2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 338 Surprise?

The headquarters building for Flash Group has been finalized, but the third factory is still pending.

Negotiations with Changzhou have temporarily stalled. Tan Jincheng cited the reason that he has been preoccupied with group affairs and has no time to spare.

He returned before his birthday on Qixi Festival, and since then, he has been preparing for the press conference, buying a building, and even becoming a student. Tan Jincheng really doesn't have much time, and this reason is indeed plausible.

Recently, because the third factory has not been finalized, Tan Jincheng has been receiving a lot of calls, all inviting Flash to invest and build a factory in the area. These calls come from people he knows and doesn't know.

Most of them were Changzhou and his hometown, which we had already talked about before, especially his hometown, which really showed his sincerity.

Tao Qinian made the call personally, promising that as long as Tan Jincheng was willing to go back, he could make any request, even the most basic request for land, such as a thousand acres.

In addition, Jinpeng Industry has been merged into Shanchi Group, and the garment factory in Wangjiang is now also considered Tan Jincheng's property. Previously, Zhang Xupeng complained about the construction progress, and Tao Qinian even started to personally supervise it in order to show his sincerity.

For a leader to be so willing to set aside his pride for the sake of attracting investment, even Tan Jincheng felt somewhat ashamed of his passion.

Putting aside his status, just considering his age, he's already of Tan Jincheng's father's generation. The fact that he can be so candid with a businessman of his son's generation is something Tan Jincheng has never seen before.

Tao Qinian's humble attitude, for the first time, made Tan Jincheng's heart waver slightly regarding his feelings for his hometown.

The promotional activities in CZ Market are still ongoing, but they will end after the National Day holiday.

Since the approach with FlashDrive was not feasible, the local authorities in Changzhou contacted two major manufacturers, Yadea and Xinri, and persuaded them to extend the event until after the National Day holiday, giving local businesses some breathing room.

Both companies are now Jiangsu Province enterprises, and it is easier to persuade them than Flash. After persuading Yadea and Xinri, we can then persuade Flash.

Tan Jincheng thought for a moment, the promotional activities had been going on for several months, and the market share that should have been taken was basically taken. After the National Day holiday, the peak season for electric vehicle sales would be over, so he might as well stop.

Next, Flash's promotional focus will be on Guangdong and Guangxi. After October, the north will gradually enter winter, while the weather in Guangdong and Guangxi will still be hot, and the decline in electric vehicle sales will not be so quick.

Currently, Flash has already formulated a car purchase lottery plan in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions for the National Day holiday.

Consumers in the early 2000s had very different consumption concepts from those who were frugal during economic downturns in later years. Everyone had a desire to consume, and since economic conditions improved in the last century, consumers have been extremely enthusiastic about shopping lotteries.

Offering prizes like rice, flour, oil, rice cookers, and electric kettles in a lucky draw is a great way to attract consumers.

FlashCheer initially used this method to open up the Henan and northern Anhui markets, and later launched activities such as lucky draws and celebrity autographs for young consumers, a tried-and-tested approach.

We develop different lottery schemes for different groups of people and regions. There's nothing a lottery can't handle. If one attempt doesn't work, we'll try twice!
The Yangtze River Delta region, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Henan, Anhui, and South China, as well as Guangxi province, which is not yet receiving much attention, are all major electric vehicle consumer areas. Flash Motors' sales strategy for the past two years has been to conduct promotional activities in different regions to enhance brand awareness.

In addition, Flashpoint encourages retail stores to organize their own promotional activities for individual stores without changing the retail price. The plan is submitted to the agent, who then submits it to Flashpoint Technology headquarters. Once approved, the headquarters will provide certain subsidies.

Simply put, FlashCar provides subsidies to small businesses, encouraging them to tailor promotions to their specific needs and sell more cars.

Of course, Flash also needs to look at the data. Sales data alone is not enough. There will always be people who will think of buying cars from their own stores or finding someone else to do so, and then use them to fraudulently obtain subsidies.

Then these cars can be sold gradually. This kind of approach was a favorite thing for major car companies in the early stages of new energy vehicle subsidies.

To prevent subsidy fraud, sales data alone is not enough. We also need to look at the data on new batches of cars ordered by these stores from dealers. If an anomaly is found when comparing the two sets of data, an investigation will be launched.

Stores found to have engaged in subsidy fraud will have their credit scores lowered for minor offenses and their cooperation terminated for serious offenses.
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"Are you done talking?"

"Well, we're done talking."

At Orange Technology, Tan Jincheng, having finished his floor tour, comfortably reclined on the sofa in the CEO's office.

Speaking of which, Tan Jincheng doesn't have his own office here yet.

"Xiao Wu from Flash Marketing just delivered two albums, one by Chris Lee and one by Jay Chou. Do you want to listen to them?"

Tan Jincheng quickly stood up and said, "Oh right, I had forgotten. They released a new album today, and Lao Zhou said he had a surprise for me."

Speaking of these two, Liu Yifei's new album will also be released in a few days, scheduled for September 20th. September seems to be the peak season for singers to release new albums every year.

Sony Music is really willing to invest in her, releasing Japanese and Chinese albums simultaneously.

The speed is also undeniable; if I hadn't gone back to China to attend a FlashCar event, it should have been released at the beginning of the month.

"I wonder what kind of surprise Lao Zhou has for me," Tan Jincheng said to Gu Qingqing with a smile as he unpacked the disc. Computers these days still have optical drives, but in a few years these things will be officially obsolete.

Whether "Still Fantasy" is Jay Chou's best album is a matter of debate, but it is definitely the most popular one and the one that attracted countless fans. After this album, Jay Chou was accepted by most middle-aged and elderly fans.

There is no title track; every song is a title track.

"This is the first time I've ever listened to an original CD, hehe."

In his past life, Tan Jincheng certainly bought this album, but it was a pirated copy. When he was endorsing it, he claimed to be a fan, and he wasn't lying! Wow, not bad, he's bought all the previous albums!

Gu Qingqing smiled and said, "Me too."

The first song is still the seventh chapter of the familiar night by Tan Jincheng, full of memories.

For some reason, as the music started, Gu Qingqing, who was already very close to Tan Jincheng, felt that he seemed to have become a different person.

An indescribable emotion enveloped him, making him feel somewhat sorrowful.
Gu Qingqing didn't know why she had this feeling, but her intuition told her that her feeling was right. Did her brother have some secret that she didn't know about?
In private, Gu Qingqing would call Tan Jincheng "brother," and in certain situations where she couldn't tell others, she would use even more outrageous terms of address.

Everyone has their own little secrets, and she had one too. Gu Qingqing was a sensible girl, so she didn't ask Tan Jincheng about her nonsensical feelings. Instead, like him, she immersed herself in the music and tried to find the answer herself.

She didn't particularly like listening to Jay Chou's previous songs, but she wasn't exactly averse to them either. However, this album was of very high quality, and before she knew it, Gu Qingqing had become as immersed in it as Tan Jincheng.

In the office, there was nothing but music.

The album contains 10 songs. Six of them have already been played since the end of the Red Model Workshop. When the opening melody of the seventh song started, Tan Jincheng was stunned.

"What's wrong?" Gu Qingqing, who had been paying close attention to Tan Jincheng's expression, quickly asked.

Tan Jincheng smiled and said, "It's nothing. So this is the surprise he was talking about."

"A surprise? This song?"

Gu Qingqing picked up the cover and said in surprise, "Fireworks fade easily? Isn't this the song you gave me before?"

"Hmm." The seventh song was not the Heart Rain that Tan Jincheng was familiar with in his previous life, but was replaced by Fireworks Fade Easily.

Neither of them had looked at the cover catalog beforehand; Tan Jincheng did so out of habit, while Gu Qingqing simply hadn't paid much attention to it.

Gu Qingqing chuckled and said, "Isn't this great? I bet once they reveal the details of the song, your marketing department will immediately jump on the bandwagon to promote the Guan Neng series."

The term "riding the coattails" is also widely used at Orange Technology. When marketing, the project team tries every means to increase the popularity of Kaixin.com.

"No need, take a look at the lyrics sheet. I reckon Zhou Ao is already arranging the publicity." Tan Jincheng said with a wry smile.

Previously, Lao Zhou had said that if the publisher would put his name in the lyricist section, considering that he specifically called to say he would give him a surprise, it seems that he has no regrets.

In that case, Zhou Ao should already be developing a publicity strategy. This guy has been ignoring previous warnings lately, and he'll definitely use his fame whenever he can.

In his words, what's wrong with the boss making some sacrifices for the company's benefit?
Flipping through the lyrics list, Gu Qingqing indeed saw Tan Jincheng's name in the lyrics section of the song "Fireworks Fade Easily," and it was even listed before the official lyricist.

For Jay Chou, although the song was rather tragic, it fit the overall style of the album, so he replaced it with "Heart Rain". He plans to put "Heart Rain" on his next album.

In addition, this song is quite amazing, and the lyricist is another little surprise, which is also beneficial for the album's promotion.

Even if Tan Jincheng didn't agree to Zhou Ao's request, Jay Chou's management company would still follow up with promotions to boost album sales. Tan Jincheng had this realization after handing over the lyrics.

“This song is so tragic,” Gu Qingqing suddenly said.

It's pretty tragic. In his previous life, he was even banned once. The reason is unknown, but one guess is that someone listened to this song all night because of a failed investment, and the more they listened, the more miserable they felt, so they... well, you know.

Whether the rumors are true or false is unknown, but this has made the song very mysterious and left a deep impression on Tan Jincheng.

As the Chrysanthemum Terrace performance came to an end, the two listened attentively to the 40-minute album. Neither Tan Jincheng nor Gu Qingqing spoke, and a brief silence fell over the office.

Gu Qingqing looked at the man beside her and felt reassured. It was fine for the two of them to stay like this.

(End of this chapter)