The Chen and Yan families played in BJ for a few days, and Chen Pingjiang and Yan Yan slept separately.
The control was too strict, making secret rendezvous impossible.
Sometimes, just as the young couple were kissing passionately in their room and about to take things further, a knock sounded at the door.
Filled with deep resentment, Chen Pingjiang returned to Dongjiang.
As soon as he arrived at the company, Ge Mengshi came looking for him.
This intelligent woman knew all along that Chen Pingjiang had gone with Yan Yan to watch the Olympic opening ceremony, but she never mentioned it.
"In just a few months, we have completed Miaochá's coverage of first-tier cities, taking over almost all important commercial districts. However, problems have also arisen."
Chen Pingjiang raised an eyebrow:
"What problems?"
"COCO Milk Tea has been fiercely targeting us, engaging in a price war."
Frankly, this kind of price war is the most intractable tactic.
If we don't follow, we'll inevitably lose customers; if we do, we'll be dragged to death.
Even Starbucks in later generations didn't fare well against Rui Xi.
"There is no lowest in a 'price war,' only lower. If you blindly pursue low prices, you might give consumers the impression that cheap goods are not good. By then, not only will your own stores lose money, but your original customer base will also be lost, resulting in a situation where you try to steal a chicken but end up losing the rice."
After pondering for a moment, Chen Pingjiang asked,
"How are you dealing with it now?"
Ge Mengshi explained,
"In Dongjiang and surrounding cities, we rely on Renren Group Buying and are not afraid of our competitors. However, in first-tier cities where group buying hasn't yet covered, we feel powerless against a price war. To deal with a price war, we first start with the product itself, emphasizing its quality and craftsmanship.
Secondly, we avoid direct competition by staggering direct comparisons through full-reduction promotions, and more effectively, by offering discounts on special promotional products while keeping other products at their original prices, using a strategy of 'four ounces to move a thousand pounds.'"
Chen Pingjiang nodded,
"Ultimately, we still need to establish the brand. Otherwise, even if we defeat COCO today, there'll be BOBO tomorrow, and it'll never end. I'll handle this for you and show you how amazing Miaochá can be with its own publicity channels."
Watching Chen Pingjiang's confident demeanor, Ge Mengshi smiled, her red lips parting slightly:
"If you can handle it, I'll invite you to my house for tea."
Chen Pingjiang was delighted to hear this, his thoughts drifting far away.
Within two days, related posts appeared on Renren.com.
In a video, a consumer who bought milk tea from COCO discovered an excessive amount of ice.
Unless "less ice" or "no ice" was specified, it was always more than half a cup of ice.
After a few sips, the bottom was reached, with only ice remaining.
This wasn't Chen Pingjiang slandering them.
Since COCO was engaging in a price war and still had to pay high rents and labor costs, it was bound to recoup its losses from somewhere else.
If prices couldn't be increased, then quantity had to be reduced.
As soon as the video was released, countless people watched.
What made people laugh even more was that rows of official accounts bearing the Miaochá name personally joined in to mock.
Miaochá (Dongjiang Xinjiekou Flagship Store): "Is the global temperature rising because COCO dug up all the ice in Nanjing?"
Miaochá (Shanghai Flagship Store): "What's wrong with COCO? Are they feeding ice to their customers?"
Miaochá (BJ Flagship Store): "Why does Xiao CO put so much ice? Does it want to freeze customers to death?"
Miaochá (Shenzhen Flagship Store): "It just hailed here, everyone ran indoors, only COCO staff came out with washbasins."
Miaochá (Guangzhou Flagship Store): "The amount of ice COCO sells each year could circle the Earth sixty times."
Where had "sand sculpture" netizens seen such a real "business war" before? They were all amused.
Then a group of people replied below:
"My stomach hurt after drinking Miaochá at noon, it must be because I walked past COCO."
"Today I saw outside COCO... [A large basin of ice] jpg."
"Picture as proof! [Three-quarters of ice] Jpg."
"To be fair, COCO's fruit tea really has a lot of ice."
"I thought it was just me, so everyone's COCO is like this?"
"Why didn't the OP note 'no ice' or 'less ice'?"
"Intense gawking. I thought business wars were suspenseful and brain-burning; real business wars are complaining on Renren.com."
"..."
The clever official accounts, for some reason, deliberately pushed this post onto the trending topics.
Wow, in just two days, the original post had over thirty thousand comments, and the video had 5 million views.
As a viral meme on Renren.com, the SNS industry leader, it naturally spread to every corner of the internet.
It then forcefully dominated various keyword trending topics.
Qiu Lu, an employee at COCO Milk Tea's Dongjiang Xinjiekou store, was surprised to find that business was unusually good today.
While busily rushing around, she was also puzzled: why did customers immediately take out their phones to snap pictures after receiving their drinks today? Even more exaggerated, some were holding up camcorders to film.
The funniest part was that some people, after getting their drinks, gulped them down in three sips as if they were starving ghosts reborn, and then started snapping photos.
"Manager, something's not right. Today's customers are too strange."
The manager nodded, found a customer, and asked,
"Hello, may I ask why you are all taking pictures of empty cups and ice?"
The customers at the entrance burst into laughter:
"You don't know yet? The hottest meme online right now is about the ice in your COCO store! Everyone says your fruit tea is half ice. We came to try it, and it really is true, so we're taking photos and posting them online for fun."
The manager's eyes widened instantly, and she asked nervously,
"Which website is it on?"
"Renren.com. Go in and look at the trending topics on the right, it's the first one."
The manager, her hands trembling slightly, pulled out her phone, opened WAP, and logged onto Renren.com.
When she saw the number of comments, shares, and a flood of negative reviews, her head started to spin.
She quickly called the regional manager.
Soon after, the news was reported to COCO headquarters in Shanghai.
COCO's founder, Hong Zhaoshui, a Taiwanese man, was dumbfounded by the news.
"If this is not handled well, it will be a huge blow to COCO's brand image."
"Should we find a PR company?"
Hong Zhaoshui shook his head:
"This isn't a national event. You first arrange for people to register Renren.com accounts to fight back. I'll contact Renren.com to see if we can get it removed from the trending topics."
The seasoned Hong Zhaoshui instinctively sniffed out a conspiracy.
Otherwise, it wouldn't explain why Miaochá's five flagship stores were the first to comment, and their comments were the most popular.
Coupled with the recent price war, this suspicion was largely confirmed.
Without the comments from Miaochá's five flagship stores, this post would at most have been a few complaints, with some people watching, but it wouldn't have gained much traction.
It was precisely the addition of comments from competitors that made people burst into laughter while "eating melons" (observing gossip), and with behind-the-scenes promoters fueling the fire, it went viral.
After another search on Baidu, he found that all the search results were complaints about COCO, which made Hong Zhaoshui's heart sink.
And that wasn't even the worst of it!
If COCO held back and added less ice, what kind of price war would that be? They'd lose money on every cup sold.
Because their competitor Miaochá's retail price was up to three times higher than theirs!
Hong Zhaoshui's mouth felt a little bitter.
Although adding ice involved some small tricks, it couldn't be denied that in the current scorching summer, with temperatures consistently above 35 degrees, fruit tea itself was a bit astringent, and the taste was actually better with ice.
But customers wouldn't listen now!
Especially after it became a viral meme, rather than just a simple complaint, people "eating melons" (observing gossip) would form a fixed idea in their minds: COCO is cheap because it has a lot of ice.
Social media was just emerging, and the older Hong Zhaoshui and COCO company clearly didn't know how to respond.
Soon after, a weak explanation appeared below the viral original post:
"After multiple studies, we found that more ice maintains the best taste. If customers dislike a lot of ice, they can also tell the counter for less ice or no ice."
It would have been better if the account bearing the name "COCO Shanghai Flagship Store" hadn't commented; as soon as it did, it was immediately surrounded by onlookers.
It wasn't a big deal to begin with; the "melon-eating" crowd just watched for fun and were about to leave, but unexpectedly, there was a new development.
The opposing debater actually entered the arena!?
Immediately, everyone chimed in, and the reply was drowned in a flood of comments.
Hong Zhaoshui's hands trembled with rage.
You can mess with me?
I can't mess with you?
Soon, another post popped up:
"Sure enough, all crows under heaven are black (everyone is the same). COCO's half-cup ice is at least cheap, but Miaochá, you're so much more expensive than others, yet you also have this much ice?"
Ge Mengshi, who had been following the whole event, was secretly happy when she realized the power of online public opinion.
Seeing this post, she immediately initiated an internal self-investigation and finally understood that this was a deliberate smear by the opponent, a staged photo after intentionally requesting extra ice.
Just as Ge Mengshi was about to send someone to explain, Chen Pingjiang stopped her.
"Your baseless explanations won't reverse online public opinion. The future belongs to the internet; you need to grasp the pulse of the era, understand what users like to see, and learn."
Soon after, comments appeared below the post slandering Miaochá.
Miaochá (Dongjiang Xinjiekou Flagship Store): "Sorry, this employee just jumped ship from COCO to our store and isn't used to things yet. We have already criticized them internally."
Miaochá (Shanghai Flagship Store): "This ice makes me so angry I want to call the police! [Angry]!"
Such a simple smear post, without follow-up comments from other users, couldn't make any waves.
Instead, Miaochá's official accounts' various memes and self-deprecating humor brought knowing smiles.
Chen Pingjiang also steered the direction of the topic towards the concept of a "business war."
Now the onlookers had more "melons" to eat.
This pushed the heat of the entire event up another notch.
Ge Mengshi, surprised by the direction of online public opinion, pondered it carefully, then suddenly realized:
"Your real goal is to push the entire incident further, attract more and more attention, and completely disregard the smears against COCO?"
Chen Pingjiang smiled and nodded:
"Otherwise? If you painstakingly argue and explain online, no one will listen. People only believe what they see! Right or wrong doesn't matter. Even if you're wrong, we can magnify the opponent's mistakes to shift the focus and topic."
Ge Mengshi, who had little experience with the internet, was given a good lesson.
She never imagined the internet could be played this way.
"Come to my place tonight for tea. I just bought some excellent West Lake Longjing."
After speaking, she gracefully walked away with a catwalk stride, leaving Chen Pingjiang feeling hot all over.
Meanwhile, COCO contacted Renren.com, offering to pay to reduce the trending topic's popularity.
However, Li Xiyi sternly refused:
"Our platform is a place for users to freely express themselves and communicate. To maintain objectivity, fairness, and impartiality, we do not intend to use such methods. We apologize."
Hong Zhaoshui, after hanging up, was so angry he smashed his phone.
(End of Chapter)