Traditional paper media like newspapers still wielded enormous influence in the 1990s. What might have been a trivial matter could be broadcast to the whole world through a single newspaper.
So when Qu Si produced that newspaper, the people who had just been fiercely demanding that Jingnan Group "break the contract" finally realized this would not be easy to handle.
But they did not give up. They merely lowered their stance a little, replacing their aggressive language with a more tactful "discussion."
"General Manager Ma, we understand that you have your difficulties, but we have even greater difficulties. You're selling heavy trucks so cheaply that not only are you making no money yourselves, you're also dealing a huge blow to everyone else. So we still hope you can raise the price a little."
"Exactly! Everyone came here today for a seminar meeting to discuss mutual development. You can't hog a whole pot of rice all by yourselves, can you? Your heavy trucks are already selling for over two hundred thousand. Who would still spend over a hundred thousand to buy our medium trucks?"
Back in 1994, the main models used for mainland road freight were still the 140 and 141, priced between ninety and one hundred thousand. But the newly launched flat-nose diesel vehicles already cost over a hundred thousand.
Originally, Jicheng Heavy Truck Company's heavy trucks sold for three hundred and sixty to three hundred and seventy thousand, leaving a clear price gap between them and the others. After all, procurement costs three or four times higher were enough to make transport operators, who were hardly wealthy, shrink back in fear.
But once heavy truck prices dropped to two hundred and seventy or two hundred and eighty thousand, those shrewd, penny-pinching vehicle owners would be tempted.
After all, a