Hunger Marketing

The next morning

A strange sight appeared in cities everywhere: crowds had gathered outside shops belonging to a company called Titan Environmental.

Tang Shizhe had instructed employees in each location to place Purification Trees outside the shops in advance. During this time, anyone passing by could feel the air suddenly turn fresh, as if their whole body had been cleansed.

But once they moved ten meters away from the shop, the air became appallingly foul again, almost impossible to breathe.

In this way, the Purification Tree that the shops were about to start selling had made a deep impression on everyone who passed by.

The locations of these shops had also been carefully selected. More than eighty percent of the people passing by were white-collar workers. After they spread the word through their social media, a considerable number of people had made a special trip to try the trees out.

Tang Shizhe had announced that only one hundred thousand would be sold worldwide, so people had come early to line up.

Seated at the head of the conference table, Tang Shizhe checked the time on his watch.

"Good. Open the shops!" Tang Shizhe said, nodding to Tang Yi.

Tang Yi picked up his phone and sent a message to the employee group chat for the shops across the country, telling them they could open.

At once, all the scenes of the various shops displayed in separate boxes on the conference room's giant screen changed. People surged through the open doors.

As soon as the people waiting in line rushed into the shops, they felt as if they had stepped onto a vast grassland with fresh air. A faint floral scent drifted from the aromatherapy version of the Purification Tree. The air indoors seemed to have been washed clean, without a trace of stuffiness.

Those with pharyngitis felt a soothing coolness in their throats, and their lungs seemed to open up.

"Boss, here's my pickup code." The first customer rushed up and showed his phone to the clerk.

"Certainly, sir. Here's your Purification Tree 10, aromatherapy version!" The clerk checked the code and nodded. Another employee handed the man a potted Purification Tree in its packaging.

The man left the shop, beaming as he cradled his new Purification Tree.

As he walked down the street, it was as if the foul air had vanished! The tree's effects would normally be greatly reduced outdoors, but since he was carrying it, he could breathe the purest air right away!

For city dwellers surrounded by smog, exhaust fumes, and other pollution, every breath he took felt refreshing!

(This isn't an exaggeration. The author knows all too well what it's like to live in a city that's often heavily polluted.)

What Tang Shizhe hadn't announced publicly was that the Purification Tree might cause a kind of dependence!

Of course, it didn't contain anything addictive. It was more like stepping out of an air-conditioned room on a summer day when it was over forty degrees. Once you left the cool room, the hot, stuffy air around you made you feel like you were in a steamer. In the same way, anyone who had used a Purification Tree would find unpurified air so foul that it was unbearable.

And to boost sales, these Purification Trees had a lifespan of just three short years! After that, they had to be replaced!

Just like cars and other devices, heavy use—for example, leaving one in a heavily polluted environment—would greatly reduce its lifespan.

As a new-generation profiteer, Tang Shizhe obviously wasn't going to make the Purification Tree as durable as a Nokia phone. Otherwise, once everyone had bought one, who would he make money from?

As night drew near, everyone who had ordered online had collected their Purification Trees and taken them home.

That evening, the first people to try them posted their impressions on their social media.

The Purification Tree's reputation soared overnight! Everyone who had used one was impressed by its effects. Open the door, and the air inside and outside was like two different worlds.

Before long, secondhand air purifiers were appearing all over online marketplaces!

But by then, nobody cared about air purifiers anymore. Everyone's attention was fixed on the newly released Purification Tree.

The three hundred thousand units they had stocked up were quickly snapped up. Those who had been too slow could only regret not getting one in time.

One hundred thousand was neither a large nor a small number. But since the Purification Tree was cheap, many households might buy two or three—one for the living room, another for the bedroom.

Some companies also bought Purification Trees in bulk to put in their offices and improve the stale air caused by having too many people in the workplace year-round.

Scalpers who had been reselling Fruit Phones and Grain Phones turned their attention to the Purification Tree as well.

But Tang Shizhe had anticipated this. Each person's ID could be used to buy no more than three trees a year, preventing scalpers from reselling them. Of course, if those scalpers could get hold of a large number of IDs, he'd just pretend not to notice. The trees were still being sold, and the money still went into his pocket.

The internet was in an uproar too, but not because people were unhappy with the Purification Tree. They were unhappy with Titan Environmental's rate of production. Titan Environmental had learned all the wrong lessons from the Grain company and started using hunger marketing.

If Tang Shizhe had known, he would have cried. It wasn't that he didn't want to sell more; there simply wasn't enough production capacity!

In Jingdu City, the chairmen of several domestic air purifier manufacturers gathered at a private club.

"Everyone, we have to find a way to stop Titan Environmental Tech! They're driving us to the brink!"

"Ever since the Purification Tree was released, our air purifier sales have dropped by ninety-nine percent! Nobody wants to buy our purifiers anymore!" one executive said furiously, slamming the table. Unlike those executives with other businesses, his company had a limited product line and focused solely on air purifiers. Now Tang Shizhe's Purification Tree had driven him into a dead end!

"That's right. Our air purifier business has also taken a serious hit. This year's financial statements are going to look awful! Our stock price will definitely suffer." Another executive frowned. Air purifiers were only one of his company's many product lines, but they accounted for twenty percent of its profits. If air purifier revenue looked bad, the company's overall financial statements would be in trouble too!

"If you ask me, we should hire online trolls to smear the Purification Tree!" one executive said darkly.

"Good idea. We know people in Jiaodong City, but since they're a joint venture, we can't make a move against them. We'll beat them through public opinion instead!" Another executive nodded in agreement.

These people knew nothing about Tang Shizhe, yet they actually planned to defeat the Splitters in the field where they were strongest. If Tang Shizhe found out, he'd laugh his head off.