Back to the prime of life

Chapter 208 Take action
It was already evening, but after taking a shower in her hotel room, Lu Changge prepared to get dressed and leave.

Zuo Shuya leaned against the door, in a normal posture, but her swaying figure couldn't be concealed. "When are you going to Beijing?"

"The day after tomorrow," Lu Changge said, drying his hair. He roughly understood what she meant, so he asked, "Are you going? Is it okay to leave Xiaoying alone?"

"My mom is here."

Lu Changge was somewhat surprised, because in the past, when she mentioned it, it seemed that she didn't have a very good relationship with her parents.

Zuo Shuya explained, "They somehow found out that I won the lawsuit. They felt sorry for their granddaughter, even if they didn't care about their own daughter, so they contacted me. Now, she's helping me take care of the child. I think you're right about one of your points."

"what?"

"The bottom line of family ties is money."

"Nonsense, I never said anything so extreme. There are plenty of elderly people living alone with money tied around their waists."

“Statistically speaking, extreme cases are not worth counting. But I also admit…” She paused here, “Only a biological mother would forgive and forget; she’s actually been nicer to me now.”

"Listening to you talk about these things, I feel quite satisfied with my sense of accomplishment and vanity. It makes me feel like I'm really great for helping people. I'm not immune to this either."

"The collar." Zuo Shuya pointed, then walked behind Lu Changge and straightened his coat, before hugging him from behind. "Ten years ago, I never imagined I would have these past few years. But I've been feeling pretty good lately."

Lu Changge tilted her head and asked, "Where is it good?"

Zuo Shuya tiptoed and whispered in his ear, "A 20-year-old young man has good stamina."

These words infuriated Lu Changge. He was someone who had returned to his 40s, so he had a deeper understanding of this. If it weren't for something else, he could have turned the tables and given her another beating.

But now he has no choice but to go out.

The person looking for him was none other than Qin Jun, who was extremely busy.

Old Qin has always been in charge of the unified management of the supply chain. He doesn't have Li Ming's ability to get involved in all sorts of things, so the two of them basically work together, while Qin Jun focuses on serious business.

The reason they specifically sought out his boss was because something had gone wrong.

“Several suppliers have suggested to me that they want to raise prices. This is actually quite normal. Our company got these goods during the financial crisis, and the government coordinated and guaranteed them. At that time, everyone was eager to sell. But now that things seem to be better, and with centralized procurement in one place, these people are more likely to collude in private.”

Lu Changge frowned. "So it's not a coincidence that several suppliers brought it up with you at the same time. It was a pre-arranged plan to put pressure on each other."

"That hasn't been said publicly yet."

“We’re all smart people. If we talk about it openly, it will ruin our relationship. If I, a naive twenty-year-old, insist on complaining to Director Xu, it will at least make things look bad for everyone.”

Lu Changge peeled a piece of chewing gum and put it in his mouth to chew. He thought of another question, "Chen Nian from Vancl suddenly criticized me in public. I always felt that no one is that stupid. Could there be a connection between these two things?"

Qin Jun was stunned. "No one has used Vancl to blackmail me, right?"

“It’s hard to guarantee that someone isn’t thinking about this. Let’s take that factor into account first.” Lu Changge stroked his chin. “More likely, it’s because the brothers have been having a good time lately. They’ve gotten investments, appeared on TV, and are talking about their net worth of hundreds of millions. Maybe we’ve overhyped it. These guys are sitting at home watching us be so successful, thinking that Boss Lu should give them a share too.”

It's actually quite absurd to think about it this way.

"Then it's Li Ming's fault?"

"Haha." Lu Changge laughed too. Sometimes things in the world are quite interesting.

"The key question now is, what do we do?"

"What to do? Leave them out, then contact other suppliers and replace the ones you don't like with the suitable ones. Did you see that big advertising slogan at the Jiangzhou highway toll station? 'Chinese Clothing, World-Class Jiangzhou.' Jiangzhou produces enough clothes for over a billion people every year; it doesn't need that small factory. Small business owners all over southern Jiangsu always give the impression of being shrewd, but in reality, the proportion who actually grow their businesses into large and strong ones is extremely low. This is partly because running a business is difficult, and partly because of their limited vision. Initially, we also relied on the development zone government, so we considered many regional factors."

But in reality, procurement should also be market-driven. Since we're aiming for brand development, we can't possibly showcase clothes from small factories to consumers. That would be putting Min Xiuwen at a disadvantage.”

Qin Jun's eyes lit up. "In that case, we can take this opportunity to improve and optimize the supply chain."

"Ah."

When Lu Changge first heard Qin Jun say this, he wanted to curse, but as he gradually sorted out his thoughts, he suddenly felt much more at ease. "Don't pay attention to Li Ming's emotional appeals. You should focus on standardizing your supply chain management. July and August are summer vacation. Contact them and see if there are any opportunities for learning and exchange. Go outside and see how others do it."

Back in Shanghai, Min Xiuwen and I discussed a branding strategy. It was unethical, but business is business, and everyone has their own methods.

"What idea?"

"Find out the factories of those brands. That way, we'll have something to say when we do the advertising."

This was indeed somewhat unethical, and later a Japanese brand called Muji was embroiled in a mess by domestic companies.

Muji is a general merchandise brand with a wide range of products including clothing, household goods, food, and home goods. Regardless of its positioning in Japan, it is positioned as a mid-to-high-end brand in mainland China and has long been a favorite among the urban middle class.

Its annual sales in China exceed 100 billion yuan.

So what did its competitors do?
It's about finding the source. Muji mainly focuses on design, not production, right? As for where the production is located, the world's factory is China itself; we can't just run around outside of China.

As everyone knows, brands have a premium, which means that their actual cost is not that high.

Okay, so another company finds a few designers, sets up a few computers, creates a design, commissions that factory to produce it, imitates your store's decor, and then sells it at half the price of yours, even subtly advertising that we and Muji are produced in the same factory.

This is a descriptive statement; it is indeed produced in a factory.

So, what should consumers choose at this point?

Needless to say, most people will vote with their feet.

In the six months since its establishment, Lumang has used low prices as an effective means to get started quickly. However, it has been constantly suffering from the backlash of low prices because consumers still perceive it as a cheap product, which is very difficult to change.

Don't even mention Lu Changge, has Lei Jun, the business tycoon, taken off the label of "cheap goods" for Xiaomi?
Therefore, Min Xiuwen's strategy is to fight this battle step by step, and not to expect to turn things around overnight. That would be unrealistic and impossible.

Therefore, Lumang's brand positioning is not high-end, and it doesn't even touch the mid-range market. Instead, it breaks free from the quagmire of price and chooses the word "quality" as its alternative path.

It's cheap and prestigious, which is hard for Chinese people to accept.

But since it's inexpensive and of good quality, many people still accept it.

Therefore, improving the supply chain, leveraging the reputation of others, and attaching the label of quality to our heads are the main goals for the foreseeable future.

In particular, Lu Changge remembered that Vancl experienced numerous product quality problems after overexpansion, making quality a significant competitive advantage.

There are two logics to a company's success: one is that you are truly outstanding and lead the entire industry, and the other is that your competitors are truly rubbish.

Qin Jun put down the phone and said, "I was still worried, so I made some inquiries from the side. There really isn't a single company that's related to Vancl. I had to swear on my mom's name to prove it to everyone."

"Is that so?" Lu Changge scratched his head, he really couldn't figure out where the opponent's move was aimed.

(End of this chapter)