Chapter 570: Chinese dicine drinks
The executives of Luo Workshop had presented their respective solutions and opinions. Then, they all waited silently for Xiao Luo to make the final call.
Xiao Luo stopped drumming onto the table, stood up, and in a firm tone, he said, “I see all your points, and I have concluded three key points based on everyone’s ideas: habit, trust, and price. Speaking of pricing, Director Li is right. Luo Workshop will definitely lose should we ever engage in a price war with Sumir.
On top of Huayao Corporation, Sumir itself is already a force to be reckoned with. Our assets are nothing compared to theirs, so the only outco of a price war would be a one-sided defeat for us. Hence, there’s not much point in lowering our prices.”
Everyone nodded as they took down these points.
“But…”
Xiao Luo smiled as he qualified his statent with his own views. “Price war is not all about lowering the prices; we can compete on the more expensive products,” he said.
Compete on the more expensive products?
What kind of theory is that? Did he an that we can increase our price to give ourselves an edge in the market and win over more custors?
The Luo Workshop executives were dumbfounded as they could not follow Xiao Luo’s argunt in its essence.
Xiao Luo continued to explain, “For bread and pastries, we can aim to be on par with Sumir. But what we need is to differentiate our brand with a product that gives us an absolute advantage, and this revolves around the keyword ‘habit.’ There is no hard and fast rule on what products we can sell in the bakery business besides bread and pastries. Of course, we can sell other products, just like the Chinese dicine product ntioned by Mr. Wang earlier.”
We shall develop a TCM health drink, a traditional Chinese dicine-based health supplent drink that aims to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. We will position the TCM health drink as our flagship product and use it to complent our other bread and pastries. The price of this flagship product must be sold at a premium price; otherwise, it will not convince consurs. I believe this will help to increase the overall sales across our product range. ”
“Big boss, this idea might actually work, but we specialize in baking, and nobody knows about Chinese dicine. Are we recruiting a dical team?”
Luo Qi was the head of the research and developnt departnt, so she was in charge of developing new products. She had no background in Chinese dicine, nor was she well-versed in beverage production, which was also not her forte.
“Even if we could develop such a product, how should we go about promoting it? How can we convince the people of Xiahai to believe that the product indeed has the claid effects?” Li Zing questioned. Decision-making at the top managent level required thorough due diligence, and key managers needed to take responsibility for raising sensible questions; otherwise, it would be the negligence of duty.
Xiao Luo smiled and replied, “I will take charge of the R&D of the product personally. For marketing and promotion…” He turned to the head of the marketing departnt, Cang Jiai, and said, “Director Cang, I shall leave this to you. I am acquainted with the president of Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Guo Taining. Look for him as he is very well versed in the dical field. If he agrees to help, then it should be a breeze to obtain endorsent from authorities for our products.”
“Noted, president Xiao!” Cang Jiai responded and nodded stiffly.
“As for the trust issue, director Cui’s suggestion of showing a video of our production process in the retail store had been implented in other companies as well, am I right?” Xiao Luo asked as he looked toward the second female manager who had expressed her view.
“That is correct, president Xiao. I have seen it before at a personal gathering with friends in a hotel. We could observe everything they did from the room, so we were very confident with the quality of dishes in that hotel. Take a serving of stir-fried Chinese crawfish, for example. Although it is extrely tasty, crawfish are also known to thrive in unhygienic habitats. However, we were able to observe how the chefs process the crawfish closely, which reassured us to a large extent. Hence, we were not worried about eating any unhygienic crawfish at all.”
This has made many who were cautious of crawfish to feel relieved. The hotel chefs showed us the entire process of cleaning the crawfish. On top of rinsing it with a strong water pump, they would brush its bodyshell and subrge it in vinegar and saltwater to kill any remaining bacteria. Lastly, they would remove the intestines and the unedible parts of the head. We did not have to worry about the threat of food poisoning from eating it.”
“Sure, then we shall proceed with this as you advised. I am leaving this totally in your hands. Alright, that’s the end of this eting!” Xiao Luo said.
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Since he had taken charge of the R&D for the TCM health drink product, Xiao Luo did not stay idle for long. He had spent most of his ti in the R&D departnt, and Zhang Dashan followed him around like a shadow.
“What the heck is going on with you? What do you even know about Chinese dicine? How could you actually have enough professional knowledge to lead product R&D? Weren’t we in the sa major back in college?” Zhang Dashan had so many questions as they majored in engineering managent, which had nothing to do with traditional Chinese dicine. However, everything Xiao Luo had displayed was highly professional, as if he was a Ph.D. in traditional Chinese dicine.
Xiao Luo did not bother to explain as he continued to study the effects of combining several Chinese dicines. He was trying to infuse the essence of Chinese dicines through extraction from high-temperature heating.
Luo Qi was very impressed as well, as she carefully observed Xiao Luo. “Big Boss, you really know your stuff! If I can marry such an outstanding man like you, I would be more than happy to make tons of children with him!” she said.
She always believed that Xiao Luo knew everything and was really respectful of him from the bottom of her heart.
Xiao Luo responded only with a smile. Researching such health supplents was no easy feat for him as well. There were many things to consider for the infusion of Chinese dicines, such as the compatibility issues between different ingredients or the safety issues of whether there would be any potential toxin produced as a by-product. They have to be extrely careful as such matters concerned consurs’ health.
Five days later, they have succeeded in synthesizing the prototype of the TCM health drink!
They randomly selected a couple of volunteers to consu the drink daily, then instructed them to go for dical screening after three days. The results showed that their blood pressure and cholesterol levels had improved. Those with high blood pressure found their blood pressure had decreased, while the ones with low blood pressure had their blood pressure had increased. This proved that the drink was effective in normalizing blood pressure and had an overall adaptive healing effect.
The marketing departnt then went on to do a marvelous job of promoting this product. Guo Taining had sought the assistance of the director of Xiahai Chinese dicine Hospital to endorse this product. The product was also tested and verified by the hospital itself, and the National dical Products Administration then issued a license to permit the sale of this product. It wasn’t long before this novel Chinese dicine product had attained the highest possible standard of endorsent.
As such, this product was highly sought after by Xiahai consurs right after its launch. The increase in custors visiting their stores for the TCM health drinks had a spillover effect on the sale of pastries and cakes, pushing up Luo Workshop’s revenue significantly. After the consurs had tried the drinks themselves, they beca the product’s best ambassadors through word of mouth, further attracted more consurs.
Xiahai’s bakery market was limited by the city’s capacity, and as Luo Workshop’s sales skyrocketed, Sumir inevitably had a drop in sales.
After half a month of consecutive low sales, Chai Zhiying, who managed Sumir on behalf of Su Li, could no longer remain idle. She rushed to Crescent Bay to report Su Li, who was at breakfast with Su Xiaobei and Luo Pingxiang.
“Li Li, we have a situation, a big situation!”
Chai Zhiying was a hot-tempered woman as she started yelling right after entering the apartnt. “Who would’ve thought that Luo Workshop would recruit a Chinese dicine expert to help them develop a Chinese dicinal drink that could greatly improve the health of senior citizens. They call it TCM health drink, and it has eaten into our market share. Those buying this drink also spent on pastries, and Sumir is experiencing a drop of close to two million in sales in just half a month!”
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