Chapter 570: Chinese medicine 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 a.s.sets are nothing compared to theirs, so the only outcome 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 statement 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 mean that we can increase our price to give ourselves an edge in the market and win over more customers?
The Luo Workshop executives were dumbfounded as they could not follow Xiao Luo’s argument 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 medicine product mentioned by Mr. w.a.n.g earlier.”
We shall develop a TCM health drink, a traditional Chinese medicine-based health supplement drink that aims to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. We will position the TCM health drink as our flags.h.i.+p product and use it to complement our other bread and pastries. The price of this flags.h.i.+p product must be sold at a premium price; otherwise, it will not convince consumers. 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 n.o.body knows about Chinese medicine. Are we recruiting a medical team?”
Luo Qi was the head of the research and development department, so she was in charge of developing new products. She had no background in Chinese medicine, 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 claimed effects?” Li Zimeng questioned. Decision-making at the top management 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 department, Cang Jiamei, 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 medical field. If he agrees to help, then it should be a breeze to obtain endors.e.m.e.nt from authorities for our products.”
“Noted, president Xiao!” Cang Jiamei 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 implemented 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 extremely tasty, crawfish are also known to thrive in unhygienic habitats. However, we were able to observe how the chefs process the crawfish closely, which rea.s.sured 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 bodysh.e.l.l and submerge it in vinegar and salt.w.a.ter 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 meeting!” 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 time in the R&D department, and Zhang Dashan followed him around like a shadow.
“What the heck is going on with you? What do you even know about Chinese medicine? How could you actually have enough professional knowledge to lead product R&D? Weren’t we in the same major back in college?” Zhang Dashan had so many questions as they majored in engineering management, which had nothing to do with traditional Chinese medicine. However, everything Xiao Luo had displayed was highly professional, as if he was a Ph.D. in traditional Chinese medicine.
Xiao Luo did not bother to explain as he continued to study the effects of combining several Chinese medicines. He was trying to infuse the essence of Chinese medicines 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 supplements was no easy feat for him as well. There were many things to consider for the infusion of Chinese medicines, 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 extremely careful as such matters concerned consumers’ health.
Five days later, they have succeeded in synthesizing the prototype of the TCM health drink!
They randomly selected a couple of volunteers to consume the drink daily, then instructed them to go for medical 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 department then went on to do a marvelous job of promoting this product. Guo Taining had sought the a.s.sistance of the director of Xiahai Chinese Medicine Hospital to endorse this product. The product was also tested and verified by the hospital itself, and the National Medical Products Administration then issued a license to permit the sale of this product. It wasn’t long before this novel Chinese medicine product had attained the highest possible standard of endors.e.m.e.nt.
As such, this product was highly sought after by Xiahai consumers right after its launch. The increase in customers visiting their stores for the TCM health drinks had a spillover effect on the sale of pastries and cakes, pus.h.i.+ng up Luo Workshop’s revenue significantly. After the consumers had tried the drinks themselves, they became the product’s best amba.s.sadors through word of mouth, further attracted more consumers.
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 apartment. “Who would’ve thought that Luo Workshop would recruit a Chinese medicine expert to help them develop a Chinese medicinal 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!”