My Daily Basic Stipend Is 10 Million

Chapter 160: Chapter 155: A New Official Takes Office, Scorching the Interlinked Camps

Wu Fang immediately felt the new leader was pretty easy to get along with.

Wu Fang had come to discuss two main items.

The first was next year’s marketing budget. Its predecessor, Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, had an annual marketing budget of around three million yuan, which was extremely low.

This was mainly because Jiangzhou Wansheng was already a very established mall. The Wansheng Group had cut expenses, slashing this budget again and again. They believed such a mature mall didn’t need much marketing, as its natural customer traffic was already substantial.

Now that the mall had new owners, Wu Fang didn’t know their preferences. In the morning meeting, President Xu had said to report the budget based on their needs.

But what were those needs? How were they to be measured? It was as good as saying nothing, which put him in a tough spot. He had no idea how to prepare this budget.

Zhao Hui knew about this. Xu Wu had even called him specifically to relay Chen Xiao’s thoughts, phoning him personally because he would be the one primarily responsible for reviewing the budget.

Hearing Wu Fang’s question, he thought for a moment and said, "How about this: for now, prepare a budget based on fifteen million. The square has just been renamed, so we need to do some heavy promotion in the early stages."

Wu Fang was taken aback. He had actually been thinking about cutting the budget even further. He also felt that such a mature mall didn’t need a massive promotional effort.

’Cutting the budget would save on expenses, and savings turn into profit,’ he thought. ’That would make hitting the profit targets much easier.’

"Sir, isn’t that a bit too much? It wouldn’t be good if the Group thinks we’re being greedy."

Zhao Hui knew his reminder was well-intentioned and said, "It’s fine. Just do as I say. I’ll be the one to explain it to the Group."

"Also, take note: of this fifteen million, thirteen million is budgeted for PR activities, and two million for SP expenses. From the thirteen million for PR, take ten million and talk to Chen Xiao from Dr. Feng’s Robot Co., Ltd. about using smart equipment for customer acquisition and creating photo-op spots."

PR activities refer to marketing events like aesthetic displays, promotions, and large-scale indoor events. SP expenses refer to marketing activities like cash-back coupons.

What? Wu Fang was dumbfounded. ’Isn’t this blatant under-the-table dealing?’

’Could the Group possibly approve a plan like this? You’re in traditional retail, yet for an event, you want to partner with a smart equipment company? Have you lost your mind?!’

’The key is you even specified ten million, and to make it even more outrageous, you designated the specific contact person! What is this if not a private deal for personal gain?’

’This is a blatant transfer of benefits!’

’Could it be any more obvious?’ Wu Fang felt the new leader wasn’t just unreliable—he was audacious and reckless!

’Aren’t you afraid of getting caught and sent to prison?’

Zhao Hui didn’t notice his reaction. He was busy with his own calculations.

He believed Junxiao Square still had untapped potential, and since they had just taken over, it needed a strong promotional push.

Therefore, the marketing budget had to be high. At the same time, he knew about Chen Xiao’s promise: however much was spent with Dr. Feng’s Robot, the same amount would be kicked back to Junxiao Square for its SP budget.

This way, he would essentially be spending ten million with Dr. Feng’s Robot for customer acquisition and smart equipment integration, while the remaining three million would be more than enough for regular PR activities.

And with the two million in SP expenses, plus the ten million kicked back from Chen Xiao, the total investment of twelve million would be an amount that likely no other mall in the country would dare to spend so extravagantly.

And how much in sales could this twelve million leverage? Take, for example, a "100 off a 1,000" coupon.

This 100-yuan difference is split proportionally between the mall and the tenant. The usual ratio is 30% for the mall and 70% for the tenant, though some major brands can negotiate a 50/50 split.

Even assuming a 50/50 split for all of them, twelve million yuan would cover 240,000 coupons. If all of them were redeemed, it could leverage 240 million in sales.

Junxiao Square’s predecessor, Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, had annual sales of about 1.5 billion yuan. This initiative alone could boost performance by 16%.

And this was just the direct sales from the coupons, not even counting the customer traffic generated by the mall’s massive coupon investment.

After thinking all this through, he looked up to see Wu Fang staring at him blankly. He couldn’t help but frown. "Manager Wu, just prepare the proposal as I’ve laid it out. Give it to me when you’re done, and I’ll report to the Group."

Wu Fang thought to himself, ’You’re something else. If this plan actually gets approved, I’ll eat my own goddamn shoe.’

He verbally agreed. He wasn’t familiar with the new leader yet, so he certainly wasn’t going to oppose his boss’s opinion. He’d just do as he was told for now. Once the leader hit a wall, he’d learn the value of listening to his subordinates.

"What was the other matter?" Zhao Hui prompted.

Wu Fang said, "The other thing is an engineering project that was settled back when President Xiao was here. A contractor has been chosen for next year’s mall-wide pest control, but the contract hasn’t been signed. I wanted to get your opinion—should we proceed as planned, or...?"

Pest control? At many malls, tenants hire their own pest control companies to come in and do the work, as long as it’s done on schedule according to the mall’s requirements.

But the old Jiangzhou Wansheng Square was quite overbearing, forcing tenants to pay a fee for the mall to handle it centrally.

This definitely wasn’t Wansheng Group’s policy; no major corporation would bother with such petty cash.

For a shop of a little over a hundred square meters, the fee was only a few hundred yuan.

The total for the entire square was only a few hundred thousand.

"For this kind of project in the past, did you get bids from at least three different parties?"

Wu Fang replied, "No. President Xiao would negotiate it himself and then decide which company got the contract. After all, the tenants were the ones footing the bill."

Zhao Hui’s brow furrowed. There was something fishy going on here. The tenants paid only because the mall was so dominant. If the price wasn’t reasonable, the tenants would surely be full of complaints.

The mall was playing the villain for no good reason.

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