Chapter 583: Prize-Based Sales!

After the meeting, Li Yi didn’t go home!

Instead, under the protection of Zhang Ziqiang and the others, he took Sun Feng back to his office.

He knew full well that brute force could suppress the factory’s workers and managers for a time, but if the crisis at the TV factory remained unresolved, these people would never truly accept his authority from the bottom of their hearts.

So, ultimately, the key was to completely revitalize this rundown factory.

And the most urgent priority right now was to sell off the inventory, recoup funds, and resolve the factory’s financial crisis.

At that moment, inside the office, Jiang Longcheng and Long Zhanjun were sitting in their chairs, idly sipping tea.

When they saw Li Yi and Sun Feng push open the door and walk in, the two immediately stopped chatting.

“Brother-in-law, you’re finally done with your work. Can we head back to the city now?” Jiang Longcheng asked with a smile.

“Hold on a minute—I still have a few things to take care of!” Li Yi said.

“Then you go ahead. Dajun and I will go take a walk outside!”

Although Jiang Longcheng was a bit of a loose cannon, he came from a distinguished background and usually knew his place.

“No need. What’s coming up concerns your cotton mill too—you should listen in,” Li Yi said.

“What’s going on? How does it relate to our cotton mill?”

Li Yi didn’t answer his question. Instead, he and Sun Feng each pulled up a chair and sat across from Jiang Longcheng and Long Zhanjun.

With a small round table right in the middle of them, it felt a bit like a roundtable meeting.

After sitting down, Li Yi looked at Sun Feng and said, “I know you’re under a lot of pressure right now and very worried about product sales, so let me go over the plans for what’s next!”

Hearing this, Sun Feng and the others in the room instinctively sat up straight, pricked up their ears, and their expressions turned serious.

“I’ll approach the sales strategy for Yanjing TVs in two phases. The first step is to build brand awareness for Yanjing TVs. I’ve already mapped out the specific plan—it just needs to be put into action!”

However, Li Yi didn’t elaborate on the specifics. Instead, he continued, “The second step is to capitalize on the surge in Yanjing TV’s popularity and collaborate with the United Cotton Mill No. 2 to launch a large-scale promotional giveaway campaign!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Jiang Longcheng asked curiously, “Brother-in-law, what’s a prize-based sales campaign?”

“As the name suggests, it means you buy my products and I give you a reward!”

Li Yi continued, “Take the Cotton Spinning Factory as an example. You can announce publicly that anyone who spends at least 100 yuan on clothes at a company-owned store gets one chance to enter a raffle. Prizes could be towels, soap, or clam oil—or they could be color TVs, refrigerators, or washing machines. And of course, they could be Yanjing-brand TVs!”

“But… our clothes only cost a few yuan each, while a TV costs at least three or four hundred yuan. Won’t we lose money on that?” Jiang Longcheng asked.

“How could we lose money? We control exactly how many prizes we give out. We can easily adjust the number of prizes based on our sales volume!”

Li Yi continued, “Besides, a prize-based sales campaign is sure to greatly stimulate people’s desire to spend. If sales go up, why would we worry about losing money?”

Li Yi had vivid memories of the prize-based sales campaigns that had swept the nation in his previous life, and he fully understood the effectiveness of such marketing strategies.

The trend of prize-based sales in China began in 1983–1984 and continued well into the 1990s.

During this period, various “prize-winning” campaigns attracted massive participation.

Whether selling clothes, home appliances, or even sunflower seeds, businesses would often organize large-scale prize-based sales, with extravagant prizes ranging from color TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines to even cars.

Later on, some people felt that prize-based sales were too troublesome and that the pace of raising funds was too slow, so they simply switched to games like “lotteries” and “scratch-off tickets.”

Whenever such events were held in a particular area, people from miles around—and even from neighboring counties and cities—would come to participate. Compared to these, welfare lotteries and sports lotteries paled in comparison.

In a sense, the entire 1980s could be described as the “prize-filled” era.

However, no one in China was doing this yet, and Li Yi intended to be the first to take the plunge.

Jiang Longcheng wasn’t entirely convinced about the prospects of prize-based sales, but Sun Feng was a different story. As a professional in sales, he quickly grasped the intricacies of the concept.

“If we really do this,” he exclaimed excitedly, “Feixue Apparel’s sales could at least double!”

“That impressive?” Jiang Longcheng asked in surprise.

“That’s just a conservative estimate. If the cotton mill is willing to invest heavily and offer more grand prizes in the early stages, the results will be even better!” Sun Feng said.

“If that’s the case, then it’s worth a try!”

Then, as if a light bulb had gone off, Jiang Longcheng immediately said, “So, our cotton mill runs this prize-based sales campaign using Yanjing-brand TVs as prizes. That means we’ll have to buy TVs from your factory, and then your TVs will sell—is that the idea?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “If I were counting on selling TVs that way, it would take ages to move 70,000 to 80,000 units!”

“I’d guess that for this promotional campaign, you’ll be giving away a hundred or so TVs at most—that’s the limit. It won’t have much of an impact on the TV factory’s sales!”

Jiang Longcheng asked in confusion, “If that’s the case, then why are you organizing this event, brother-in-law?”

“Heh, while your campaign won’t directly boost the TV factory’s sales by much, the prize giveaway can help elevate and solidify the reputation of Yanjing TVs. That’s a huge help for our future plans!” Li Yi said.

At present, Feixue Apparel has already established its brand value. In the minds of people across the country, Feixue Apparel is synonymous with high-end, sophisticated, and upscale.

By using Yanjing TV Factory’s products as the grand prize for Feixue Apparel’s sales campaign, people would instinctively perceive Yanjing TVs as high-end products as well.

Combined with Li Yi’s upcoming plan, this would undoubtedly create a synergistic effect where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

“Brother-in-law, what should we do now?” asked Jiang Longcheng.

“I’ll go over this promotional plan again shortly. When I’m done, take it back to An Hong and have her implement it immediately!”

“Alright, I’ll make the arrangements as soon as I get back and aim to roll this out within a week!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“That’s too late. We have three days at most!”

“Got it!”

Li Yi then turned to Sun Feng and said, “You can’t just sit around either. Start distributing the products to the areas where sales channels have already been established as soon as possible. At the same time, I’ll put together a new sales plan for your team—make sure to implement it right away!”

“Got it!”

Immediately, Li Yi asked the group to wait in Sun Feng’s office for a while, while he set to work on the promotional sales plans for the two factories.

By 3:00 p.m., when Li Yi emerged from his office, two complete plans were ready.

Everything was now in place; all that was missing was the final push…

………