allendalepharm Chapter 81 Word of Mouth Spreads
Chapter 81 Word of Mouth Spreads
In early summer in Hong Kong, the sea breeze, carrying a humid and hot atmosphere, blew into the office building of Zhonghua Industrial Park. Lin Zhou's desk was covered with letters from all over the world, the envelopes bearing a variety of postmarks: New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore... each one carrying the affection from across the ocean.
These letters were written by overseas consumers to Zhonghua handheld game consoles.
Since the first batch of 350,000 handheld consoles crossed the ocean and entered the markets of the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Zhonghua's overseas offices have been receiving hundreds or even thousands of letters almost every day. The clerks responsible for sorting the mail are working overtime until late at night every day, still extremely busy.
Lin Zhou casually picked up a letter from New York. The handwriting on the envelope was crooked and messy, clearly written by a child. He opened the envelope, and a piece of paper with a colorful handheld game console drawn on it fell out.
"Dear Uncle Zhonghua: My name is Tom, and I am ten years old. Last week, my dad bought me a Zhonghua handheld game console. It's so cool! The silver casing is as shiny as a star, and the buttons are soft to the touch, so they don't hurt your hands at all."
My favorite game is "Greedy Dragon." My heart was pounding when I was controlling the little dragon to dodge obstacles. Older game consoles were big and heavy, so I could only play them at home. But the ZOOMA handheld console can fit in my pocket! I took it to the park, and all my friends gathered around to watch, they were so envious! Thank you for making such a great game console. I hope you'll release even more fun games in the future!
At the end of the letter, there was a drawing of a grinning little boy holding a small handheld game console, with the words "Zhonghua is the best" written crookedly next to him.
Lin Zhou couldn't help but smile. He picked up another letter from London, written by a white-collar worker named Alice.
"I saw the GG handheld game console from Zhonghua in a shop window in the subway station. I just thought it looked very exquisite, so I bought one to try it out."
Unexpectedly, this became the best value purchase I made this year. The 20 minutes I spent commuting on the subway every day was the most dreaded time for me, until I got the Zhonghua handheld game console.
Its battery life is amazing; one battery change lasts for two whole days. The "Greedy Dragon" game inside keeps me engrossed in it during my commute, and I've even missed my stop a few times!
I've recommended it to all my colleagues in the office, and now our lunch break entertainment involves competing in handheld game scores.
Alice also attached a photo to the letter. In the photo, a group of young people dressed in business attire are gathered together, each holding a silver Zhonghua handheld game console, their faces full of smiles.
Lin Zhou became more and more engrossed in reading. He seemed to be able to see through these words the happy expressions of people of different skin colors and ages holding the Zhonghua handheld game console.
At that moment, the head of the Southeast Asia office called from overseas, his voice filled with excitement: "Mr. Lin! The response in Southeast Asia is fantastic! Especially in Singapore and Malaysia, the handheld console is sold out! Yesterday I went to an electronics store in Kuala Lumpur to investigate, and I saw many people queuing up for restocks. One young man told me he had been queuing for three hours!"
Lin Zhou was deeply moved after hearing this. He instructed the person in charge to record all the feedback in detail and added, "Tell the distributors that restocking is fine, but prices absolutely cannot be raised. In addition, I will have the R&D department work harder to launch a multilingual version suitable for the Southeast Asian market as soon as possible, supporting Chinese, English, Malay, and Thai."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Zhou picked up a letter from Tokyo. The writer was an electronics enthusiast named Sato, whose words, while somewhat critical, couldn't hide his admiration for the Zhonghua handheld game console.
"As a seasoned electronics enthusiast, I used to look down on Hong Kong-made electronic products, thinking they were all cheap imitations. It wasn't until a friend gave me a Zhonghua handheld console that I realized how wrong I was. I disassembled the console's internal structure, and the circuit board layout was very reasonable, and the screen performance far exceeded that of products in the same price range. What surprised me most was its heat dissipation design; after playing for three hours straight, the console only got slightly warm, something many Japanese brands can't achieve. The only regret is that the game selection is too limited. If it had more games built-in, the Zhonghua handheld console would definitely become the industry benchmark."
Sato also attached several disassembly diagrams of the handheld console to the letter, with very detailed annotations, and even offered several suggestions for improvement.
Lin Zhou carefully put the letters away and then dialed the R&D department. He relayed Sato's suggestions to the head of R&D, his tone serious: "Consumers have discerning eyes; these suggestions are very valuable. We cannot be complacent; we must continuously improve and create better products."
The head of the R&D department nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, Mr. Lin, we have already assembled a dedicated game cooperation team and are in talks with game developers around the world to enrich the game library as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, overseas media outlets began reporting on the Zhonghua handheld game console. The New York Times' technology section devoted a large section to this "handheld marvel" from Hong Kong, calling it "redefining the portable game console." The Times commented that "the emergence of the Zhonghua handheld game console has broken the monopoly of European, American, and Japanese brands in the video game market and is a source of pride for Hong Kong's manufacturing industry." The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun went even further, stating bluntly that "the performance of the Zhonghua handheld game console shows us a challenge from Hong Kong."
The soaring word-of-mouth led to a surge in sales.
When George from Peak Electronics flew to Hong Kong again and found Lin Zhou, his previous arrogance was gone, replaced by a fawning expression: "Mr. Lin, the orders from the US market are already booked for three months from now. Could you please give us more stock? We're willing to increase the prepayment percentage!"
Hansen from Rhein Electronics followed suit, arriving with a thick stack of order contracts: "Mr. Lin, European consumers love Zhonghua handheld consoles so much, we need more stock!"
Lin Zhou looked at these once high-and-mighty giants, now begging like children, and felt a surge of accomplishment. He smiled slightly, his tone neither humble nor arrogant: "Adding more stock is possible, but production capacity is limited, and there will be a waiting list. Also, I hope you can increase your promotional efforts to let more people know about Zhonghua Handheld Game Console."
George and Hansen nodded quickly, afraid of missing this opportunity.
"Mr. Lin, rest assured, we have invested heavily in promoting the Zhonghua handheld game console in newspapers, radio, and television. Otherwise, sales would not be so high," George said proudly. Peak Electronics is a top technology company in the United States. Even without the above promotion, as long as the distribution channels are open, it can still sell very well.