At first, it was completely unknown. Whenever shop owners saw that the cigarettes didn't belong to any tobacco company, they weren't interested.
Cigarettes depended on their backing, too. For example, if these cigarettes belonged to Liqun Company, Red River Company, Zhonghua Company, or some other established company, and were a new product under their banner—
then plenty of people would buy them. But the backing behind Jiang Siming's Imperial Dragon Smoke was a newly registered tobacco company.
The moment they saw that, they immediately lost all interest.
Who would be willing to buy such expensive cigarettes for resale when they had no backing? What if they couldn't sell them and ended up stuck with the stock?
Besides, Jiang Siming had told his father to sell only the low- and mid-grade versions for the time being, keeping the premium cigarettes in reserve.
That was why the 288-yuan price had not appeared in public view. Otherwise, that price alone would have caused an uproar.
After all, cigarettes were not supposed to cost more than a hundred yuan. But he was selling them for 288? There would probably be a huge number of reports and complaints.
Jiang Siming didn't want to be reported and have complaints filed against him right after starting sales. He didn't want to hype the product through such means, either.
So he might as well sell them this way, offering only the low- and mid-grade versions.
He completely believed that his Imperial Dragon Smoke could become popular without any hype at all.
Good products didn't need advertising.
Once Imperial Dragon Smoke became wildly popular, the fashionable phrase "How about a Huazi?" would have to be changed to "How about a Dragon Brand?" sob-laugh.
Jiang Siming also sent ten cartons of premium Imperial Dragon Smoke to each of the Elder