Chapter 130 The Girls

  "Mr. Zhou, today we were supposed to go and design the performance costumes, but since there was no translator, we thought of coming to the company to look for Mr. Zhang Yu, but just now I heard from Mr. Inoue that Mr. Zhang Yu is on holiday?" A girl came up to him and said as soon as Zhou Xiao arrived at the company early the next morning.

  This girl, Zhou Xiao, also came from China and is a member of the Twelve Girls Band. After arriving in Japan, they have been undergoing training all along, including Japanese etiquette and customs, as well as Japanese language training and more importantly, band rehearsals. Don't forget that these girls were recruited in batches from different places, and most of them didn't know each other before.

  "So it was like this...... Alright then, I'll go with you." Zhou Xiao said.

  "How can that be, Mr. Zhou? You're our boss." The girl said.

  "There's nothing to be embarrassed about, to be honest with you, my promotional period has already ended, so now I'm in a state of boredom. Being able to do something is actually a great thing for me." said Zhou Xiao.

  Taking the girls to a place for fashion design, Zhou Xiao really underestimated the motivation of these girls for new clothes.

  A dozen or so girls chattered and discussed, occasionally reflecting on the design, "This is loose here, too tight there, exposed, isn't it not good?" "My figure is like this, isn't it unsuitable to wear..." Zhou Xiao followed behind them, just ten minutes or so had passed and she was already getting a headache. There was no way not to be like this, even if someone else were in her place, they wouldn't get used to being pulled from one side to the other after translating only two sentences. After barely holding on for over ten minutes, Zhou Xiao felt her head was going to explode.

  Zhou Xiao was also thinking about another issue, which is how to make this Twelve Girls Band popular.

  The Twelve Girls Band is on fire in Japan, and one of the biggest reasons is the huge investment in promotion. However, with azx's current financial resources and manpower, it's impossible to achieve this, even if the investment in movies and music has paid off and the company has abundant liquidity. Zhou Xiao thinks it's not necessary to spend a lot of money on promotion for them. But without a big investment or eye-catching promotion to make them a hot topic, it's uncertain whether they can really become popular, and it's more likely that they will promote but not become popular, and then be surpassed by other companies with other combinations, which would be a waste. Therefore, in terms of promotion, Zhou Xiao and azx must think of better methods.

  In addition, the Twelve Girls Band in Japan also has some "one-shot" meaning. This so-called "one-shot" refers to a type of artist who relies on one segment or one song to become popular for a short time before quickly fading away. In Japan, this term is usually used to describe comedians who suddenly rise to fame but then suddenly fade away, but it can also be applied to singers or groups without any problem.

  The album of the Twelve Girls Band sold millions, but soon they fell silent. The most important reason is that none of the members could truly enter the Japanese entertainment circle. These girls who had only learned folk music had their own pride and were happy to earn money from the Japanese, but when it came to accepting the Japanese entertainment circle and learning Japanese, many of them were not interested. In the end, appearing on variety shows, doing solo performances, many of the girls didn't have any interest in these things. This time coming to Japan, most of them probably thought they would still be going back home. Not just returning home to live, but also to work. As for what was brewing with the Twelve Girls Band? In their eyes, maybe it was just a folk music group that would play around for a year or two. Earning tens or hundreds of thousands of RMB and then going back home was enough; the survival of the group wasn't something they considered important.

  "One person, at least one person. To keep the Twelve Girls Band in Japan's entertainment circle for a long time, at least one person needs to be pushed out and become a true star." Zhou Xiao thought to herself as she looked around at the dozen or so girls rushing about.

  "But that's still a long way off, the key issue now is how to use promotion that doesn't require so much money to bring them formally into the eyes of Japanese people..." Zhou Xiao said with an unusually serious expression.

  To talk about free advertising, Zhou Xiao's first reaction was to think of the internet. Online promotion is absolutely cost-effective and effortless, and sometimes it can be very effective. However, after some thought, Zhou Xiao could only shake her head in dismay. While online promotion may seem easy, there are also some unavoidable hardware issues that are equally important. First of all, there's a problem with Zhou Xiao's setup - she's working with a folk music group. Although the Twelve Girls Band will inevitably take a more mainstream route and strive to appeal to ordinary audiences rather than high-end ones, even so, promoting such a group online is not an easy task...

  "Which one of you is learning Japanese the best now?" Zhou Xiao asked a girl beside her.

  "Japanese is the best? Li Xuejiao!" The girl waved her hand and called over a girl who was gesturing and talking in the distance.

  "It's her, she's been holding onto a Japanese book and reading it every day for the past few days!"

  Zhou Xiao looked over, and this was a pretty good-looking girl, with a great figure, and in Japan, she had a bit of a crane standing out from the crowd. Moreover, Zhou Xiao could also see very good breeding on her, absolutely a satisfactory girl.

  "Sit down over there, I have some questions for you." Zhou Xiao said to the girl.

  Sat down with Li Xueqiao, Zhou Xiao asked the first question: "How do you feel about this period of time in Japan? Do you like it here?"

  "I like it, but can't say I love it. However, there are indeed many good things here, and people who don't like it probably don't exist," the girl said.

  "Really? I heard your Japanese is very good? Did you learn it before?" asked Zhou Xiao.

  "I picked up English pretty quickly when I was in school, but it wasn't until I came here that I started learning Japanese," said Li Xuejiao.

  Zhou Xiao nodded, he still had a good impression of this girl, serious, good-looking and well-educated, for a team, such an ace role in the front is necessary, he certainly wouldn't say to push Li Xuejiao onto the stage now, but at least, this girl has become the closest choice.

  "What instrument are you practicing? How long have you been practicing?" asked Zhou Xiao.

  "Yangqin... I've been practicing for 16 years." Li Xuejiao said.

  Zhou Xiao's tongue is nimble, Li Xuejiao seems to be a senior this year, so she should be around 21 or 22 years old. If she has been practicing for 16 years, wouldn't that mean she started when she was five or six? At that age, little girls probably can't even touch adult-sized instruments, and can only practice with specially made small ones. It's as if she has dedicated her life to the instrument. However, continuing to practice like this is awkward for folk music - she still has almost no way of becoming famous. Perhaps in their circle, she can get by quite well, winning many awards, and everyone will give her a thumbs up when mentioning her name, but there definitely won't be too many people who know her. As for the development of folk music, it's not helpful at all.

  "If I become famous in the future, what would you like to do?" Zhou Xiao asked.

  "Get famous? I'll just mail the money back and let my parents live a better life... then... then..." Besides this, Li Xuejiao seemed to be unable to think of anything else for the time being.

  "Didn't think of becoming famous?" Zhou Xiao asked.

  "If you want to be famous, you won't learn this," said Li Xuejiao.

  "Yes..." Zhou Xiao nodded, if you want to make a name for yourself by learning an instrument, the piano is the best choice. But even with the piano, the entire Chinese mainland can only support one or two people's fame at most, no more than that.

  "So why did you come here?" Zhou Xiao asked.

  "I want to make money, I want to see more of the world... maybe I just want to be famous." Li Xuejiao said hesitantly, and even she couldn't help but laugh at herself.

  "It's not wrong to want to be famous, who doesn't want a better life? Forget it, let's go back, the two of us can chat here, I see that group of people who can't learn Japanese are about to go crazy." Zhou Xiao said as he stood up.

  The girl got up and left, while Zhou Xiao walked away, still thinking about the problem of the Women's Twelve Music Club in a daze.

  "How can I make them famous? I can't use viral marketing, and I can't just release a single without any promotion like I did... Can't have them perform on the streets, right? Hmm, not performing, what is it called... selling their art? In Zhou Xiao's mind, he imagined Uncle Jie standing in the middle of the square, banging a gong to gather the crowd, and the girls playing instruments with all their might. As for himself? He was the capitalist, after all. These girls would go out and sell their art, and in the end, they'd give him all the money."