Chapter 87 – Soft-sell advertising
Feng Yu obediently stayed in school for a few days. It was the midterm exams, and the students were not allowed to apply for leave. This period, Feng Yu had missed a few days of lessons. Luckily for him, Li Na could give him tuition, and he soon caught up with the others.
Year 1 was not too difficult. It was year 2 that was hard. All it takes was to memorized stuff, and Feng Yu had a good memory in his present life. He was still about to get the tenth place in this midterm exams. Those that scored lowered than Feng Yu wanted to kill themselves. Except for Wen Dongjun.
To Wen Dongjun, as long he was not the last, it’s okay. There were still a few who had scored lower than him. When he entered high school, he was in the last position, and now there were a few behind him. This was a vast improvement!
Improving a few positions in an exam, then when it was the graduation examinations, he would be in the top 3 places!
When Feng Yu heard Wen Dongjun’s “theory,” he was shocked. Where did he get the confidence to say that he will improve a few positions every exam? These that were behind him were those that had direct entry into the school, and their results were never good. If not considering those few, Wen Dongjun was still in the last position!
Forget it. Just let him be. Anyway, Feng Yu had ways to get him into university.
……
“Editor Zhang, we are also considered old friends. Your advertising fees are too high.”
During Summer, a full-page advertisement only cost 10,000 RMB. Last week, it was 14,000 RMB. Now Editor Zhang wanted 20,000 RMB for a 1-week ad!
“No choice. I was scolded by my higher-ups because of your last advertisements. Now, it’s 20,000 RMB if not, you can forget about advertising!”
Editor Zhang was jealous of Feng Yu’s success with the Wind and Rain electric fans last summer. Just by selling some electric fans and Feng Yu could earn so much. The last time, he raised the advertising fees, and Feng Yu agreed without any bargaining. So, this time Feng Yu will also accept the new prices.
Fuck. Which officer will scold you? I had agreed to 15,000 RMB for 7 days of advertisements, and it was only a full-page advertisement. Now you are asking for 20,000 RMB? If not for this provincial newspaper were circulating throughout the whole province and even sold to Lin Province, Feng Yu would have turned and left. There were still other newspaper agencies!
The Daily Newspaper had increased 4 more pages in their newspapers, and their advertising revenue had grown a lot. They even raised their advertising fees with reference to the Wind and Rain advertisements.
But till now, no one could repeat Wind and Rain fans’ advertising miracle. Editor Zhang can’t wait for Feng Yu to perform another miracle so he can prove to the other advertisers.
Look, it’s not about our newspaper. It was because of your products. You look at others, every time he advertises his products, he was able to profit from it!
“Now everywhere is charging this price. If you don’t believe, you can go and ask around. Furthermore, Mr. Feng’s family business is so successful and can’t be short of these tens of thousands.”
Such arrogance. At Editor Zhang’s level, his salary was at most 1,000 RMB a year, and he was talking about 10 to 20 thousand of RMB like it was 10 cents or 20 cents.
“Editor Zhang, it’s fine if you want to earn more money, but you should at least increase the days. How about this? From tomorrow onwards, till new year eve, I will give you 50,000 RMB. One day would be more than 1,000 RMB.”
“No way. 1 full-page advertisement, 40 over days for only 50,000 RMB? 100,000 RMB. I can let you advertise for 2 months.” Although the advertisement fees had increased, there were not many that were willing to advertise. Also, no one advertised more than a week. The pressure on Editor Zhang was immense.
“2 months for 100,000 RMB? How about this, 4 months for 200,000 RMB but on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year’s Eve and Lunar New year, you must give me 2 full-page advertisements space. If you still don’t agree to this, then I will look for another newspaper to advertise.”
“Deal! Mr. Feng is so straightforward, and I shall not bargain further. It’s only another full-page advertisement on holidays. Absolutely no problems! Mr. Feng, shall we sign the contract now?” Editor Zhang was overjoyed. He did not expect Feng Yu to be so generous. 200,000 RMB. This year, the newspaper agency will be able to have a good bonus!
“No problem. It will be the same as our previous deals. If the advertising message is not against the law, I can do whatever I want, and you all cannot make any changes. We are also allowed to change the products to any products sold by my company as and when we like. If you break the contract, you will have to compensate me 2 times my advertising fees, which is 400,000 RMB!”
To prevent Editor Zhang making things difficult for him later due to jealousy, it would be better to make things clear now. Feng Yu does not trust these government officials. These people do not abide by the contracts and just do whatever they want.
“No problem. We had worked together so many times before. Did I object when you change the advertisements and pictures every day? Come, Mr. Feng, taste this Pu’er tea. This tea was given to me by my leaders.”
……
It was mid-October. People of Longjiang province were going to work as usual. These people would buy a copy of the newspaper out of habit, to find out what was happening in Longjiang province.
Eh, this article is quite interesting. It’s about lifestyle tips. It listed some food that can’t be mixed as it might be poisonous. The second part of the article was even more interesting. It explains how soybean cooking oil was made. The traditional way and the latest leaching process of extracting oil from soybean.
Oh no, this is too much. The soybean oil produced using the leaching process is considered chemical products. It uses gasoline to extract the oil from the soybeans. Isn’t gasoline made from crude oil? Is that still edible?
No wonder the prices of meat had been increasing, but the prices of soybean oil remained the same. This leaching process oil extraction method is just producing poisonous oil!
This Soft-sell advertising used by Feng Yu was quite famous in the later years. It was used on the internet, newspapers, everywhere and it was quite effective too.
Feng Yu did not write that this type of soybean oil was inedible, or it was harmful to people. That would be spreading rumors. Anyway, he had also eaten these types of oil for several years in his previous life, and nothing had happened to him. His immune system even got better. He was not even afraid of gutter oil!
The next day, Editor Zhang was called up by his leaders for a scolding. How can he publish this type of articles? This leaching process was the most advanced method of extracting oil internationally. Everyone at the Good Oil Factory also eats this oil. If there are problems with this method, will they still eat it? This got to be clarified as soon as possible!
Before Editor Zhang called for Feng Yu, Feng Yu came looking for him with the article for the next day.
This article states that the leaching process method was using the latest technology to extract the oil and there should not be any harmful substances left. If not, the government would not approve this method.
This was considered clarifying the rumors about the leaching process. However, at the back of the people’s mind, they were still suspicious. The article states that there should not be any harmful substances remain, that means there could also be the possibility that there are still toxic substances remaining?