The factory director's office at Huixian Comprehensive Snack Factory.
After waiting for nearly a week, Ding Yun finally saw the employees who had failed in their sales efforts return. As soon as they were all gathered, she called them for a meeting.
"Tell me about your respective situations. I need to synthesize them to consider our next steps."
Ding Yun hadn't received much information, so she needed to hear their individual experiences and the feedback from customers in the areas where sales were poor and reviews were unfavorable.
Then, she would analyze and consider everything.
"Boss, the situation in the area I'm responsible for is this: they have many local vendors selling nuts and preserved fruits, and their prices are much lower than ours. Even if the taste might not be as good as ours, people are accustomed to what's sold locally.
Although other snacks can be sold, the quantity is very small. Most people find them too expensive. Only the large stores in the provincial capital are slightly better. In smaller places, they simply don't sell at all, and people generally think the prices are too high.
After investigation, I found that the average wages in that area are significantly lower than here. Even in the provincial capital, the average wage is only around sixty to seventy yuan. I think this might be a significant factor. If we could lower our prices, we might be able to recover some market share."
"But the transportation costs to get the goods there are too high.
It's difficult to lower the prices!"
Soon, Rong Long, who was in charge of Yunhe Province, was the first to explain his situation and analysis.
Following him, Zhu Guifang also immediately analyzed:
"Boss, the situation in the area I'm responsible for is quite different from Lao Rong's. In my area, people mainly say the products don't taste good and don't suit their palate.
Honestly, I was very surprised at first.
Because our products are rarely criticized for not tasting good, only for being expensive, I even suspected they were trying to get us to lower prices and were saying this to force down our wholesale prices.
But after I discreetly investigated.
I found out that what those merchants said was true.
Most of the snacks produced by our factory seem to not quite suit the taste of the people there. Most people there don't like very sweet things. They find our preserved fruits too sweet, and only dried apricots are somewhat to their liking. They find other preserved fruits cloyingly sweet.
They aren't particularly fond of pastries either. Only some elderly people with poor teeth are willing to buy them, and some children want them. Ordinary adults rarely purchase them.
The same goes for dried meat. They don't like it much and say it's too sweet. Only the ones with a main spicy flavor sell well."
"Therefore, my preliminary analysis is that the main reason for poor sales in that area is the taste of the snacks. The snacks produced locally might be more suited to our own province and the surrounding few provinces that are influenced by or have some ties to our province. However, in farther places, there might be significant differences in taste.
Our preference here is for sweet, or salty-sweet, and even sweet-spicy. Even for spicy flavors, there should be a slight sweetness with mild spiciness.
But the other region tends towards salty-spicy.
Or savory-fresh, which should also be acceptable!"
After she finished, it was Zhang Hongli's turn:
"Boss, the situation in my area has some differences from theirs. My situation is more of a combination of both their situations.
That is, firstly, their income is not very high, and their purchasing power is low. Secondly, the taste might not be very suitable for them. Also, the area I'm responsible for has a lot of fruit. While it's not to say they have fruits from all over the country, twenty to thirty types of fruits are enough for their daily consumption, so they have little interest in preserved fruits.
Instead, they quite like nuts, but they find the flavors of nuts to be a bit strong and prefer milder ones. Besides that, the people there seem to be prone to getting 'internal heat' (上火), so anything particularly salty or spicy simply doesn't sell. Sweet things also don't sell well; the flavor needs to be light. They advocate for original flavors.
Another peculiar point is that some snacks with a slightly bitter taste actually sell quite well there."
"Boss, the situation in my area is still somewhat different from theirs. It's not about their low income, nor is it that they dislike the taste of our snacks. The main issue is that they dislike the variety of our snacks and find them too plain.
They also say our dried meat and meat floss are too stingy.
They want to eat large chunks of meat for a satisfying experience.
I think there's not much room for improvement in this regard, but it would be suitable for us to build a specialized snack sub-factory there for dried meat and meat floss.
Because meat is much cheaper there than here."
...
As the dozen or so sales personnel present spoke and summarized, Ding Yun finally gained a general understanding of the situation in each region. The main reasons for poor sales were either that people found them too expensive, disliked the taste, or disliked the variety. Taste seemed to be the core factor.
Because if the taste were truly excellent.
And particularly popular.
People would be willing to pay for it even if it were a bit more expensive. This is like nearby food shops; to truly establish themselves, they either need to be cheap or have great taste. Shops that are neither cheap nor taste good.
None could survive.
Compared to cheapness, good taste lasts longer, especially as people's incomes gradually increase, the advantage of the latter grows.
Food is paramount. After reaching a stage of basic sustenance.
People always pursue taste and service.
They are mainly wholesale, so service is irrelevant.
Therefore, the core issue remains taste.
However, taste itself presents another problem: different people have different tastes, and the general tastes of people in different regions also vary. Some people prefer sweet, some prefer salty, some prefer spicy, and some prefer light and balanced flavors, or flavors that are light yet bring out the natural freshness.
Regions influence individual taste, environment influences individual taste, an individual's physical constitution influences individual taste, and family influences individual taste.
There is no single food or snack.
That can please everyone.
Even staples like rice and flour have people who only like rice and dislike flour, or people who only like flour and dislike rice. This is related not only to region but also to culture and genetic inheritance.
Culture makes them accustomed to eating a certain staple food.
And habits passed down for thousands of years make their genes remember which staple food they prefer.
The content and tasks involved in this aspect are quite complex, so Ding Yun hadn't considered it before, but now it's become a necessity. Because if this problem cannot be solved.
Then they are destined to be confined to their region.
And find it difficult to expand nationwide.
Let alone go global.
"I understand the problem. You can take a break for now, or you can continue to deeply cultivate the smaller, more remote counties under the nearby provincial capitals.
As for other issues.
Please wait a while longer until I find a solution. Alright, let's adjourn for now. Also, General Manager Du, and you several workshop directors, I expect you to take full charge, or rather, manage the factory, and absolutely do not make any major mistakes.
Because I might be away from the factory and away from this area for a long time, as I need to travel and investigate different regions. I'll have to trouble you with this.
Meeting adjourned now..."
Having clarified the reasons, Ding Yun saw no need to waste more time in the meeting. She quickly laid out the next arrangements and adjourned.
After the meeting, Ding Yun rushed back.
To start preparing for a long journey.
Since the core problem was taste, her first priority was to solve the taste issue. She wouldn't aim for snacks to perfectly suit everyone's taste, but they definitely needed to suit the majority in each region.
And to suit the dominant tastes of different regions.
Traveling to those regions to investigate and taste local delicacies.
Was absolutely necessary.
After some preparations and instructions, Ding Yun set off punctually the next morning. She didn't immediately go to the areas where the tastes didn't align with her snacks. Instead, she planned to visit the nearby provinces first. Since she was going to adjust the taste of the snacks anyway, she might as well cover all the provinces and cities. Although people in the nearby provinces didn't have major complaints about their factory's snacks, there would definitely be taste differences between provinces.
By visiting and making minor adjustments, she could also enhance the competitiveness of their snacks.
At the same time, the cooking and ingredient selection teachers in the All-Purpose Chef Cultivation Space, due to this matter, specifically assigned Ding Yun a long-term assessment task. This task was for her to select the best ingredients from all over the country that were most suitable for making a certain type of snack or a snack with a particular flavor.
Of course, ingredient selection was the task of the ingredient selection teacher.
The cooking teacher's task was to require Ding Yun to develop snacks that suited the general tastes of people in different regions, with a timeframe of no more than three years.
Upon completion of the task, they would acknowledge Ding Yun.
And allow her to become a Grandmaster of Culinary Arts.
One step away from becoming an All-Purpose Chef.
Thus, Ding Yun naturally embarked on this nationwide inspection with these two long-term tasks.
Everywhere she went, Ding Yun would first sample local snacks recommended by residents, and even restaurants. After she had a general understanding of the local taste preferences through these small eateries and restaurants, she would adjust the flavors of the snacks produced by her own factory.
And without the help of a mass food cooking machine, she would personally make batches of new flavored snacks, distribute them to local residents for tasting, and solicit their opinions.
If there were unified opinions.
She would make further adjustments.
In this way, stopping and going, and promptly sending the new recipes back to the snack factory for each new formula she developed, and adjusting the supply for the respective regions, the snack factory's sales scope and distribution channels continued to expand along with Ding Yun's progress. In addition, various snack sub-factories were also being established in a timely manner.
For example, if the best place for a certain fruit was in a particular region, then to make the taste of the dried fruit better, Ding Yun would naturally have to set up a production line specifically for that dried fruit in that area.
This would not only improve the taste of their dried fruit but also reduce costs to some extent.
Even if the price of fruit at the origin wasn't cheap.
Where else could she find cheaper?
So, although Ding Yun was not at the factory, the factory's sub-factories were continuously expanding. The taste and cost of the factory's snacks were also slowly improving and decreasing, with taste improving and costs decreasing.
Three years later, Ding Yun, with great difficulty, managed to complete the two long-term tasks just in time by leveraging the time difference in the space. Not only did she successfully become a Grandmaster of Culinary Arts recognized by the space, but her snack factory could no longer be called a snack factory, but rather a nationwide large-scale retail food group.
Major sub-factories were located almost all over the country.
As for the cost!
It was that Ding Yun's ID card showed her age as only twenty years old, but adding the time spent in the space, her actual age had exceeded thirty. Even though she paid attention to maintaining her appearance and regulating her body, she looked slightly older than a normal twenty-year-old girl.
If she were to have children in a few more years, doctors might suspect. Why did a twenty-something-year-old's examination results resemble those of an advanced maternal age pregnancy?
However, Ding Yun didn't have time to worry about these things. After completing her tasks and goals, she quickly returned to the main factory, where the workload was no longer as heavy, and officially began merging these factories into a group. Based on the merits and demerits of the management personnel in the various factories over the past few years, she conducted large-scale personnel adjustments, promotions.
And even dismissals.
In addition, salaries were raised, and benefits were improved.
And this was only a part of what Ding Yun planned to do. After making these changes, she also brought a long-planned semi-finished product plan, which had been delayed due to previous unfavorable conditions, onto the agenda.
What did this mean?
What Ding Yun initially sold in large quantities were not snacks, but semi-finished products like shredded potato cakes, shredded radish cakes, and lotus root cakes. Later, she also sold dumplings and glutinous rice balls. These were the primary businesses of her small shop.
The reason she didn't sell those when she opened the factory was primarily because, at that time, there was neither decent cold chain logistics, nor did all shopping malls or families have refrigerators. Refrigerators were still considered a rarity.
These realities.
Were very unfavorable for the sale of semi-finished products.
Opening a small shop locally to sell to neighbors was one thing, but attempting to sell nationwide, no, not even throughout the province, was very difficult and costly, a thankless task.
Now, not only has transportation improved somewhat, but Ding Yun also has sub-factories and distribution channels in various locations. Under these circumstances, building new factories and selling their products would undoubtedly be much easier.
Frozen semi-finished products might not be very popular now.
But their future output value is very high.
Moreover, it's not difficult to develop towards ice cream in the future, or even towards frozen fresh produce.
Overall, the development prospects are very broad.
Even if it might not be very profitable now, and the initial investment is very large, Ding Yun is still willing to seize the market first, at least to build brand recognition.