All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

If the market grows larger in the future, there will be sufficient reason to raise prices again, and people will naturally accept the higher-priced medicated plasters.

This method of playing the game was mastered in later generations, but in the early 1980s, Liu Feng was definitely the originator, at least in China.

With everything prepared, the plan was quickly put into action.

Five energetic young men rode their bicycles and began cycling towards the surrounding villages, while the pharmacy in Maojia Village officially began selling two hundred plasters a day in limited quantities.

On its first day of business, the pharmacy, which had been closed for a month, reopened and was bustling with customers buying medicated plasters. However, they soon learned that each person could only buy two plasters per day, which caused an uproar.

You know, many people have traveled more than ten miles to buy this, and many of them are even further away, intending to bring back some plasters for the villagers. But now each person is limited to two plasters. What's going on here?

As a result, the noise inevitably began to rise. Although the employees selling the plasters had been talking themselves hoarse since early morning, some elderly men and women were still angrily blocking the door, demanding to buy a dozen or even dozens of plasters.

Their reasoning was quite pitiful: they got up at five in the morning and walked for three or four hours to get here, and now you want to sell them two plasters? Are your plasters made of gold or silver? They have to sell them to them today, or they won't leave!

But the rules were set by Liu Feng, so they couldn't be broken. If they were, his plan would be completely ruined. Have you ever seen a monopoly enterprise yield to the common people?

dream!

If we open the door for these elderly people, then more doors will be opened in the future, since everyone has relatives and friends.

These old ladies are trying to cheat people by using personal connections to get away with things. Aren't they just blocking their own path to wealth?

So Liu Feng personally stepped in and patiently persuaded them for over an hour, but to no avail. In the end, he simply told all the employees, "We're only selling 200 copies a day. Anyone who dares to sell even one more can get the hell out of here!"

With just that one sentence, all the employees were silenced. After giving his instructions, Liu Feng left, leaving Mao Chengcheng to supervise.

What can we do when the boss has already said that?

However, rules are rules, but people are flexible. Many employees advised the elderly to buy two tickets first, and then line up to buy two more later. If that didn't work, they could ask someone nearby to help them line up. Not many people know about this yet, but by the afternoon, when there are more people, they won't be able to buy any.

Repeated queuing does allow some elderly women to buy things multiple times, and Mao Chengcheng consulted Liu Feng about this phenomenon.

Liu Feng smiled without saying a word, then patted him on the shoulder and said...

"Remember, only two hundred tickets can be sold each day. Anyone who sells even one more than that will be fired!"

Mao Chengcheng, seeing that Liu Feng's reply was completely irrelevant, pondered for a long time before realizing Liu Feng's meaning: this was tacit agreement.

Yes, Liu Feng did tacitly agree. He was subconsciously cultivating the first generation of scalpers. Only when scalpers emerged, and these elderly women and men discovered that the plasters they bought by queuing up could be resold for more money, would the market naturally become more active.

Those energetic young men who go to the countryside to buy medicinal herbs are anxiety generators. They create a special kind of anxiety in customers who want to buy but don't have time to come, making them feel that if they don't buy now, the price might go up later.

For many customers with mild pain, these medicated plasters aren't needed every day. They bought a few last year and have them at home. Now, seeing this situation, they'll soon find that the price of the plasters they have has actually increased. Last year, they were 98 cents each, but now someone outside is offering 20 cents more to buy them. This sentiment makes everyone think about buying a few more to keep at home.

The real hype should be the nationwide scalping, like Moutai in later generations, or some special drugs that ordinary people don't actually need or are unwilling to use, but can't buy at the original price on the market. If an e-commerce website suddenly has a batch of Moutai sold at the original price, even people who don't drink will want to buy a bottle, because everyone knows that buying it is a profit. That's the real god of marketing.

Is Moutai impossible to mass-produce? Or is it simply impossible to replicate?

Haha! Neither!

Besides, my plaster has unique features that other plasters don't have. Even if you wanted to imitate it, you wouldn't have the secret formula. It would be a real shame not to promote this stuff!

Yes, if you don't make money, you're not a businessman. A businessman who relies on moral constraints can't possibly grow big and strong. A true entrepreneur should, after reaching the top and becoming the strongest, give back to society and create a positive cycle so that society can move towards more harmonious development.

Back then, Deng Xiaoping proposed that a small number of people should get rich so that others could achieve a better life. However, after decades of development, the reality is that those who have become the biggest and strongest entrepreneurs are trying every means to transfer their assets. They are not satisfied until they have earned every last drop of their hard-earned money. They will find ways to circumvent morality and even the law.

Chapter Eleven: Just a Small Test

As Liu Feng had predicted, the daily limited-quantity sales quickly triggered a series of chain reactions.

For the first two weeks, no one noticed anything amiss. After all, this plaster wasn't a necessity, and many people had stocked up on it when there were no supply limits last year.

However, they soon discovered that after their stock ran out, they could no longer buy medicated plasters when they went to Maojia Village again.

The shop opens at 9:30 every morning, and the 200 plasters sold out in less than two hours. This left many customers who had come from afar empty-handed, and naturally, complaints followed.

However, the news that the plaster is lacking in precious raw materials has already spread in the neighborhood. Although everyone is complaining, there is nothing they can do.

I learned from the shop assistant that there is indeed a shortage of raw materials. They only produce once a week, and only a little over a thousand pieces, which is just enough for one week's supply. They are not producing any more than that.

Some buyers who have come from afar, not wanting to leave empty-handed, can only try asking people around them if they can transfer a few plasters to them. Once demand arises, the price of off-site transactions will naturally be higher than the original price.

At first, many people used a "favor price" to transfer a few tickets, for example, those bought for 98 cents were transferred for one dollar each. They were all from the same village and knew each other, so it was just a way of doing a favor.

However, the favors eventually run out. With only 200 tickets available each day, the daily demand far exceeded that number. By the second week, it was almost impossible to resell them at the favor price. As a result, many people started to raise the price, willing to buy several tickets for one dollar and ten cents each.

As the stock of medicated plasters on the market gradually decreases, the demand naturally increases. However, it is impossible to buy them at the original price even with daily queues. Under these circumstances, a new secondary market naturally emerges.

In just one month, the price went from a friendly transfer price of 98 cents to 1.1 yuan, and by the end of the month, the transfer price on the secondary market was no less than 1.2 yuan for the plaster.

In other words, if you queue up to buy two plasters, you can make 40 cents by reselling them. This kind of good thing has gradually become a local spectacle, and has gradually pushed the reputation of this "secret imperial plaster" to a new level.

Those spirited young men who went to the countryside to buy precious medicinal herbs indirectly told everyone about the scarcity of this plaster.

Some people who have used this plaster describe it with a heartbreaking expression whenever they talk about it with others.

"These medicated plasters are really effective, but they're too expensive, and you can't even buy them!"

This kind of casual conversation in the countryside gradually gave this plaster a new positioning: it was effective, expensive, and unaffordable for the average person.

When it comes to money, ordinary people often spend the most on things related to birth, aging, illness, and death. The pain caused by illness cannot be measured by price. Just a reputation for good efficacy is enough to make many people remember this plaster.

As a result, even more people lined up every day. People from nearby villages would come as early as five or six in the morning and wait until the store opened at nine-thirty, willing to wait three or four hours just to buy two plasters.

This phenomenon began in the second half of the month after the limited supply began. Some nearby villagers, seeing this, and some clever ones, started queuing up to buy the goods every day when they had nothing else to do. Taking advantage of their location, they were often the first to get in line every day.

As long as you buy the plasters, you can sell them for an extra two cents each by the afternoon. A person can earn several cents a day. This sudden income has tempted many villagers in Maojia Village. Money can move people's hearts, and no one is a fool, especially since this is a region at the forefront of reform and opening up.

As a result, some villagers would get up early in the morning to queue up. Taking advantage of their numbers, they could buy about ten plasters a day and then resell them, easily earning two or three yuan a day, which amounted to fifty or sixty yuan a month.

This is equivalent to a month's salary for an adult. The power of role models is immense. Once the news spread that a villager could earn two or three yuan a day by queuing, the proportion of villagers queuing in Maojia Village increased dramatically.

This phenomenon also caught Mao Chengcheng's attention, and he immediately consulted Liu Feng.

Upon learning of this, Liu Feng remained completely calm. Such a development was inevitable, and no one could ignore this almost free benefit.

However, the fact that the supply of goods was monopolized by the villagers of Maojia Village was not a good thing. After considering this, Liu Feng decided to officially implement the next step of the plan.

The original plan for the second month of limited sales was to increase the daily quota to 300 tickets, adding 100 tickets each day, which would amount to 3,000 tickets per month. He planned to change the sales method for these 3,000 tickets, while Maojia Village would still have a daily quota of 200 tickets.

However, he also found another sales channel, which was the rural areas near the outskirts of Guangzhou, the village clinics, and he planned to discuss cooperation with the doctors stationed there.

He didn't just find any village or town; he tried to find villages around Guangzhou with a relatively large population to expand the coverage of the plaster as much as possible.

Of course, in order to preserve the scarcity of this plaster, he initially selected thirty village clinics from them, covering two districts of Guangzhou, all of which are relatively large villages in the area.

He stated his purpose directly: he was willing to provide each village clinic with one hundred plasters every month. He didn't care how many they sold, but the price he offered was 98 cents per plaster.

The local clinics almost immediately agreed to Liu Feng's proposal; not a single village clinic was unwilling. The doctors were even very grateful. This was a completely different attitude from when he went to the town's health center a few months earlier to promote his medicated plasters.

These village clinics existed from the 1960s and 70s until after the 21st century. However, as the medical system became more and more advanced, these village clinics have almost disappeared.

In those days, village clinics were the only way for many villagers to see a doctor. The doctors there were mostly locals, and they had a nickname that everyone in China knew: "barefoot doctors."

These barefoot doctors are farmers in their spare time, but when they are busy, they carry their boxes and go from street to street as doctors. They naturally know about the plasters from Maojia Village. In the past few months, with the hot sales of plasters, they have been asked by countless villagers if they have any of these plasters for sale.

This plaster was touted as miraculous, and many barefoot doctors initially didn't believe it. However, after experiencing it, they all came to believe that the plaster truly had its wonders. Many doctors even bought some to keep on hand. Liu Feng had encountered many barefoot doctors coming to buy the plaster in the previous few months, which led to this plan.

One hundred plasters per village per month may seem like a lot, but for many villages, it's a drop in the ocean and simply not enough. Many villages have hundreds or even thousands of people, so this amount of plasters is not enough to go around. But that's exactly the effect Liu Feng wanted.

With these 30 additional clinics, there are 30 more sales outlets and 30 more advertising points, allowing more people to learn about this medicated plaster.

Although this plaster was originally quite famous, it spread slowly from Maojia Village, which, in Liu Feng's opinion, was still too slow.

In some more remote areas, the word-of-mouth marketing mostly comes from relatives and friends. Many ordinary people don't even know about this plaster, and even if they do, they won't travel dozens of miles to buy it. So the number of people covered is actually not large enough or comprehensive enough.

Now with thirty more sales points, we can use the barefoot doctors' promotion to let more villagers know about this plaster. This is just one part of the second step of the plan.

In the second month of the limited-edition sales, although 3,000 more plasters were added each month, it did not affect the queuing situation in Maojia Village at all. In fact, it got even worse. The villagers of Maojia Village were even fighting amongst themselves. Every day at four or five o'clock, they would bring stools to sit in front of the store.

Moreover, with the supply of goods basically monopolized by the villagers of Maojia Village, the demand for medicated plasters in the secondary market has become even more urgent. The consequence of this increased demand is that the supply is limited, so the second step will naturally be a price increase.

As a result, the price of the plaster rose again this month, from 1.2 yuan to 1.3 yuan. The magic of this plaster, along with the price surge, made more people aware that there is a magical plaster in Maojia Village that money can't buy!

Just like Moutai in later generations, although most ordinary people don't drink it, are unwilling to drink it, or even want to drink it but can't buy it, everyone knows the name Moutai because it is expensive enough!

Now, the reputation of this "Imperial Secret Recipe Plaster" has spread far and wide due to its increasingly outrageous price, and even some urban residents have heard of this plaster.

As its reputation spread, the demand for this plaster naturally increased. After all, although it costs just over a dollar, people who really suffer from back and leg pain are eager to try it after hearing about its miraculous effects. Once they try it, they quickly become enthusiastic advocates, telling others about the plaster's amazing effects and outrageous price.

Once a product gains the value of being flaunted, it is no longer just a simple plaster.

The fact that this medicated plaster spread so widely in its second month of limited sales is largely thanks to the thirty village clinics.

A monthly quota of one hundred is still too few. At first, these doctors were hesitant to raise prices, after all, their thinking was still somewhat conservative in this era, and Liu Feng was only offering them 98 cents per sheet.

So at first, they tried adding 1 cent to the price of 98 cents, but they soon found that the goods were sold out the day after they arrived, and no one was bargaining for the 1.1 yuan plasters.

This phenomenon has occurred in almost every village clinic. Almost every hundred plasters they receive are snapped up within a week of arrival. They earn 10 cents per plaster, so 100 plasters would earn them 10 yuan, which is a considerable sum for many rural barefoot doctors.

But human desires tend to rise step by step.

As the secondary market saw plasters selling for 1.3 yuan each become the norm, a situation even arose where there was demand but no supply, because they were simply unavailable. Every day, as soon as Maojia Village opened, they would sell out within half an hour, and more and more people flocked to Maojia Village to queue up. Even many city dwellers made a special trip to Maojia Village to buy the plasters at high prices.

As news of rising prices reached the ears of doctors who had sold their shares for a dollar in advance, many began to regret their decisions.

So these doctors started to have other ideas. At first, they wanted Liu Feng to increase his share of the monthly quota, but Liu Feng refused with a smile and apologized, saying that he didn't have enough raw materials and had to buy them from other counties and cities. He had no choice but to do so.

Is there really no other way for Liu Feng?

Ha ha.

In the third month of the limited sales, Liu Feng added 30 more village clinics, still selling 100 plasters per month. His sales network expanded once again. The village clinic furthest from Maojia Village is now 50 kilometers away. At the same time, he announced that the sales point in Maojia Village would increase to 300 plasters per day, still limited to two plasters per person per day, with the policy of 98 cents per plaster remaining unchanged.

This move increased monthly sales by another 6,000 copies, bringing the total monthly sales to 15,000 copies. On average, this is about the same as the peak of 500 copies per day last year.

Although sales have recovered to last year's level, the sales scope and brand awareness of this plaster have now expanded more than three times, and are still spreading rapidly. According to Liu Feng, dozens of customers from the city come to Maojia Village every day to buy the plaster at high prices, which was not the case last year.

This is also why Liu Feng increased his share. Once his reputation reaches a certain level, he naturally needs to release more stock. Otherwise, there would be no stock to speculate on in the secondary market, and the price would naturally not rise.

Liu Feng's goal is to ensure that customers willing to pay a high price can definitely buy it. If they can't buy this plaster no matter how much money they spend, it means that this plaster has no value for hype.

Products with inflated prices and no market circulation are destined to become niche products.

In just three months, Liu Feng successfully restored the sales of this plaster to its former level, and there was no worry about selling it. Every day when the store opened, the door was already packed with people queuing up. This phenomenon was completely incomprehensible to Mao Chengcheng and others.

Previously, there was no limit to sales, and only 500 tickets were sold in a whole day. Now, it's limited to two tickets per person per day, but sales are even faster and more frantic. Many people, including the villagers of Maojia Village, haven't figured out the reasons behind this.

However, they don't need to figure it out. All they know is that many villagers in Maojia Village are now making a lot of money from this stuff. Ninety percent of the sales in Maojia Village are now made by villagers queuing up to buy it. Almost every household has someone queuing up, and many villagers bring their whole family together. This has quickly created a secondary scalper market.

After this phenomenon lasted for two months, buyers from other villages or cities could only buy from Mao's villagers at high prices. These phenomena further drove up prices, and by the end of the third month, the price had almost easily reached 1.4 yuan per sheet.

If these phenomena continue, it is not a good thing for Liu Feng. However, this is an inevitable stage of development. He doesn't care who makes money at the Maojia Village sales point. The purpose of this sales point is to show everyone that his retail price is indeed 98 cents. As for what price you pay, that's none of my business.

The factory price of 98 cents becomes 1.4 yuan in other people's hands. This is simply crazy. In this day and age, such gossip spreads faster than any other news.