"By the way, go find the surveillance camera and see if the little black girl was caught on camera after she got the illustration book. Try to keep a straight face."
Director Morgan exhaled slowly.
In his mind, he constantly pictured the crying little black girl smiling after receiving the illustration behind the double-sided mirror.
This scene is so symbolic.
If you can find the video footage...it would look like an excellent advertising video.
Some of the best and most enduring ads in the industry.
In addition to the epic advertisements like the one in 2006 when Chanel hired Nicole Kidman for their No. 5 perfume, which was shot in the style of "Roman Holiday" and cost $60 million in a few dozen seconds, this kind of high-cost, high-yield tycoon Beyond the money-burning gameplay.
Some ordinary scenes that are close to reality can still shock people's hearts without being designed in advance.
For example, luxury car brands have used surveillance cameras to film their cars that have survived serious car accidents, filming advertisements to promote vehicle safety, or footage of football star Cristiano Ronaldo removing a Coca-Cola drink from him before an interview, have caused a stir on social media. Had a huge sensation.
The principle is exactly the same,
It’s just that one result is positive and the other is negative.
"Understood. I will ask the staff to contact the mother and daughter just now and obtain their consent. Well... it is best to contact the director of the commercial film and shoot a few more shots."
Osborne's eyes lit up after being prompted by Director Morgan.
What could be a more representative promotional shot than "Illustration - Make a Crying Girl Smile"?
Not only is it a book promotion for "The Little Prince", but it is also very good to use it as the Scholastic Group's annual commercial.
For commercial advertising, black mothers and daughters need to obtain their consent and pay a sum of money as compensation.
No one wants to be on TV, and a maximum of ten to twenty thousand dollars should be enough to get it done.
A professional commercial film costs more than this amount just for the stage setting, and it also lacks this sense of raw shock.
"The supply chain has been arranged. Calculating the time, the first batch of 300,000 books will be launched into the European and North American book markets by April at the earliest... If the printing speeds up, it shouldn't be possible Miss the Easter holiday book sales at major book dealers.”
Deputy Director Schubert now looks refreshed.
He believed that Detective Cat had a high probability of winning, but the deputy director never expected that he could win so cleanly.
Especially when I saw Director Charlie's face looked as ugly as if he had eaten a fly.
He felt even better.
After being treated as a transparent person for so many years, I finally felt proud and proud. This feeling of joy and accomplishment was something I couldn't get no matter how many darts I shot that hit the bull's-eye.
Schubert tapped the marketing director on the shoulder.
"We can start printing peripheral postcards and illustration books. The gift boxes should be exquisite and of the highest production standards, and don't be reluctant to pay. Detective Cat's illustrations are worth spending the money on," he suggested.
It is also a collection gift box, and there are different cost standards within the publishing house.
For example, on Ebay today, a 99 edition "Harry Potter" commemorative gift box is priced at tens of thousands of dollars. The letters Harry Potter on the cover are genuine and printed with gold powder.
A few letters don't cost much gold, but if you add up a small amount, it will cost a lot of money.
The highest standard gift box set costs more than ten pounds to print, and the price will exceed one hundred pounds. It is an affordable luxury souvenir.
The marketing department generally won't spend such a large amount of money easily.
If you can't sell it, you'll lose a lot of money.
"Okay. By the way, see if you can recruit Detective Cat to work in the group's art department. If she is willing to work full-time for the group, you can consider allocating some shares to her. If not, you must also sign a long-term contract agreement. , anyway, don’t let anyone be poached by competitors.”
Director Morgan thought for a while and made a decision.
"Don't worry, Mr. Director, I will personally contact Detective Cat." Deputy Director Schubert nodded frantically like a chicken pecking at rice.
As happy as Deputy Director Schubert was, Charlie was irritated.
He was more than just irritable.
Charlie was even breaking into a cold sweat now.
The art department’s power field is a zero-sum game.
Nowadays, this market competition is so loud that even the North American headquarters in Los Angeles expressed concern and sent a director to fly to London.
Charlie simply cannot afford to lose.
He originally thought this was an opportunity to defend his dignity, cut off Osborne's tentacles reaching out to the art department, trample Deputy Director Schubert under his feet, and kick the bullshit Detective Cat out of the house at the same time.
did not expect……
Charlie could even hear the slow collapse of the art department throne that he had been building for twenty years.
A king who cannot keep his word is a king who is ignored.
A lion king who cannot beat the shit out of a male lion who challenges his authority is a lion king who is too old and unfit to sit on the throne.
Deputy Director Schubert may not be good enough to compare with himself in the art department these days.
But again,
Everyone will quickly realize that the art department in Europe is no longer entirely up to him, Charlie.
Shit!
The more Charlie thought about it, the more frightened he became.
"Bang!"
He suddenly threw the Gucci sunglasses in his hand against the wall. The expensive luxury sunglasses smashed against the wall, making the sound of shattering glass lenses.
"Who would admit the results of this damn market survey... The marketing department didn't design a statistical plan at all."
Charlie raised his head suddenly and looked at the stunned expressions of the people in the observation room who were looking at the art director who suddenly lost his composure.
The whites of his eyes were red, and his nose looked like he had just finished a 100-meter sprint, breathing heavily.
"Shit, how did you design the investigation plan? Herd mentality, this must be herd mentality! You can't do it accurately!"
Director Charlie looked extremely pale and grabbed the marketing director by the collar.
The so-called herd mentality,
It means that when everyone gathers together and you see others talking about choosing a certain style of product, you will subconsciously follow others to make similar choices.
"Director Charlie, please be polite. The investigation plan is agreed upon by both parties."
The marketing director looked ugly and pushed the irrational director Charlie.
This guy is really crazy.
Charlie also knew that he was making excuses, and how weak his argument was.
So what if it is really a herd mentality? Herd psychology itself is a part of consumer psychology. Illustrations can make most volunteers have a tendency to make a certain choice, which has already explained the success of Detective Cat.
But he really didn't want to let himself believe such a result.
"Director Morgan?" Charlie looked at the old gentleman pitifully.
"Mr. Charlie..."
The director frowned, suppressing his unhappiness.
Director Morgan knows Director Charlie, and he is also an old acquaintance with Charlie's boss, President Hill, who is the top leader in Europe. Their personal relationship is not bad.
Immediate market research,
It is not only the competition between Wehrlein Illustration Studio and Detective Cat, but also the struggle between two different factions, President Hill and President Osborne.
Even the old head of the group based in North America has personally asked about this matter.
Morgan's original personal preference was actually towards Charlie, otherwise he wouldn't have flown all the way here as a representative of the board of directors to pay attention to this overt and covert struggle.
However, management has to put the interests of the company first.
You proposed the investigation, you agreed to the conditions, and you were the one who caused all these mistakes.
In the end, if he loses, he will be like a street gangster who refuses to admit his defeat.
It's too shameful.
Neither Morgan nor Osborne mentioned the results of the investigation or Wehrlein's name just now. They were trying to save face for Charlie.
"If you have no shame, you can't blame others."
Morgan thought to himself.
He waved his hand and was about to ask the security to take the gloomy art director out to sober up, but was interrupted by a voice.
"Okay. Charlie, it's over."
A somewhat depressed voice sounded at the door of the observation room, but it was Wehrlein.
The illustrator's facial features are pale, but his expression is very calm.
After entering the room, he even said hello to everyone present before patting Director Charlie on the shoulder.
"My friend, let's end it like this, leaving some dignity for yourself and some dignity as a loser for me."
"you you……"
Director Charlie looked at Wehrlein as if he had seen a ghost, and was speechless.
Wehrlein put the Detective Cat version of the "Little Prince" illustration into Director Charlie's arms.
"Take a good look at this picture, Charlie, how do you expect me to win against such an opponent? If I redo the investigation, I will only lose worse. With such a clear distinction between good and bad, it would be too ugly not to admit defeat. .”
Wehrlein sighed and turned to President Osborne.
"Congratulations on finding such an excellent painter. I feel it is not a shame to lose to such an opponent."
at this time,
The volunteers have made detailed statistical data into tabular histograms and distributed them to everyone in the observation room.
The red bar chart of Detective Cat marked [53] is eye-catchingly arranged on the far left side of the statistics table, while the statistical data of other different versions of "The Little Prince" only have a few scattered ones.
visual comparison of histograms,
Like a slum at the foot of the towering Empire State Building.
…
Director Morgan changed the ticket anyway.
He did not fly back to the Los Angeles headquarters in the afternoon as originally planned.
The director wants to see the entire market survey, and finally the detailed data of the questionnaire survey compiled based on all the volunteers from so many groups.
Even if you are already prepared in your heart.
When he actually saw the final report submitted by the market, he was still shocked.
The group's questionnaire classified Detective Cat and Wehrlein's illustrations into five levels of impressions - [unacceptable], [bad], [average], [good] and [excellent].
Fifty-six percent of the volunteers gave Detective Cat an "excellent" rating, and 37% gave it a "good" option.
The negative reviews given to Detective Cat as "unacceptable" and "terrible" add up to just over one percent.
In the comparison of consumer data between the two versions of Detective Cat and Wehrlein, the figures showed a slump at 95% versus 5%.
In other words, for every twenty volunteers who chose Detective Cat, only one would choose Wehrlein's version.
What pleased Morgan the most was that
Even if you have a budget of £40, buy a children's fairy tale book with unlimited content as a gift. 】In this subdivided statistical range, the Detective Cat version of "The Little Prince" priced at 18 pounds still leads the market with a ratio of 33.6%.
It far exceeds the 13.5% figure obtained by the Townsendsman version of the gift box set, which is priced twice as much as hers, and far exceeds that of other hardcover fairy tale books.
"It's a big hit. This has the potential to be a big hit."
In the conference room, Director Morgan took a sip of coffee and looked at Osborne opposite with pleasure.
"When the publicity resources are fully utilized, the annual sales volume of 300,000 copies will look very easy," he commented.
Looking at the data on the statistics table, Osborne couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.
This exceeded his previous best-case expectations. For the first time, Mr. Vice President felt that annual sales of 300,000 copies did not seem too difficult.
"How high do you think it will be on the ranking list? I mean SD or NY?" Director Morgan asked with a raised eyebrow.
The physical book market in Europe and the United States is highly competitive.
Just like entertainment products such as popular songs and newly released movies, companies also need to list them.
There are two criteria for evaluating the level of works published by a publishing company, quality or sales.
As for statistical quality standards, Europe and the United States have very authoritative book review systems, including the New York Times Books, Kirkus Reviews, Book Review Index...
and the audience scoring system on the Internet platform Goodreaders.
With the level of production and translation of "The Little Prince", there is no need to worry about quality issues. The key is how many copies it can sell.
Scholastic Group always pays attention to the ranking of its own published works on major book sales rankings.
Sales rankings are a battleground for all Western publishing giants.
Have your own place at the top of the rankings.
Not only is it a success in terms of sales, but it is also an increase in fame and honor.
Different singers will always stare at lists such as the [Billboard Hot 100], always thinking about getting higher in the rankings.
There are many authoritative lists in Europe and the United States that have been in business for decades.
NY refers to the "New York Times Bestseller List", which is the authoritative list of book sales in North America.
SN refers to the "Saturday News" owned by the Moon Newspaper, which is the newspaper that once made Anna's dirty joke on the front page.
Although this newspaper is famous for its vulgarity, it was once the most widely circulated newspaper in the world. It also published a column every week to count the book sales rankings in the UK.
Together, these two lists account for almost 70% of global English-speaking sales.
"Can it be in the top 50? Or 30?" Osborne didn't dare to brag.
In the past two years, the New York Times' annual book sales champion has been close to 3.5 million copies each year, and in less popular years, it can reach 2.7 million copies.
On average, 50,000 to 60,000 copies are sold every week. During Easter or Christmas holidays, it is not an exaggeration to sell 200,000 copies a week.
"The Little Prince" is still a little too far away from this goal.
"Vice President Osborne, I'm a little more confident than you. Maybe in some unpopular sales weeks, we can break into the top ten." Director Morgan knocked on the table.
Osborne was startled and a little fascinated.
If a book can stay in the top ten on the SN and NY lists for a month or two.
In North America and Europe combined, even an annual sales volume of one million copies does not seem too far away.
(End of chapter)
