From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 33 Crisis Public Relations

To be honest, if Lin Mu hadn't been reborn and knew countless ways to deal with this, he probably would have had no choice but to swallow his anger and obediently pay up to settle the matter in the face of this sudden crisis.

But he was, after all, a person with memories of the future, and he had plenty of ways to deal with this kind of crisis public relations.

Lin Mu spoke slowly, his tone resolute: "Director Mao, don't give him a single penny of this money. That old bastard is wicked. If this news hadn't been published, we would have given him hush money. But now that the news has been published, the impact has spread, and it's really affecting our business, and only now does he say he can handle it. Do you believe me? If you really give him this 20 today, all sorts of unscrupulous tabloids will seize on this matter and dig deep into it, then take turns coming to extort money from us, it'll never end."

Upon hearing this, Factory Director Mao broke out in a cold sweat, a wave of fear washing over him. He quickly said, "I was too naive; I oversimplified things. Mr. Lin, do you have any good ideas?"

Lin Mu smiled faintly, his tone calm: "You have to understand, being infamous is still being famous. Although this incident is not good in nature, it has also made the pearlescent stockings category break out of its niche and become known to a wider audience. Now that we have the reputation of being infamous, all we need to do next is create a 'famous' momentum to offset this negative impact."

He paused, then added, "Of course, there's a prerequisite—we need to find a media outlet of similar size and with a large enough voice to do this."

Lin Mu picked up the wine glass on the table, downed the liquor in one gulp, and said in a deep voice, "Leave this matter to me. After all, you've brought me over a million in dividends this year. I'm only paying you, so it's only right that I do your bidding. In a while, the media will be doing special interviews, and I'll teach you what to say and do then."

Factory Director Mao sat to the side, inwardly thankful that he had thankfully brought Lin Mu onto this ship. Without him, he feared he would have been plunged from heaven to hell by this undeserved disaster, never to recover.

She couldn't help but sigh to herself: Life is truly a matter of one thought leading to heaven or hell. You never know which seemingly insignificant choice will become the key to changing your entire life.

……

Inside Alibaba's conference room, the Taobao operations team was having a meeting, brainstorming together. A PowerPoint presentation was displayed on the projector; the topic was "Discussion Meeting on Marketing Strategies for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony."

The crowd was buzzing with discussion. Colleagues from the planning department were the first to propose their own marketing plan; Xiao He from the review department suggested applying for authorization from the Organizing Committee to put a batch of Olympic Fuwa dolls on the shelves; others suggested putting small-sized Chinese national flags, popcorn eaten while watching the Olympics, and Olympic-related products, such as related clothing and the recently popular "slap-slap circle".

Leader Zang Feng meticulously recorded everyone's suggestions, most of which were feasible.

After some discussion, Zang Feng suddenly felt something was wrong; it seemed like someone was missing. Since the meeting began, someone had remained silent the entire time. He checked the transcript of the speeches in his hand and found that someone was indeed missing: Lin Mu.

Zang Feng asked curiously, "Dayan, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell today, or do you have a sore throat? Why haven't you said a word?"

Everyone turned their attention to Lin Mu. Lin Mu has recently become a big star on Taobao, first by supporting Brother Li's shop and then by creating Spring Diary.

In just six months of 2008, he had already helped two stores achieve the top ranking in their respective niche categories, and the annual revenue of the stores he supported was easily in the tens of millions.

With such performance, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he'll definitely be promoted to P3 by the end of the year; if the momentum continues, climbing one level each year, a promotion to P5 or even a management position within three years is not impossible. Everyone is curious to see what astonishing things this genius will say.

Lin Mu pondered for a moment—actually, he hadn't been thinking about anything; he had been busy figuring out how to ask his superiors for instructions on the implementation of crisis public relations. But since his superiors had asked, he thought for a moment, retrieved a piece of information from his memories of the future, and said, "Team leader, I think we can guide a sticker manufacturer to produce a batch of heart-shaped face stickers related to China and the Olympics."

"Heart-shaped face stickers? What are those?" Zang Feng pressed.

Lin Mu explained, "Team leader, did you ever play with the stickers on bubble gum when you were a kid? After you finished the bubble gum, there was a picture on the wrapper. You would stick it on the back of your hand and then peel it off, leaving the picture on your hand. This new type of face sticker works on a similar principle, except it's an Olympic-themed sticker that can be directly applied to your face."

Zang Feng suddenly realized that this was an excellent opportunity. The 2008 Olympics was a national event, but the country had also suffered many disasters and setbacks that year, and people desperately needed a grand event to boost morale. These Olympic face stickers, worn on the face, hands, and arms, could perfectly create a festive atmosphere for the whole nation.

But Cang Feng had high expectations for Lin Mu, feeling that this was far from his limit and that he definitely had more tricks up his sleeve. He said, "Da Yan, stop holding back! What other clever ideas do you have? Bring them all out!"

Lin Mu sighed helplessly, thinking to himself, "The boss is really taking advantage of me." Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he slapped his forehead: "Speaking of which, I actually have an idea that would be suitable for Taobao right now, but I don't know if it would be technically difficult to implement."

He continued, "Boss, I recently noticed a pain point while browsing Taobao. For example, after buying a shirt, I want to match it with pants, but I have to search on Taobao again, which can take several minutes to find something suitable. I was thinking, could we add a random recommendation section at the bottom of the page when users buy clothes, where the system automatically suggests matching pants?"

"My idea is to have the software department scrape the data, analyze which stores users who bought this item of clothing subsequently bought pants from, and then select the best-selling items to feature in the payment interface. This feature isn't limited to clothing; it can be used across all product categories."

"Isn't the Olympics a good opportunity to generate buzz? A colleague suggested promoting popcorn, which is a great idea. Wouldn't it be even better if users could pair their popcorn purchase with a Coke? We can have the software department create a 'buy one while you're at it' feature. After a user buys popcorn, Coke will be recommended directly below. Seeing this, the user might think, 'Oh yeah, I bought popcorn, why not buy a Coke too?' and might just place an order on the spur of the moment."

As soon as Lin Mu finished speaking, everyone in the room showed an expression of sudden realization: "So that's how it works!" Zang Feng's eyes lit up, and after just a moment's thought, he came up with countless possibilities for combinations from this little feature.