Our Glamorous Time( A Vsoo adaptation novel by Ding Mo)

Chapter 70(Taste of One's Own Medicine)

But now Charles said that they wanted to focus on advancing ZAMON.

A strategy analyst started playing the Powerpoint slides and explained to everyone the thought process behind the strategy. Appearing in the middle was surprisingly a line of Korean characters, “Give the man a taste of his own medicine.”

It turned out that inspired by the korean businessman confusing the market, the Strategy Department of the US headquarters had come up with an individualized approach.

Since they used a bunch of weird brands to bury our second and third class brands, they could use our best brand to redeem these brands from being associated with all the others.

Exactly how were they going to do it?

Since ZAMON was renowned worldwide, and there was no korean brand that could be on par with it, in fact they were far behind it, so as long as the company used the name ‘ZAMON’, it would be impeccable no matter what korean competitors did.

A top class luxury brand was not established with money or tricks!

So, this time DG Korea would advance from two sides: on one hand, they would strengthen their promotion of the ZAMON brand in korea, taking over the luxury market; on the other hand, they would make a new commercial promoting ZAMON, at the same time showing off all the associated second and third class brands.

Because ZAMON had built its image as a high-end product among the consumers, when combined with a commercial like this, the consumers would definitely not confuse their subsidiary brands with other newcomers in the market.

Of course, the cost of doing so was enormous, it was almost putting the future of the whole DG korea at risk.

Charles named this marketing strategy, ‘Smash’. They would use ZAMON as a giant tank, leading all the subsidiary brands to smash through the korean suitcase market.

After the meeting was over, Sehun purposely stayed back by chatting with a few high ranking officials from overseas. Seeing that Charles had sent Namjoon off to the elevator and walked back to his office alone, he followed after Charles.

“Charles,” he knocked on the door, “I have important news that I would like to report to you.”

Until now, Charles was still quite satisfied with this Korean subordinate. He smiled, nodding, “Come and have a seat. What important news would you like to share with me?”

Sehun paused for a while, saying, “Do you know the main reason why Mr Kim Namjoon refuses to take over the acquisition of Layover?”

Charles shook his head, “He said it is because of personal reasons. It involves his privacy so of course I didn’t ask.”

Sehun smiled.

“Both you and Namjoon are good at making a clear distinction between public and personal interests, I admire both of you for it. But...” he lowered his voice slightly, “there is a saying in Korean: all is fair in war. The reason why Mr.Namjoonrefuses to take over Layover is because his sister, Jisoo is working as an executive in Layover. The current CEO of Layover, Kim Taehyung, who gave us such trouble, is his future brother-in-law.”

Charles gasped in surprise, “So, that’s the reason!”

Since Sehun had told him this secret, which was not really a secret, naturally he expected Charles would tactfully understand what to do next. But after waiting for a moment, he saw Charles frown, asking, “Ben, why do you want to tell me this?”

Suddenly Sehun was a little annoyed with him. Was he doing it on purpose? He purposely wanted him to say it aloud.

Did all foreigners like to fake innocence like this? Hypocrites.

But since beggars couldn’t be choosers, Sehun caved in to his will and told him his plan, “What I meant is, now that we are neck and neck with Taehyung, if the relationship between Jisoo and Namjoon is made known, it will definitely inflict a heavy blow on Layover. We could even spread rumors, saying that Jisoo is a spy of the investment management corporation in Layover. With this she will at least be investigated by the Public Security Department. Not only will Taehyung lose his advisor, he will lose the trust of others, too. He would suffer a double loss. Even if this is not a death blow to Taehyung, t will definitely benefit DG Korea...”

Charles was absorbed in his speech.

He seemed to be a little swayed but conflicted. After a while, he shook his head, “Nope, Ben, I can’t do this. This is against my professional ethics and it betrays my friendship with Namjoon.”

Oh Sehun was stunned. He didn’t expect a foreigner to be this ignorant.

So he blurted out, “Charles, how can you be sure that Jason is not siding his sister? You can’t judge a book by its cover. It might be because Namjoon is rocking the boat that our subsidiary brands are having a hard time in the market.”

It took no cost to discredit someone. Especially since he indeed felt uneasy about Kim Namjoon.

Charles didn’t believe his words at all. He even laughed as though Sehun had said something ridiculous.

“Oh, Ben, you are wrong.” Charles said, “Namjoon is my most loyal friend. Besides, you have underestimated him. His net worth is more than just a Wall Street investment manager. He doesn’t give a d*mn about small companies like Aida. Someone once estimated that his net worth is...” then he said a figure, a figure worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Sehun gasped, cursing in his heart at the same time.

Charles added on, “Let me tell you another secret so that you will be at ease with Namjoon. A few days ago, I asked for his advice regarding the current market situation. He said he was only in charge of investment and his position is controversial, so it was not suitable for him to say anything.

“In the end when he couldn’t refuse, he wrote a folded note to me. He asked me to only open it after I consulted the headquarters, to see whether his suggestion aligned with theirs.

“And guess what? After I received the instructions from Headquarters to use the ‘Smash’ strategy, I unfolded the notes he gave me. What was written on the paper is the line you saw today: give the man a taste of his own medicine!

“Ben, the suggestion he gave was the same as that from the Headquarters. At first I was still hesitant, after I read his suggestion, then only did I have stronger faith in implementing the “Smash” strategy.

“Moreover, is it even possible that the Headquarters would want to endanger DG Korea? So you may be rest assured about him.”

A few minutes later, Sehun left Charles’ office.

Thinking about what he said regarding Namjy’s demeanor, Sehun was confused too. Could it be Namjoon was really ruthless, completely disregarding his sister and siding with DG?

It was such a coincidence that just when he wanted to “snitch” on him in front of Charles, Namjoon was a step ahead of him in earning deeper trust, causing Charles to not want to harm his sister at all?

Why did he feel like... he had been tricked?

It was just that he couldn’t figure out whether Namjoon was plotting and being on guard against him, or was he plotting against Charles and DG?