"Simple! Just give the people from the Merchant Alliance branch different houses to live in," Ethan continued to fool him, "It's the same principle as the three-tier hot spring system I told you about earlier."
"Ordinary people soak in the basic hot spring. There are no freebies or services."
"To put it simply, the only advantage of the basic package is that it's cheap."
"Other than being cheap, it has nothing going for it."
"But people who have a little money, or people like those you invited over to help you and who also have to help you solve some business-related problems, naturally belong to the executive level."
"When you arrange accommodations for them, you naturally have to distinguish them from ordinary people. So you should arrange a high-level flower-petal hot spring for them and create the illusion that they're one level above your workers."
"But in reality, everyone is doing roughly the same things."
"You just need to raise their status and give them that sense of superiority. Get it?"
"I kind of get it," Mr. White nodded as if he understood, then said, "Then should I rent each of them a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, or give each of them a single room?"
"That still isn't right," Ethan led Mr. White toward the villa district while teaching him, "All you're doing is giving them a better environment and more space."
"But they'd still be living in the same building as your workers, wouldn't they?"
"There's no real distinction between them."
"And you still haven't given them that sense of superiority in status. That'll easily make them feel like you don't value them."
"Do you get it or not?"
"I kind of get it, but not really," Mr. White nodded, then shook his head, "Then what do you suggest?"
"Ah! You came to the right person by asking me."
Ethan led Mr. White to a small villa. Each floor was about two hundred square meters, and the villa had three floors.
The total area was six hundred square meters. There were ten bedrooms, four living rooms, a large terrace, and a small garden.
"Please!"
Ethan pushed open the door and gestured for him to enter.
Mr. White's eyebrows immediately twitched. He suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Lord Ethan, you…"
"I'm naturally just bringing you here to experience the different treatment given to different levels," Only after leading Mr. White into the villa did Ethan begin explaining, "Although this villa looks quite luxurious, it actually doesn't cost much."
"There are ten rooms in one villa, enough for ten to twenty people, but the yearly rental rate is only one hundred Dragon Coins a day."
"Free drinking water is provided in the villa, with unlimited supply. No matter how much your people can drink, they can drink as much as they want, but selling it is prohibited."
"The villa also has another advantage: an oversized hot spring bathtub in the bathroom, which you can soak in whenever you want."
"And there are ten breakfast vouchers every day."
"People staying in the villa can take the breakfast vouchers to our town's restaurant during the designated hours, and they can eat completely free."
"Think about it, Mr. White."
"My restaurant serves breakfast buffet-style. There's meat, vegetables, and milk. If I sold a breakfast voucher separately, it would cost at least three Dragon Coins each."
"Ten vouchers would be thirty Dragon Coins."
"And every week, I also provide ten fruit wine vouchers. With a voucher, you can go to the town's bar and exchange it for a free glass of fruit wine. One glass of fruit wine sells for five Dragon Coins, so that comes to fifty Dragon Coins."
"Add in the money saved on showers and drinking water, and wouldn't you save another twenty Dragon Coins a day?"
"Do the math. Thirty plus fifty plus twenty, isn't that one hundred Dragon Coins?"
"If ten people live in this villa, it's basically free."
"If twenty people live in this villa, then I'm actually losing money."
"Uh…"
Upon hearing this, Mr. White was practically moved to tears, "Lord Ethan, you really treat me like a brother. You're truly being so good to me, giving me so many discounts. I'm really touched."
"You're welcome, you're welcome."
Ethan smiled and shook Mr. White's hand, "So, how many of these free villas would you like?"
In fact, Ethan had quietly changed quite a few concepts. For example, the fruit wine vouchers were actually only given ten per week. Spread out over seven days, that meant the daily discount was actually only about seven Dragon Coins.
But Ethan had counted them as part of the daily benefits.
This created the illusion that it was really cheap.
Not only that.
The so-called free drinking water and hot spring baths actually cost Ethan almost nothing.
After all, he now had a source of running water, and that water was completely enough for everyone in the town.
So he didn't have to spend a single penny.
Finally… The so-called breakfast buffet vouchers.
This sounded like a really good deal, like a generous benefit, right?
But in reality, the meat was supplied in limited quantities. Each person only got a small portion, and they had to line up to collect it. The vegetables and some worthless grass cakes, on the other hand, could be eaten for free as much as they wanted. But how much could they really eat?
Yet it would give people the impression that the food was extremely plentiful.
Not only that, the breakfast vouchers actually had a trap too.
Ethan had said they had to go to the restaurant during a designated period, which meant that once the time was up, the voucher was void.
All these advanced marketing concepts were naturally methods for making money that hardworking merchants on Earth had spent countless years developing. They involved psychology and various business-school experts, who had conducted countless experiments before coming up with these advanced ways of extracting money.
Now that Ethan was using them on people who had never been beaten down by advanced marketing concepts before, wouldn't they work every single time?
"I estimate that at most thirty to forty people will come from the Merchant Alliance branch. Besides those helping manage the warehouse, there'll be people handling the accounts, transporting the Merchant Alliance's supplies, and some shopkeepers specifically responsible for selling goods, and so on."
Mr. White counted on his fingers, "And I think you're right!"
"Since they're coming to help me, I can't be too stingy. I have to provide them with better accommodations. That'll also prevent them from going back to the Merchant Alliance branch and badmouthing me."
"So including the people from the Merchant Alliance branch and myself, we'll probably need five villas. That should be about right, shouldn't it?"
However, Mr. White's words did not make Ethan stop.
He continued smiling as he asked Mr. White, "Old White, let me ask you one thing. Do you want to become the leader of this group from the Merchant Alliance branch?"
"Become their leader?", Mr. White smiled awkwardly, "Of course I do, but…"
"Lord Ethan, you may not know this, but although none of the people in the Merchant Alliance branch have a higher status than me, the founder, each of them has their own connections and background within the Merchant Alliance."
"It's too difficult to get them to listen to me."
"I invited them over with the intention of cooperating with them. As for becoming their leader, I'm afraid that'll be difficult."
"Then have you ever thought about this?", Ethan continued to fool him, "What if, among those thirty-some people, one or two of them have ideas that don't agree with yours, and your plan can't be implemented? What are you going to do?"
"What else can I do?", Mr. White said helplessly, "We can only negotiate! That's always been the way things are done in the Merchant Alliance branch. If it's a small matter, it's fine, but for major matters, we usually have to negotiate several times before we can resolve them."
"It's become the norm. You get used to it."
"A classic waste of time and a delay in making money," Ethan sneered, "Mr. White, have you ever thought that perhaps your inability to coordinate everyone isn't because of your ability or background, but because you haven't shown the leadership status that belongs to you?"
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