In order to live in seclusion, I tricked my roommate into falling in love

Chapter 693: Reform is a minefield

Are there many people who hate anchor Xiong? A lot.

Without him, the entire automotive industry would not have evolved to an online sales model so quickly.

Just look at how many physical stores have been destroyed by e-commerce, and you will know how much the sales departments of major car companies hate anchor Xiong now.

After all, there is no specific person in the country’s physical stores who hate e-commerce, and they can’t hate Jack Ma either.

It is very clear that the automotive industry hates anchor Xiong.

Even in the past year, whether there was Xiong Anchor or not, the prices of fuel vehicles and used cars would have collapsed, and most of the 4S sales systems with poor business all blamed Xiong Anchor for this.

Who made him the first to come forward in reform?

Every time a reform is carried out, it is these guys who are hated to the core and torn into pieces.

Most people fail to see that this is driven by policies, industrial upgrades, and changes in industry models. They just think that their jobs have been overturned by such an outlier.

To be honest, if Xiong's identity had not been hidden intentionally or unintentionally, and if Zi Xiaowei had not lived a low-key and ordinary life on campus, there would have been people who would have come to kill him.

Throughout 2023, several of the top ten automobile sales groups went bankrupt, and countless 4S stores ran away and closed down.

There is also an overall avalanche in the automotive advertising agency industry.

For example, Changjiang Automobile originally spent about 40 billion yuan on advertising and marketing each year, which accounted for about - percent of its annual output value. However, this amount began to be cut drastically in the second half of the year.

Changjiang Automobile's annual R&D expenditure is only 8 to 10 billion yuan. You can imagine how many people's business and profits these 4 billion yuan are.

All kinds of advertising shooting, placement, production, and planning, from print, billboard, television, online and other advertising forms have been cut sharply.

In fact, since Maizi took over the shooting of off-road commercials at the beginning of the year, he gradually handed over the authority to Chang Yueling.

Thanks to the promotion by Dai Annie's information officer and the publicity in Xiong's live broadcast room, the store visit rate and the number of inquiries at all Changjiang Automobile 4S stores have increased significantly.

When Xia Yanping took over, he did not participate in sales work, but he fully aligned the new marketing and promotion strategy with Ella Auto, cultivated Internet celebrities in the off-road carnival park, and let off-road players become spokespersons. The marketing costs dropped sharply, but the appeal to consumers increased sharply.

Amidst a chorus of pessimistic market sentiment, Changjiang Automobile's fuel and hybrid vehicle series are steadily increasing sales.

It has been made clear that all middlemen who are still using the old advertising and promotion methods to make money must be left out, regardless of whether they are advertising agencies or relevant planning directors and marketing tycoons, they must all be kept away from.

The cost savings for the company are much greater than the cost price obtained by bargaining with suppliers.

Only a few car companies will be able to smoothly survive the avalanche of car companies in 2023 and still make money. Many joint venture car companies and fuel vehicle manufacturers have no money to pay.

So by the beginning of 24, all the leading domestic advertising agencies had collective problems.

Whether it is that the upstream manufacturers are unable to pay, or are delaying the payment, or they are asking for rebates even if they bid at a low price.

The annual profit margin has been reduced to only four percentage points, and downstream agency companies can no longer bear it.

Companies are either cutting salaries across the board, delaying pay for executives, or simply closing down and selling off businesses, with layoffs and relocations commonplace.

Similarly, they still hate the subversive anchor Xiong.

I never thought that the advertising industry has also been undergoing a series of changes, and if you don’t keep up with the pace, you will be doomed.

Instead, they used their existing advantages in the media and public opinion promotion industry to further fuel the flames:

"Why can't even a 1.4 billion-person population stimulate a consumer market? Why has this situation become so dire, and who is the real culprit?"

"In the consumer market, manufacturers, middlemen, and consumers complement each other. Everyone benefits from the transaction process, and yet we're proud of the fact that there are no middlemen profiting from the price difference."

"From production to the hands of consumers, products go through several stages: design, production, marketing, sales, and use. Each stage creates numerous jobs and requires a tremendous amount of productivity. Now, just to allow a handful of people to profit from the internet boom, millions of families are plunged into hardship. This situation is the pernicious consequence of the influencer economy..."

After all, they are intellectuals, and their rhetoric is much more sophisticated than that of self-media.

It's easy to make people think that this is the truth.

In fact, this is exactly the same as what happened back then when craftsmen were hammering and pounding their way through the crafts, and then the steam engine took over the market.

There is nothing wrong with every product of the times that is replaced. The mistake is that the times have already left it behind, but people still cling to the old times.

Finally, even e-commerce companies came out to say that the live broadcast model of internet celebrities has greatly affected the situation of shopping malls, causing chaos in the financial order, control of network traffic, and manipulation of social public opinion!
For a time, the entire Internet was attacking it, and the situation was precarious and panic-stricken.

Diane originally wanted to take advantage of the time difference and fly to Australia with her family to spend New Year's Eve with her parents, and also have a wedding planned.

This also frightened me. Why did they say that if I dared to leave, I would flee the country and never come back. Zi Xiaowei remained calm: "What did the education and training industry do wrong back then? Did they make too much money? The overall situation no longer requires this chamber pot. Now I'm making all the money I should make and haven't evaded taxes. What do I have to fear? If the influencer economy has reached this point and is still considered useless, then we can ban it and eliminate it. I don't think I'll go to jail."

Diane is not that reckless at heart.

On the contrary, Maizi continues to promote new energy vehicles and second-hand fuel vehicles with CDEFGH and Maomei every day as usual, and Gao Tingting also increases the release of various PK content.

They are the ones who silently use their own traffic to support the Jingxi live broadcast platform in the storm, and insist on standing there to attract fire.

Even Alpova can follow Gesan to actively participate in various live broadcasts and appearances by internet celebrities, and contribute as much traffic as possible to Jingxi Live at critical moments.

The traffic has indeed increased. It had previously climbed to about 40 to 50 million daily active traffic, and was forcibly pulled to more than 80 million by these hot spots.

Even videos criticizing the internet celebrity economy, live streaming sales, and how the live streaming industry has destroyed many traditional industries and how short videos have corrupted social morals are retained on the platform and have become a powerful weapon for various opposing debaters.

There will be heat and traffic only when there is debate.

Lao Chang even called to ask, "Can you hold on?"

Zi Xiaowei pondered: "What's there to be afraid of? I'm just watching the official reaction. As long as the policy doesn't fall, I'll take the opportunity to stir up the hype. Taking over Jingxi is not an easy job."

The father-in-law, who had suffered a great loss from the policy, was satisfied: "Yes, how can one do things without experiencing these ups and downs? It's a small matter. Can we go back to Jicheng for a drink on New Year's Eve?"

If he hadn't said this, Zi Xiaowei might have flown over to have a free New Year's Eve dinner.

Now, when he heard it, he said righteously: "I'm still in Shanghai. The pace of listing of the two companies will be busy until after the Spring Festival. The production side is none of my business. The cultural and tourism projects are being promoted. So it's better to adjust the Gaohe model in Shanghai than to go to Jiang'an every day and be squeezed in by Jiangzhou."

Old Chang was even more satisfied: "I told you not to get involved with those state-owned enterprises. Don't worry, the production and supporting facilities of the Gaohe car will be the same as those of the Totoro. I'm waiting to see how you promote this car further."

Zi Xiaowei chuckled, "I have to say that an international metropolis like Shanghai does have some advantages in aesthetics and vision when it comes to products like this. In comparison, Ella's own mecha-style model doesn't seem quite as marketable, especially since the interior doesn't quite match the exterior style. So, there's no need for these two models to compete with each other in the market."

That was the new model that Lao Chang had previously presided over. It was considered Changjiang Automobile's attempt at sedans. Previously, the father-in-law and son-in-law wanted to use the sedan technologies of Jiang'an, Gaohe, or even Haoyunlai to enrich, supplement and improve them.

Now we are deeply involved in the design adjustments of the Gaohe coupe, plus the previous in-depth improvement project of the Evita coupe.

Zi Xiaowei still feels that the mecha-style car of Changjiang Automobile is too rough and not refined enough. It may be suitable for American-style enthusiasts, but it is indeed a bit niche in the domestic market.

So now we are compressing the projects to avoid duplication of construction.

Of course, it is also a test of his current in-depth decision-making on Changjiang Automobile.

Lao Chang was very straightforward: "It's up to you to decide whether your streamlined model, similar to that of a mobile phone, or the multi-model strategy of flooding the market with multiple models is better. You need to weigh it yourself. This year, you can go all out in the overseas market. This is the best advice I've received from various channels for you."

Zi Xiaowei understood.

No matter what the current public opinion says, industrial policy focuses on the general direction.

The reason why the domestic market is so competitive now is to gain advantages, and the purpose is to allow car companies with dimensionality reduction attack capabilities to expand overseas.

If we try to catch up with the European and American car companies in everything, there is no point in talking about grabbing the market. We have no advantages from products to models and prices.

Zi Xiaowei's biggest reliance is actually to secure the basic situation of domestic sales and then rush into overseas sales.

This is also the point that Cheng Dazui has been criticized a lot by netizens recently. None of his cars are going overseas, and he is only bullying the domestic market.

This is someone highlighting the key points through Lao Chang.

I chatted with my father-in-law for a long time before hanging up the phone. This relationship made my child's mother, wife, and lover very envious.

Maizi and Gao Tingting have already informed their families in advance that they will be very busy during the Spring Festival this year, so they will not be able to go home for the New Year’s Eve dinner and will find time later.

Because after the final confirmation with Brother Qiang and the technical team's crazy testing and preparation, the site and APP migration time is scheduled for New Year's Eve.

We take advantage of this special period when everyone is busy and the proportion of holidays is the highest to do such a special thing.

But at noon on New Year's Eve, the whole family was eager to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner, and at the same time, they were in charge of the critical moment of remotely controlling various tasks.

Rashid called via video: "Could you please bring my wife and children to Pingjing for dinner?"

He spoke as if he was the one from Pingjing.

When did this happen?

(End of this chapter)