Hong Kong Film: Short mules have no future, I am in charge of Hong Kong

Chapter 287: Three temporary sales points opened

"If I had known there was something wrong with this product, I would have continued to sell fake bracelets!" A stall owner slammed the table in anger. "Now all the customers have run away, and I'm still stuck with the goods!"

Another stall owner sighed, smiled bitterly and said, "You know what, your fake bracelet is really solid. At least no one complained!"

Their complaints soon reached Lv Wancheng's ears, who was so angry that he smashed his teacup on the spot, pointed at the tall and thin man and shouted: "It's all your fault! If you hadn't instigated me to add some chemical treatment, would this batch of goods have been criticized like this?"

The tall and thin man looked aggrieved: "Brother Lu, how dare I instigate you! This is the decision you made. You said that the jade should look bright, so that customers will like it at first sight!"

"Get lost!" Lu Wancheng covered his chest, his face red with anger. "These bastard reporters must have received benefits from Su Hanze. I want to see how long he can be so proud!"

At the same time, in Su Hanze's office, Ah Liu was looking at the newspaper with a smug look on his face, and couldn't help but chuckled: "Boss, this time the media is saying bad things about low-end products, so Mr. Lu's business is completely ruined, right?"

However, Su Hanze did not smile as usual. He frowned and looked at the sales report in his hand, then lit a cigarette and remained silent for a while.

"This incident has caused a big stir. On the surface, it seems that we have taken advantage, but in fact our customers are also waiting and watching. Now that the market is in chaos, many people dare not place orders. After all, they think that jade is a luxury product. With so much negative news, who would dare to spend money casually?"

Ah Liu scratched his head: "What should we do? Should we also lower the price?"

"Lowering the price is suicide." Su Hanze glared at him. "We are taking the high-end route. Lowering the price will only make people think that we are no different from those low-end products."

"Then..." Ah Liu scratched his head, "I have to keep the customers while not lowering the price. Isn't this difficult for me?"

"It's me who's in trouble." Su Hanze sighed and extinguished his cigarette. "If customers don't trust the market, we will make the market not trust low-end products. Ah Liu, go arrange a jade tasting salon and invite those potential customers to let them see our craftsmanship and quality with their own eyes."

Ah Liu's eyes lit up: "This is a good idea. If we show them on site for comparison, they will definitely feel relieved!"

"Don't be too happy too soon." Su Hanze waved his hand. "This salon needs to be more sophisticated, but the budget can't be too high. Our capital chain is tight right now. We can't afford to empty our pockets before the customers pay."

Lin Ke'er pushed the door open and walked in. Hearing this, she couldn't help but laugh: "Boss Su, when did you become so stingy? This is not like you."

"I'm not stingy, I'm rational." Su Hanze spread his hands helplessly, "In the current situation, we can't waste a penny."

Lin Keer nodded, walked to the table and threw a stack of design drafts to him: "These are the new batch of design plans, please take a look. The salon is not just to showcase jade, it is best to let customers see the value of design. We want them to understand that when they buy our products, they are not just buying stones, but art."

Su Hanze flipped through a few pages of the design draft and nodded, "Not bad, let's follow this idea. Ah Liu, contact a few reliable venues. The theme of this salon is 'Emerald Craftsmanship'. Try to make it sound high-end and cultural."

Ah Liu nodded and ran out. Lin Keer picked up the iced lemon tea on the table and looked at Su Hanze: "Boss, are you going to give the speech in person this time?"

"Speech?" Su Hanze smiled bitterly. "I'm a jade seller, not a university professor."

"But what customers buy is jade, and also your story." Lin Ke'er said in a relaxed tone, "Although jade is valuable, your humanity and marketing skills are more valuable. If you can personally attend this salon, the effect will definitely be better."

Su Hanze was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "I can stand up for you, but don't expect me to be sentimental."

The salon was quickly scheduled in a high-end club near the sea. The venue was not large, but it was elegantly and exquisitely decorated. The carpet at the entrance was specially paved with Burmese jade fragments to form a "Jade Road". A group of customers wearing exquisite suits or cheongsams stood in front of the booth in twos and threes, holding wine glasses and whispering about the details of the exhibits.

"These jades look good. I wonder how much they cost." A middle-aged woman in a black cheongsam asked her friend next to her softly.

"It's definitely not cheap," my friend replied with a smile, "but I heard their quality is really first-class, unlike those low-end products."

At this moment, Su Hanze walked up to the booth. He was wearing a simple dark suit and had a gentle smile on his face. "Everyone, welcome to the 'Emerald Craftsmanship' salon. Today, we not only want to showcase the beauty of jade, but also want to share with you the stories and craftsmanship behind it."

He briefly introduced several key exhibits and also told some interesting stories about jade carving with a bit of humor.

During the whole process, he did not mention a single word about low-end goods, but every word he said was full of wit. The customers laughed constantly, but they also had more trust in his brand in their hearts.

After the salon ended, Lin Keer came up to him and said with a smile, "Boss, your performance today was beyond my expectations. It seems that you are not only a jade merchant, but also a potential talk show host."

"Stop making fun of me." Su Hanze rubbed his brows. "Although the response today is good, it is still far from stabilizing the market."

"Whether the market can be stabilized is a matter of time." Lin Ke'er looked at the still bustling crowd in the exhibition hall and said in a relaxed tone, "But at least today, you have made them believe one thing - jade is not a business that everyone can do well."

However, while the salon was going smoothly, at a jewelry stall in Sham Shui Po, Lu Wancheng was gritting his teeth and looking ahead.

Although his products were reported, there were still a few customers who continued to buy them. One of these customers quietly turned around and made a phone call: "Boss Su, I'm watching here. It seems that Lv Wancheng has come up with a new trick."

The day after the salon, as soon as Su Hanze stepped into the office, Ah Liu rushed over in a hurry, with a look of "there's something new" written all over his face. He stood in front of Su Hanze, panting, and the first thing he said was: "Boss, it's bad, that guy surnamed Lu is up to something again!"

Su Hanze had just picked up the teacup, but when he heard this, his hands trembled and he almost spilled the tea. He put down the cup and rubbed his temples: "Ah Liu, can we change our opening line? Hearing words like 'It's bad' too often makes me feel that life is hopeless."

"This is really bad, boss!" Ah Liu stamped his feet anxiously, "I don't know where Lv Wancheng found an 'authoritative certification agency' and said that his new batch of jade has passed some 'international quality certification'. He also used the banner of 'highest cost performance' to directly snatch our customers!" Su Hanze was stunned, leaned back in his chair and laughed, "International quality certification? Why didn't he just say it was a certificate issued by the United Nations?"

Ah Liu scratched his head. "This certification organization sounds quite impressive. It's called the Asian Jewelry Quality Alliance. I heard that I didn't hear much about it before, but it has suddenly become active recently. The key is that these people actually issued a formal certification document, stamped it, and even filmed a video, making it look very formal!"

Lin Ke'er just happened to push the door open and couldn't help but sneer when she heard this: "'Asian Jewelry Quality Alliance'? I've been in the industry for so long, how come I've never heard of such an alliance? The name sounds like a knockoff."

"But the customers don't understand." Ah Liu said bitterly, "Our potential customers heard that their jadeite was certified, so they turned around and went to Lu Wancheng to place an order, saying that their products were cheap and guaranteed."

Su Hanze lit a cigarette, his eyes gradually becoming more serious: "This Lv Wancheng is really good at playing tricks. It seems that he wants to use the guise of 'certification' to make the market more confusing."

Lin Keer pulled a chair over and sat down, crossing her arms and said, "Boss, what are you going to do? You can't just dismantle the goods to fight the counterfeiting again. This time they've even displayed the certificates, so dismantling the goods is useless."

"Of course we can't use the old tricks." Su Hanze exhaled a puff of smoke, a smile on his face, "But the more intimidating the certificate looks, the more it's worth digging into. Ah Liu, send someone to check the details of this 'Asian Jewelry Quality Alliance' and see where this so-called authoritative certification came from."

Ah Liu nodded: "Okay, I'll arrange it right away."

A few days later, Ah Liu came back with the results of the investigation and excitedly pushed open the door of the office: "Boss, there is indeed something wrong with this alliance!"

Su Hanze was looking through the client's information. Hearing this, he raised his head and said, "Tell me, what's the problem?"

Ah Liu took out a document and put it on the table: "This 'Asian Jewelry Quality Alliance' is basically a shell company, registered in a residential building in Bangkok, Thailand, and does not even have a formal office address. What's more interesting is that this company is backed by Lv Wancheng's investment, and he is actually the boss of his own 'certification agency'!"

Lin Ke'er almost burst out laughing when she heard this: "In other words, he stamped his own seal to certify himself? Is this a double act for the market audience?"

"The performance was quite professional." Ah Liu flipped through the documents. "They even paid a few so-called 'international jewelry experts' to record the video. These experts looked quite impressive, but we checked and found that they were all unknown little people with no influence in the industry at all."

"What a good show." Su Hanze put down the information in his hand and raised a sneer. "Since he likes to act so much, let's change the stage for him to make the audience more enthusiastic."

Lin Ke'er raised her eyebrows: "Change the stage? What are you going to do?"

Su Hanze smiled slightly. "It's very simple. We will hold an authoritative forum for the jewelry industry and invite truly influential jewelry experts and association members to hold an open debate specifically on fake certifications and false propaganda in the market. Since he dares to use fake authority to deceive people, we will use real authority to expose his tricks."

"That's a great move!" Lin Ke'er's eyes flashed with excitement. "You are using your industry discourse power to directly ban him. His tricks won't work at all."

"But there is a prerequisite for this." Su Hanze knocked on the table, his eyes sharp. "There must be enough influential people to stand on the platform at the forum. These people can't be invited casually. Ah Liu, you have to spend more time this time to contact a few real industry associations and some recognized experts in the industry. Make sure they attend."

Ah Liu nodded in agreement, but still looked a little hesitant: "Boss, these experts' appearance fees are not cheap. Can our budget afford it?"

"We have to be frugal if the budget is tight," Su Hanze said calmly, "but some money cannot be saved, and what needs to be spent must be spent. The influence of this forum is not just to expose Lv Wancheng, but also to endorse our own brand."

A few days later, the preparations for the forum were in full swing. Lin Keer was in charge of the scene layout. She designed a "real and fake comparison corridor" to intuitively show the differences between some common fakes and genuine jadeite in the market, so that the guests could see it clearly at a glance. Ah Liu ran around, contacted experts and associations, and although he was rejected many times, he finally invited several prestigious figures in the industry.

On the day of the forum, the venue was packed with people. In addition to jewelry industry practitioners, many media reporters also came to attend. Several experts took turns to take the stage and exposed the harm of fake certification in the market from different angles. One senior industry insider even criticized directly: "Some businessmen set up their own certification agencies for their own amusement and dared to pretend to be international authorities. This is destroying the reputation of the industry!"

As soon as this sentence was uttered, there was an uproar at the scene, and many people had guessed that the "certain businessmen" referred to was Lu Wancheng.

Meanwhile, Lui Wan-shing was sitting in a warehouse in Sham Shui Po, his phone flooded with calls asking for refunds, with some even threatening to call the police.

"Brother Lu, what should we do?" The tall and thin man was sweating profusely. "They all said we were cheating people. Even the stall owners started to return the goods!"

"Why are you withdrawing?" Lv Wancheng slammed the table and stood up, his eyes red. "Who dares to call the police? If they really call the police, I will use the market contract to sue them for breach of contract!"

The tall and thin man said weakly: "But we did identify ourselves. If this matter gets out of hand, we won't be able to stand firm..."

Lu Wancheng glared at him fiercely: "Shut up! As long as the market is still there, I will find a way to turn things around. Isn't Su Hanze running a forum? I want to see how long he can win!"

On the third day after the forum ended, instead of slowly dying down as expected, the situation became even more complicated.

Lu Wancheng seemed like an indestructible cockroach. After a few days of dormancy, he became active again.

Although his "certification scandal" was exposed, Lv Wancheng quickly changed his strategy. He abandoned his previous pretentious high-end jade positioning and instead vigorously launched the "popular jade" concept. Under the banner of "high-cost-effective jewelry that ordinary people can afford", he directly returned to the market.

When Ah Liu came back from Sham Shui Po, his face was livid, and he fell on the sofa as soon as he entered the office: "Boss, that guy surnamed Lu is causing trouble again! He is now saying something like 'Everyone has a jade dream', and he has opened three temporary exhibition points with great fanfare. The goods are sold at a lower price than before. He is simply risking his life!"

Su Hanze was staring at the accounts on the table. He frowned and sighed, "This guy not only doesn't care about his life, he also doesn't care about his shame. He is clearly trying to drag us down with a price war."

(End of this chapter)