American Entertainment 1982 Chapter 112

  Chapter 112 Then seize this opportunity

Tommy and Sophia walked out of Tampa International Airport and got on the commercial vehicle that picked them up to St. Petersburg, Florida. The driver was a local white man, wearing a floral shirt, and kept watching curiously through the rearview mirror the young couple who booked the airport commercial vehicle pick-up service men and women.

   "In St. Petersburg, every tourist has to accept your attention like a Soviet spy?" Tommy asked when the other party glanced at him for the fifth time.

The driver grinned and smiled at Tommy in the rearview mirror: "No, it's just that outside of February and November, there are few tourists who are as discerning as the two who choose to vacation in St. Petersburg, and they prefer to go to Miami .”

  Then the driver focused on driving and stopped talking. Sophia looked at Tommy next to him: "I think you need to think again? A local advertisement in California is obviously a better choice."

   "My intuition tells me that Florida is the better choice." Tommy said while looking at the scenery outside the window.

  The two of them flew from California on the west coast to St. Petersburg, Florida on the east coast, of course not for vacation, although the magazine said that Florida has the purest sea water and the most charming scenery in the United States.

   They're here to talk about TV commercials, commercials that sell computer software on TV.

Throughout the United States, there may have been advertisements for selling computers on TV, but software advertisements have never appeared on TV. It seems that from the day the software was born, these people in the software industry believed that people who bought their software absolutely did not need it. Know the name of the software from the TV.

  The commercial vehicle passed through Qingshui Bay with white sand and blue sea, and the big village of St. Petersburg appeared in front of the two of them.

The locals wearing tank tops and shorts, wearing straw hats, smoking pipes, and carrying fishing gear or agricultural tools made Tommy and Sophia intuitively realize that they have come from California, the most populous and richest place in the United States, to the place where black people and Cuba or Florida, the poorest state in the United States for stowaways from Central America.

  The home TV shopping club that Tommy wants to meet is located in St. Petersburg, which does not look much different from Warwick.

Holly, Jason, and even Sophia didn't know why Tommy chose to look far away. Holly even regretted providing Tommy with information about this company. The problem is that Californians can't see the company's infomercials at all, and the signal only covers the local area of ​​Florida.

   Between a hamburger shop and a car wash shop on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, Tommy finally saw the advertising signboard of the Home TV Shopping Club.

Push open the door and walk in. There is only one hall which is roughly the size of two garages. Seven or eight people are sitting in different postures, talking on the phone in full swing. If there is not a string of wind chimes hanging on the door, they may not be here at all. Someone noticed Tommy and Sophia walking in.

  Although the air conditioner is whistling, the hall still feels hot.

"Toilet paper storage box with radio function? My friend, I don't know what happened to your brain to develop such a product, but it is very difficult to sell. Yes, those who watch our program are poor people who want to reap benefits, not a lot of money. Idiots who have no place to spend, we have to rack our brains to think of various advertisements, broadcast three times a day, each time is fifteen minutes long, and the price is 5,000 yuan a week, which is already very cheap! We have to convince people who watch the advertisement, why Just go to the toilet, and turn on the radio? Do you rely on the radio to teach them how to go to the toilet? Before the radio signal is searched, it may have been finished."

"We're a home infomercial, not an adult premium channel, and you can't even get an on-demand ad if you're going to bed with me! We don't want to close our doors yet, but you can leave your phone number and I might call after work on payday. for you…"

"Is it possible to sell a tape recorder with a camera function? It has applied for a patent? Who would buy a five-kilogram tape recorder and carry it to take pictures of people! Of course, it is not impossible if you are willing to pay a high price. We can always find all kinds of fools who are willing to pay..."

  Sophia stared dumbfounded at the hall full of chaos, swear words and strong tobacco smell, and said to Tommy: "This is completely different from the TV advertising company I saw in California, are you sure it's here?"

   "Of course it's different from California here. It's more direct and not hypocritical." Tommy said, looking around the hall.

  Finally, a middle-aged man hung up the phone and walked towards the two of them, looked at them and said, "We don't need interns here, unless you don't want to be paid, you just need our letter of recommendation."

   "See, this is what I said, not hypocritical." Tommy first said with a smile to Sophia, and then explained to the other party:

   "I called, Actor Software Company, from California, wanted to advertise on TV here, and appointed Bob Costa, a partner of your company, to help us sell on the show."

   "Bob! You have fans!" After hearing Tommy's words, the middle-aged man turned his head and roared vigorously into the hall.

   Soon, a brown-haired young man of about 24 or 25 years old came from the corner, looked at Tommy and Tommy in puzzlement, and then looked at his companion with inquiring eyes.

  The middle-aged man said to him: "They want to advertise, saying that they have called before, from California, and hope to appoint you to help..."

"Tommy, Tommy Hawk, right?" Hearing what the other person said, the young man named Bob Costa smiled, stretched out his hand to Tommy, and said with a smile: "I'm Bob, we talked on the phone earlier. .”

   "This is Sophia, my legal counsel." Tommy introduced, and then looked around the noisy surroundings: "Can we talk in another place? Or would you like us to have a loudspeaker each and talk face to face."

  Under a sunshade next to a caravan, Tommy and Sophia were sitting on a recliner. Bob took out a few cans of Coke from the caravan refrigerator and put them on the table beside them. After finishing all this, he sat down and said with a smile:

   "I guess this place should be clean enough, and the environment here is good."

  Tommy took the Coke, opened it and took a sip: "It's really good, let's make a long story short, because I hope to spend three hours discussing the issue of advertising, and then go to the airport and fly back to California."

   "I've thought about it carefully, Mr. Hawke..." Bob Costa crossed his hands, leaned forward, and said close to Tommy.

  Tommy interrupted him, smiled and reminded this commercial host who is known as the originator of the world's delivery anchors and earned a billion dollars by delivering goods: "You can call me Tommy, Bob."

The reason why he ran to Florida was that he saw the information about the Florida Home Shopping Club TV advertising company that Holly gave him, and found Bob Costa's photo and name from it. Although this is a company established last year, but Bob Costa is a well-known business figure who gave a speech at a business school in the last life.

This guy graduated from high school and became a talk show actor. He made a living telling all kinds of jokes in bars. He almost starved to death. Then he went to the radio station to be a talk show host. Since he started hosting late night talk shows, the number of taxi collision accidents is higher than before. Nearly ten percent, because the driver was tired of listening to his jokes.

Because he was constantly humiliated by the audience, saying that listening to him broadcast commercials was more funny than telling jokes, so he simply tried to be a TV commercial host. It turned out that this guy was born to be a TV salesman, and introduced him with various jokes. Commodities are easy to understand. 70% of housewives in the United States have bought the products he promoted in TV commercials. Later, he even created the rule of not charging advertising fees and directly sharing, that is, selling products in his commercials. He charges advertising fees, but every time he sells a piece, he will draw a certain amount of commission.

"Well, Tommy, I've probably sold more than seventy items on a telemarketing show, and we'll sell anything for the money, including Rubik's Cube, because a lot of parents here can't play with their kids, Therefore, its sales are very good. Parents buy it back and use it to maintain their dignity in parent-child games. They also sell bras that men can grow chest muscles without exercising after wearing them. In fact, they are also sold to women, and some small sizes will be sold. For women, to put it bluntly, it can increase breasts... But to be honest, I think your software is the most difficult, because the viewers who watch TV are low-income viewers, most of them are housewives, hoping to buy something practical and cheap , I can guarantee that 80% of the audience don't have a computer at home.” Bob Costa said to Tommy:

"Of course I am willing to do your business, but I am afraid that you will complain about the unsatisfactory sales afterwards, so I made it clear to you first. I know that software is very expensive, and the price is about the same as buying a computer. Do you think those women will Buy?"

"The price is 49.99. We promise that after the purchase, you only need to study hard for eight days to master it, and then you can go to the newspaper to read the high-paying advertisements of big companies recruiting clerks. By the way, there is also free training. We cooperate with many universities. The student organization cooperates and organizes free training courses. Of course, there are also here in Florida, so you only need to buy the software, and you don't even need to buy the computer yourself. We provide the computer for free training, and then you have a job with a minimum salary of 200 weeks Waiting for you, there are travel agencies everywhere in Florida, and those travel agencies need clerks to help enter passenger information, let them go to find out, see how much the person who helps the travel agency enters the information earns every week, buy our software, she and Like those guys, with a decent income." Tommy took out his cigarette, lit one, and said to Bob.

Bob's eyes widened: "49.99 yuan? Our company bought a second-hand computer for 300 yuan. We also wanted to make some spreadsheets to make ourselves look more upscale. But when we heard that we were a company, the other party directly reported 1295. The price is enough for us to buy four computers. I mean, if it is really 49.99? Unlimited? It won't lie? And there is really free training?”

   "Of course." Tommy nodded affirmatively: "We won't lie, we are college students, we just want to do some charity activities to help women, and earn a meager profit to guarantee expenses."

"If it's this price, I think you can try it. Many women here can only do some part-time jobs and stay at home most of the time, otherwise they won't watch this kind of commercials to pass the time every day." Bob was a little moved , His biggest concern before was that the price of software was too high. If a group of housewives spent hundreds of dollars to buy software, they would not take out the money, but now they only need less than fifty dollars to buy software. The most important thing is that many people should be tempted to buy a stable and high-paying job.

  Tommy looked at Bob and asked suspiciously, "Just to try?"

   "That's right, because I haven't sold this thing, I can only try..." Bob explained to Tommy.

  Tommy suddenly changed the subject: "How many bras did you sell that lied that it could automatically grow chest muscles?"

   "There are more than 90,000 pieces, but it is very cheap, and the price is only 9.9. Even if you don't grow chest muscles, you can just wear it as an ordinary vest, and the audience can accept it." Bob thought for a while and said to Tommy.

   "How much money will you make if I invest four weeks?"

   "If you buy the best time slot, you will need about 20,000 yuan a month. I personally only have 10% of the shares in this company, so about 2,000 yuan?"

   "We can change the way of cooperation."

"In what way?"

"I will pay for the advertising fee, but I will pay after it is broadcast. I can sign a sales agreement with you privately. As for how you explain it to your company partner, that is your business. The content of the agreement is that you Sell ​​a suite of software, and I'll pay you $14.99."

   "..." Bob's eyes widened and he looked at Tommy.

  Not only him, even Sophia next to him was instantly petrified!

She has seen Tommy Hawk's stinginess before, saying that he paid her a part-time weekly salary of 80 yuan a week, but she has never seen it until now, but now she is willing to give such a salary to this TV salesman named Bob. How good is it?

   This guy is gay! Facing a beauty like yourself, you will only squeeze again and again, but facing a man, you will take the initiative to raise the price?

Tommy stared into Bob's eyes: "I don't need you to sell 90,000 units, but if you can help me sell 10,000 units in Florida, which has a permanent population of 9.7 million, you can get One hundred and forty-nine thousand nine hundred."

   "If I sell a set, I can get fifteen yuan? Fifteen yuan?" Bob took a few deep breaths before asking Tommy uncertainly.

Tommy said affirmatively: "That's right, so I hope you design your ad carefully. In addition to fooling them into taking money out, you should also add that the original intention of Actor's company was to help the poor change their lives and promote women. Employment, etc. win the favor of women and the poor, and Actor is under tremendous pressure to do this right thing, because some software vendors don't want to see the poor gaining knowledge like them. The specific information is after signing the contract , Sophia will give it to you."

   "I don't need to read those materials, I believe in Actor's original intention." Bob calmed down his excitement and said.

   Tommy asked with a smile. "Why?"

  Bob also laughed: "Because you are willing to give me a high price first, and help me, a poor man, to change my destiny. This is the closest I have been to earning 100,000 yuan since I was born."

   "Then seize this opportunity."

   Second update

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end