Forcing Me to Be Reborn?!
Chapter 439 - 357 No One Understands Being Pretentious Better Than I Do

Chapter 439: Chapter 357 No One Understands Being Pretentious Better Than I Do

Character: Cheng Zhu.

Achievement unlocked: Recognition from a veteran king of pretension.

At this moment, Cheng Zhu had no idea that Yue Dongyi had actually told Yue Lingjing that he had the same style as him back in the day.

One can only say that the kings of pretension may have different methods of showing off, but deep down there’s definitely a similar flair for drama.

If both people were young kings of pretension, chances are they wouldn’t see eye to eye and would be annoyed by each other’s pretentious aura.

But since they weren’t from the same generation, the emergence of young Cheng Zhu instead made the veteran king of pretension Yue Dongyi start... reminiscing about the glorious years in the past.

——Ah, those were the days, when we were young and promising students!

The business van sped through the streets of Hang City. Yue Dongyi was on his way to Alibaba.

He thought he had Cheng Zhu all figured out, little did he know that this bastard had deeper and more personal agendas in mind.

...

...

Outside of Youu Tea, Cheng Zhu looked at the screen with the phrase "Building a new powerhouse for China’s beverage industry" and had the inexplicable urge to put his hands on his hips.

Then, he just did it.

There he stood with his hands on his hips, looking up with great pride swelling in his heart!

A hundred million, he had raised a hundred million in funding!

Even with Cheng Zhu’s temperament, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.

It meant that the year 2015 was destined not to be a quiet one.

He could now go all out and make bold moves!

Reality would not allow Youu Tea to develop slowly because once you show potential, a hundred percent of the time the fruits of your labor would be picked by others.

Youu Tea needed explosive growth, insane development!

He could already imagine the bloodbath he was going to bring to the bubble tea industry in 2015 with the butcher’s knife in his hand!

He would be the one man with a knife, chasing down the entire traditional bubble tea industry!

Not even blinking an eye, fearlessly risking dry eye syndrome, he’d slash away the whole year!

"In fact, if today’s meeting weren’t with an investment tycoon like Yue Dongyi, I probably wouldn’t need to reveal the co-branding idea so early," Cheng Zhu thought to himself.

"This guy has too much swagger. My PPT couldn’t subdue him." He felt somewhat helpless about that.

If it had been a partner from Tiancheng Capital, just laying out the PPT would have been quite impressive, enough to make them see the brilliance in Youu Tea’s current business model.

But Yue Dongyi was different; he could see through the surface and had already understood Youu Tea’s current maneuvers.

Therefore, it was necessary to show him something he had never heard of before!

——Co-branding, a scythe of utmost precision.

For some groups, it’s like reaping with GPS precision—you simply can’t escape!

For example, if you really liked a certain anime character, and then you felt like drinking bubble tea, with two cups in front of you, you would obviously choose the one co-branded with the anime, and after buying it, you might even be tempted to post it on social media.

Or what about co-branding with a top celebrity’s new drama? Wouldn’t fans go crazy buying it?

In 2015, co-branding wasn’t as widespread as it would become in later years.

Unlike years later, when co-branding became ubiquitous.

Such innovative tactics would be terrifyingly effective in the early stages.

It was not just about making money.

Again, Cheng Zhu was never only about making money from selling bubble tea!

"At the end of the day, co-branding is also a kind of hype, a way of cross-promotion."

"It can quickly expand brand awareness, achieving dissemination that’s more than the sum of its parts, even breaking out of your usual circles!"

"In this era of information overload, how much can you really shake things up just by stirring within the bubble tea niche? Staying within your own circle is too limiting."

"Co-branding is different; you can jump back and forth across all kinds of circles."

As far as Cheng Zhu knew, in his past life, Hey Tea was particularly savvy with co-branding, with statistics showing they had joined forces with 74 different brands in just four years.

These brands covered a wide range of categories, even including Okamoto and Durex.

Of course, co-branding should sometimes be handled with care, or it could easily go awry.

Like Hey Tea’s co-branding with Mr. Strong in 2021...

As a Reborn, Cheng Zhu knew full well the road of co-branding was strewn with both risks and opportunities.

Some ideas were great, aiming to tread the path of novelty and create something new, but whether the outcome would be good or bad was unknown.

But he was a cheat, a master of pretension—without these worries.

He knew precisely what co-brandings would be beneficial and which would be detrimental.

Moreover, he was well aware of some clever co-branding tactics.

Take, for example, Hey Tea’s arch-rival, Nai Xue’s Tea—they recently had a big hit with a co-branding campaign featuring Zhou Jielun. What was strange was that Nai Xue’s official promotion never once mentioned Zhou Jielun’s name.

The reason was simple: they hadn’t obtained authorization from Zhou Jielun, who was probably just as baffled.

Nai Xue spent just a little money to collaborate with the Mint APP.

When the "metaverse" concept was just catching on, Zhou Jielun had licensed the metaverse digital collectables rights of his Fantasy album to the Mint APP.

The Mint APP was granted the right to use the Fantasy album imagery to sell digital virtual collectibles.

Which seemed, on the surface, not to involve any physical goods.

Then, the trickery began.

Nai Xue created a Fantasy music metaverse virtual space in collaboration with the Mint APP, giving customers a virtual keychain just for scanning a code when they bought bubble tea.

To guide you into the virtual space, they provided special event materials—no problem there, right?

After all, on their event materials, they just used the cover of the Fantasy album. It’s not their fault that Zhou Jielun’s own face was on the cover of that very album he shot himself.

Regardless, Nai Xue officially didn’t mention Zhou Jielun—the cups may have been printed with the image from the Fantasy album, and the co-branding was listed as: Nai Xue x Mint.

But marketing accounts all over the place were mentioning Zhou Jielun. Unsuspecting customers were also frenetically sharing Zhou Jielun’s name on social media, along with a wistful comment about their youth.

——See! I never said Zhou Jielun! They’re the ones saying it, not me!

This operation could be said to have been quite slick.

And the result was... bubble tea selling out nationwide!

Tricky co-branding tactics, this was just one of many.

Of course, the most shocking co-branding event in the beverage industry was the partnership between Moutai and Luckin Coffee for their soy sauce-flavored latte.

Despite many claiming its taste was fierce, it didn’t stop the wild national buzz, demand outstripping supply, both parties making a killing, and the heat of the moment skyrocketing.

"For me, with the advantage of my rebirth, I can draw inspiration from a variety of sources, even replicate them."

"Of course, I also need to outdo them wherever possible! Try to rectify some of their criticized aspects."

He even turned to look at the Starbucks across the street.

"If circumstances allow, a collaboration with Starbucks isn’t out of the question."

"Tea-meets-coffee becomes quite trendy in a few years."

"By then, it won’t be me cashing in on the trend."

After a while, Cheng Zhu took out his phone to check the time.

"Right now, Shen Minglang is probably still at the supplier’s. I’ll give him a call in a bit," he thought to himself.

The reason why Cheng Zhu was unwilling to let Pulin Capital invest 1.6 billion was that he didn’t want such powerful capital to own too much.

He wasn’t concerned about tens of millions in funds; he had that amount himself.

What he wanted were resources, and to leverage opportunities.

A billion was more than enough; he was just waiting for all the procedures to be completed before throwing this bombshell to the public!

1.6 billion was indeed too much; he needed to leave more room for himself.

And for the Shen family too!

"As for someone like Shen Minglang joining in, the Shen family’s initial investment in Youu Tea is indeed a little small," he thought.

He intended to "kidnap" the entire Shen family, make them board his battleship and unable to disembark, so naturally, they needed to contribute more in the beginning.

Simply put, their "sunk costs" were not enough!

If the Shen family didn’t invest anything substantial upfront, that certainly wouldn’t do.

Based on what he knew of the Shen family so far, the young stepmother Wang Yushan had little power, not much say; the Shen family was essentially ruled by Mr. Shen.

Some families are oddly run, with the stepmothers usurping power and becoming the real decision-makers.

Among the younger generation, Shen Qingning had the right to give suggestions, while Shen Ming Lang could go roll somewhere else.

"Well, Uncle Shen, I’m calling you Uncle Shen in advance, ha. I’ve kept this space reserved for you. Whether you want to bleed a fortune is up to you."

Half an hour later, Cheng Zhu received a report from Shen Minglang via WeChat.

"Cousin! All done talking; we’re going to compare with another supplier now," he said.

Mr. Shen had been full of enthusiasm lately, notwithstanding that this wasn’t his own project, but he’d been more spirited than ever.

There was no helping it; the phone call from Cheng Zhu a few days earlier, offering an additional hundred million if he was one minute late, thrilled him so much he nearly broke a sweat.

Damn, that’s a legend one can tell others!

With Cousin manning the rear and performing excellently,

My charge into battle must not slow down as his older cousin.

Together as brothers, united we are formidable!

What? You think Jiang Wanzhou is my cousin?

Bullshit! Cheng Zhu and I are cousins without a blood tie!

Upon seeing the WeChat message from Shen Minglang, Cheng Zhu immediately made a phone call.

"There aren’t strangers around, are there?" he first asked.

"Right now, it’s just me and Ningning," Shen Minglang answered.

"Then turn on the loudspeaker for your phone, make it hands-free," Cheng Zhu instructed.

Upon hearing this, Shen Minglang promptly complied.

Cheng Zhu’s voice quickly spread from the phone: "I just met with a partner from Pulin Capital, and we’re done talking."

Shen Qingning glanced at the phone held by Shen Minglang. It had been quite a while since she last heard Cheng Zhu’s voice.

Listening to his calm voice, no different from the old days, she felt a mix of emotions and pursed her lips tightly.

At this moment, the proud young lady was completely unaware of what this bastard was concocting behind her back.

Shen Minglang didn’t notice his sister’s unusual reaction; he was extremely anxious.

"How, how did it go?" he asked.

Having learned that Cheng Zhu was meeting Yue Dongyi from Pulin Capital today, Shen Minglang had done some research on Baidu and realized just how powerful this guy and Pulin Capital were!

Pulin Capital was ranked among the top venture capitalists in Shanghai. Companies like Tiancheng Capital weren’t even in the same league!

When a top-tier company partner personally comes knocking, it’s not a laughing matter.

Shen Minglang felt that Cheng Zhu sounded too calm and not excited at all. He guessed the outcome might be neutral, maybe the other party would say they needed to think things over.

"Cousin, you promised me, we’re all family here, so cut the crap with me, lest I get caught in the crossfire of your swagger."

Indeed, Cheng Zhu kept his word as much as possible, trying to be modest.

But isn’t that why I had you turn on the loudspeaker?

——Special circumstances call for special measures!

Your sister and I are just normal friends with a ’lip friendship’ who’ve recently been cold-shouldering each other, so she can’t really be considered one of us yet.

Subsequently, Cheng Zhu’s calm voice came from the phone again, this time with a short phrase that startled both Shen Minglang and Shen Qingning beside him.

"The final deal was for a billion. Pulin Capital wanted to invest 1.6 billion...

——But I didn’t agree."

...

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