Chapter 230 Old Duan's First Shot
—Beating up your little sister isn't something we do.
That line from Chen Jing made it clear where Yuanxin stood. It was a direct declaration: no matter what strategy they employed, it would never be at the cost of hurting their sister company.
Which meant there was no choice but to grit their teeth and go head-to-head with foreign competitors.
As An Siying distributed the relevant documents to those present, even the usually aloof types like Xi Xiaoding started to grasp just how serious the situation had become for the mobile phone division. Especially Tian Yaoming—when he saw that MOTO, Siemens, and Nokia had all entered not only Yuanxin's own commercial channels but also retail giants like Jiamei and Suning, his frown deepened.
Tian Yaoming was already being referred to in China's tech circles as the "Father of the Domestic Pager and Mobile Phone." Unsurprisingly, the rest of his career was expected to be tightly bound to mobile phones. So naturally, he was more concerned than anyone else about how things were going.
"What the hell—Xinghai's getting in on this too?" When he spotted OCSS among the international brands entering the domestic market, Tian nearly popped a vein.
"Heh, I heard they're doing pretty well," Chen Jing said with a sly smile, then glanced down at the document. "Unfortunately, since they just entered the domestic market, we don't have much data on them yet."
Tian glanced at a few of the marketing leads across the table, then at the admins like Tang Wenfang and Yu Yuru, who were trying hard not to laugh. He sighed and said nothing more.
He couldn't do marketing anyway. His only move now was to double down on R&D and push forward with technical breakthroughs.
Seeing everyone focused on the materials in front of them, Chen Jing sipped her water and continued.
"Before May Day, we collaborated with President Zhang's commercial division to run a joint promotion. His report is still being finalized, but from our phone call last night, it seems the campaign helped our brand value."
She glanced at Su Yuanshan out of the corner of her eye—and saw him exhale quietly in relief.
So, you get nervous too, she thought with an inward smile, though her expression didn't show it. Her lips barely twitched before she composed herself and went on.
"President Zhang should have a full summary from all regions ready tomorrow. I'll fax it to you once it's in hand. You'll be able to see, in the eyes of customers, what kind of brand Yuanxin really is—especially at its current price point."
At that moment, Duan Yongping—who had stood up only once at the start to greet everyone and had otherwise been quietly taking notes—cleared his throat.
When Chen Jing looked over, he gestured to indicate he'd like to speak.
Chen Jing nodded. "Go ahead, Old Duan."
"Hello, everyone," Duan Yongping began. "Although I only started formally preparing to enter the domestic mobile phone market a week ago, internally at Xiaobawang, we began analyzing Yuanxin's pricing strategy the moment your phones launched."
Everyone turned to look at him as he smiled and returned their gaze. "Yuanxin's rise has been a reference point for every tech company in the country."
It wasn't clear if that was flattery or something else—but it made everyone in the room feel good.
"Back then, our marketing team concluded that Yuanxin's decision to avoid traditional distribution channels was an effort to preserve its brand image… and later events proved we were right."
"But since I had no direct connection with Yuanxin at the time, we didn't dig deeper into the matter. Now, after seeing how Yuanxin has been building its brand, I'd like to share a hypothesis," he said, turning toward Chen Jing.
"President Chen, I haven't done fieldwork or personally participated in the May Day promotion. This is just my take as an average consumer buying a phone, so it may not reflect the full picture."
Chen Jing smiled and nodded. "That's okay. I only got the high-level summary myself."
Duan Yongping continued, "At this point, most regular consumers still feel a sense of pride toward Yuanxin.
After all, it was on the national news, and even got held by top leaders.
To some people, if it's something the leaders use, they'll buy it no matter how bad or expensive it is."
"But over time, the effect of that news fades — we've studied this. For events like those, three months is the typical shelf life.
Memory fades. Hype dies."
"And unless we can get our phones featured on national news again, we'll need top-tier ad campaigns to maintain public interest."
Duan glanced at Wan Yongliang, nodding politely to show he meant no offense.
"I've seen Yuanxin's CCTV commercials. Honestly? They're decent. Professional. But they don't match the high expectations being set for the brand."
"The core message is still 'this is a mobile phone,' but it doesn't have a unique hook like the BP device's Chinese display did.
In short, it's just a phone—like MOTO or Siemens."
"So when the impulse-buying window closes, customers start to hesitate.
They ask, 'Is Yuanxin's phone really worth it?
At this price, will I feel proud to show it off?
This thing costs over 10,000 yuan!'"
"And once they hesitate, it's a problem. At the same price point, MOTO, Siemens, and Nokia all feel 'worth it.'"
"The feedback we're getting isn't that people are dismissing Yuanxin outright, but rather that they're unsure.
That's a much better problem to have than outright rejection.
The former we can solve. The latter means the consumer is stuck — like they've got magnets on their knees. Once they kneel to foreign brands, it's hard to get them up again."
Duan paused. No one interrupted—partly because these were all things he had already discussed with Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing behind the scenes.
He went on.
"I really agree with something President Shan said:
For Yuanxin to break through quickly, it must go international."
"President Shan is thinking globally.
I'm just thinking about how to globalize the phone."
He chuckled.
"I'll be blunt — the name 'Yuanxin' is great for a semiconductor company.
But for a consumer product? It's not ideal."
Wan Yongliang looked over. "So you're suggesting a new brand name?"
"Yes, President Wan," Duan nodded.
"Before we finalize the mold for the second-generation phone, let's pick a new brand — something with international flavor."
"For marketing, bring in an international movie star.
For packaging, make it premium and futuristic — something people want to buy just for the box.
For promotion, don't say we're 'as good as the imports' — say things like, 'MOTO and Siemens? Please.'
For the slogan, let's find a line that really sticks in people's minds..."
"In short: differentiate ourselves."
After he finished, Duan closed his mouth and looked around. Then he gave Su Yuanshan a very complicated look.
—This speech? Su Yuanshan had asked him to give it.
And much of the "ammunition" had been provided by Su Yuanshan himself.
Friends, if you enjoyed the novel, you can subscribe to my Patreon channel.
Until November 30th, get 40% off your subscription and the purchase of the novel.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1