Although Gu Ao is not familiar with the operations of most fast-moving consumer goods industries (including beverages), he still has a basic business knowledge after surviving in two lifetimes:

The most valuable intangible assets in these industries are just one brand. As for the technical content, it really doesn’t have much.

Patents cannot build any moat here, and the "top secret formula" in the form of commercial secrets is of no use.

Don’t believe in consultation with mentally retarded street stalls that “Coca-Cola is so awesome by locking the formula in the most top-secret safe at the Atlanta headquarters.”

Any beverage company with a level of more than one billion US dollars, test it and imitate it with a high 98% similarity to ensure that consumers cannot detect the difference in taste. It is actually very easy.

The reason why others cannot copy that kind of success is entirely because the Coca-Cola brand is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the profit margin of Cola is not very profitable. It requires such a large scale, market capacity, and cost management quality control that has been running-in for many years to support this gross profit margin. Since others are not big enough in the scale of copying, they will not make any profit, so it is better to give up and switch to a differentiated market.

Gu Ao, an outsider, can see clearly that "brand is the only effective moat", and industry insiders will definitely see clearly.

So Gu Ao knew that "hold all the ownership rights and interests of trademark brands into his own hands, and just authorize the use rights to others", then this business will definitely not be able to continue.

Others will not work hard to help you promote, but they are afraid that their rights and responsibilities will be unclear. Finally, they will be a waste of work for others when they expire.

Just like in history, when Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao were still one, Chen Hongdao wouldn't have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising fees every year when Chen Hongdaoji's trademark was still under control. It was simply because one party involved in this case was a state-owned enterprise, so after the person in charge of the state-owned enterprise signed with Chen was arrested, the state could sue the contract invalid...

I won't say much more about it.

In a nutshell, if Gu Ao did not control a part of the brand and allowed the collaborators to completely control it without any worries, he would be isolated from the beginning and be alone as a side that he had been holding Wanglaoji from the beginning, and he would have to pay for all the advertisements himself.

...

"Well, I understand that you left the "Red Bull" rights and interests of Southeast Asian countries to Xu Shubiao's decision to treat it as a exchange for him to receive capital injection, use the formula, and jointly develop the production technology required for the concentrated syrup + filling plant model.

Since publicity in the Chinese market is one of your important negotiation conditions, I will work hard and fly to Bangkok first when I return. Finalize the cooperation intention with Mr. Xu, and then release the promotional video in China so as not to waste a bargaining chip.”

After Han Ting understood Gu Ao's beverage brand layout, she also made arrangements very quickly.

She just doesn't have that rich imagination and is still very quick to execute.

After the two talked here, Bak Kut Teh had finished eating. Han Ting naturally packed up the plastic takeaway box and rang the bell to let the waiter pour it out.

Han Ting poured a glass of water and rinsed her mouth, then held the cup to continue with the next topic.

"Let's talk about the prerequisite you mentioned at the beginning. Why do you think that the cultural media value represented by the Red Bull brand will become more and more valuable in the future?

You said, 'Red Bull represents a group that is a group that takes risks and gains fame'. In my opinion, this type of person is a waste of life who has nothing to do when he is full. I don't think that such people will have greater and greater influence in society in the future. Sports events and entertainment works that attract these people should not have a bright future in the future."

When I was literate just now, Gu Ao roughly explained what happened to "Red Bull represents risky life-betting".

The explanation he explained was nothing more than a vague deduction prophecy that he saw in later generations, such as "Red Bull is most suitable for endorsing extreme sports and taking risks and challenges".

However, the Chinese in 1982 obviously could not understand why there were so many people in this world who were full and were looking for death. There was no mantra like "I finally know why foreigners have fewer populations."

The cultural differences are too far.

Gu Ao is idle and has nothing to do, so he will not hesitate to explain it in depth to Han Ting.

"You have to think about it this way: In the past decade, the explosive development of productivity worldwide has been obvious. Now that our country has been open for four years, the situation is so good, I have no doubt that in the next 30 years, the world will shift from an era of scarcity to an era of prosperity and relative surplus. You are right. What I said is "relative surplus" is the "relative surplus" that Marx said.

Brands like Coca-Cola endorses the "happiness brought by cheap delicacies". Red Bull endorses the happiness brought by "you are better than others". The former is a confrontation between man and nature, while the latter is a confrontation between man and man.

People who eat and drink are prone to emptiness. If they want to feel pleasure, they are only different from others, envied by others, and pretend to be in front of others. The richer the material, the more people are empty."

When Gu Ao said this, his mind was in a daze and traveled through time and space. When he thought of many new social problems in the future, he couldn't help but sigh.

His expression fell into Han Ting's eyes and also resonated slightly, although Han Ting's knowledge was not enough to truly understand.

After wandering, Gu Ao sighed divergently: "Sometimes I think that if we look at the national 'happiness index', the next 15 to 20 years may be the era of the highest overall happiness of the whole people. In the future, although the people are richer and more material, the overall sense of happiness of the people may decline, the relationship between people will become more tense, and the hostility will increase greatly.

In fact, I don’t want Red Bull’s culture to bet on life and seek attention and find a sense of existence. However, the trend of the heavenly way is there, and no one can disobey it.”

"Why? Why do you feel that you are more rich in the future and will not be happy?" Han Ting put down her cup and asked solemnly.

Gu Ao shrugged and smiled helplessly: "When I was studying in the United States, I learned a lot of extracurricular knowledge: the human brain is actually very cheap. After all, it is just an organ enslaved by biological evolution. In order to make humans continue to strive for progress, nature has evolved into a mechanism that has "can adapt quickly after upgrading material enjoyment."

In other words, for example, an American earns $1,000 in a monthly salary this year and increases to 1,500 next year. He may be a little happy in the first half of the year after his salary increase and immersed in happiness. But at most half a year later, he will feel that this is what he deserves, the brain's protection mechanism, which will lead to the pituitary gland no longer secrete dopamine for the reason "I raise my salary to 1,500."

In a few years, when his monthly salary increased to 2,000/3,000, he would still secrete dopamine in the second half of each surge. He would get used to it later, and he would be fine.

Similarly, a person who has not eaten enough will be happy for the first half of the year after he has just eaten his fill. The next time he will have to eat meat occasionally, so that he can be happy for half a year, and then the next time he will be happy for half a year when he is open and eats meat without limit... After ensuring that he lives, every new increase in material enjoyment will only allow your pituitary gland to secrete dopamine for half a year, and then get used to it.

The stock is not important, the increment is the most important. When there is no increment, Americans with a monthly salary of $5,000 are actually as painful as Americans with a monthly salary of $50,000, in fact, they live as materially as Americans with a monthly salary of $50,000. Of course, all of this is measured by the amount of dopamine secretion.

If the above mechanism is only at work, then after a well-off society is realized, being rich will at most be as happy as not having money, at least not painful. But the fact is that once a person is satisfied with his well-off society, his attention will be so much that he has nowhere to rest.

A person who has not had enough food does not have the energy to pay attention to the people around him. Some are poorer than him and some are richer than him, so he has no time to suffer from comparison. His brain is numb by hunger. But once he is full, she will find trouble, hope to be paid attention to, and hope to find that she is not at the bottom of society, so conflicts will arise and his anger will increase greatly.

So from the perspective of dopamine, in fact, in a most harmonious society, about 80% of people can eat and wear and wear after spending their energy, and have no remaining energy to be jealous of others and feel resentment. 16% of people can eat and watch it on TV, and whenever their minds are empty, they can think of themselves as the top 20% of the world and feel superior.

3.5% of people are rich, not only to be rich, but also to buy luxury goods. They occasionally show off in front of the 16% of people who have enough meat and have free time. In the end, 0.5% of the top super elites are separated from all the low-level interests. They regard money as much as money, and they only want to transform the world and realize their life pursuits. American brain neuroscientists have long studied it. As long as humans find themselves in the environment they can observe, in the first 20%, they will most likely be satisfied and secrete dopamine.

For the poor, it is best to have some fun when they are idle, or play cards, and it is enough to spend their energy. If they are idle, they will think of how poor they are. Although this will stimulate their struggle, it will also bring pain and depression of dopamine secretion."

Gu Ao's previous life came from the Internet era when he was oversharing. Although he made this money, it did not mean that he agreed with the benefits of that thing.

He knew very well that ignorance is equal to happiness. The reason why the hostility in society in the late 1990s was not as strong as the 2010s was not that people in the late 1990s had a good material life, but that they did not have so many incentives to remind them of how poor they were.

"It turns out that the United States and Japan have developed to this level. According to your statement, their social oppression is so heavy and there are so many extreme people, which are all caused by excessive provocation and comparison by the mass media?"

"It's cruel? But that's the truth. If one day the Chinese people eat too much, they will sooner or later find ways to do things. As long as we are still humans, we are all slaves of dopamine. At best, those with insight can remind themselves to be wary of this more than ordinary people."
Chapter completed!