Just as Yue Xiaofang had said, [Sang] developed rapidly, encroaching on the market share of other brands.
Endangering someone’s livelihood is like killing their parents; one could imagine the attitude these people harbored toward Yue Xiaofang.
Previously, several established brands had joined hands in promotional sales and price reductions, employing a price war strategy to attempt to topple Yue Xiaofang.
Yet, Yue Xiaofang had gritted her teeth and borne it without even telling her family.
Finding it tough to sell in the cities, Yue Xiaofang discussed with Granny Zhou about finding agents in the surrounding villages.
Zhuancheng had improved conditions, and the villages around Zhuancheng had gradually become more prosperous.
Families no longer had to wait for the New Year to afford new clothes as they did before.
Nowadays, young ladies and wives also started to pay attention to dressing up.
Unlike the sales methods in the city, the way Yue Xiaofang had her agents sell exactly suited the villagers’ habits.
Agents only needed to find a pretty girl to wear the attractive clothes to be sold and parade around the village; by evening, many who adored beauty would inquire about their origin.
Yue Xiaofang was strict about quality; needless to say, the clothes sold were attractive, but also sturdily made.
The villagers, pleased with their purchases, spread the word. Eventually, the agents didn’t need to exert much effort, and sales naturally increased.
Thus, Yue Xiaofang unexpectedly opened up sales in the rural areas.
This method also didn’t require her to spend too much on storefront and labor costs, actually resulting in higher profits than before.
Yue Xiaofang wasn’t in a hurry anymore, but the brands that had banded together started to have disputes.
Initially of differing scales, they had only agreed to lower prices because of a common enemy, but now with Yue Xiaofang still on her feet, they were the ones unable to hold up any longer.
In the end, several brands defected by raising their prices first, forcing the remaining brands to give up.
But branding is a mystical thing; common folk then didn’t understand marketing strategies or cost pricing.
They only knew that your products were cheap before and expensive now; it seemed like you were unscrupulously hiking prices because they sold well.
Some discerning customers even suspected your irregular pricing meant occasionally substituting inferior products and offloading unsold goods to consumers.
As it turned out, these brands not only failed to steal chicken but also lost the rice.
Contrarily, they helped Yue Xiaofang open up new sales channels, completing her rural encirclement of the cities.
Some brands, unwilling to be outdone, also tried to adopt Yue Xiaofang’s method to expand their markets.
But they were a step behind Yue Xiaofang, and entering the market then wasn’t so easy anymore.
Everyone had already recognized [Sang] for its quality, and subsequently viewed later brands with more scrutiny and comparison.
Techniques were endless.
Yue Xiaofang had her share of advantages in instances one, but naturally, there were also times when she was at a disadvantage.
However, her resilient nature kept her persisting, and she ended up growing bigger and bigger.
It was only until this time that the company was founded.
Through years of doing business, the concept of ’brand value’ had started to form vaguely in Yue Xiaofang’s mind.
Like those brands that engaged in price wars, some of them originally held high-end positions but had diminished in perceived value in consumers’ minds after several price reductions.
To make consumers better understand a brand, promotion was undoubtedly very important.
Previously in Zhuancheng, a men’s clothing brand with mediocre sales cleverly found a moderately famous star domestically to endorse their product.
They invested heavily in TV advertising.
In just half a month, the items in the store actually sold out.
After all, in that era, advertising wasn’t as overwhelmingly pervasive as in later times, and TV promotion held significant meaning in the minds of the populace.
Many people buying alcohol or health products would opt for big brands advertised on TV, believing they had prestige and assurance.
This time, Yue Xiaofang also wanted to set the tone right from the opening day, inviting the media for publicity, hoping for a successful launch.
She wanted the employees in the company to see this and feel more confident working under her leadership.
Though her plan was good, she encountered problems when it came to implementation.
Yue Xiaofang bit her lower lip and revealed the dilemma that had troubled her these past few days.
"There’s a company called Jiamei that has always been my rival. Their boss has some clout at home, and has good relations with the TV stations and all the major newspapers in Zhuancheng. This time they preemptively got in touch with the media, telling them not to report on my opening..."