Lunar New Year was just over, and everyone was still in their holiday mood. People returned to work, and the first thing they did was to read the papers. Anyway, most people do not have lots to do after the holidays.
Eh? How come there is a full-page advertisement? What is this product? Medical Plaster? What is a medical plaster?
The advertisement stated that it was a bandage that could be stick onto a small wound easily. The readers looked at the pictures and realized that it was Band-aid, which had advertised on TV a few years back. But the advertisement states that Bing City Pharmaceutical’s plasters were more effective. It was waterproof and breathable. It even has cartoon prints on it. Most importantly, it was recommended by the General Administration of Sport.
Feng Yu quickly got the General Administration of Sport to recommend his products. He only sponsored them his medical plasters and also donated 1 million RMB to them. In return, he was granted permission to print the words ‘Recommended by the General Administration of Sport’ on the packaging and mentioned it in the commercials.
In the evenings, people saw the plaster’s commercial on CCTV 2.
A child was playing at home and accidentally fell and knocked his head. There was a small cut on his head, and the child sat there crying. His mother took out plaster and stick it on the child’s head.
The child says sticking a plaster on the head was ugly, but the mother told him that he looks good with the plaster. The child looked at himself in the mirror. The plaster was beautiful. It had a monkey king printed on it. The child laughed, and his mother smiled.
Then a doctor in his white gown appeared on the screen. There were some words below introducing him as Bing City Medical University Professor Zhou Airen. He said that when children have open wounds, it would be best to cover it up with plaster as soon as possible. It will stop the bleeding and prevent infections.
The camera zoomed out and changed to a close of up the plasters. There were different Journey to the West characters designs on the plasters.
There was a voiceover: “Bing City Pharmacy waterproof medical plasters. Bing City Pharmaceutical enterprise. Safe medicine! Recommended by the General Administration of Sport!
This commercial had attracted the attention of children and their parents. Waterproof? That means the wounds will not get wet? This plaster was produced by Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise. It should be a quality product. Furthermore, the athletes from the General Administration of Sport uses it.
The children were attracted to the cartoon characters on the plasters. Those pictures on the plasters were beautiful. The plasters look nicer than Band-aids.
Not only the newspapers and TV were advertising. Even the radios were talking about this plaster. It recommended the features of the product to their listeners and compared them to the traditional plasters. The radio broadcasters did not say what the traditional plasters were. But the listeners knew that it was talking about Band-aids. This Bing City Pharmacy plasters were better than Band-aids?
When Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise advertised on CCTV, newspapers, and radio, Band-aid Company was aware of it. In the past, there were also other companies who tried to sell plasters. But they could not complete with Band-aid.
But after Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise’s plaster entered the market, they noticed that the plasters could be found in all pharmacies. Band-aid could feel the threat.
Band-aid company immediately had a meeting to try to counter Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise. They cannot wait until their market share was snatched away and then they react. It will be too late.
……
“It is only waterproof plaster. We can also manufacture it. We will also introduce a waterproof band-aid. The consumers will still choose us!” Band-aid Deputy General Manager, a foreigner, said.
Band-aid was the inventor of this plaster. How could they not have waterproof and breathable plasters? They only felt that it was unnecessary to introduce it in China because the cost was higher for waterproof plaster. They had already monopolized the market with the regular plasters. There was no need to introduce better products.
But now, Band-aid had a strong competitor. It was the widely popular Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise. It was advertising aggressively and was a threat to them.
The higher-ups of Band-aid was not very worried. Whatever Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise could produce, they could also do the same. Almost everyone in China knew about Band-aid, and medical plaster was still a new term. The consumers should not be able to accept it easily.
After Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise introduces its waterproof and breathable plasters, Band-aid immediately introduces similar products. As one of the top plaster companies in the world, they could not afford to lose the Chinese market.
Furthermore, Band-aid had entered the Chinese market for almost 3 years. The brand, Band-aid, was already accepted by the Chinese and with the brand awareness in China, they were confident that they would be able to win Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise.
Feng Yu received a call from Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise’s General Manager telling him that Band-aid had also introduced a waterproof and breathable plaster. Although Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise was supplying the plasters to most pharmacies, their sales were not very good.
Feng Yu told him to remain calm. Waterproof and breathable were only one of the features. The real selling point of their plasters were still cartoon prints. It was tough for Band-aid to imitate that.
Feng Yu rubbed his chin. If the plasters were only sold in the pharmacies, children would not be able to buy it. Their parents will also not go to the pharmacies often. The best place to sell his plasters should be those small stores!
Feng Yu remembered that in his past life, those small stores were also selling plasters. Plasters were the same as bandages. The small stores were allowed to sell them, and some stores even had promotions on the plasters.
Then why can’t Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise’s plasters could not be sold in these small stores? It can use the same strategy as Lehaha. It can be sold at the small stores near to the schools and capture the small children segment fast.
Feng Yu told the General Manager of Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise about this strategy. General Manager hesitated. Those small stores were selling household items and food. How can they sell these medical products?
The General Manager had seen Lehaha drinks being sold at the small stores nearby the schools. But Lehaha was selling drinks, and they were selling medical plasters. How can it be the same?
But when the General Manager thought about Feng Yu’s miraculous way of selling the medical health supplement products, he chose to believe him.
Feng Yu was like the god of sales and marketing to the general manager. Also, Feng Yu was one of the directors of the company, and he will not do anything to hurt the company.
Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise currently had lots of salespeople who were the former state-owned employees. Some of them were good at talking and had achieved excellent results. Some could not stand making sales and resigned. The city government reassigned them new jobs.
Those remained were good at sales. Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise’s General Manager was confident that they could persuade people to know that Band-aid was only a brand of plaster and not the only plaster brand in the market.
Feng Yu had mentioned that once they had changed the mindset of the people, Band-aid company will not be able to monopolize the market anymore. It will only a matter of time when they were overtaken. When Feng Yu said that Bing City Pharmaceutical Company will be China’s top pharmaceutical company in China, no one believed him. But now, Bing City Pharmaceutical Company’s sales and profits had risen from 30th position to the second position. It was only slightly behinds Shanghai Pharmaceutical Company. This year, they should be able to overtake and clinched the top place.
Shanghai Pharmaceutical Company was also one of the shareholders of Band-aid. If Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise could beat Band-aid, then it will surely be China’s number one!
Feng Yu had also said that the total sales volume of these plasters could reach over 100 million pieces annually. If Bing City Pharmaceutical Enterprise could capture 30% of the market share, and there was a profit of 30 cents per piece, the profits will be almost 10 million RMB!
For this 10 million RMB, we will fight to our death with Band-aid!
Translator’s notes.
General Administration of Sport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Administration_of_Sport_of_China
