Inside the break room of Jin Anlan Studio in Hecheng.
"Sister Liu, Sister Liu! Oh, so you're here!"
"There's a small skincare company that wants us to do some promotion for them. Their price isn't very high, but they're quite confident. They said they'll send us a set of products for trial, and we just need to write an honest review, whether it's good or bad, as long as it's truthful.
We've done several promotions recently where some fans' comments on our product recommendations have been polarized. Some fans are already questioning if we're blindly accepting deals.
How about we use this small brand as a test case?
Since they asked us to write an honest review of the product trial, if the product has flaws or doesn't work well, we won't be breaking any contract by saying negative things!"
Engaging in live streaming, recommendations, and endorsements is inherently difficult to maintain fairness, impartiality, and transparency at all times. It's normal for one's perspective to be slightly skewed when accepting payment.
However, for those who want to achieve long-term success, everyone knows the importance of maintaining a balance. You can lean a bit too far a few times, but you can't always sit askew. Therefore, the staff member responsible for business negotiations, upon receiving Ding Yun's order, saw this as a good opportunity to maintain their account's neutral and upright persona.
Even if the price was a bit low, they were quite willing to accept it.
That's why they immediately came to ask Sister Liu for her opinion.
Sister Liu, as the on-screen personality, thought about it and also felt that there had been a bit too much "blindly speaking truth to get paid" lately.
Therefore, she readily agreed:
"Sure, I'll check if it causes any allergies first.
If it doesn't cause allergies, I'll personally try it. By the way, check the qualifications of that small skincare company first. Do they have any certificates of authorization? If it's a product with no manufacturer or origin, don't take it. I don't want to ruin my face!"
"No problem, you can trust me to handle it.
I already checked before I came. That company's qualifications are quite comprehensive, and there's nothing bad in the ingredient list. It's just that the main ingredient is their own R&D element, something unique to them. We don't know what it actually is.
How about we let a man try it first?
And then you can use it if there are no problems."
It wasn't the first time they had accepted a promotion, and the staff member was quite familiar with the process. However, the self-researched ingredient in Ding Yun's skincare product list made her a little worried. She suggested letting a male employee with tougher skin try it first, and then Sister Liu could use it once it was confirmed to be okay.
"A small company has its own research and development ingredient?
I wonder if it's just a gimmick or something. No need to let anyone else try it. I'll do it. At worst, I'll just try it on my hand first. If it has an effect, it should be noticeable."
With that decided, the batch of skincare products that Ding Yun had mailed was delivered to Sister Liu by the studio staff the next day. She first performed an allergy test to confirm she wasn't allergic and then officially began the trial.
Having used countless high-end brands, Sister Liu could easily discern the high quality of this mask after applying it. Subsequent tests on various facial metrics also clearly indicated that the effects of this small skincare brand's mask were even better than some top-tier luxury brands.
This undoubtedly surprised her greatly.
She was so surprised that she worried if the product's excellent effect was due to added hormones. She even had it specially tested. Only after confirming that the mask and cream contained no hormone ingredients did she continue using them with peace of mind.
After seven days of use, she compiled a video of her changes over those seven days and posted it, strongly recommending it.
In addition, the other several promotions that Ding Yun sought had similarly exaggerated endorsements. Except for one that was a blind push, all the others who tried the products gave extremely exaggerated recommendations.
They all stated that even those so-called "luxury" skincare products couldn't compare to this small brand called "Jiaoren Lei" (Mermaid's Tear). When considering the price and effectiveness together, it was simply the king of cost-effectiveness in the skincare world.
If the products they recommended sold for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands, even with a large following, the final conversion rate might not be high, possibly only single digits or tens of fans making a purchase.
However, the two items Ding Yun sold were not expensive. They weren't even as expensive as a pound of crab.
Therefore, the final conversion rate was quite good. Although they didn't sell out in a few minutes, more than half of the stock was indeed sold. The masks sold faster, with less than ten thousand units remaining in a short period. The face cream, possibly due to its larger quantity, still had forty to fifty thousand units left.
But Ding Yun wasn't in a hurry, as she had confidence in the quality of her products. After this batch of users had a chance to try them for a while, they would undoubtedly become organic advocates. Even if they didn't help her promote them, they would become loyal customers, so why worry about sales?
Therefore, Ding Yun's next step was to wait for feedback and withdraw the sales revenue.
Six or seven working days later, except for the face cream which still had less than ten thousand units unsold, the masks were completely sold out and pre-orders had begun. The total sales revenue of the store officially exceeded five million. However, because many people had not yet confirmed receipt, the actual cash that could be withdrawn was only about two million. But that was enough. It was enough for Ding Yun to exchange some of this money for transaction currency and buy another box of Jiaoren Pearls for production.
It was only at this point that Ding Yun officially began hiring employees for packaging and building the company framework.
The staff was also fully assembled. Previously, because she had no money to hire more people, she and a second-hand domestic robot had packed and shipped the earliest orders herself. Now that she finally had some cash, she naturally had to reduce her workload as much as possible. Her next tasks would be to contact the OEM factory and prepare sufficient Jiaoren Tears as additives.
In summary, Ding Yun's skincare company had officially gotten on track. It had transformed from a private small workshop into a small company model, and she had become the boss.
...
Meanwhile, the lawyer's office, which had not received any reply, had already formally initiated a lawsuit. After the initial filing, evidence submission, and a series of other procedures, the summons finally reached the Zhou family, and a corresponding notification was sent to Zhou Shou via text message.
Coincidentally, when the text message was sent, Zhou Shou's girlfriend, Lin Yu, was using his phone to talk to his mother, Hu Lin, about arranging a meeting between the two families to finalize the wedding plans.
As they were talking, the text message suddenly popped up. It was hard for Lin Yu not to see it.
However, before she could even ask about it, Zhou Shou, who was prepared, immediately put on an expression of disgust and said it was another scam text message. He managed to put off the matter of the text message for the time being.