"Huh?"
This time, it was Liang Xiaohai's turn to be dumbfounded.
He had originally thought that a budget of one million for advertising in half a year was already outrageous, and that Yu Zhou would definitely not agree.
But now, it seemed that not only did he not disagree, but he also felt it was a bit insufficient.
Was this really his boss?
It had to be said that Yu Zhou's current expression would likely leave anyone who saw it completely bewildered.
After all, although advertising had already emerged in this era, television advertising was definitely still a new product.
It wasn't that it didn't exist before, but in the past, such television advertisements were rarely open to private enterprises, and the prices were enough to make people despair.
How many business owners were truly willing to hand over their hard-earned money to others?
Even Liang Xiaohai, who wholeheartedly cared for the factory, would have felt a pang when seeing such a large sum.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought this matter to Yu Zhou immediately, nor would he have looked so pained at this moment.
He now felt that Yu Zhou's way of thinking was different from others. With Yu Zhou speaking so clearly, and with "San Pi Ma" company now following Yu Zhou's lead in everything, even if he felt a bit speechless in his heart, he still had to obey the commands.
Therefore, after thinking for a moment, Liang Xiaohai began to tentatively say, "How about 1.5 million?"
He was very clear about the company's current financial situation. If the financing money was not included, the company's liquid capital was only around three million.
This money not only had to be used to pay wages but, more importantly, for raw material procurement and some public relations expenses, and so on.
They were almost short of money on all fronts, yet Yu Zhou still wanted to spend more money on advertising. If it weren't for Yu Zhou's past decisions, which had almost never been wrong,
At this moment, Liang Xiaohai even wanted to argue that spending money like this was too careless.
It wasn't that he was being stingy for himself, but for Yu Zhou. After all, what Yu Zhou had done in the past never seemed to involve a lot of money.
Why did it change so drastically now when it came to advertising?
He felt a sense of reluctance within him. After all, spending so much money at once would surely make anyone have some reservations.
What's more, Liang Xiaohai was a senior executive of this company.
"You know, tell me, was it useful for us to advertise in the first half of the year?"
"If it weren't for the advertising, could Ad Cai Nai have developed so well now?"
Yu Zhou was a little speechless. Of course, this was a limitation of the era. Even Liang Xiaohai couldn't fully value television advertising at this time.
In their eyes, indeed, the popularity of Ad Cai Nai had some connection with television advertising, but if you were to really say it, it was only a small part of the connection.
It was mainly due to their transportation, product quality, and meeting customer demand that they had reached this stage.
However, only Yu Zhou knew that the reason Ad Cai Nai was not limited to Zhongnan Province was primarily because of advertising.
Advertising, proclaiming widely, often in this era, could truly change the fate of an enterprise.
In such a situation, even if Yu Zhou did nothing else, as long as there was advertising and the product quality was acceptable, it wouldn't be difficult to become a national brand and truly a nationally renowned entrepreneur.
This is why it's called the best of times, because in this era, many businesses were so easy to do that it was hard for you to imagine.
"Then how much do you think we should invest in the second half of the year?"
Alright, at this point, even Liang Xiaohai didn't know what Yu Zhou was thinking, especially saying such things to him at such a critical juncture. It would be strange if he didn't have a specific plan.
However, even if Liang Xiaohai used his imagination, he still couldn't quite figure out how much money Yu Zhou intended to spend on advertising at this moment.
After all, apart from CCTV, other television stations were still relatively cheap for television advertising at this time.
A prime-time advertisement cost only a few hundred thousand, of course, this was limited to local television stations. Inter-provincial television stations generally couldn't be so cheap.
"I was going to ask you earlier, what do you think is appropriate?"
"It seems your ambition isn't very great. More importantly, you still haven't understood the importance of advertising to us now, so I'll decide this matter!"
"If I remember correctly, our advertising investment in the first half of the year was over three million, right?"
Yu Zhou said after thinking for a moment.
Liang Xiaohai nodded. This was something all the company's senior executives knew.
It was precisely because they had already spent over three million on advertising in the first half of the year that he felt it was too much for the second half.
After all, it was normal or even necessary for them to build brand awareness in the first half of the year. But in the second half, when Ad Cai Nai's popularity had basically been established, spending a great deal of effort on advertising seemed to be a loss-making proposition.
"That's right, our advertising costs in the first half of the year were close to 3.4 million."
"This is a fortune beyond measure. It could almost allow us to expand a large branch factory."
At this moment, Liang Xiaohai's eyelids twitched, because he had a premonition that his boss wouldn't want to spend that much on advertising in the second half of the year.
Just thinking about it made Liang Xiaohai shiver. If that were the case, the company's finances would be unsustainable.
Even if the second half of the year was the time for payment collection, it still took time, right?
Especially for those in the real economy, payment collection was not easy. If there was debt, or even debt that they couldn't fully bear, it would be difficult for them to continue.
Why, even so, did Yu Zhou still want to increase investment in advertising?
"What I mean is, let's just make it a round number in the second half of the year. For the whole year, let's aim for an advertising investment of ten million. We'll take this opportunity to expand our business significantly."
Just as Liang Xiaohai was preparing his words to persuade Yu Zhou, he heard Yu Zhou say.
All of a sudden, Liang Xiaohai's throat felt dry, and he didn't know how to continue speaking.