Chapter 42: 042

Chapter 42

"Title: Melon-eating Theory Discussion / Feeling that Random Entertainment has something, not sure if my analysis is correct."

"I looked it up, Random Entertainment was only established at the end of June this year, so it's only been half a year. To be able to achieve this scale with trainees, the decision-makers must have some skills, and they have deep knowledge of the fan circle."

"Let's discuss in detail what paths Random Entertainment took to succeed."

"1. Trainee selection that very much fits the national conditions."

"In our domestic entertainment fan circle, there are very high appearance requirements for artists. They can lack acting skills, they can lack talent, but they can't be ugly. Looking at Random Entertainment's trainees, even the worst are handsome, all would be considered campus heartthrobs at school. There are no ordinary-looking kids at all. It's the group with the highest looks among all the talent shows I've seen so far."

"2. Very strict and high-pressure trainee life."

"The looks are up there, but the skills may not keep up. Based on some fragmentary details from the show, the trainees' training life is very high-pressure and competitive. The management is not nurturing like raising children. During training, they seem to rarely praise the trainees, and the trainees are even more afraid of the chief producer. You can tell they've been scolded a lot usually."

"This kind of training environment will make the trainees grow rapidly while cultivating their ability to handle pressure."

"3. Peripheral product output and breaking out of the circle"

"After getting the trainees, the series of operations that followed can be described as textbook-level marketing to break out of the circle. The domestic idol industry is not mature, so they try hard to lean towards foreign markets, attracting domestic K-pop fans to pay attention. After gaining attention, they use best-selling products, plus 20% innovation, to attract more fans to pay attention."

"Before the show started, the company only had twenty trainees. In order to be able to do the show, they recruited more than forty more trainees. They could have filmed with just twenty, so why did they need so many people? Because the talent show theme is hot in China right now, having more people allows them to lean in that direction and gain some popularity."

"For the trainees, these forty-plus new trainees are like catfish, putting pressure on them and forcing them to grow. Haven't you noticed that there are only twenty-one debut positions in the end? Because the company never expected those forty-plus people who came in later to squeeze into debut positions."

"They are just tools, tools to get attention for the show, tools to promote the growth of trainees. Even if a few stand out in the end, Random Entertainment still profits."

"Haven't you seen that the top twenty on the rankings are basically all those who have trained the longest?"

"4. Pricing"

"As more and more people get to know Random Entertainment, some have started to notice the low prices of their peripheral products."

"Compared to other companies in the entertainment circle that fleece fans, Random Entertainment's peripheral pricing is indeed very low. As long as they don't raise prices, this point will become Random Entertainment's eternal marketing point. If the price goes up a little bit, the previously marketed reputation will collapse."

"Back to the show, everyone knows that the highlight of these talent shows is the elimination rounds. Besides adding tension to the show, the biggest reason is that the production team wants to fleece fans - creating new accounts, buying memberships, buying things, all of these are ways to fleece fans."

"But Random Entertainment has no elimination system."

"I was wondering before, without this system, how are they going to make money? Now the textbook-level answer has come out, and it even connects with what was mentioned before."

"The answer is: best-selling products, plus 20% innovation, plus limited time and quantity."

"The small cards are made in a way that the public can't replicate, so fans who want to own them can only go to official channels. Yet they're also limited edition, so you might miss out if you're not careful."

"'Limited edition' is the one word Earthlings can't resist. The more you say it, the more people want to buy."

"Not only do they categorize items by rarity, but they also draw a circle on top of this, adding another limitation, which is that they can only be bought in certain cities."

"When demand exceeds supply, the second-hand market will rise, continuously soaring upwards."

"Fifty yuan for a small card, to be honest, is expensive. But if you buy it for fifty yuan and then sell it, earning fifty, it's not only not expensive, but even quite profitable. People who discover this business opportunity will squeeze in."

"With a mentality of 'let's give it a try, take a chance,' many people will participate, which will bring another wave of popularity to Random Entertainment."

"I boldly predict that the group debuted by Random Entertainment probably won't flop."

"All of these plans, truly missing one step would not work, which shows how smart the decision-makers are. I'm very curious about what plans they'll have in the future."

"Let's look forward to the album in advance."

Comments section:

"Too many words, didn't read, next."

"... Are you talking about Jiang Juyou?"

"The first two are hard to evaluate, isn't it that all companies only look for good-looking trainees? What's worth mentioning about this?"

"It's just a small card, you guys have already opened several threads about it."

"Sister above, read carefully. You can only make that much if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, you only make 25. There's no need to squeeze in there for just 25, it's really crowded!!!"

"If I buy ten thousand cards, wouldn't I make a killing?"

"First, you need the capital for ten thousand cards. Second, that cumulative gift event can only be claimed once per person. It's not worth it if you have over 300 cards. And with the current odds, you'd need 300 cards just to get one SSR. To get an SSS, you'd really need to be extremely lucky. Most people just get R or SR cards, which are more common and don't have much market value."

"What's that gift they're talking about? Why is it so expensive?"

"What's a Moontime Card Album? It's just an album, right? How can it be so expensive?"

"Because it falls into the 'rare items' category, and it's for individual trainees. You can choose the person after reaching the full amount."

"The group discussed this yesterday. I remember someone replied in that thread."

"Copied from there: Yesterday, a staff member introduced it, saying the Moontime Card Album's cover content and color change with the full moon. Right now, the writing on the cover is very faint. During the full moon, the writing will be at its clearest, then it will fade again. After completely fading, it will show another content and color, and these two will keep alternating."

"It's all Chinese characters. How come I can't understand it?"

"The current Moontime Card Album cover has handwritten letters from the trainees. I have Pei Luming's, let me show you."

This comment comes with a picture. The photo shows an extremely thick card album with a hardcover made of paper, with a matte finish. It can be opened like a gift box, with loose-leaf pages inside. It's 9x9 in size and can hold over 400 small cards.

The album is light blue, and you can faintly see some writing on the cover, which is a letter Pei Luming wrote to his fans. The content is very emotional. A fan posted it on Monday, and many people's eyes welled up after reading it.

-- And then they bought cards even more frantically.

Each person's cover color is different. Gao Xiayu's is black and white, with a white matte cover that looks even more high-end. The side of the cover has the name he gave to the album.

Because of his album, everyone noticed that there was actually writing on the cover.

Just as the staff said, the album changes with the full moon. Now the cover color is gradually deepening. After the full moon, the color will slowly fade until it becomes completely white, then another cover design will appear with a different color.

It's because of this uniqueness that its price is so high. Besides this, there's also a plushie that's given when you collect 200 cards.

That plushie is a 65cm long toast plushie. It looks like a slice of toast, but more rectangular in shape. The small expressions on the toast were designed by the trainees themselves, as well as the flavors.

The trainees were woken up early on Sunday morning because of this.

Ye Xing's toast plushie is peanut butter banana flavored. This is because when he went to the cafeteria after waking up, he found that only toast was available for breakfast. On the long table in front, there were a bunch of food ingredients. Each person was required to choose two, and they couldn't share with others.

He chose peanut butter and banana slices, took them to his seat, spread the peanut butter on the toast, and added a few banana slices before eating.

So Ye Xing's toast plushie is a slice of bread with a cute expression, plus a small blanket the color of peanut butter. The blanket can cover half of the toast, with details like peanut crumbs. The banana slices Ye Xing added weren't left out either - there are six banana slices, each as big as a palm, and they're all separate pieces that can be added one by one, just like how Ye Xing ate his breakfast.

The most amazing thing is that the plushie actually smells like toast. You can smell the fragrance of peanuts, bananas, and bread. Taking a deep breath can make your mouth water.

The on-site staff even guaranteed that the scent won't disappear. If it does, you can send it back to Random Entertainment for a replacement.

As more people reached the target, the flavors of all the trainees' toast plushies were revealed.

"Pei Luming's toast is cheese and bacon flavored. Do you know how torturous it is to hug it at night?"

"Yao Shuo's is strawberry cream flavored. It smells so good, I want to bury my face in it."

"Sang Mo's is fried egg and ketchup. It has two little blankets! Super cute!"

"Yiwu, the only one you might be able to replicate! I'm counting on you!"

"Can't replicate it. The little toast has a scent. Without the scent, it loses its soul."

"I'd be willing even without the scent... Please, can we have something more affordable? The official version costs ten thousand."

"If any sisters are thinking of getting one, I strongly recommend Yao Shuo's strawberry cream toast and Chi Qiao's blueberry green grape toast. They smell so good! I rubbed it on my hair, and the fragrance lasted all morning! Instantly became a human strawberry cream!"

"Chen Wu's cocoa sauce and crushed peanut toast also smells great. It sits there making me want to take a bite. I've been going to bakeries more often these days."

"Let me say it again: Random Entertainment! Genius planners! Gods of the merchandise world!"

I want to eat bread too...