Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 388 Diversification Strategy

“Mr. Long Island, I think it would be more appropriate for Xinghai Foods to develop a chocolate brand in the next stage.”

Masato Takeshita didn't waste any words and gave the order directly and decisively.

"Yes, the company has not made much progress in the beverage and instant noodle sectors, so it should focus its main efforts on puffed foods and candies and chocolates."

Nagashima Shigeo naturally wouldn't refute the chairman's idea, and simply went along with it.

Besides, he had already planned to develop these two categories of products and was eager to have more resources at his disposal, so he was even less likely to object.

"Oh, then I wonder if Mr. Long Island has any good insights?"

The young man became slightly interested and wanted to know what the food company president was thinking.

“The Japanese market is saturated, but we can package our chocolate brand as a gift.”

"For example, associating chocolate with love, or chocolate with exam success."

Upon taking office, Shigeo Nagashima's first priority was to investigate the company's food sales across various regions.

Candy and chocolate, in particular, were of paramount importance to his inspection.

Since beverages and instant noodles were the achievements of the previous two presidents, the new president needs to lead another food category.

Candy and chocolate were the targets he chose to break through.

Then, during this process, he discovered that the company's chocolate brand often saw increased sales around Valentine's Day and the college entrance examination period.

From this, Shigeo Nagashima concluded that focusing on developing gift chocolates could help him break through the competition from other brands in the industry.

“That makes a lot of sense. Then let’s just create a chocolate brand called ‘Victory’ and a brand related to love.”

When Masato Takeshita thought of the men and women who buy chocolates on Valentine's Day, and the students who buy items with the word "victory" on them before exams, he immediately felt a strong sense of approval.

He then combined his idea of ​​gift chocolates with Shigeo Nagashima's ideas, and immediately came up with a better brand development strategy.

"Any other ideas?"

Masato Takeshita's eyes held a hint of anticipation, hoping that the president of Seikai Foods would offer more useful suggestions.

"Another thing is that we should actively explore the Chinese market. At present, the Chinese chocolate market is basically a blank slate, with only a few competitors such as Dove."

"If we enter the market now, it will be easy for us to become number one in the industry by leveraging our sales channel advantages."

Foreign chocolate brands officially entered China in 1994.

Only a year has passed, and Xinghai Foods' chocolate brand is fully capable of catching up and surpassing others.

Xinghai Group far surpasses other food factories in both media resources and offline supermarket store resources.

This advantage, stemming from Xinghai Foods' beverage and instant noodle factories, makes it easy for the company to expand into the Chinese market.

"Yes, chocolate is still considered a high-end food in China."

"We will increase our advertising in China and market our products in conjunction with gift-giving, love, family affection, and friendship."

Upon hearing the approval of his own chairman, Shigeo Nagashima excitedly echoed.

"Yes, Chairman, we will also conduct the same marketing and promotion in Japan."

"We not only need to run standalone advertisements, but also integrate our food advertisements into TV dramas and animated series."

Starsea Group places great importance on product placement in its TV dramas and animations, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on this every year.

If other advertising expenditures are also included, Xinghai Group spends approximately 3 billion yuan on advertising annually.

However, all of this is well worth it. The brand awareness of many brands under Xinghai Group has been rising steadily, and some brands have even surpassed established giants in terms of brand awareness.

After discussing advertising and marketing, Masato Takeshita brought the topic back to its original point.

He took out a document and began to carefully explain to Shigeo Nagashima the multi-flavor chocolate strategy he had just discussed with Hiroaki Kobayashi.

"My brain is so stupid."

After hearing just the beginning, Shigeo Nagashima felt like punching himself.

When he was promoting and developing the food business in China, he had already seen the success of the multi-flavor strategy for candy, but he failed to connect it with chocolate, which is also a sweet snack.

In essence, there is no difference between the two.

If candy works, chocolate will too.

Although he was extremely annoyed, he still listened silently to his chairman's explanation and added to the parts he hadn't thought of.

"Wow, that's amazing! No wonder he's Japan's number one genius."

After listening attentively to the entire plan, he couldn't help but marvel once again at the greatness of his chairman, and a sense of immense pride was evident in his expression.

Being able to serve as a subordinate of such an important figure and witness the rapid growth of a large enterprise brings him joy.

However, these thoughts only flashed through Shigeo Nagashima's mind and were quickly put aside.

Now is the time for serious matters; there's no time to think about miscellaneous things.

"Understood. Please rest assured, Chairman, the company will definitely achieve a breakthrough in chocolate sales in the second half of the year."

"Don't rush, it's not too late to proceed after making thorough preparations. We have plenty of time."

"Yes, President!"

Upon returning to Xinghai Foods, Shigeo Nagashima immediately convened a meeting and then informed his subordinates of the matters assigned by the chairman.

"Adding chocolate flavor is a great idea. As expected of the president."

"Yes, maybe it's because I've gotten used to seeing only a few simple chocolate flavors before, how come I didn't think of that?"

"The company's R&D department is not yet well-staffed, so we need to issue more internal offers and let them enter the internship period ahead of time."

Xinghai Foods has too much research and development work and is facing a serious shortage of manpower. It must increase its recruitment of talents in the scientific research field.

In particular, science PhD students are extremely scarce.

"Don't worry, the chairman has given the company the maximum authorization. If you need more staff, just report it to headquarters, and they will cooperate with us in the recruitment."

As Xinghai Group grows and expands, many powers that originally belonged to the group headquarters are being delegated to lower levels.

For example, the authority to recruit personnel has now been delegated to companies at a level lower than Xinghai Foods.

For example, Xinghai Beverage Company, a subsidiary of Xinghai Food.

However, in order to ensure the authority of the headquarters and to prevent serious fraud in recruitment, the group headquarters will send personnel to supervise the recruitment process.

He certainly didn't want his company to lose control of the recruitment process and end up with 50% of new employees being people with connections.

His maximum tolerance for company cronies is currently only 5%, and it will not exceed 7% in the future.

As for completely eliminating it, that's just wishful thinking. Once the company grows and expands, no one can do it.

As they were talking, someone suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"I wonder if everyone has noticed that our chairman's main idea is to diversify the flavors of products within the same category."

"Whether it's candy, chocolate, or puffed snacks like potato chips, the chairman's requirement is to create all kinds of flavors."

After someone pointed this out, Shigeo Nagashima and others responded with agreement.

"Yes, I've also noticed that the chairman likes to break through the blockade of industry giants with multiple flavors."

"That's right, I had the same thought."

"Wolf pack tactics are naturally suited to the food industry."

Just as Xinghai Foods was preparing to fully implement the will of the youth and adopt a multi-flavor strategy for all its snacks.

Meanwhile, Masato Takeshita pulled Hiroaki Kobayashi aside again to inquire about his company's progress in the luxury goods industry. "The company has acquired several top European watch brands, becoming the parent company of many brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, and Patek Philippe."

Right now, the watch industry is just beginning to revive, and future super watch brands won't be worth much.

The watch industry's true recovery will depend on the nouveau riche who emerged after the rise of the internet industry, and on the nouveau riche who blindly pursued the lifestyle of Europe and America after the rise of the Asian economy.

Therefore, Starlife only spent a little over 1 million US dollars to acquire many top watch brands.

"Good, keep up the good work. We should increase our purchases from any watch brand with a certain level of brand recognition."

"Yes, please rest assured, Chairman."

Young people are not too worried about the luxury watch business because the industry is still in a downturn.

Xinghai Life is willing to spend money and can easily acquire countless well-known brands that will be famous in later generations.

Furthermore, many top watch brands are now eager for Xinghai to enter the high-end luxury market.

If we can't even make ends meet, why think about anything else?

However, some are smart; they also sell their brands, but retain a certain percentage of shares.

For example, Patek Philippe retained a 20% stake, hoping for a better future.

Faced with this situation, Xinghai Luxury is supportive, mainly hoping to gain the support of local people and the local government.

However, perhaps frightened by the watch industry crash of the 1980s, only a minority of brands made this choice; most still preferred cash assets.

Masato Takeshita wasn't worried about any problems in the watch industry, so he focused on fashion and bags that every woman loves.

"Where is our acquisition of Gucci at?"

"We are still in the preparatory stage, and we expect to be able to make public acquisitions on the market next month."

Hiroaki Kobayashi did not rush to acquire the Gucci brand, wanting to avoid Gucci using a poison pill plan.

This naturally stretches the timeline out to a very long length.

"Yes, no need to rush. The company can afford to pay a three-fold premium during a public takeover."

"Yes, please rest assured, Chairman, we will definitely succeed."

Hiroaki Kobayashi is quite confident in acquiring the Gucci brand, because Gucci is no longer a family business.

Anyone willing to spend money can become the company's largest shareholder.

"By the way, you can explain the benefits of our acquisition to the Gucci Group's management."

“Our strength in the luxury goods industry is not very strong, and Gucci’s management can directly become Xinghai’s high-end luxury management.”

Some people might prefer power to money, so Xinghai Group gives them power.

Let alone managing the luxury goods division of Xinghai Group, she could easily manage the entire Xinghai Lifestyle division once she grows up.

"Yes, President!"

Gucci will be the starting point for Xinghai Group's luxury goods business, which Masato Takeshita attaches great importance to.

Because of Gucci, Xinghai Group can have a prestigious brand name when acquiring other brands.

At the same time, Gucci will provide Xinghai Group with a more professional perspective in the luxury goods sector, enabling them to achieve greater gains at a lower cost.

The young people do not want every future acquisition to come at the cost of several times the market value.

"Is Hermès also taking action?"

Although he knew that the Hermès family owned the majority of the company's shares and that the family was very united, the young man still wanted to try and take over the crown of the luxury goods industry.

Even if the price is that Xinghai Group relinquishes some control of Xinghai Luxury.

"Yes, but they're all small-scale operations. This company is very united."

"Give it a try. If it doesn't work, we can form an alliance with Hermès once we've scaled up."

The alliance means maintaining Hermès' independent brand status, but both parties will share certain design and distribution resources.

It's just a question of whether Hermès would be willing to form an alliance with Starry Night Luxury.

"Yes, President!"

After a brief discussion about the future development of Xinghai Luxury, Masato Takeshita did not linger there but returned to the company headquarters for lunch and rest.

"It seems like it's been a long time since I've been to Xinghai Games. I'll go check it out later."

As the young man ate his fried fish, he suddenly felt nostalgic for the entertainment atmosphere at Starsea Games.

"I wonder what new and fun games are available over there lately?"

"I estimate not many; this is the last period of the console game market."

In 1995, the game market was still in the transition from 2D to 3D, and the console game market had not yet produced any classic games of epoch-making significance.

Everyone is still learning and exploring 3D games, so it's unlikely that a new game will come along that will truly impress him.

However, nothing is absolute. Just because 3D games don't suit his aesthetic doesn't mean that classic 2D games are also unacceptable.

After all, 2D games were already very mature and suited the gaming experience of later generations.

"Forget it, there's no point in thinking about it here. We'll find out once we've rested and gone to take a look."

Takeshita Masato stopped overthinking, quickly finished his meal, and returned to his office.

He needs to digest his food and then take a nap.

At 2 p.m., Takeshita Masato, who was awakened by his alarm clock, lazily stretched.

"Let's go to Xinghai Games."

After a quick wash, the young man gave orders directly to Miho Uchida.

"Yes, President!"

There weren't many cars on the road in the afternoon, and the group quickly arrived at Xinghai Games.

"President Suzuhara, do you know what fun games the company has recently?"

"I think they're all pretty fun, but I don't know what type the president likes."

Tetsuya Suzuhara wouldn't be foolish enough to reveal a game he doesn't like, because the gaming industry is too random.

Often, the games you thought would be hits flop, while the niche products you overlooked become wildly popular.

For example, the very famous mobile game "Onmyoji" was originally developed by a team of leftover projects.

Only after the game became a huge hit did NetEase belatedly invest a lot of resources in promotion.

"Alright, I'll look for it myself then."

Masato Takeshita's first job was with the Street Fighter project team, which can be considered the true starting point of Starsea Games.

"Wow, you can now choose up to 24 game characters!"

"Yes, the fighting game market is currently highly competitive, and increasing the number of characters can better attract gamers."

"Good idea, but the quantity shouldn't be too large."

Having too few characters makes the game less appealing, but having too many characters is equally undesirable.

Arcade tokens are expensive, so we want everyone to play against familiar characters as much as possible.

(End of this chapter)