Chapter 134: Build your own brand (please vote for me)
After hearing what her son said, Wang Yuelan muttered to him: "It's not about money, so what is it? You just have a lot of problems."
She was too lazy to care about this matter now, so she turned around and went to play with her granddaughter Mengmeng.
Cheng Xiaolin seemed to be able to feel what her husband was thinking, and said, "Husband, tell me what happened after you two met."
"Okay!" Cao Shujie began to talk about what happened after he met Zuo Le.
After he finished speaking, Cheng Xiaolin seemed to understand and asked him: "Do you want to make our own brand?"
Cao Shujie looked at his wife with a heartfelt smile on his face: "Wife, to be honest, you still understand me."
He said: "I didn't care about this at first. I can sell the fruit and make more money. But when I chatted with Zuo Le today, I realized that it is too difficult to sell our products and be recognized by others.
Already."
"Why?" he asked.
Cheng Xiaolin followed his words and said: "Because you don't have any reputation, no one is willing to pay for you. This is the same as running a business."
"Yes, the principle is very simple, but it is quite difficult to do." Cao Shujie sighed with emotion.
If the fruits he grows are already famous, when Zuo Le comes to buy them today, will he still hesitate to pay a high price?
Will you be hesitant if your product fails to open up the market, and will you bear the risk in the end?
Obviously, Cao Shujie doesn't have any reputation here now. Even if he sold all the kiwis he grew last time at a high price of 28 yuan per pound, it was only recognized by some customers in a small area, but it was not really recognized by the industry.
So much so that Zuo Le, a second-rate fruit seller, came to his door just because his fruits were delicious and he wanted to buy them at a price that was neither too high nor too low.
Cao Shujie can understand Zuo Le's thoughts, but he is unwilling to sell at a low price!
Or maybe they don’t want to keep selling their fruits at low prices.
"Honey, come up with a name. Let's register our own brand before we get started." Cao Shujie looked at his wife Cheng Xiaolin and said seriously.
Cheng Xiaolin shook her head: "I'm a waste of names. It's not like you don't know. How can I come up with a good name?"
"Try it. How will you know if it works if you don't try it?" Cao Shujie coaxed her.
But Cheng Xiaolin frowned, really couldn't think of anything.
After a while, she said: "Why don't you think of one yourself?"
Cao Shujie scratched his head a little: "My name is even more useless!"
Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard Daha's signature cry of 'oh woo' coming from outside, followed by Erhak and two German shepherds. Cao Shujie's eyes lit up and he said: "Wife, there is a dog.
The brand name is 'Three Squirrels', how about we call it 'Four Dogs'?"
"Put him down!" Cheng Xiaolin despises her husband. Is there any name more unreliable than this?
"Then you name it, you can choose any one." Cao Shujie said.
Cheng Xiaolin realized that asking her husband to name her was more useless than her, and that in the end she had to rely on herself, so she began to study it seriously.
Mengmeng played with her grandma outside for a while, then ran in and called her mother: "Mom, mom, go play!"
"Mengmeng, please wait a moment, mom has business." Cheng Xiaolin said softly.
"What?" Mengmeng asked curiously.
Cheng Xiaolin said seriously: "Mom wants to give the fruits your father grows a nice name. Once your father comes up with this name, our family's fruits will be able to sell for a lot of money in the future."
"Name it?" Mengmeng put her hands on her little head. Like Ikkyu, she held her hair with both hands and made circles. After a while, a bright smile appeared on her little face: "Mom, Mengmeng sounds good."
Cao Shujie didn't care at first, but when he heard Mengmeng say this, he really took it to heart.
He muttered: "Mengmeng? Xuemeng? Xuemeng?"
Then he turned to his wife and asked: "Wife, which one do you think sounds better?"
Their daughter's name was Cao Xuemeng. When Cheng Xiaolin heard this, she said, "I think cute fruits sound better."
"Okay, let's call it this." Cao Shujie looked very happy.
He continued: "That's it, I'll reorder some packaging boxes, print some removable self-adhesive labels, and stick them on the apples. What do you think?"
"Is it that kind of plastic paper label?" Cheng Xiaolin asked him.
Seeing her husband nodding, Cheng Xiaolin agreed: "Okay, you can do whatever you want. I think there's no problem."
After thinking about this matter, Cao Shujie couldn't wait any longer. He thought about rushing to the county seat immediately and finding a new batch of packaging boxes from the last packaging box factory.
In addition, find an advertising company to design a logo and print a batch of sticky notes.
At this time, Cao Shujie thought to himself that it was a good thing he didn't drink at noon, otherwise he wouldn't be able to do any work in the afternoon.
By the time he came back from his work in Pingyuan County, it was already dark.
After Cao Shujie got home, he told his wife: "The logo has been designed. I used cute photos to find someone to make it into a cute design. It's so cute."
"Shujie, you are really capable!" Cheng Xiaolin didn't know what to say to her husband. He was so lazy!
But Cao Shujie was not convinced. He shouted: "If you don't believe it, I think it's pretty good."
"Don't go so far. Where is the packaging box? When can it be made?" Cheng Xiaolin asked him.
Cao Shujie stretched out three fingers: "The fastest is three days, the slowest is a week."
He said: "Now is the time when fruits are falling from the trees. Fruits are being dumped from door to door, and there are quite a few people asking for packaging boxes."
This is a fact, and Cheng Xiaolin also knows this.
She asked: "What about Zuo Le, who buys our fruits?"
"I'll go talk to him tomorrow. The price can be lower, but we have to put our own trademark on it," Cao Shujie said.
He knew the secrets here. Some second-hand dealers took the fruits away and repackaged them for sale, using their own packaging boxes and brands.
Cheng Xiaolin bit her lip and said nothing.
The night passed unknowingly. The next morning, Cao Shujie took his four dogs to the Yellow River dam in the east. After walking the dogs back, he drove to Qingshi Town.
Finally, he parked the car in front of the hotel where Zuo Le was staying. After getting off the car and entering, Cao Shujie asked the front desk: "Hello, has Mr. Zuo left?"
The waiter at the front desk checked and said, "Sir, Mr. Zuo hasn't checked out yet."
This was a euphemism. Cao Shujie stood on the spot and called Zuo Le and invited him to have breakfast together.
"Oh, Boss Cao, I'm so sorry that you have to worry about this matter." Zuo Le was indeed a little embarrassed.
Cao Shujie said with a smile: "It's okay, I'll wait for you at the door of the hotel."
Ten minutes later, Cao Shujie waited for Zuo Le who had come out of the shower. At this moment, he had changed into a loose, light-colored sportswear. Not only did he not look fatter, but he was also in much better spirits.
"Mr. Cao, you really don't need to come here." Zuo Le said.
He thought that Cao Shujie came here specially to invite him to dinner, but Cao Shujie did not explain.
The two of them left the hotel while chatting. Cao Shujie drove him to a famous fast food restaurant in their town for breakfast.
After the meal, Cao Shujie took the initiative to express his thoughts: "Mr. Zuo, I can lower the price, but I have a request."
"Say!" Zuo Le was happy in his heart. He hadn't come up with a solution yet, but he didn't expect Cao Shujie to relent first.
Then I heard Cao Shujie say: "I can promise you to sell it for 7 yuan, but you must use my own trademark and packaging box."
Zuo Le understood and asked: "Boss Cao, do you want me to help you sell your products?"
This is said clearly.
Cao Shujie didn't say much, just waiting for Zuo Le's attitude.
But Cao Shujie didn't know that for Zuo Le, it didn't matter whose trademark he used to sell the fruits. As far as he was concerned, as long as he could sell high-quality fruits from all over the country, it was a thousand words.
Wan, he also wants to make money.
So when Cao Shujie made this request, Zuo Le was afraid of causing further trouble. He didn't even take the opportunity to lower the price and quickly agreed: "No problem, Boss Cao, when will we sign the contract? When will we start picking?"
"After the National Day is over, let the apples grow on the trees for a few more days. In this way, their taste and sweetness will be better." Cao Shujie said.
Zuo Le also knew this, and he nodded and agreed at that time.
"No problem, then I will take advantage of this time to go to the market and find buyers for these apples," Zuo Le said.
Cao Shujie didn't care about it. After he and Zuo Le finished talking, the two initialed an agreement, and Zuo Le left.
He had to go to Yiling City and provincial capitals. After all, there were relatively more wealthy people in big cities, and they were more receptive to the high price positioning of 'fine fruits'.
If that doesn't work, go to the capital or the magical capital. Prices there are relatively higher, the market is huge, and there are more people who are rich and willing to spend money.
Zuo Le thought to himself that he had to plan carefully. There were not many apples in Cao Shujie's place, so he understood the principle of scarcity and was prepared to sell them at a good price.
…
Three days later, the National Day holiday ended.
People who were wandering around returned to their respective jobs and started a new round of busyness.
They thought they would rest until the next wave and had to wait for the Spring Festival.
In the past few days, the people arranged by Chen Lei finally installed the drip irrigation system for him.
Cao Shujie went to start up the machine and test it twice. Looking at the stable output of nutrient solution after stirring evenly in the medicine tank, he felt that the person who could design this "drip irrigation technology" was really smart.
It's just a pity that Cao Shujie knew it too late, otherwise he would have installed the sprinkler irrigation pipes at the beginning, which would have saved him from having to do the work twice as he does now.
In addition, the automatic water diversion system in the breeding area that Xia Changhong is responsible for has also been installed.
Cao Shujie turned on the equipment and tried it. It was more convenient for the calf to draw water than before. He thought it was good.
And because the distance is short, fewer pipes are used, and there are no deep buried pipes. After Xia Changhong's people completed the work, Cao Shujie spent much less money.
As a result, the only work on hand is to install barbed wire guardrails and harden part of the ground.
Even the highway going up and down the mountain in the north has been almost under maintenance in the past few days, but Tian Xinhua told Cao Shujie that it would be better to wait a few more days before driving the car.
In addition, the north side mainly considers the later transportation of cattle and sheep, and will definitely use large trucks, so the turning platform in the north is also larger than the turning platform in the south.
Tian Xinhua also suggested that Cao Shujie flatten the trail outside the barbed wire guardrail and pave it out according to the standards of a mountain road.
After a moment of thought, Cao Shujie decided to build a 2.5-meter-wide mountain path to facilitate north-south travel and increase convenience.
As a result, more money was invested in paving the road. In addition to the road up and down the mountain, the larger turning platform in the north, and the extra road that is 2.5 meters wide and nearly 1,000 meters long, it took a lot of money.
Cao Shujie paid 183,000 yuan, which was more than 80,000 yuan more than the road built in the south.
But when Cao Shujie thought that it would be more convenient to come and go in the future, he felt that the money was still worth it.
On the first day after the National Day, Cao Shujie went to the county town again and found the factory that made his packaging boxes to inquire about the production situation. As soon as he asked, he had already placed an order for him, and making the packaging boxes became easier.
On the other side, Cao Shujie found the "Kodak Advertising Co., Ltd." to design the trademarks and labels, and the first batch of 50,000 removable self-adhesive stickers with trademarks have been printed.
Because the trademark created by Cao Shujie is not complicated, the printing and typesetting is simple, and the design of the trademark is not complicated, the design fee only cost 2,000 yuan.
The printed stickers, on the other hand, cost 7 cents each, and the two dollars together cost him 5,500 yuan.
Holding these things, Cao Shujie was full of emotions. He said in a voice that he could hear clearly: "These are all costs!"
…
On the other hand, Zuo Le's promotion of new apple products in Yiling City and provincial capitals was not going very well.
Yiling City is relatively poorer here. Some people also want the apples sold by Zuo Le and recognize the taste and sweetness of the apples, but the price they give is not high.
Zuo Le thought that there were only two acres of apples in Cao Shujie's place, which weighed several thousand kilograms. He stopped being friendly with these people and simply gave up the market in Yiling City. He has been wandering around the provincial capital these days.
Explore potential markets.
The consumption here in the provincial capital is indeed much higher than that in Yiling City, so it will be much easier for Zuo Le to target the market.
Some stores specializing in high-end fruits originally wanted the apples promoted by Zuo Le, but because this apple was not well-known and was not even considered a major category, it was not favored by the owners of high-end boutique fruit stores. They took the opportunity to lower the price.
Zuo Le has had many contacts with such people, so he can naturally see their purpose and simply ignore them.
In the remaining time, Zuo Le went to look for other customers. Finally, when the agreed week was up, Zuo Le signed contracts with three high-end 'fine fruit shops'. He was going to go back to Caojiazhuang to buy apples.
come over.
When he saw Cao Shujie, Zuo Le discovered that he was busy putting a small round label on the picked apples.
This label looks reflective and is not very big, but the pattern on it is a scene of a little cartoon girl with four pigtails chasing four dogs. You can imagine how cute it is when you see this scene.
appearance.
As soon as I took a look, I felt very happy.
"Cute fruit." When Zuo Le saw this name, he really didn't know what to say.
It's obvious that two parents were too lazy to name their own fruit and named it after their daughter.
But having said that, after reading it a few times, I realized that the name is quite easy to pronounce.
"Boss Cao, have you checked the scale? How many kilograms of apples are there in total?" Zuo Le asked him.
Cao Shujie shook his head: "It hasn't been weighed yet. I've been waiting for you to come. Let's go through it together."
"Okay, let's get married today." Zuo Le looked at the apples that had just been picked, and he couldn't wait to give them away.
"good!"
Cao Shujie found two more people in the village to help and worked all afternoon before weighing all the apples. Except for the more than 400 kilograms of apples left by Cao Shujie, the remaining good ones were kept here, totaling 7,219 kilograms.
The total output of these two acres of land is a little less than Cao Shujie expected, but the difference is not big and within a reasonable range.
According to the agreed price of 7 yuan per pound, Cao Shujie received 50,533 yuan from Zuo Le.
Cao Shujie has sold out all the fruits this season this year.
Including the money from selling kiwi fruit last time, he earned a total of 480,613 yuan. In the countryside, his annual income is nearly 500,000 yuan, which can be said to be an absolutely high-income group.
But compared to Cao Shujie's massive investment and his loan of more than 3 million yuan, this income is nothing.
After all, this is the amount of income you get in a year, and the rest of the time is spent on investment.
Unless his newly planted more than 70 acres of orchards also start to have a bumper harvest, then Cao Shujie will truly have confidence.
The specific transaction figures were completed privately by Cao Shujie and Zuo Le. Neither of the two people who worked for Cao Shujie knew how much he sold for.
After the weighing, they began to help pack the labeled apples into packaging boxes with "Cute Fruit" printed on them.
During this period, Cao Shujie, Zuo Le, Cheng Xiaolin, Wang Yuelan and Cao Jianguo all went into battle and worked until dark, but they were not finished yet.
That night, after having dinner at Cao Shujie's house, Cao Shujie sent Zuo Le to a hotel in the town to stay.
The next morning, they continued busy packing the boxes until almost noon, when they were done.
Zuo Le asked Cao Shujie to help him find a truck to transport more than 1,400 boxes of apples to the provincial capital. Zuo Le paid the freight.
"Boss Cao, let's see you next year." Zuo Le shook hands with Cao Shujie.
The two people cherish each other.
Say goodbye today and see you next year. It really only takes a year.
…
After selling the apples, the orchard was completely emptied this time. Cao Shujie also kept in mind the saying that if you want to grow good fruits from the ground, you must cultivate the land well, and removed the dirt they had made before.
He spread the fertilizer twice more. In addition, Cao Shujie also poured two bottles of concentrated nutrient solution into the mixing tank. He thought that while the fruit trees were not bearing fruit now, he would first provide the missing nutrients to the land and the fruit trees themselves.
Made up for it.
When there were still fruits on the fruit trees, Cao Shujie hadn't realized the best use of his nutrient solution?
Even in my previous life, I only knew about research projects and had few opportunities to practice them.
At this moment, Cao Shujie realized that the 'nutrient' solution he had developed should highlight one aspect of 'nutrition'.
"So, there is a huge market for this thing. I should continue to study it in depth." Cao Shujie thought about this matter in his mind.
He feels that even if he puts aside planting fruit trees and raising livestock, as long as he has this product in hand, he will definitely live well in the future.
"But I can't do it without strength. No matter how good I am, I can't hold it, so I'd better take my time." Cao Shujie thought of this in his mind.
As time slowly advances from early October to mid-October, the temperature also drops further.
No more summer heat.
At this time, more and more people started to have time to spare.
Many people thought of coming to Cao Shujie's orchard to find some odd jobs, but after they came, they found that Cao Shujie's orchard had changed again.
There is a road leading to the foot of the mountain on the opposite side. There is a road more than two meters wide between the two contracted lands. The quality is not bad. It is better than walking slowly on the dirt road before.
If it rains, it will be impossible to walk on that bad road.
After finally taking a breather, and the construction in the orchard was over, and all the fruits were sold, there was really not much work left. Just find two temporary workers to look after it. Cao Shujie was still thinking, thinking
Then I took his family out for a walk.
But where to go?
I really couldn't think of it at the moment.
That night, after dinner, Cao Shujie asked his wife to discuss traveling. Cheng Xiaolin said: "Where can I go at this time? Why not go somewhere with mountains and water?"
"That's okay!" Cao Shujie agreed and asked his wife: "Wife, please name me."
"Let me think about it!" Cheng Xiaolin really thought about this problem seriously, thinking about where they would go to play in the next time.
