Chapter 346 - 169: Giving Gifts (Middle)

Chapter 346: Chapter 169: Giving Gifts (Middle)

What’s more, the three e-commerce giants suffered from obvious big-company syndrome. For example, they loved to play with abstract concepts; some of their marketing plans could even be described as insane.

For instance, they would hire all sorts of highly controversial public figures for endorsements and run gimmicky promotions.

They hired these public figures in an attempt to leverage the celebrity effect and cultivate a so-called "fan economy." However, the endorsement fees for public figures were no small expense.

But Jiang Miao had set a rule for his company from the very beginning: Hailufeng Company would not invite celebrities to be brand ambassadors. He would rather spend millions on customer perks than waste money on so-called celebrities.

Many companies liked to use celebrity endorsements because they lacked confidence in their own products or wanted to use celebrities and public figures to break through industry ceilings.

Jiang Miao, however, didn’t think highly of this marketing method.

It was too high and mighty, like a castle in the air.

And the risks involved were enormous.

If an ambassador had a scandal, it would directly impact the company’s image. Moreover, it was easy for competitors to use an internet water army to launch all kinds of attacks against a rival company’s spokesperson—it was the simplest and most effective tactic.

No one is perfect. Once the problems many public figures have are put under the spotlight, very few of them come out looking clean. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Therefore, Jiang Miao planned to do the exact opposite.

No brand ambassadors. He would give gifts directly to users, cultivating a base of die-hard fans for the company.

After all, it’s hard to criticize someone when you’ve accepted their gifts.

When users received gifts, they would most likely not harbor any ill will toward Hailufeng Company. Many would even find themselves subconsciously defending the company.

Hailufeng Company’s core principles were sincerity and substance.

Even if it meant giving away tens of millions in gifts every year, for the current Hailufeng Company, it was merely a drop in the bucket.

If a company sent you gifts for every holiday, and you were a customer, what would you think?

The outcome was obvious. A large portion of customers who received gifts would most likely be more inclined to choose Hailufeng Company’s products when buying similar items.

The customers gained through this marketing method would have extremely high loyalty, which could be maintained in the long term.

Compared to public figures whose reputations collapsed every other day, this approach was also much safer.

Competitors could only try to attack Hailufeng Company by spreading rumors and slandering its products.

And as for that, Hailufeng Company had been hit with a considerable number of slanderous attacks since the Lunar New Year. The rumors included claims that its eel fry were raised with massive amounts of hormones, that its strawberries and Ginseng Fruit were genetically modified products, that its Egyptian Catfish were farmed in sewage ditches, that it used "science and sorcery" to modify its Egyptian Catfish, and that its fish balls were made with "Hextech."

Bizarre new rumors popped up practically every week.

Jiang Miao even knew which parties were stirring up trouble behind the scenes.

And Hailufeng Company’s legal department hadn’t been idle. They sent out a flood of cease-and-desist letters and took several bloggers who had been paid by the water army directly to court.

In just over three months, they had issued legal warnings to more than 800 related bloggers and social media accounts, with lawsuits filed against 34 of them.

In May alone, eight cases of defamation against Hailufeng Company went to trial right there in Shanmei.

This high-intensity legal offensive routed the motley crew of scoundrels who had been trying to slander Hailufeng Company since the New Year. After all, the people who took on these slander jobs were just in it for the money, not to get hauled in for a "chat" with the police.

Given Hailufeng Company’s influence in Shanmei, combined with the ironclad evidence, these rumor-mongering bloggers were all but guaranteed to lose.

As a company with deep pockets, Hailufeng Company could afford to ignore the time and money spent on litigation, but those bloggers couldn’t. Hailufeng could bankrupt them simply by dragging out the process.

It was precisely this "fierce reputation" that made the bloggers slandering Hailufeng Company basically vanish starting in June.

Now, only a few small-scale online trolls remained, cautiously making passive-aggressive comments about Hailufeng Company in the comment sections of some social media apps or on forums.

Faced with this situation, whether it was ABCD, which was too preoccupied with other matters, Far West Group, which was willing but powerless, or the domestic e-commerce giants, who didn’t know where to start, they all found Hailufeng Company to be a tough nut to crack.

And as the four million gifts went out, the direction of online public opinion about Hailufeng Company reversed rapidly. It became difficult for the online trolls to stir up trouble, leaving them to only make the occasional snide remark.

「The next day, early in the morning.」

Zhang Xinyi quickly put together a brief on the app’s performance since its launch yesterday and sent it to Jiang Miao, who was in the Capital City.

Meanwhile, the e-commerce division initiated Plan B.

The so-called Plan B was to use livestreams to show users the production process for various products, thereby increasing user stickiness.

Real gold fears no fire. They would lay out exactly how the products were made for all consumers to see.

The traffic-boosting services purchased by Hailufeng Company also pushed topics like the Hailufeng Specialty Store app, the four million gifts, and Jiang Miao’s impending National Science and Technology Progress First-Class Award into the top ten trending topics on major web portals.

This attracted even more users to download the specialty store app.

After reading the e-commerce division’s brief, Jiang Miao knew the specialty store app was off to a good start. As long as they maintained the momentum, it could essentially become a dedicated e-commerce platform for agricultural products, similar to Vipshop for apparel or Suning.com for electronics.

As for surpassing the three e-commerce giants, that was still an incredibly difficult task.

But that didn’t matter. As long as the specialty store could remain profitable and provide an unimpeded sales channel for the company’s own products, whether or not it surpassed the e-commerce giants was an acceptable outcome for Hailufeng Company.

’How can we call ourselves an agricultural giant without an independent sales channel?’

This was just one link in the industrial chain Hailufeng Company was building.

Jiang Miao had just finished reading a few reports when He Youwei, who had also returned to the Capital City, whisked him away for a tour of the Badaling Great Wall and The Forbidden City.

Nearing noon, in a suburb outside the Fifth Ring Road.

He Youwei brought him to a rather famous local private kitchen. It was both a welcome-back meal for him and an opportunity for her parents to meet Jiang Miao.

As soon as he entered the private room, Jiang Miao saw He Dangdao, who had returned to the Capital City for school back in March.

He Dangdao ran over enthusiastically and pulled out a chair for him. "Uncle Miao, please have a seat."