After receiving a call from his supervisor, Osborne, who had already walked to the underground parking lot after get off work, immediately decided to return to the company.
He did not come to the back office department alone, and met the company's President Hill on the way.
President Hill is the top person in charge of the European region.
Osborne is considered to be half a superior, but he is basically in charge of different businesses. There is still a certain degree of competition in the future competition for the head of the entire tens of billions group.
Director Charlie is Hill’s direct favorite.
Unsurprisingly, both of them probably came here for the investigation of the Internal Affairs Department.
When they met, they just said hello with a smile, and brought Their respective secretaries and assistants, like two distinct armies, walked into the office area of the Internal Affairs Department side by side.
"Detective Cat is very good at drawing, are you right with your conscience?"
As soon as they walked to the door, they heard Charlie's sarcasm.
"Mr. Charlie, the sample of Detective Cat has passed the review of your art department. What are you talking about now?" Osborne opened the door and said with a smile.
“I didn’t review bushit.” Charlie said angrily.
"Why, Deputy Director Schubert is no longer a member of the art department, or is it that the art department of the group has become your voice, Charlie. Only you can review manuscripts. What kind of rule is this?"< /p>
The smile on Osborne's face disappeared, and his tone was sharp.
"Okay, okay, Director Charlie also cares about the quality of illustrators for major projects for the sake of better market sales. It is the art director's job in itself, and it is understandable." President Hill smoothed things over for his subordinates. .
"In terms of artistic quality, Vice President Schubert has already made a professional judgment. In terms of rules and regulations, have you found out that Assistant Cole has violated any discipline?"
Au Siben turned to ask the person in charge of the internal affairs department.
The person in charge took the intercom phone on the table and said a few words.
From the moment the fat assistant was brought to the back office department, his work computer had already been taken away.
The technical department of the group will check the downloaded emails and other work information related to the agents of the Little Prince Project and Detective Cat.
At present, it seems that apart from the fact that there is only a few seconds of time difference between the assistant submitting the sample to the art department and someone from the art department picking up the file, it looks like there is collusion.
No additional findings.
"Technical staff are still checking more in-depth content. If there are any follow-up findings, we will notify you separately."
The person in charge looked at the fat assistant's face, which was still stained with sweat, and said "It seems OK now."
According to his intuition, the person in charge still thinks there is something wrong with this matter.
However, if someone is selling trade secrets to a rival company, the person in charge may take it seriously. He didn't bother with this kind of fairy-tale fight that was obviously high-level office politics.get to the bottom.
"In this case, the investigation is over. Assistant Cole, Deputy Director Schubert, you can leave." Osborne snapped his fingers to cut through the mess.
"Stop, stop, they can't leave. This matter is not over. Who said there is no problem with the artistic level?"
Charlie shouted.
Isn’t it funny that this matter can end so easily?
"I think Deputy Director Schubert made a wrong judgment due to personal negligence, and his judgment about the detective cat cannot be regarded as a correct evaluation."
"What are you going to do? The contract has been signed, but I can still review the draft." Osborne frowned.
"If it is reviewed by a third-party art appraisal agency, I actually have no objection." Schubert stared into Charlie's eyes.
He didn’t feel guilty at all when discussing the quality of Detective Cat’s draft painting alone.
"There is no better way than third-party audit." Charlie chewed his cigar with a cunning expression.
He also doesn’t want to do any art appraisal.
Not only is there no precedent for this, but artistry is inherently a fictitious matter. Even if the detective cat is found to be unqualified, what will happen?
Osborne and Schubert also had excuses for being able to tell the difference.
Charlie hopes to use a more simple, crude and convincing statement to nail these hateful guys to the pillar of shame together with the detective cat.
He wants to completely destroy the reputation of this online illustrator.
"Since you are optimistic about Detective Cat, let her submit a cover draft, and ask the Wehrlein studio originally scheduled to submit a cover draft, and bind them on a blank book cover. How about doing a simulated market survey? "Like this"
Charlie confidently said, "For illustrators, what better way to prove their artistic level than the market? Customers are the best judges."
Simulation. Market research.
After the turn of the millennium, it is no longer a new concept for large business groups and has formed a very mature model.
A simpler simulated market survey is to distribute some questionnaires on the street.
Many of the polls people conduct on Twitter and Weibo and the questionnaires and quizzes filled out in their circle of friends fall into this category.
Large companies, on the other hand, are more serious about preliminary market research and are more professional.
Many large-scale projects will cost a lot of money to hire professional business consulting companies, which specialize in hiring customers of different ages, different races, and different social classes to conduct professional market analysis.
Movies have preview screenings, and AAA game masterpieces have A-test, B-test, and C-test.
Publishing companies also have their own market research methods.
Small publishing houses may at most hold trial reading sessions, or contact a few book reviewers to see how the manuscript is received.
A business empire like schostic needs to be much richer.
In the European store on London’s Financial Street where they are nowThere is a bookstore in the continental headquarters building.
From decoration to furnishings, from the design of the windows, the chandeliers on the ceiling to the patterns on the oak floors.
Everything is modeled after the decoration specifications of Aterstones, the largest and most popular bookstore chain in the UK.
This bookstore is not open to the public and is not a bookstore.
Everything about it looks like a bookstore, but its real function is an 11-year-old model testing ground built by the marketing department.
The bookstore can meet almost any research needs related to the physical book market.
Its main design purpose is to provide group channel dealers with the evaluation of sales operations of physical bookstores.
Bookstores in the West, like coffee shops, are a type of social occasion.
Whether it is the temperature and taste of the freshly ground coffee sold at the store bar, or the impact of different placements of bookcases on sales for customers of different ages, or whether it is necessary to add more books in the physical bookstore Children's activity areas, as well as the ambient music that male and female couples look forward to hearing when dating in the bookstore
The marketing department can invite volunteers to design different market research plans based on the different needs of the group.
It is basically not difficult to determine whose work is more popular between two illustrators.
Simply print out a few sets of illustration covers from different illustrators, bind them on a blank book model, and place them on the bookshelf.
Then ask a hundred volunteers to visit the bookstore and count their selection intentions, and that's it.
The principle is not complicated, and the investigation is not difficult. It only takes an afternoon.
"I don't agree. Since the contract has been given out, how can we easily change people." Osborne frowned, "There is no reason for this. It is simply humiliating others."
"The level of Wehrlein Studio's works is the truth."
Charlie frowned, without even looking at Osborne, and turned his attention to President Hill.
"I think this idea is feasible. Osborne, I know that if you want to promote Detective Cat, you still have to put the interests of the group first. The estimated sales target of 300,000 copies a year set by the board of directors There is a lot of pressure, this is not an ideal occasion to gild newcomers, change the book.”
President Hill’s words seem to be pertinent.
You don’t have to be a fool to hear the bias in his words. Not only did Hill believe that market research was imperative, but he also believed that Detective Cat had no chance of success.
It’s not just President Hill.
Including the onlookers’ back office staff and the assistants and secretaries accompanying the two presidents. After they heard this proposal, most of them had similar feelings.
It’s not that they don’t like Detective Cat.
But the standard of Wehrlein Studio is far beyond the standard of ordinary illustrators.
People are afraid of comparison.
If you sayGenerally, the passing mark for illustrators is 30 points, and those with 60 points are considered excellent illustrators.
The Wehrlein painter may be able to get 85 points and 90 points.
The gap between 90 points and 60 points is as obvious as the gap between 60 points and 30 points. They are both instant kills.
When ordinary excellent painters meet the Wehrlein Studio, they will appear like poor and cheap painters who cannot even meet the passing mark.
This gap will be intuitively reflected in the sales volume.
If you are lucky, the difference may be only a few percentage points. If you are unlucky, the sales difference may be 50% or even 50%. It is not impossible for it to be doubled.
Book products, especially children’s books, cannot be ruined by rubbish illustrations.
Similar to the situation in which poor and "poisonous" illustrations in Dongxia textbooks aroused widespread social criticism, it is also common in the European and American book markets where child protection regulations are more stringent.
If a few education magazines criticize you, parents will not dare to buy it for their children.
Charlie looked confident that he had a chance to win, so he didn't notice that Deputy Director Schubert next to him looked a little strange at this time.
Schubert lowered his head and thought about the sample illustrations submitted by Detective Cat, and then recalled the works of Wehrlein Studio that he had seen
His waist was quiet. Straightened up a bit.
You can do it
As long as Detective Cat can continue to maintain this level, Schubert does not think that the standard of Wehrlein Studio will be higher than Detective Cat.
He is very confident in the artistic level of Detective Cat.
Charlie wants to rely on market research and use the heavy blow of Wehrlein Studio in his hand to severely destroy the group's confidence in Detective Cat.
The other way around.
This is not a good opportunity for Detective Cat and Schubert
Not to mention how much fame it can bring to Detective Cat by defeating this old-school studio. , Schubert can also use this to gain a foothold in the art department.
Schubert's heart skipped a beat. He found that President Osborne was looking at him quietly, and he immediately nodded quietly and calmly.
Osborne was convinced in his heart, but he did not let go.
"I don't agree. Director Charlie's proposal is against the rules. It is normal for a studio as powerful as Wehrlein to draw better than Detective Cat. There is no precedent for replacing the painter for this reason. Already signed Contract, Detective Cat’s agent will not agree to do any more market research.”
“We can give Detective Cat more compensation, give her a long-term contract, add some bonuses, or give her a larger share. Give her two points or something." Hill said in an understatement, "If she can defeat Werlein Studio, it would be okay to give her a little more sweetness. If it doesn't work, I won't be able to pay the liquidated damages and cancel the contract, and I can't blame others."
Pay the contract penalty, or give one or two more points as a share, the president doesn’t care much either.
To put it bluntly, this is all small money.
The group has at least one billion US dollars in revenue every year. Counting i adaptations, it would be amazing if a super best-seller could account for 5 of them.
Monsters like Harry Potter may not be encountered once in decades.
The original version of The Little Prince can be considered one of these monsters, but today, with hundreds of millions of copies sold, its aura has faded a lot.
One or two percentage points of a million copies sold is certainly a huge benefit to the individual illustrator, but for the group, it is just a drop in the bucket.
Not to mention the share of hundreds of thousands to one million US dollars, even if the little prince expects total sales of tens of millions of euros during the sales cycle, it may not be a big deal for schostic. .
What really makes President Hill and Osborne so serious.
It is the huge reputation that a super best-seller can bring.
For example, works produced by Schostic can top the New York Times bestseller list for many weeks in a row in the North American market.
And whether the new version of The Little Prince can be selected into the recommended extracurricular books by various education committees or private schools.
It is even a literature class textbook.
Not only can it bring a large amount of stable income every year, but the benefits from hidden channels and cooperation bridges are also very important to schostic.
Selling textbooks is a very big business in Europe and the United States.
It is normal for a student to spend thousands of dollars on textbooks in one semester. If he buys all new books, he might be able to buy a second-hand Mustang sports car after finishing middle school textbooks.
At the same time, from a personal perspective, being able to produce a super best-selling book is also an opportunity to show your ability to the board of directors.
"Well, my colleagues in the marketing department discussed whether Little Prince should release a collector's edition book gift box."
President Hill finalized the matter with a wave of his hand. . "No matter Detective Cat or Wehrlein Studio, whoever leads the market survey will produce a set of Little Prince illustration postcard peripherals for their works as a reward."
The postcard peripherals of the book refer to the postcard peripherals of the book. When some children's or cartoon books are published, a set of themed postcards or illustrations are specially themed around the illustrations in the books.
Disney's works, or light and anime such as Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan, all have such peripherals for sale.
A single volume of Sword Art Online may sell for more than ten dollars in North America, and a collector's edition gift box containing Asuna's illustration book may sell for 60 dollars, or even hundreds. Dollar.
This kind of peripherals can not only be placed in book gift boxes, but can also be sold individually.
If the book itself is popular, the sales volume is generally not bad, the profit margin is also very high, and it is completely built around illustrators.
This reward is indeed very exciting. Please remember to collect it, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft