"What exactly do you want?"

For the sake of Corporal Gu Kun's very polite attitude, Giorgio Armani finally held back the words that were ready to be used to angrily denounce the "barbarians at the door", making the first exchange between the two sides seem to have no smell of gunpowder.

I have to say that although this old man looks very old, his bearing is still very elegant, he is only 65 years old and has pure white hair, giving people a sense of déjà vu of the old immortal Ding Chunqiu.

Gu Kun politely poured a glass of Tuscan wine for the other party: "Mr. Armani, times have changed, luxury goods in the new era need new publicity and exposure, and those who don't like it need to know that 'wearing this brand is a symbol of status and decency'." ”

Armani: "You're insulting art!"

Gu Kun: "I'm just talking about an objective existence and an external threat, not that I'm going to interfere with your business philosophy - you can do otherwise, but Bernard Arnault is already doing this, and his LVMH brand has no exceptions." You can do otherwise, but you can't pretend to be an ostrich and deny the objective existence of reality. ”

Before and after the advent of the Internet, the brand thinking of luxury goods is completely different.

Before the Internet was widespread, name-calling was not a form of productivity, nor was click-through rate a type of productivity. Most of the reputation that brands need is a good reputation, and very few will degenerate to the point where they find it useful to be infamous. (Brain platinum is an exception.)

But after the popularization of the Internet, the logic has completely changed, and the donkey brand bag can be scolded as a bag carried by a vegetable seller, but as long as this reputation is spread in the process, people generally realize that "this bag is at least 20,000 yuan", then the purpose of the brand has been achieved. From now on, carrying a donkey brand bag on the street, others can not like it, but they have to know that you have carried 20,000 yuan, and the purpose of reflecting the value has been achieved.

In fact, this is similar to giving a gift to a box of brain platinum, the giver may think, "I send something else, and the person who receives it after sending it doesn't know how much it is worth, maybe you have to wonder if you will receive a fake, receive a discounted product, whether the unit will send it after you can't finish eating and using it, and whether the sincerity is enough to ......"

Instead of leaving so many chains of suspicion, it is better to send a waste that everyone knows how much he is worth and knows that he is really useless.

In this way, at least the recipient received a clear message: although he gave me a lump of spicy chicken, it was at least a lump of hard currency spicy chicken worth 300 yuan, and I forwarded it to fool others, and others knew that it would cost 300 yuan.

Anyway, everyone doesn't eat brain platinum, whoever eats the shark arm, so it doesn't matter if the expiration date has passed, then circulate it.

If it weren't for Shi Yuzhu's reputation being too good and not good for packaging transformation, his idea could have been transplanted to make luxury goods. Anyway, luxury goods are also as long as everyone agrees how much this thing is worth, it is enough to have this attribute, and the practicality is also the same waste as brain platinum, and the quality is far inferior to fakes.

At this juncture in 99, most of the people who make independent brands and call themselves artists look at Bernard Arnault in the same way that people in China look at Shi Yuzhu.

As long as Gu Kun scolds Arnott with them, it is the best way to shorten the distance between the two sides. This is a typical distraction tactic, and the guests are playing very slippery.

What could be better to unite within, than to establish a common illusion of external enemies.

Giorgio Armani's resistance really collapsed slightly, and after following Gu Kun to pretend to be elegant and spray Arnott without a trace, the two began to talk and laugh.

Of course, Giorgio Armani is a very proud kind of person, even when he is a troll, he sprays on the shelf, and he can't say dirty words.

Gu Kun saw that the time was almost over, and put forward his first substantive plan:

"Georges, I'd love to make the Armani brand a pioneer in the fight against LVMH in the men's luxury market, so you need to be defensive and increase your reach. If you feel that you are too embarrassed and not reserved enough, I can do it for you.

As long as you allow me to increase some financial shares, and share some more benefits from the future growth of the brand, I will help you with these unelegant publicity, I am not afraid of vulgarity, but at the same time I respect the artist very much.

If you don't believe me, you can talk to Galeazzo or McQueen, I have some friendship with them, even though they belong to someone else's camp at the moment. I didn't have a deep friendship with Galeazzo, but I had been around for a few years, when I was just a shipwreck hunter selling in the Netherlands, nowhere near as developed as I am now, and you can get an idea of what kind of person I am. ”

Gu Kun mentioned Galeazzo and McQueen, chief designers/design directors of LVMH and Kering, respectively. Those people have a good personal relationship with Armani, but they are a bit "literati and light", because artists will definitely not openly admire other artists, they are all very arrogant.

But most of them are willing to believe the wind comments of their peers.

Giorgio Armani hesitated for a few seconds: "I will not allow anyone to interfere with my independent business decisions and design decisions. But now you have a shareholding of nearly 40% through various means, second only to me!"

Gu Kun smiled: "What's so difficult about this? You may not know about the new situation outside, but you should also know that the hottest concept in the investment world is the Internet." In online companies, it is common for the founder's team to be diluted in order to bring in large sums of money to burn money and expand rapidly.

But they have devised a mechanism that allows the founding team to reduce the share of dividends without losing control of the company's decision-making, that is, to engage in AB shares and different rights of the same shares. I think that the contradiction between us can be completely through the issuance of additional AB shares with different rights of the same shares, so that I have the right to pay more dividends, but I can't interfere with you. Moreover, we can even be like Internet companies to increase the promotion effect of some specific markets to set a threshold for capital increase and share increase, and only after the effect is good is allowed to increase shares. ”

Giorgio Armani was speechless in shock.

Of course, he has heard of the AB share scheme with weighted voting rights, after all, he is also the owner of a world-class independent luxury brand company, and he still has business knowledge.

However, because of the business relationship of the luxury industry, he is limited to knowing the name and the literal understanding of the meaning of the same shares, and he does not know anything else. He has never heard of the WVR approach, which can be transferred from technology stocks to luxury.

What is Gu Kun trying to do? His brain hole is too big.

The point is, this kind of thinking, no giant in the luxury industry has ever been willing to be so generous before, Gu Kun is simply a "catfish effect" that comes in and smashes all vested interests.

If Bernard Arnott, François Pinault and John Rupert knew that Gu Kun did this, then the brothers would not hate Gu Kun to death.

Therefore, even if he does, Gu Kun will keep it secret from the outside world for the time being.

Fortunately, Armani is not a listed company, and the minority shareholder's equity is basically concentrated, as long as Gu Kun and Giorgio Armani themselves agree, it is easy to block the news for a few years. The two parties can issue new shares in the form of a secret supplementary agreement.

"If you can really help Armani grow, and you don't interfere with the operation and design, it's okay for you to increase your capital and have more financial benefits. But how do you define your contribution? Giorgio Armani loosened his mouth like never before.

Gu Kun breathed a sigh of relief, and on the surface, he still seemed to be very calm and said: "It's very simple, for example, I will set up another sales company, and you will completely and exclusively grant the distribution rights of the Asia-Pacific region, or at least the East Asia and Southeast Asian markets, to that sales company."

Then, let's leave a one-year buffer period, starting next year, and bet on two or three years to see how much sales of the Armani brand grow in East and Southeast Asia. If it exceeds a certain multiple of the existing sales, the sales company has the right to ask for a lower discount on the purchase price, and I also have the right to request the issuance of additional new shares in Armani that only pay dividends and do not vote. ”

Obviously, Gu Kun is betting on the sales and shipments of Lanfang in the next few years, and its ability to influence the Chinese market. The reason why it will start from next year is also because the high-end shopping places in Lanfang are still in the construction period in full swing, and even if they are built, it will take a period of buffering and publicity, so that Chinese tourists can realize their high-end characteristics and form a reputation.

Therefore, it is relatively safe to start gambling in 2000.

If Giorgio Armani bets well, Gu Kun can also use this case to concoct the same method for Gucci.

I believe that at that time, the case of Arnault's attempt to acquire Gucci must have been in full trouble, and the boss of Gucci would definitely invite Gu Kun, a white knight, to resist the barbarian at Arnott's door.

Wouldn't it be beautiful to hit it off when the time comes.

Giorgio Armani thought about it, and understood Gu Kun's proposal in his heart.

Gu Kun is a native of Lanfang, a Nanyang tycoon, and his voice in other markets is still not enough, but in the Asia-Pacific region, his popularity and propaganda power must not be underestimated.

After all, Gu Kun still has the identity of a "former world's top superstar", and he also knows and has friends with many people in Hollywood. Even Armani had asked Gu Kunsoft to endorse before, when Gu Kun was not so rich.

If Gu Kun becomes a major shareholder, the brand promotion will be full of firepower, and the promotion efforts will be really extraordinary.

Moreover, after becoming a major shareholder, there is no problem of falling out of force for the endorsement of his own brand. Ma Feng endorses Ahri's various businesses every day, and no one despises him as an advertising dog.

Armani just had one last worry: "Gu, please tell me seriously, do you think the biggest growth point in the Asian market in the future lies in the Chinese cultural circle? You must know that in the Chinese cultural circle, the annual shipment volume is less than one-tenth of the market, and the value of the agency in China is less than one-tenth of the agency right." ”

However, Gu Kun is extremely confident in this question:

"That's just the afterglow of the Showa era, we have to look at the problem from the perspective of development, and it is inevitable that I will enter a low-level society, and only a rising country, only a country that traces back to my parents that everyone is still poor, there is a need to show off. If the aristocracy has been formed, the class has been solidified, and you can't pretend that others know what class you are, then why spend this unjust money?"

The Chinese cultural circle will not always need luxury goods, and when the Chinese class is also solidified, and the grandfather's generation is not "all poor", the Chinese will no longer crave luxury goods.

Luxury is used in societies where "my grandfather is as poor as your grandfather, and I need this bag/watch to prove that I am not as poor as you". After this stage, the social discourse will change to "I like to drive a Santana not because I don't have money, but because I am used to it, I opened a Santana thirty years ago".