[Chapter 848: The Hunger Marketing]
As Eric, holding Kevin, and the others disappeared around the corner of the stairs, Joanna reached out to take her daughter's little hand and said with a smile, "Alright, sweetie, Daddy has some important work to do. If you go in there and ask him a bunch of questions, you'll drive him crazy. How about we see if your birthday cake is ready, and maybe make a quick trip to the supermarket?"
The little girl seemed to have forgotten about being turned down by her father just moments before. She wasn't upset at all and, instead of showing interest in her mother's proposal, she looked up with her small face and asked, "Mommy, can I watch TV?"
Joanna shook her head, saying, "No, sweetie, TV is for the evenings only."
Feeling a bit bored, just as she was about to go along with her mother's wishes, Virginia walked out of the kitchen carrying the coffee cups that had just been used. Overhearing Joanna, she said, "I'll go. It's not convenient for you to take Elia, so you can stay here and wait for Mr. Jeff Bezos."
Joanna didn't insist. She waved goodbye to Virginia and the maid who were leaving in the car and took her daughter for a stroll on the front lawn.
About ten minutes later, another black car drove into the estate. Jeff Bezos got out and saw a tranquil and intelligent-looking woman walking over with a little girl.
Even though Joanna had stepped back from acting in recent years, she hadn't changed much since shooting Twister. Jeff Bezos immediately recognized her and surmised the identity of the little girl who was curiously gazing at him.
With a perfectly polite smile, Jeff extended his hand to Joanna, saying, "Hello, Ms. Pacula. I'm Jeff Bezos. Mr. Williams asked me to come by."
"Hello, just call me Jo," Joanna replied as she shook his hand with a smile. "Eric is busy discussing things with the two gentlemen. Please follow me."
The three of them walked into the living room of the villa. Joanna personally poured a cup of coffee for Jeff and said, "Please wait here. I'll go check on things."
"Oh, thank you," Jeff said as he slightly leaned forward from his position on the sofa, watching Joanna leave. He then felt the curious gaze of the little girl beside him.
...
Unlike the excitement and busyness experienced by Victor McNally and Bill Olsen during these days, Jeff's mind was focused on expanding Amazon's reach. After the success of Fireflyer on the Amazon platform, he was eager to capitalize on that victory. He wasn't rushing to introduce more products; instead, he planned to leverage the sales of Fireflyer to enhance Amazon's influence in e-commerce.
He even ambitiously suggested to Victor McNally that Amazon become the exclusive retailer for Fireflyer products, but his idea was promptly rejected.
Even though Eric didn't divulge the reason for his call to come to New York, Jeff hadn't abandoned the idea. He hoped Amazon's share of sales could expand. Currently, the production capacity of Fireflyer couldn't meet market demand, which was a common concern among all retailers collaborating with Firefly Electronics.
Jeff wanted to consider how to persuade Eric to provide more support, but the little girl's bright and clear eyes, seeming to look right through him, made him quite uncomfortable, distracting his thoughts. Despite being a highly successful figure -- having become the youngest vice president of a trust company at the age of 25 -- he realized he hadn't felt this way in many years, thanks to a little girl.
Jeff was a person who preferred to take charge, and as he straightened his back to speak to the little girl, she blinked her lovely eyes and asked, "Besides English, what other languages do you speak?"
Although her voice was sweet and childlike, her tone didn't reflect any childlike naivety or shyness typically seen in kids her age.
Jeff found the situation increasingly strange. Faced with the little girl's curious gaze waiting for his reply, he felt that if he couldn't speak another language, she would surely disregard him. He instinctively didn't want to be ignored by this little girl, and that feeling left him feeling quite unsettled. So, he decided to regain the upper hand, suppressing his expression, and said, "Hey, kiddo, that's quite rude. You haven't even told me your name yet."
"Hawaii Williams," the little girl blinked and replied.
Jeff chuckled slightly, not because of the seemingly odd name, but because he sensed that the little girl could tell he was just pretending and seemed nonchalant about it.
Jeff tried to convince himself that it was all just an illusion and continued, "Okay, Hawaii, why do you want to know about the earlier question?"
"Mommy speaks Polish and Russian, Vickie auntie speaks Spanish, Natasha and Yevgeny speak Russian, and Drew is a dummy who can't say anything besides English," the little girl said, furrowing her brow a bit when mentioning Drew. Her expression finally changed a little, and she continued, "Vickie auntie hired a French teacher for Kevin, and French numbers and grammar are interesting, but unfortunately, she got sent away a few days ago. Daddy said Kevin doesn't need to learn so many things. Actually, Kevin isn't dumb at all; he knows that as long as he clings to Daddy, Vickie auntie won't make him learn anything."
The girl spoke quickly with an agile mind, talking non-stop before she stared at Jeff again. "What about you?"
"Uh, I..." Jeff hesitated and said, "I know a little Spanish."
The little girl immediately switched to Spanish and asked, "Oh, then what do you do for a living?"
Although her Spanish was not perfectly pronounced, it was fluent enough. Jeff suspected it was a teaching issue, but he was even more astonished that since she could fluently switch to Spanish, maybe she also spoke the other languages she had just mentioned.
Jeff knew Spanish due to his family background, as his stepfather was from Cuba, where Spanish is the primary language. Additionally, Jeff had taken French in college. So he tentatively replied in French, "I'm a businessman, currently running a... website that sells things over the internet."
"Oh, I saw something about that on TV, but Daddy doesn't let me touch the computer until I turn 12. I had to bargain with him to let me start at 6," the little girl understood him and switched to French without any barrier, and her pronunciation was significantly better than her Spanish. Then she asked, "So, how is selling things online different from a supermarket?"
That question was quite complicated, and Jeff recognized that with his limited French, he couldn't explain it well. He subconsciously stopped seeing the little girl as just a child and hadn't realized that she was unwittingly controlling the conversation.
As he frowned, grappling with how to respond, Joanna walked down the stairs. Noticing the situation, she immediately understood what was happening, her expression showing a mix of helplessness and affection. She walked over, patted her daughter's head, and said to Jeff, "I'm sorry, Mr. Bezos, did Elia interrupt you?"
Joanna's arrival broke the little girl's unintentional control of the conversation. Jeff felt a jolt of realization, casting a few surprised glances at Hawaii. He hadn't expected to be overtaken by a little girl who looked no older than five. He had also underestimated her age.
Though it felt odd, Jeff quickly shook his head with a smile and replied, "Not at all, Ms. Pacula. Elia... Hawaii is very smart."
Joanna laughed and said, "Eric has almost finished his discussion with the two gentlemen. He said you could go up. The study is at the end of the corridor, to the right upstairs."
Jeff nodded, stood up, and walked towards the stairs, yet couldn't help glancing back at the living room. Hawaii was now whispering something affectionate into Joanna's ear, and Jeff instinctively wanted to know what the little girl thought of him, but he quickly shook his head self-deprecatingly, wondering what was wrong with him today.
...
After knocking on the door, Jeff entered the study on the second floor. He shook hands with Eric and the other two before sitting down on the sofa in a corner. His gaze unconsciously fell on the little boy beside Eric.
The little guy didn't seem particularly remarkable, quietly fiddling with his Lego toys. Upon seeing Jeff's arrival, he snuggled closer to his father, which made Jeff feel quietly relieved.
Everything seemed to have returned to normal.
Eric hadn't noticed Jeff's gaze. He picked out a document from a stack of papers on the coffee table and handed it to him, saying, "Jeff, please take a look at this proposal first."
Jeff nodded, flipped open the folder, and saw the printed words on the cover: Hunger Marketing.
On the other side, Eric flipped through another document, continuing the earlier discussion. He addressed Victor McNally and Bill Olsen, saying, "Like Firefly Electronics, Nokia experienced a supply chain crisis in 1995. However, they managed to navigate through it excellently and surpassed Motorola last year to take the top spot in digital phone sales. You two are handling research and development and marketing, respectively, and neither of you has enough experience with supply chains. Therefore, I have spoken with Jorma Ollila. They will send a vice president from the procurement department to serve as the vice president of Firefly Electronics, specifically responsible for developing the supply chain. Firefly Electronics must expand the production capacity of Fireflyer, but your proposals are a mess and merely blind expansion of production. So, once the other party gets to San Francisco, I will give you three months. Within these three months, to ensure the quality of Fireflyer products, the monthly production should remain at 150,000 units. However, after three months, I want to see the production capacity of Fireflyer doubled."
Victor McNally and Bill Olsen exchanged glances. Bill Olsen said, "Eric, the capacity for Fireflyer should increase gradually; it can't just happen overnight."
"Of course, that's why I've given you three months," Eric replied. "In those three months, I don't need to see an increase in Fireflyer production because I have other arrangements. You just need to focus on building new factories and contacting suppliers. Even if you achieve production early, the monthly shipment still needs to be capped at 150,000 units. But after three months, I want to see the results I expect. You know why I separated Fireflyer from Yahoo Music Store. If you don't deliver, I will authorize Nokia to produce MP3 players."
Victor McNally and Bill Olsen felt a chill run down their spines; they knew how formidable Nokia was. Firefly Electronics had already transferred the complete set of MP3 player patents to them, but the agreement stipulated that Nokia was only allowed to develop and produce MP3 music phones, and not simple MP3 player products.
However, if Eric lifted that restriction, it would be tough for Firefly Electronics to compete with Nokia and might end up becoming a purely technical research department.
Eric had already given Firefly Electronics enough support, and Victor McNally and Bill Olsen recognized that Eric was not joking. If they didn't succeed, all the bright prospects they had envisioned would vanish.
No further bargaining was done. Bill Olsen proactively said, "Eric, we'll do our best."
Victor McNally nodded in agreement.
Eric smiled, his earlier serious expression fading. "Now, let's discuss the collaboration proposal with Amazon."
As he spoke, Eric handed two similar documents to Jeff Bezos and the others, saying, "I give you three months to push this proposal forward."
Not long after Victor McNally and Bill Olsen flipped open their documents, Jeff, who had quickly read through everything, exclaimed excitedly, "This is brilliant, Eric. This is a genius idea!"
Eric nodded with a smile, saying, "Of course, I think so too."
The proposal in Jeff Bezos' hands was the famed hunger marketing strategy. This marketing approach not only maximized the consumers' desire to buy but also maintained product buzz for an extended period while achieving widespread brand promotion at the lowest cost and in the fastest way possible.
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