Chapter 33: New marketing methods
Reiner knocked on the door. He saw Sharon finished a painting, stretching her body trying to relax.
Due to the sultry weather, Sharon took off her apprentice robe. She was wearing a shirt and long skirt made of soft fabric. When she stretched her body, the thin clothes revealed her developing and youthful curves. The silver hair seemed to emit particles of light in the sun, making Reiner not know where he should look at.
"Mr. Reiner?"
Sharon quickly noticed Reiner's visit. She smiled and handed Reiner some pictures on the table.
"I drew those according to your idea. I don't know if it is appropriate."
Reiner cleared his throat and took over Sharon's painting.
It was the image of an old mage, with a beard, a monocle, and a robe of stars and moon on his body. This character was not a realistic sketch style, but more like a comic, with an exaggerated style that highlights the characteristics. It was the style Reiner was familiar with.
He looked at the other pictures. They were basically different images of mages. There were petite and lovely women, and men with determined faces. Each had its own characteristics, and people could recognize them at a glance.
"Awesome, Sharon, you are such a genius."
Reiner said with a smile, and after counting, there were now almost thirty different paintings. Although there were still a few in number, it was enough for now.
"I just prefer to observe."
She replied a little shyly and then asked questions.
"But Mr. Reiner, can these paintings really help Cola?"
These figures were all fallen Archmages. They only appeared in the history of magic textbooks and legends from time to time. According to Reiner's instructions, Sharon transformed their portrait paintings into this exaggerated style and colorized them. It only takes two or three hours to produce a painting, which was extremely efficient.
"Of course, Sharon, let me ask you."
Reiner thought for a while and gave a simple example.
"If there is a series of books, and the third book is missing among ten, would you want to find the third book to complete the collection?"
"Mhm, I probably would."
Sharon nodded but still couldn't understand Reiner's thoughts.
"Then if it is changed to the portraits of these archmages, and if a few of them are missing, will it make people want to collect them all?"
Reiner slowly explained the collection addiction to Sharon.
"For most people, the restriction of having a collecting hobby is actually the cost of the hobby. If the cost is low, then many people will try to collect something, and when the way to gather these portraits was as simple and as cheap as spending three copper coins to buy a bottle of cola, then everything will become easy."
That was right, what Reiner planned to implement next was the promotion method of buying Cola and giving cards.
People only needed to spend three copper coins to buy a bottle of Cola, they could rely on the number hidden on the back of the label to ask the store for a card with an ancient mage painted on it. On the front of the card was a drawing of the mage, below the portrait was a brief description of the mage's life, and on the back was the signature magic used for verification.
This seemingly loss-making behavior was a marketing plan that made extreme use of human weakness.
Reiner still remembered that he had this kind of card in the instant noodles he ate when he was a child. In order to collect them, he often bargained with the owner of the snack shop. When he encountered rare cards, he even fought with his classmates.
After reaching adulthood, a certain game platform introduced a similar mechanism for playing cards to obtain cards, which was also very popular.
As a result, the activities of gathering text sharing bonuses launched by some software at festive times had also become a topic that everyone enjoyed talking about.
As Reiner said, when the cost of a collection hobby seemed to be very low, people would subconsciously start to collect. But in fact, it was possible that the price they had paid for this had far exceeded their initial expectations. Making people get used to buying their products was the most effective way to generate profit.
Sharon's paintings would be copied in batches. At the same time, Reiner would also control the number ratio of each card, making some cards "rare" cards, while others become ordinary cards on the street.
On the one hand, it was to increase the difficulty of collection, on the other hand, it was also to generate discussions.
It must be said that collecting this kind of behavior did not rely solely on personal interests. Many people would also start to collect them simply when the people around them were collecting them. To put it simply, it was a herd mentality.
When people around you spent money to collect something, you, as a member of them, would inevitably accept this fact gradually in order to blend in, and you would start to spend money. This was the impact of the environment.
In Reiner's memory, this behavior was simply called following the trend.
Of course, these cards were not for pure entertainment. The above text descriptions could also be used to educate people about these mages.
For this consideration, Reiner chose the fallen mages to avoid disputes. Although there were no laws such as portrait rights in this world, Reiner dared not to take risks and offend some powerful mages that were still alive.
"But why are these numbers not consecutive?"
Sharon picked up a picture. This was the original card painting of the master of transformation, Fandral Aman. This high-level mage who was proficient in the transformation of four animals stood on a cliff surrounded by the four types of beast transformations he had mastered. In the upper right corner of the card, a sign numbered twenty-three was painted.
But in Sharon's memory, there were no cards of the twenty-two and twenty-four.
"There are two reasons. The first is that we must put it on the market as soon as possible. Obviously, I can't ask you to work day and night to finish drawing all the cards, so I can only publish a part of it first, and wait until later. Issue the second batch of cards."
Reiner looked at Sharon. The girl's hands had some calluses. Although Reiner did not force her to paint, Sharon did spend all her free time on painting these days. In her words, it was to draw out all the thoughts that had accumulated for ten years.
"The second reason is also to create an illusion that people think that these non-existent cards are actually quite rare cards, causing them to buy more to collect the cards."
Hearing Reiner's words, Sharon was stunned. She didn't expect that the selling of a product could also be operated this way.
Reiner's marketing plan that exploited the public's psychology had never been seen before in the world. It was no wonder that Piram could not catch up with Reiner even with strong capital.
Although she had thought about it more than once, Sharon still sighed that the principal who came from the Ian Gray family was indeed an unprecedented business prodigy