When a large-scale anti-smuggling operation was carried out, Dashi Clothing Company organized a large number of goods.
A whole shipload of Meng County specialties was sent to Western Europe via the West Sea Canal, and was distributed to large food and clothing stores in major cities in various countries.
A comprehensive New Year promotion was launched immediately.
When Rothier returned to Tessie, it was just at the end of the year, and he was hitting the climax of this crappy promotion.
Therefore, this extremely difficult smuggling operation was not only completely in vain, but may even result in direct loss of money.
Zhu Jingyuan and the two staff did not know the existence of Rochiel, so of course it was impossible to target him specifically.
But Zhu Jingyuan knew that smugglers existed, so he could target all smugglers as a whole and directly cover and attack Rothschild.
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According to the plan discussed by Zhu Jingyuan and his staff, the discount activities through the official channels of Dashi Clothing Store and the large-scale anti-smuggling operations of the two governor's offices were originally carried out in conjunction.
Whether the anti-smuggling operation can directly catch all the smugglers is not the most important thing.
The key is to see how many smugglers can go bankrupt and how many people can leave the industry through this kind of overall cooperation and suppression.
There is no way to directly calculate this, we can only observe the effects slowly.
Half a month after the anti-smuggling activity began, Lin Zexu and Niu Jian came to Zhu Jingyuan to report together again.
Lin Zexu said with great regret:
"Your Highness, the two governor's offices have been busy for half a month. Although they have caught a large number of smugglers, big and small, they have never caught the main smugglers in the big food country."
Zhu Jingyuan was not too disappointed in this, and was mentally prepared for such a result:
"It's okay. Although the smugglers were not caught, the effect of combating smuggling has been achieved, and it seems to be pretty good so far.
"Now that the Chinese New Year is approaching, we have informed the two governor's offices that they can start taking turns and gradually reduce the intensity of inspections.
“However, the final bottom line is that the intensity of the investigation is still higher than before the large-scale investigation.
"Anyway, a large number of old cruisers and destroyers are about to be retired. Let's finally use the remaining heat."
Lin Zexu nodded in agreement and wrote down Zhu Jingyuan's request.
Zhu Jingyuan continued:
“After the Chinese New Year, I will leave Meng County and the Big Food Country.
"About the subsequent development directions of Dashiguo and Mengxian County after I leave...
"Let's have a final discussion and confirmation now..."
Niu Jian immediately responded:
"Shao Mu and I have basically completed the construction plan for Meng County, and we have shown it to you, and you have also given instructions."
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and waved his hand and said:
“Of course I remember this, what I want to say now is some direction and some details.
“The first thing is about the future sales plans of these specialties from our Mengxian County... and even the food country.
"There is basically no problem in selling conventional products related to rayon and elastic yarn. We just need to let the output and market expand naturally.
“The biggest problem is pantyhose, the way they are marketed can’t stay the way they are.”
Lin Zexu and Niu Jian looked at each other and nodded subconsciously.
Then Lin Zexu summarized his views:
“The current situation is that pantyhose, as a product category, are generally a luxury product defined by His Highness.
“But it is not a gemstone with a very limited objective output, but a simple industrial product.
“Purely industrial products do not even involve agricultural production at all, so they are not affected by climate and famine years.
“We can now see that if the scale of the petrochemical industry continues to expand, the output of this finished product will explode very quickly.
"At the same time, as knitted products with huge elasticity, they are relatively easy to damage by their nature, and transparent thin socks can be called consumables.
"The foreseeable huge output and relatively easy-to-damage nature mean that they cannot always be regarded as luxury goods as a whole, and they must gradually be transformed into mass commodities."
Niu Jian kept nodding his head while listening to Lin Zexu's previous words, but at the end he suddenly had a different opinion:
"It doesn't have to be turned into mass merchandise. The public has no rigid demand for this kind of clothing.
"If the king is willing, we can completely control the output to maintain its market price."
Lin Zexu immediately asked:
“Of course we can control our own production, but we cannot control the Royal Refining Company and the refining companies of various countries in Europe and America.
"If they invent a similar product and promote it as a mass product, we won't be able to stop it!"
Zhu Jingyuan raised his hand to signal the two staff not to argue:
“If a country with a large food supply and a small country with few people is unable to engage in large-scale production, then of course it must control output as much as possible and maintain market sales prices as high as possible.
“But a big food country cannot always be a small country with few people, and the Ming Dynasty, including the big food country, is not a society with a small country with few people.
“Moreover, luxury goods can make money, but the most profitable things are not luxury goods, they are still popular commodities.
“At the same time, turning ordinary artificial stockings into mass merchandise does not mean that luxury artificial stockings cannot be sold at the same time.
"In the future, we only need to create a brand of luxury stockings."
The two staff members reacted immediately and quickly understood what Zhu Jingyuan meant.
Niu Jian suddenly realized:
“Your Highness is right, and this brand is even ready-made.
“The clothes sold by Dashi Clothing Store are originally luxuries among ordinary clothes.
“The seal-character logo chosen by shopkeeper Chu has now become a very powerful influence.
"With this label on ordinary clothes, the price will at least triple."
Lin Zexu also remembered the individual requirements put forward by the designer Chu Yuqiang in production:
“Both types of artificial stretch silk pantyhose have clear hot stamping of seal characters, but the stretch cotton pantyhose does not.
“We can refer to this design and add several different types of hot stamping, such as official script, regular script, and Song script.
“Use hot stamping to plan several different levels of product lines, including product lines that ordinary people can afford.
“Seal script items are still sold as luxury goods, and wealthy people who really have money to spend can continue to buy them.
“If ordinary people just want such a piece of clothing, they can just buy ordinary low-end products.
“Making common products widely available should radically reduce the incentives for smuggling.”
Zhu Jingyuan nodded slowly as he listened, and then explained his thoughts:
“The actual consumption goals corresponding to luxury goods are, first, consumption experience, and second, status symbol.
“Only through formal channels can you get a real consumer experience, so it should not have much impact on smuggling demand.
“Nowadays, the entire product category of artificial elastic pantyhose is a luxury product, and it can serve as a status symbol when worn.
“This leaves no obvious gap between contraband and licensed goods, which is why smuggling activities are so bad that they are difficult to control.
“We want to make ordinary products at the same time, so that ordinary people can buy similar luxury products without spending a lot of money.
"Then when buyers wear it directly, it will no longer have a status symbol effect, and the demand for smuggling will inevitably decrease."
Lin Zexu and Niu Jian nodded again.
Then Niu Jian asked another good question:
“So how do you maintain the status symbol function of a luxury product line after mass-marketing ordinary goods, thereby eliminating the status symbol of the product category itself?
“If we can’t maintain it, the appeal of luxury goods will inevitably decrease...
After hearing this, Zhu Jingyuan smiled and said:
“So Chu Yuqiang publicized from the beginning that the pantyhose were designed by me, the Prince of the Ming Dynasty, His Highness the Prince of Dashi.
“It is a key part of the new Ming-style formal attire I designed, which is the perfect combination of the splendid Ming culture and Thai and Western traditions.
“The rayon and elastic silk used in pantyhose were also invented by me, and they are the result of the latest human technology.
“From the collection and production of all materials to the final weaving and packaging, it was all done by Ming people.
“We also produced very high-end solid wood box packaging, and designed uniform numbers on the boxes and products.
“There are also some badges, pendants, and instructions on what level of service terms you enjoy.
"This is what Chu Yuqiang does for other luxury clothes. He is very familiar with it."
Niu Jian was obviously stunned after hearing this, and then he and Lin Zexu laughed together:
"Shopkeeper Chu is really a genius in business..."
Zhu Jingyuan couldn't help but nod together. This Chu Yuqiang really made him find a treasure:
“There is basically no obvious difference in the quality of the actual products themselves between luxury goods and high-end mass products.
“The difference is mainly reflected in the external added value of packaging, labels, badges, benefits and service levels.
“Our ordinary products can strip away these external added values and only become ordinary commodities themselves.
“There are also materials whose marginal benefits are not very obvious. Ordinary goods can be sold as soon as they are good, while luxury goods can be purchased forcibly.
“For example, if the ratio of elastic yarn is 10% to 20%, it will be very good, and if it is increased to 30%, there won’t be a huge difference.
“We can increase the elastic yarn content of luxury stockings to 30%, and control the elastic yarn content of ordinary products to 10% to 20%.
“Doing this for ordinary goods does not affect our ability to produce luxury goods at the same time. We just need to keep these areas separate.
"Even among luxury goods, different levels can still be divided based on these added values."
When Zhu Jingyuan said this, he stopped for a moment and thought about it, recalling the luxury goods industry in later generations.
That is to say, the classification of luxury goods should include top luxury, high luxury, light luxury and so on.
Under the guidance of himself and Chu Yuqiang, his own Dashi Clothing Store has developed substantial luxury goods.
However, the current business philosophy and methods still have the typical chaos of the start-up period, and there are no mature standards yet.
Now, it actually produces different levels of luxury goods, resulting in a somewhat vague positioning of various products.
I should now clarify the pricing standards for luxury goods for him.
Next, Zhu Jingyuan and two staff members slowly discussed and compiled a product grading plan based on Chu Yuqiang's existing marketing plan.
Including three levels of luxury goods, as well as high-end products and mid-range products in regular clothing.
Luxury goods must have Chinese characters hot-stamped logos, and only luxury goods will use them.
The hot stamping of clear characters in three different fonts, Xiaozhuan, official script and regular script, directly distinguishes the three luxury levels.
They are called "Zhuan Biao", "Li Biao" and "Kaibiao" respectively.
The first level, top luxury goods, seal mark.
The highest material selection and quality inspection standards are adopted, and the hot-stamped labels with clear characters in seal script are retained, and the wooden packaging boxes are retained.
Use and register the global unique code and owner's name, and adopt a regular limited invitation-based sales strategy.
For example, a new Ming-style formal suit worth two thousand silver notes is equivalent to a modern formal dress worth two hundred thousand yuan.
As a symbolic product with the highest positioning, its target customers are top nobles and wealthy businessmen.
That's not actually the top customer, though.
Dashi Clothing Company has only one top customer in the West, and that is Prince Charles, the Crown Prince of France.
The goods given to him are directly exclusive and are not sold directly to the outside world.
He will only replace it with new ones when they are worn out, and the new items that he replaces are still the only ones.
After all, he was Zhu Jingyuan's "best friend". He helped Dashi Clothing Company from the beginning and brought goods throughout the French aristocratic circle.
Prince Charles is equivalent to the spokesperson and partner of Dashi Clothing Company.
Therefore, Prince Charles is out of specification and not included in the normal customer registration management system.
The second level, high-end luxury goods, official label.
The quality standards are the same as those of the top models, with the hot stamping of bright characters changed to official script and the use of lightweight alloy packaging boxes.
Keep the synchronization code on the box and body, but do not register it specifically, and sell it to the public in limited quantities.
For example, a new Ming-style formal suit costing one thousand silver notes is equivalent to a modern formal dress worth one hundred thousand yuan.
There is no difference between the quality of the product itself and the two-thousand-yin-note seal-marked product, only the label, packaging, and service.
Therefore, as a "cost-effective" high-end luxury product, it is targeted at high-end aristocrats and wealthy businessmen.
The third level, lightweight luxury goods, Kaibiao.
Use advanced material selection and quality inspection standards, change the hot stamping from clear characters to regular script, and use hot stamping hard carton packaging.
For example, a new Ming-style formal suit worth three hundred yuan in silver notes is equivalent to a modern formal dress worth thirty thousand yuan.
The actual quality is very similar to the first two grades of products, except that the material selection and inspection standards are slightly lower.
But the official price makes it affordable for the middle class.
As the main force in luxury goods, it targets ordinary nobles, businessmen, as well as high-end middle classes such as shopkeepers and managers.
Products further down are no longer luxury goods.
Level 4, non-luxury high-end customized clothing and ready-to-wear.
There is no clear hot stamping on the clothes, only the manufacturer and sales manufacturer are marked on the label, and they are packaged in high-end cartons.
For example, a set of New Ming-style formal clothes costing one hundred yuan in silver notes is equivalent to a set of modern formal clothes worth ten thousand yuan.
Supply to higher-end personnel with hard needs, including small businessmen, middle-level managers of large manufacturers, etc.
Level 5, ordinary custom-made clothing and ready-to-wear.
The packaging and production methods are the same as those of the fourth level. The main difference is the materials used and the level of workers.
For example, a new formal suit costing thirty yuan in banknotes is equivalent to a modern formal dress worth three thousand yuan.
Supply ordinary personnel with hard needs, mainly middle and low-level white-collar workers and civil servants.
Chu Yuqiang plans to complete these new luxury product line layout adjustments in the next one to two years.
At the same time, the most typical and urgent pantyhose product line can be adjusted with priority.
The top-quality pantyhose currently produced have a 20% elastic stocking ratio and are being sold at a 30% discount.
Next, you can change the hot stamping of the same new product to "official label", and then sell it at the price of 70 silver notes.
At the same time, a new product with 30% elastic yarn was launched, marked with a seal mark, and took over the price range of one hundred silver notes.
Then he launched a product with 1.5% elastic yarn, stamped it with a regular mark, and sold it at a price of 30 silver coins.
Then, the original 10% elastic silk products were removed from the hot stamping labels and sold at the price of ten silver coins.
Finally, semi-finished elastic silk products were launched without hot stamping labels and sold at the price of three silver coins.
It will take half a year to a year for the five products to be gradually promoted and sold in the market.
Since high-end profiteering products still exist, smugglers should still exist, but it should be difficult to form a large scale.
If Aoxue is allowed to act as an official smuggler and sell "simple package", "original" and "unlabeled" goods to the West, he should be able to control most of the market.
