Chapter 37: New Marketing Model (Seeking Recommendation Tickets!!)

  Sit!

  Jester pointed to the chair beside Adam Edgar and then picked up the business card he had tossed aside without even looking at it from the table.

  The business card is made very exquisite, and the title written on it, Jest, is one that I have never heard of.

  "J Trade Company's Vice President?" Jester's face showed a puzzled expression, and the gaze he cast at Adam Edgar was also full of inquiry.

  "Heh heh." Adam Edgar smiled somewhat awkwardly, sticking out his tongue to lick his lips, a hesitant expression flashing across his face. After five or six seconds, he finally spoke up: "Mr. Li, actually this business card is just my previous position. Now I'm just an unemployed vagrant."

  "Huh?" Jester's voice took on a curious tone as he wondered what a former vice president of a trading company was doing coming to see him.

  "Mr. Li, to sum it up, a friend and I set up a trading company in Florida, but due to poor project selection, the company's performance was average, so we were considering changing our business project. Personally, I'm very fond of electronic games, and I also saw that your company's 'American Blocks' arcade machine is incredibly popular in the market right now. So, I wanted to ask if it's possible to contact you, and if you have any new products, whether we can establish a direct sales store..."

  Adam Edgar saw Jester's expressionless face listening to himself, without wanting to open his mouth, so he could only stick out his tongue and moisten his lips, continuing to speak.

  "Afterwards, I carefully studied your marketing strategy and found that it is still stuck in the old 'manufacturer - agent - distributor - retailer - consumer' model, which has been outdated for over a decade. If I were you, I would continue to expand my promotion plan at the beginning, using various media to promote to neighboring states of California, creating a certain market stir effect in these surrounding states, and then use direct sales to directly deliver goods to arcade owners who need them. This way, you can sell to retailers at the price given to agents, although your ex-factory unit price does not increase, but the retail unit price drops significantly, which means that you can get many more orders than now."

  As he spoke, Adam Edgar's confidence grew with every word until, when he finished, his face once again radiated the same supreme self-assurance as before, convinced that his well-reasoned plan would win over the other side.

  "Not bad."

  Jester said sincerely, if it wasn't for the fact that he was short on time and had to raise a large amount of cash from the start to implement his plan, otherwise he would have used this plan directly. He also knew that with the prosperity of the US transportation and express industry, a foundation had been laid for the direct sales industry. As someone who has studied Dell's rise, how could he not be clear about what Dell did back then?

  Almost identical to what Adam Edgar said.

  But the problem is, if he had adopted this direct sales model at that time, it would have taken time to promote it in the early stages. He might have needed a month to promote it to neighboring states of California, two months for the whole of America to know about this game, three months to create a sensation across the United States, and four months to get the orders he has now - which would have wasted four months.

  For Jester, money is very important and his countless plans all need money as a driving force, but now time is even more precious to him.

  As August 5th draws near, he has less and less time.

  As a reborn person, he knows more than anyone else the advantages of direct sales model, but he didn't choose it at first, not because it's bad, but just not suitable.

  For him, the only way is to take advantage of these doomed agents' fear of their own decline, and use the trend to get a surprising prepayment from the beginning, which is the best and only way he can think of.

  However, Jester's face still showed a puzzled expression, and he curiously opened his mouth to ask: "The marketing method you mentioned earlier is indeed good, but what does it have to do with you coming to find me and saying that there is a big business to discuss with me?"

  "Hmm..." Seeing the other party listened to his words and only responded with a very calm "not bad", seemingly not surprised by this, left Adam Edgar somewhat unclear about the other's thoughts. He could only organize his words in his heart and open his mouth to say, "Actually, it's just that I think your company will revitalize the electronic game industry, but my partner, Jay, the boss of the trading company I'm in, scoffed at this."

  As he spoke, Adam Edgar's tone turned somewhat disdainful when mentioning his former boss: "He bluntly scolded me as an idiot, saying my brain was full of maggots, and that I had let him invest precious US dollars in an industry that the whole of America had already abandoned."

  As he spoke, Adam Edgar's face revealed a ferocious expression, and he snorted in disdain, "Doesn't even think about who laid the foundation for his family business."

  Finally, Adam Edgar calmed down and showed a apologetic expression to Jester: "Sorry, I just remembered some unpleasant things, making you laugh."

  "Do you think the video game industry is doing well?" The other person's derogatory remarks about his former boss didn't interest him much, but this sentence caught Jester's attention. After all, in today's America, Atari's collapse was not far away, and being optimistic about the video game industry took a lot of courage, which was why his former boss had called him an idiot.

  If it were him, he would also scold the other person as an idiot.

  "Mr. Li, I'm a big fan of video games and have played every Atari game out there. After the ET incident, I had lost hope in the industry, but then about half a month ago, I saw the game you made."

  When talking about himself as a person who loves electronic games, Adam Edgar's face showed a slightly excited expression, and he would occasionally chat with Jester about some classic Atari games, constantly boasting that he used to play Pac-Man very well.

  But when he mentioned "Tetris", his tone was no longer excited, but became obviously fanatical. "Mr. Li, the first time I played Tetris, the shock it gave me was just like the first time I played Pong. It made me realize that everything else in the world is insignificant. At that moment, an idea that I couldn't suppress emerged, as if I had seen Atari's rebirth. Your company will definitely revive the electronic game industry."

  "After a failed conversation with my boss about the company's transformation, I sold my shares and came directly from Florida to California. Coincidentally, I ran into your new game player trial event, so I thought I'd take a look at your latest work before making a final decision... Who would have thought..."

  At this point, Adam Edgar's face showed a fanatical look again, and his tone became excited once more. "Flawless, those three latest games are not inferior to 'American Blocks' in any way. After I finished playing those three games, I knew that your success and the success of your company would be a matter of course, and these three games will also become golden mountains like 'American Blocks'."

  "So you just said you wanted to see me?" Jester asked with a light laugh.

  "Yes, my original intention was to obtain the direct store agency rights of Florida from you." Adam Edgar smiled wryly at this point, "However, through my observation just now, it seems that you already have a better plan."

  Gestre made no comment, he just looked at Adam Edgar seriously, furrowed his brow and thought for a few minutes before speaking: "Is the marketing plan you mentioned earlier to establish logistics centers in various states, flagship stores in central cities, and cooperative retailers in small and medium-sized cities?"

  On this point, Adam Edgar did not deny it, he nodded directly and said: "I have carefully studied the marketing model of several companies, especially Apple's cooperative retail store model. I found that the superiority of this model is much better than telemarketing. Most importantly, this allows people to experience your products on site, which has immeasurable significance for enhancing the company's image."

  As he spoke, Adam Edgar paused for a moment, seemingly hesitant before drawing his conclusion: "In my eyes, the essence of making products is actually about creating an image."

  "But..." Jester smiled, not expressing his own opinion, but instead asked again, "You know, I'm making arcade games, this kind of game doesn't need to be promoted to ordinary players, and the price of the arcade machine is also not something that ordinary people can afford, you..."

  This time, Adam Edgar cut off Jester's words without any politeness, answering in an accurate tone: "Mr. Li, neither of us is a fool, from the moment you took over Yidali's hardware R&D team before, it was clear that your ambition would not be limited to just arcade machines, you will definitely enter the home console market where the biggest profit lies, this is without a doubt, otherwise I wouldn't have come to find you."

  Jester remained expressionless after hearing it, furrowing his brow as if making some kind of decision.

  He knew that the man in front of him, Adam Edgar, was right, and his talent for marketing was also undeniable. His insight was so sharp that even he, a reborn person, couldn't help but admire it.

  The plan he mentioned is exactly the marketing method used by later consumer electronics manufacturers such as Nintendo, Sony and Apple. It can stand out in various marketing promotion methods and has become a standard in the industry. According to the principle of survival of the fittest, this set of marketing plans is completely superior to other plans.

  The apples of those years were all perfected in the marketing model after Jobs returned, and only then did they have the clear idea that making products is making an image. But this person in front of me saw the long-term vision here at this time, which was far beyond his own abilities.

  It has to be said, the white man in front of him, who hadn't even mentioned his name, wasn't very big and was a bit fat, Adam Edgar, was an absolute genius in this regard.

  It's as if heaven is helping me too.

  Finally, Jester stood up and stretched out his hand to Adam Edgar, smiling and saying: "You have indeed convinced me, but I disagree with your previous request for a cooperative store. I have a better plan. Now, I'm asking you, are you interested in working for me?"

  As soon as he finished speaking, a hint of joy flashed across Adam Edgar's face, but after a moment, he returned to normal. He stood up and shook hands with Jester.

  "Sir, to be honest, I didn't travel all the way from Florida to California just for a job. If it were just about getting a well-paying job, with my skills and experience, there's no need for me to leave Florida at all. I came to see you because I've decided to take a gamble while I'm still young and do something I love - the video game industry. I not only want to witness its rise, but also participate in it and contribute to this great endeavor."

  Jester opened his hand, pulled out a pen and wrote down a string of numbers on a piece of paper, then handed it to Adam Edgar.

  "This is the contact information of the CEO of a record company I'm planning to set up, which has not been officially established yet. So far, including you, there are only three people who know about it, two of whom are women. In two days, this female CEO will come to Los Angeles to formally establish the record company. You can communicate with her in advance and I'll let her know about your situation."

  Adam Edgar didn't seem arrogant enough to think that he would be put in charge of a company as soon as he arrived, but when he heard that his future boss was going to be a woman, an unpleasant expression still appeared on his face.

  "A woman?" Adam Edgar's tone became somewhat unusual.

  Jester knows that the current American workplace has very serious implicit bias against women, and it was even more severe in the past, only less obvious than now. For example, among the large enterprises in the United States today, there is almost no female CEO.

  "Her name is Carly Terry, formerly with AT&T, and she's extremely competent." Jester glanced at Adam Edgar, whose expression was somewhat taken aback. "The distribution method you mentioned to me earlier has already been discussed by this lady, and her plan is more detailed and actionable than what you described."

  Adam Edgar still looked unconvinced, and Jest didn't bother continuing his explanation.

  "When you see her, you'll know why I chose a woman to be the CEO of this company." Having said that, a somewhat tired Jester made a gesture of sending off Adam Edgar.

  Then Adam Edgar, who had already become a subordinate of Jester, nodded respectfully and left.

  However, it was clear that the expression on his face showed Adam Edgar's reservations about Jest's comments regarding the female CEO.

  Can a woman also be a CEO?

  Are you kidding me!

  That's what Adam Edgar really thought at this time.