Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 724: Internet+Cold Noodle

Meng Chang continued, “Secondly, with the rapid development of the mobile internet, platforms such as Weibo, review websites, and chat software became brand new marketing platforms for catering companies. The rapid development of take-out and group-buying softwares helped catering enterprises soar.”

“One of the greatest advantages of the internet age is that a successful business model can be spread and replicated as quickly as possible so that everyone knows about it and spreads it across the country!”

“In the past, many excellent food and beverage brands could only slowly expand in one city at a time. Be it in terms of funds or popularity, they were not enough to support the rapid replication of successful business models.”

“However, all of these became possible in the Internet age!”

“Combining these two points, it would not be difficult for us to discover that once a popular restaurant brand becomes a standardized, mass-produced, and high-quality internet celebrity brand, it would be able to spread across the country at an extremely fast speed and obtain huge profits and generous returns!”

“The best part is that ‘Food is most important for the people’. People have to eat for as long as they are alive. Therefore, once a food and beverage brand is widely recognized by consumers, its long-term value will only increase!”

At this point, Meng Chang observed He Desheng’s expression.

He Desheng listened very seriously and nodded repeatedly.

Obviously, this theory was quite correct. In an ideal situation, there would indeed be huge business opportunities in the F&B industry and the Internet. For example in the take-out and review industries where a lot of capital was being invested.

However, the question here was, could cold noodles become a brand and gain the trust of consumers?

Meng Chang had obviously expected this. He immediately flipped to the next PowerPoint.

“After looking at the huge prospects and market potential of the Cold-Faced Lady, I will explain it with two different points.

“They are: the problems and opportunities that exist in the industry of cold noodles, as well as the details of the ‘Cold-Faced Lady’ brand.

“Roasting cold noodles sounds like a dish that is extremely common. It is also a food that has no barriers. Dishes from small roadside stalls that cost three to five yuan each would never appear in high-end restaurants.”

“However, food like cold noodles has a unique charm. From billionaires to commoners, everyone loves it.”

On the PowerPoint, there was a picture of a certain tycoon queuing up to buy cold noodles. At the same time, some sports stars or entertainment stars posted screenshots of how delicious the cold noodles were.

He could easily find a lot of these content online.

“According to the statistics of the shopping website, more than 10 million sets of raw ingredients for grilled cold noodles sold throughout the year on the shopping website alone. Amongst the popular foodstuffs such as conch noodles, spicy noodles, and hotpot, the sales volume held steadily in the top three.”

“What’s more, many vendors’ raw materials do not come from shopping websites.”

“This is enough to show that while the cold noodles may seem unglamorous, there is a huge demand for them in the country. There is no need for statistics. You can feel it just by observing.”

“In the night market and other crowded areas, there would always be stalls selling cold noodles, and there would always be people queuing up. Small vendors selling cold noodles could be said to be making huge profits silently, and there would be tens of thousands of people earning lots of money every month.”

“Of course, this data might not be completely true. After all, we have to get rid of hidden costs. However, no matter what, there is a huge profit margin.”

“However, there are many problems and hidden dangers in the industry of cold noodles. Simply put, it is not formal enough and there are many hygiene issues. It is not exquisite enough and has a bad brand image. It is not complicated enough and there are few products.”

“Many of the raw ingredients for the cold noodles are produced by small workshops. The production conditions were bad to begin with, and there were health hazards. The vendors at roadside stalls did not pay attention to hygiene and used inferior oil. They would also be contaminated in the process of washing and storing the ingredients.”

“Therefore, just like many roadside stalls, the cold noodles are actually very unhygienic. It’s possible that the dust from the side of the road might be the least harmful material apart from the edible parts.”

“What’s more, different vendors have different skills in making cold noodles. Whether it’s the taste or the shape, it’s difficult for them to be elegant. They can’t standardize production and ensure the lower limits of the taste, but they can’t innovate and develop new flavors and styles.”

“Without the internet, the business of cold noodles would forever stop at roadside stalls. How could it develop?”

“The goal of ‘Cold-Faced Lady’ is to integrate the existing market for roasted cold noodles and create a national food and beverage brand that is extremely famous!”

“In short, we’re going to use new ideas and methods to create new fast food that belongs to our countrymen. We’re going to use good raw materials and new crafts to recreate the traditional taste.”

“As for the brand ‘Cold-Faced Lady’, how should we redefine the industry of cold noodles?”

“Please allow me to explain everything to you.

Meng Chang stopped and took a sip of water.

At the same time, he quietly observed He Desheng’s expression. He Desheng was deep in thought.

Meng Chang knew very well that the above content was a little nonsensical.

After all, it was actually very difficult to reverse the concept of “cold toasted noodles are rubbish food from roadside stalls” because it was deeply ingrained in the minds of ordinary people.

However, Meng Chang’s goal was not to reverse this concept.

Sometimes, the internet age’s marketing was unreasonable. Chinese savior crepe, Liangpi[1.’Liangpi’ literally means cold skin, a noodle-like Chinese dish made from wheat or rice flour], and Roujiamo[2.’Roujiamo literally means meat sandwiched in bread] could all be made into popular brands online. Why can’t cold noodles become the same?

What’s more, if food like ramen and sushi could produce a God of ramen and sushi, why couldn’t there be a God of cold toasted noodles?

Most of the time, facts were not important, and stereotypes were even less important. The most important was how to make others believe it.

Meng Chang had spent two to three months preparing the entire plan and the powerpoint, but he had not used it before.

That was because he had not found a suitable investor.

Sometimes, whether or not a crepe could be done well did not depend entirely on the person who made it. It also depended on the setting of the crepe and the audience waiting to eat it.

An ordinary investor would definitely treat Meng Chang as a scammer and chase him out.

While he was indeed a scammer and had never denied this in his heart, he could not accept being thrown out because it would affect his reputation.

In Meng Chang’s opinion, his plan could only be used once. He had to hit the nail on the head.

If he found some messy investors and none of them invested in the project, he and the project would be done for. He would be exposed before he could even start anything. Wouldn’t he be finished?

In fact, the ones who were the easiest to bluff were the rich, such as big company executives, celebrities, tycoons, and so on. That was because these people would easily believe in lofty concepts and terms.

However, the prerequisite for all of this was that Meng Chang had to have a sufficiently dazzling halo so that these big shots could ignore the unreasonable aspects of this project.

Where did this halo come from?

It was obviously not enough for him to graduate from a famous school and have experience in marketing at an Internet factory.

“Boss Pei’s investment” was a good halo. It was not omnipotent but it could at least scare many people.

Once he had this halo, many unreasonable things would naturally be ignored. He would be able to hoodwink investors and attract huge amounts of funds.

Once he got the money, Meng Chang could start marketing. He could use all sorts of advertisements and concepts to guide the audience and turn them into cows for milking.

After that, he would open a high-end shop, generate profits through traffic, increase valuations, and attract more capital investment. Once he harvested enough, he would leave, leaving nothing behind.

All in all, this plan was perfect, provided that he passed the first stage.

If he could not even get Tengda’s investment, there would be no need to talk about the rest of the plan.

Therefore, Meng Chang took a sip of tea to moisten his throat before preparing to start his most exciting performance.

He had said so much in the beginning, but it was all just to pave the way for the ‘Cold-Faced Lady’ brand to forcefully come up with fifty to sixty percent reasons.

However, people would always believe what they were willing to believe. The reason why so many IQ taxes could be established was also because of the fifty to sixty percent reasonableness. The key was whether the latter part could cover up all the seemingly unreasonable parts.

Various details of the ‘Cold-Faced Lady’ brand appeared on the powerpoint.

“To put it in simpler terms, the concept of ‘Cold-Faced Lady’ is to create a grilled cold noodle brand with a sense of quality and Petite bourgeoisie taste.”

“The name itself gives people a hint of anthropomorphism. Her virtual image seems cold yet gentle at the same time. This brand’s logo is traditional and youthful, just like how our products are mainstream yet exquisite.”

“I’ve set three milestone targets for this brand.”

“The first milestone is to open a ‘Cold-Faced Lady’ flagship store in the bustling commercial district of the capital.”

“In this store, we will show all customers the difference between this brand and other roadside stalls in terms of recipes, raw materials, cutlery, and dining environment.”

“First, we have to spend a huge sum of money to research the formula and taste of ‘Cold-Faced Lady’. We have to standardize the selection of the ingredients and various seasonings for the cold noodles, the amount of ingredients used, the actual heat and time in the production. We have to ensure that every serving of cold noodles tastes the same.”

“At the same time, we have to develop multiple flavors of grilled cold noodles. We can’t just distinguish between sweet, spicy, sour, and sweet flavors. We have to create more content and variations for the cold noodles.”

“Of course, for the sake of the richness and diversity of the restaurant’s dishes, we will also make various traditional cold noodles, side dishes, or fruit juice drinks.”