Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 72 Animation Promotion
After the Inamon clan gathering ended, Takeshita Masato became even busier.

Not only do we need to step up the production of suitcases to expand sales, but we also need to purchase various New Year goods.

Matsumoto Manufacturing is very profitable this year, and the New Year's goods will be more abundant.

Only in this way can the company recruit enough prestigious university students in January next year.

Matsumoto Manufacturing is now valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, and is definitely one of the biggest companies of this era. Its employees can no longer rely on Waseda University alone.

Masato Takeshita could allow Waseda to occupy a dominant position within Matsumoto Manufacturing, but he could not allow Waseda to dominate the company.

He also wants to have connections at Keio University, the University of Tokyo, and Hitotsubashi University.

"Okay, that's it."

Masato Takeshita looked at the prices on the purchase order and felt a little pain in his heart.

This time it was really a big loss. The year-end bonus + New Year gift package gave away almost 15% of the company's net profit.

However, you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. If you want to recruit talents, you have to be generous.

"Yes, President!"

After Watanabe Tai, the head of the purchasing department, left the office, Takeshita Masato said to his assistant, Kagawa Yuriko: "Kagawa, please call Vice President Kobayashi for me."

"Hi!"

Hiroaki Kobayashi's office was not far from Masato Takeshita's, and in less than 3 minutes, the marketing manager arrived at the office.

"Boss, you're looking for me."

"Well, sit down." Takeshita Masato pointed at the sofa, then turned to his assistant and said, "Kagawa, make a pot of black tea."

"Hi, please wait."

The two chatted for a while and drank a few cups of black tea before Masato Takeshita began to talk about what he wanted to say.

"Well, what do you think if we make a feature-length animation to further promote our suitcase brand?"

"Do you think it's okay?"

At this moment, Masato Takeshita thought of Hayao Miyazaki's "Kiki's Delivery Service" and Haier Group's "Haier Brothers".

Both of these animated works were ultimately huge successes and had very good publicity effects.

Masato Takeshita may not know about others, but he only knew about these two companies through watching anime.

"Is this okay?"

"I think it should be fine, we can do this."

Masato Takeshita began to talk enthusiastically about how to integrate the brand into animation.

At this time, he was referring more to "Kiki's Delivery Service".

There’s nothing I can do about it, it’s not that “Haier Brothers” is bad.

On the contrary, it is great.

Masato Takeshita was reluctant to give up this publicity opportunity that could have created a huge impact on a relatively niche industry like suitcases.

A killer animation imitating "Haier Brothers" would be best placed in the home appliances or computer industry.

How can you kill a chicken with a bull's knife?

"Is this really feasible?"

Kobayashi Hiroaki was still very hesitant and felt that this method was not very reliable.

"It's not much money anyway, so even if I lose it, it's just like that."

Matsumoto Manufacturing will be able to make at least tens of billions in profit next year, and may even reach hundreds of billions.

The cost of an animation is no more than 3 million yen, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't achieve the desired effect.

"I understand, President." Kobayashi Hiroaki was not optimistic about the promotional effect of the animation at all and felt that this was an act of willfulness on the part of the president.

However, compared with the presidents of other companies, my president is already very cost-effective.

He no longer objected.

It is no wonder that Kobayashi Hiroaki thinks this way, as Japanese company presidents do have this characteristic. In order to satisfy their own selfish desires, they will make the company spend a lot of unnecessary money.

In his previous life, the president of Japan's Yasuda Corporation spent 2250 million pounds to buy Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in order to satisfy his own selfish desires.

The president of Daishowa Paper Co., Ltd. spent record-breaking prices to purchase Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" and Renoir's "Dance at the Moulin de la Galette" at $8250 million.

Even more shocking,
Saito Ryoei, the president of Daishowa Paper, declared that he would burn these two works directly after his death.

Naturally, this statement caused public outrage, and he was later forced to ask his secretary to apologize.

Ultimately, neither work was destroyed.

But the reason was not the pressure from Western public opinion, but that this guy spent money like water and directly bankrupted the company.

Of course, compared with the president of Sony, these two are nothing but dwarfs.

Akio Morita was very interested in movies, so his subordinates tried their best to flatter him and directly acquired a Hollywood giant according to his preferences.

This company is the famous Columbia Pictures.

Sony paid a huge price for this.

Not only was the acquisition price far higher than the normal market price, but the company also suffered losses year after year, losing billions of dollars in just a few years.

In other words, Sony is a big company with a huge business. If another company did the same thing, it would have gone bankrupt long ago.

Of course, President Akio Morita wasn't completely fooling around.

He acquired Hollywood film companies partly out of his own passion and partly for the company's business considerations.

Sony is the king in the field of electrical appliances, and is the market leader in both tape recorders and televisions.

As a result, Sony developed the Betamax home video recorder, set relevant standards, and started selling it.

But the peach was picked by a new company called JVC.

The VHS standard developed by this company eventually became the universal standard for home video recorders.

After working so hard on innovation and research and development, in the end the bulk of the profits were taken away by companies like Panasonic, leaving them with only the leftovers.

Akio Morita was furious.

After much reflection, the entire company unanimously agreed that the problem was caused by the company's insufficient layout in the content field.

If companies have enough power in the content space, standards won’t be taken away at all.

So Sony decided to gain a foothold in the content field.

This is the most important factor for Sony to acquire Hollywood giants and make layout in the content field.

Sony's decision was a wise one, and it will affect the future battle for Blu-ray standards.

Sony eventually defeated its competitors by relying on its layout in music, film and television and other fields.

In fact, Sony’s old rival Panasonic is also planning to expand into the content sector, and specifically acquired Universal Pictures for this purpose.

Unfortunately, Panasonic did not stick with it.

After Universal Pictures began to suffer losses, the leadership immediately chose to sell the company, thus laying the groundwork for future Standard failures.

Of course, Akio Morita's personal thoughts on the acquisition of Columbia Pictures cannot be ignored.

If the company's relevant leaders had not been so eager to flatter Akio Morita, Sony would not have had to pay such a high price.

There are so many Hollywood film companies, do we have to hang ourselves on one in Columbia?
Isn't Universal Pictures a good company?
Or is it that Time Warner is not attractive enough?
The purchase of Columbia Pictures for billions of dollars was a huge loss.

(End of this chapter)