After Feng Yu came back, he spent another 500,000 RMB to purchase the advertising slots at Liao Province and Ji Province TV stations. The commercial was the same as CCTV, where it was the footage of Shen Li hosting the program.
One week later, the viewers in front of the TV noticed something different. Why was the set of different and look better than before? There was even a cylinder thing there. That thing seems familiar.
Ehhh~~~ the logo looks a bit familiar. It looks like the logo of that electric fan they bought last summer.
The rest of the day, some of the viewers noticed a series of advertisement. There’s the Shen Li’s version, Feng Danying’s version, Li Shiyou’s version and children’s version. There was also an old man version, where Feng Yu hired an eighty-year-old actor to star in the commercial.
There was not much effect on the first day. However, because of the frequency of the advertisements, and advertisements on CCTV channel during the primetime, even the kids remembered the advertising slogans: Wind and Rain humidifiers, your best companion indoors!
Regardless of the version, the commercial highlighted the features of Wind and Wind’s newest humidifiers. The features include safety, healthy, low electricity consumption, high tech, etc. Coupled with the product placement on the TV program , people were asking where they can buy the humidifiers.
Even though Beijing was not China’s financial hub, but the population was high, and it was the political center. The humidifiers sales suddenly shoot up.
Following Beijing, the sales for the northern cities, like Jingmen, Zhen City, Changan, Shi City, Shen City, Ji City, etc. also increased. Even some of the southern cities also had an increase in sales.
At first, even though Li Shiyou and Hou Haitao agreed to the 5 million RMB advertising budget, they were still a bit unhappy with Feng Yu for spending so much. They were not persuaded by Feng Yu but instead, they agreed because Feng Yu guaranteed them that they will earn back the advertising budget.
5 million advertising budgets will bring in over tens of million RMB profits! This will also allow Wind and Rain brand to capture the market share quickly, eliminating the threat of competitors.
Feng Yu knew that Yadu’s household humidifier will be launched the following year and if he were to wait till next year, then he would have to compete with Yadu head-on.
Yadu should just concentrate on its air purifier. If they were not doing well, Feng Yu does not mind buying over this world-class air purifier manufacturer before it gets into the hands of foreign investors.
As for the domestic humidifiers sales, the sales of the Prestige model overtook the Noble model for the first time. This was due to the advertising bombardment, especially Shen Li’s version.
Initially, the sales of the humidifiers were not bad, and the profits for 1 unit was about 100 RMB. But based on that speed, the most they could sell was 20,000 units in a month, and Feng Yu was not satisfied with this figure.
Now, it’s different. After the aggressive advertising campaign, there were more than 30,000 units sold in the first week. All the dealers came back to them waving their checks, wanting to order more. Li Shiyou and Hou Haitao were all smiles!
Now Li Shiyou and Hou Haitao only had one thought: The advertising budget was worth spending!
Some dealers previously worked with Tai Hua Trading but stopped working with them for these humidifiers, came back. However, they were chased away by Wu Zhigang on Feng Yu’s instructions. Tai Hua Trading must stick to their core values, which was arrogant!
The was to let these dealers know that if they follow Tai Hua Trading, they would have meat to eat. Those that betray Tai Hua Trading would not even get a drop of soup!
The unluckiest were those factories manufacturing imitations Wind and Rain humidifiers. They kept lowering the selling prices until it was lower than their cost prices, but no one was buying their humidifiers. Their humidifiers were left to a corner of the department stores, and not a single customer look at them.
If Feng Yu saw this, he would surely criticize those factories’ leaders. They don’t even know how to sell imitations. How would they attract customers if the price of their humidifier was so much lower than Wind and Rain humidifier? The humidifier was a novelty product and not home appliances like radio or televisions, where almost every family would purchase them. Only the wealthy people would buy humidifiers.
If it were Feng Yu, he would increase the prices of those imitations and even if the sales did not pick up, at least the profit will be slightly higher, and he would be able to cover some of its costs. He would also sell those imitations at rural places where there was little communications access. Serves them right for trying to fight Wind and Rain head-on. Do they have advertisement bombardment? Do they have more beautiful designers? Do they have the most advanced technologies? These factories do not have anything, and it’s normal for these factories to lose money!
However, Hao Haitao had some regrets. This humidifier was developed by the Aviation Factory and why Li Shiyou gets to be on TV and not him?
Feng Yu can only console him: next time, next time!
Now Wind and Rain humidifiers were in a monopolistic position for, not only the domestic market but also the overseas markets. Europe and the US also had humidifiers, but it was mainly for industrial. The household humidifiers were still those electric heating types.
Even if they had the ultrasonic technology, they could not produce ultrasonic humidifiers as Feng Yu had applied for the patents and no one would be allowed to produce similar humidifiers. If they want to produce a more advanced humidifier, it was also impossible. The next technology would only be invented in the year 2000, and it was very expensive. How could it be used for household humidifiers?
It can be said that for the next 10 years; Wind and Rain would be the industry leader and no other corporations could pose a threat to them.
Fu Guangzheng also brought good news to Feng Yu. The humidifiers were selling well in Southeast Asia. The Fu family positioned this product as a luxury item and sold only in high-end departmental stores. Although the quantity sold could not be compared to China, but the retail prices were much higher.
The most surprising news to Feng Yu was that the sales for the Europe and US market were almost on par with China. Especially the US market, where the petty Feng Yu had asked Fu Guangzheng to increase the selling prices.
Fu Guangzheng said that Feng Yu was really good at reading the consumer’s mind. Those Americans were as what Feng Yu said. They only buy the most expensive product but not the right product.
Some companies approached the Fu family indicating their interest in acquiring the patent, joint venture or even wants to get the authorization to use the patent.
However, Feng Yu rejected all these requests.
This was the time where Feng Yu could reap the benefits, and he was not willing to authorize others to use his patent, even if they offer high prices. This was not the time to spoil the relationship with the Aviation Factory. Furthermore, if he sells the rights to other companies, he would also offend the Fu family, who were in-charge of the overseas sales. These foreign markets were considered their main revenue sources, unlike the Japanese Market.
A few years later, after the most profitable period, then Feng Yu would sell the authorization and will also give the Aviation Factory and the Motor Factory some compensations. Anyway, it was not stated in the contract that Feng Yu was not allowed to authorize overseas companies to use the patent. It only says that authorizing the patent to domestic companies were not permitted.
When Feng Yu showed Li Shiyou and Hao Haitao the overseas sales figures, they were shocked. The figures for the foreign markets was more than twice of China’s market.
Didn’t Feng Yu say that the selling price for the humidifiers was much higher compared to China? Were all the Europeans and the Americans so wealthy? Previously, Feng Yu had mentioned to them that they need to increase the production, but Li Shiyou said that there was no need for that. But after looking at the figures, he immediately went back to his factory to make the necessary arrangements to increase the productions. There must not be any delays for exportation. They were earning a lot more from exportation than the domestic markets.
After Wind and Rain humidifier’s success, Kameda came to Tai Hua Trading again.
