Li Mu had never been a kind person. It was simply a pipe dream to think that he could solve the problem with an apology email after provoking him.
Moreover, Li Mu didn't care whether it was Neil, Bill, or anyone else who was blackmailing him behind the scenes. No matter who made the decision, it was the company that executed it. Therefore, the real enemy in his eyes was Mars, not the CEO of Mars.
This was like a war between countries. For one country, the enemy would always be another country, not one of the country's executives.
Therefore, Li Mu did not give Mars a chance to ask for peace through email. It was fine if they wanted to ask for peace, but they had to show him some sincerity first. Then, he would make a decision based on his mood.
When Mars received the reply email from Makino Technology, the chairman of the board of directors of Mars specifically asked a friend of Hua Xia who was very close to him what he meant by asking for an apology.
When the friend tried his best to tell him the story of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru in English, he remembered three key points.
First, asking for an apology.
Second, asking for an apology.
Third, asking for an apology.
Only then did he understand what Li Mu meant. Li Mu was very dissatisfied with his email apology, so he wanted him to be like Lian Po in the story, asking for an apology.
At that moment, his feelings were extremely complicated. Not only did he hate Neil, but he was also furious with Li Mu's arrogant attitude.
Sending an email to apologize was not enough, and now he wanted him to ask for an apology? Did he have to fly from the United States to Hua Xia to ask for an apology?
What a joke! No matter what, Mars was one of the top private companies in the United States. Its factories were everywhere in the world, and its dozens of product lines sold well all over the world. As the top manager of the entire company, he had to travel thousands of miles to Hua Xia to ask for an apology from a young man?
The chairman of the board of directors of Mars could not stand Li Mu's humiliation. He decided to take out a marketing budget of 50 million US dollars to fight a publicity war with Makino Technology. However, several major media outlets that they contacted were unwilling to cooperate with Mars in publicity.
Nowadays, Makino Technology's influence in the media was so strong that no one could match it through YY, YY, and Weibo, Titter. It was also much stronger than any TV media outlet. TV media outlets could see the true strength of Makino Technology more clearly than any other group. Under such circumstances, they were even less willing to offend Makino Technology for no reason.
What's more, the cause and effect of Makino Technology's attack on Mars might not be clear to the netizens, but the media could not be clearer. Everyone could see that this was Mars's own scam marketing. They deliberately fabricated facts in order to step on Makino Technology to gain attention. In the end, Mars was reaping what he sowed. It served him right.
If Mars was really treated unfairly by Makino Technology, there would definitely be some media outlets that were willing to create a big topic to fan the flames. However, Mars asked for it. Who would be willing to stand up for it under such circumstances?
Moreover, for TV stations, there was basically no need to worry about selling primetime advertisements. Why would they want to make a big enemy for themselves just to earn a little more money?
Mars sadly discovered that even if they wanted to use money to fight a publicity war, it would be useless. Television stations such as BBC and CNN were not willing to cooperate with Mars. In the past, Mars had placed advertisements for candy and various other products on these television stations. However, now that Mars wanted to place advertisements on these television stations to fight to the death with Li Mu, none of the television stations were willing to accept their orders.
Just when Mars was in a dilemma, the negative information about Mars continued to spread on the Internet. The direct result of the spread of negative information was a decline in sales.
However, Mars was researching countermeasures against Makino Technology and Li Mu. It was still unaware of the decline in its terminal sales.
Before becoming enemies with Li Mu, every product line of Mars was very famous in front of consumers, and their sales were amazing.
However, fame did not mean a good reputation. Now, such overwhelming negative news was constantly fermenting on the Internet, causing a great psychological shadow and hint to users. When a considerable number of consumers saw Mars' products, they would change from buying without hesitation to hesitation. Among them, some would evolve from hesitation to doubt, and some would evolve from doubt to choose to give up.
When these consumers chose to give up, Mars had not yet noticed it, but the terminal market was keenly aware of the abnormality.
The most direct reaction shown by the terminal market was that the sales of all Mars' products were quietly declining!
For a traditional company like Mars, the bigger their business, the less sensitive their nerves were. On the other hand, the smaller their business, the more sensitive their nerves were.
For example, Zhang San was the owner of a steamed bun shop. Normally, a pot of steamed buns would be completely sold out within ten minutes. But today, ten minutes had already passed, and there were still five steamed buns left in the pot that had not been sold. He could immediately realize that today's business was not very good.
If Zhang San was the owner of a steamed bun factory, his factory produced ten thousand steamed buns every day and supplied them to the city's wholesalers and retailers in the morning. Then, he would have to wait until the evening or late at night to get feedback from various channels whether the ten thousand steamed buns were sold out or not. If not, then how many were sold and how many were left. At this time, his nerve sensitivity had dropped from ten minutes to half a day.
If Zhang San was a quick-frozen mantou manufacturer that produced five million quick-frozen mantou every day to supply all the provinces, cities, and regions of the country, and the shelf life of the quick-frozen mantou was increasing, the channel chain was expanding, and the quantity of the terminal was increasing, then it would take him several days or even longer to notice the change in the market sales volume through the channel order volume. Even if the information was transmitted through the terminal level by level, as the manufacturer, Zhang San would still need at least one or two days to receive this information.
Mars was a company that sold products all over the world. It had a large number of production bases all over the world and sales channels that were as dense as a spider's web. Its daily production and shipments were shockingly large, and most of its products had a shelf life of more than 12 months. Such a behemoth would have a very low sensitivity towards terminals. Mars' terminals were their shelves in major supermarkets, shopping malls, and convenience stores. For information to be transmitted from these shelves to Mars' headquarters level by level, it would indeed take a very long time.
Mars' marketing department originally collected and analyzed terminal sales data once every three days. However, because they were currently working together to deal with the impact of Makino Technology, the focus of the marketing department had quietly changed.
On the other hand, a financial media on Wall Street intended to verify the actual impact of the negative Internet wave on Mars. Therefore, they sent several investigators from the Wall Street headquarters and branches in several other countries to the terminal market to investigate and collect evidence. They analyzed the most direct data changes of Mars in the terminal market over the past few days.
According to the feedback from the terminal, they were surprised to find that the terminal sales of Mars' various products around the world had been steadily declining. As of the latest day, it had dropped by nearly 20% compared to the average of the previous thirty days.
This was a very scary number. For example, a Walmart supermarket in New York could generate an average of ten thousand US dollars of sales for Mars every day in the thirty days before the scandal was exposed. After the scandal was exposed, the number dropped to eight thousand US dollars in just two days.
Subsequently, the media released a press release with the title, "Mars Quietly Lost 20% Sales in a Short Period!"
Based on the investigation of the terminal market in the United States, European countries, as well as Hua Xia, Japan, and Korea, the article estimated the decline trend of Mars' terminal sales over the past few days. Based on the average of the thirty days before the scandal, the decline in the three single days was: 10%, 13%, and 20%.
In addition to the conclusion that Mars' terminal market sales had dropped by 20%, the article also came to a conclusion based on the geographical division. Excluding the United States, the more developed the Internet was in the region, the greater the decline in Mars' sales. It could be seen that the decline in their sales had a very direct impact on the spread of negative Internet news.
For example, in European countries, the general decline was close to 30%. It could be seen that the more developed the Internet was, the more users would be affected by these negative news.
The reason why the United States was an exception was mainly due to the protective bias of American users. All of Mars' products could be said to be national products of the United States. If there were also scandals, the American people would be more tolerant of local brands. This was a clear conclusion when compared with the data in the European market.
Fortunately, there was the support of the huge United States market, which allowed the decline in Mars' terminal sales to be maintained at the warning line of 20%. If the negative news continued to ferment on the Internet, they might not even be able to maintain the warning line of 20%.
Many established big companies had been defeated because of the decline in their reputation in front of consumers. Entrepreneurs were usually full of confidence and felt that it was impossible for users to give up their products and services. However, once their reputation collapsed, they would immediately be abandoned by users.
When Mars learned of this result, the entire company fell into a strong panic. They never thought that the impact of the Internet on physical enterprises could reach such a point.
…
While Mars was digesting the bad news, Li Mu took Du Wei into the recording studio to record "21 Guns."
Du Wei had already familiarized herself with the song in advance. She also understood the lyrics of the song, the mood, and the emotions that needed to be expressed. Li Mu also spent a few days to determine the arrangement of the whole song with the musicians in the recording studio. Therefore, the actual recording efficiency had improved a lot.
Li Mu listened to Du Wei's singing through the monitoring speakers in the soundproof recording studio. What made him sigh was that Du Wei's voice was very good. Her performance in the recording studio was just like an original CD. The breath, timbre, intonation, and emotion were all very well controlled.
Based on her performance, it wouldn't take more than a day to finish recording the song.
Li Mu suddenly felt that Du Wei's song should have no problem hitting the authoritative singles charts in Europe and the United States.
However, it was a little regrettable that even if the song was recorded today, it could not be released to the public immediately. At least, it had to wait until the movie began to promote before it could be released.
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