sixth day, a real advertisement finally appeared in the newspaper. A picture of a table fan with a slogan written in red: “Wind and Rain fans. Breaking price: 59 RMB!”

In the evening, Feng Yu held a meeting with everyone in the company at the warehouse.

“Have you all sorted the information? Which store is selling better? which store is not selling well? Is there any stores that did not display our fans or adjust the prices?” Feng Yu asked.

The problem with using consignment mode of distribution is that the consignee creating problems for the consignor. For example, the consignee will claim that the product is not selling well and asked for higher profits. Or, if the product is selling well, they secretly adjust the price higher. There might be some consignees which will use the product to promote a more profitable product by comparing both.

Feng Yu had stated in the contract clearly. Once any of the terms were breached, Feng Yu will not pay any consignment fees, will not refund the deposits and the consignee will have to pay Feng Yu at least 10,000 RMB as compensation.

Feng Yu thought his staff would tell him that some stores or all the stores had breached the terms of the contract. In this era, these managers are from government units and they have a sense of superiority over the private companies. Also, they think that no private companies will dare to sue them even if they breach the contract.

But in reality, it is not as what Feng Yu had expected. No one had breached any terms of the contract. Feng Yu’s fans simply do not sell!

“Manager Feng, the cooperative sold three today. I saw the staff at the cooperative tried very hard to promote the fans but no one is interested.”

“It is also the same for the First department store. The fans are displayed in a very conspicuous position at the electrical counter but only five people bought the fans.”

“That is at least better than Dongli Department store. They only sold one unit today.”

“At least those department stores had sold something. Taiping Department store has not sold anything yet!”

“Manager Feng, will we be stuck with these electric fans?”

......

Everyone kept talking about what they observed today. Feng Yu listened carefully and nodded. These lads had not skived and had been working hard.

“Manager Feng, these electric fans are not selling at all. What do we do?” One of Feng Yu’s staff asked.

Feng Yu smiled: “Wait. Three days later, you will see the result! Tomorrow, all of you will go ......”

On the seventh day, the last day of the Daily newspaper advertisement. This time, the advertisement is showing the 49 RMB electric fan. There are two photos. The first photo is a fan clip on the table and the second photo is a picture of a truck coming out from the motor factory.

In the afternoon, Manager Su from the cooperative is frowning. This fan is not selling well. The price might be much cheaper compared to other fans, but no one knows about these fans. Didn’t Feng Yu say that he will be advertising these fans? By putting two photographs and a few sentences? How can this be considered an advertisement?

“Hello, what would you like to buy?” A Salesman asked a customer who had just walked into the cooperative.

“Are you selling Wind and Rain fan?” The customer asked.

“Yes. There are two different models. Each model has a variety of colors. Which model do you want?” The salesman replied listlessly.

“The one in this newspaper. Is it really 49 RMB?” The customer asked.

The salesman looked at the newspaper and took out a fan with exactly the same color and model from the shelf and said: “Yes. 49 RMB.”

“OK, I want one. No, give me two. I will buy one for my father-in-law too.” The customer said.

“OK, what color would you like?” The salesman asked happily. Manager Su had said that he will get 1 RMB commission for every fan sold.

“Whatever. Hurry up and give me my change!” The customer said and he threw ten pieces of 10RMB notes on the counter. The salesman quickly returns the change and pass the two fan boxes to the customer.

“This is not right. Why is the box so small? You can’t even fit the fan blades in!” The guest said loudly and looked suspiciously at the salesman. It is as if the salesman is a cheat.

“You see, this fan blade is separated When you go home, open up the fan blades and screw it in. It is very easy and even kids can do it.” The salesman said.

“Hey, it's interesting. Just nice. I can give it to my son as a toy.” The customer said.

Manager Su smiled when he saw a customer bought two fans. But he was curious, why did this customer buy two fans?

He flipped to the advertisement in today's Longjiang Daily. There is a photograph of a truck leaving the Motor Factory. It seems that people knew that these fans are the products of the Motor Factory and are assured of the quality.

The manager did not know that there were more reasons behind this.

Feng Yu asked his staff to go to crowded places and spread the new, telling people that Wind and Rain fans are manufactured by the Motor Factory.

So what it is plastic. Plastics are also sturdy. There is no difference with the wind from steel blades and plastic blades. Furthermore, these plastic fans are selling so cheap. The money people used to buy one steel fan, can buy several Wing and Rain fans!

There are also other advantages of using plastic. It does not rust and the colors are bright too. Cleaning can be done with just a wet piece of cloth. These electric fans are small and convenient for storage during winter time, unlike those big, bulky and heavy steel fans.

There is also an important feature of these fans. It is safety. Even when you stick your fingers in, you will only feel a slight pain. There will not even have a Scratch on you.

Wind and Rain fans had been advertising in the papers for one week. Besides, can the Motor factory produce inferior goods? Old Wu had one Wind and Rain fan which was a gift from his grandson. He was so proud of it and even showed it off to everyone for hours!

After such encouragements, some people went to go to the mall or the cooperative to enquire about Wind and Rain fans. After looking at the displays, some people bought it on the spot while some went home to consider. But most of those who considered will decide to buy it the next day.

That afternoon, the city's department stores and the cooperatives had sold a total of over 100 electric fans. Out of these 100 plus fans, only three are other brands and the rest are all the Wind and Rain fans!

After a week of advertisements, Wind and Rain fans had occupied a strong position in people’s mind.

Wind and Rain fans are now selling first!