Chapter 1558 Repairing A Damaged Reputation

For the next two days, all the employees of the KING Group worked like horses just to finish Darren's
demands.

On the morning of the third day, everyone's hard work paid off. With some good news to report,
Darren's secretary came to the CEO's office with a lot of excitement. Darren only needed to see the
look on her face to know that they had made it. Slowly, he asked, “Did we do it?“

“Here is the report on the sales figures for the past few days. Please take a look,“ the secretary
cheerfully replied while handing over the documents in her hand. She was so happy that she couldn't
stop herself from smiling too much.

Darren took the sales reports and took a minute to read everything. According to the report, their sales
had only increased by one percent on the first day of reducing their prices. But when they had put up
testing booths that showed how much sodium was in their products, their sales had gone up like
fireworks. The highest volume of sales was on the third day. It was as high as a hundred million
products sold. This figure broke the all-time sale record of the KING Group by a considerable margin.

Darren was so overjoyed that he couldn't help but stand up and pat the secretary on the back. “This is
great! Thank you. You can go now.“

Before the secretary left, she informed Darren that more than a dozen major media companies wanted
to interview him. There were also journalists outside who were all asking for a statement from him.

Her words gave Darren a smile that spanned from ear to ear. Everything was going according to his
plan.

Since Darren was in good spirits, he held a small press conference for the journalists right then and
there. The first question came from a female reporter. “The KING Group suffered such a devastating



loss a week ago, but managed to come back in a blink of an eye. Can your company handle any more
setbacks? If yes, how do you plan on dealing with them?“

With a smile, Darren proudly answered, “I'll have to thank our earnest workers for getting us back on
track so quickly. For your second question, I won't let their efforts be in vain, so I'll make sure that we
won't get involved in any kind of trouble ever again. I am confident that the KING Group will only have
good days to come.“

A few more reporters asked their own questions, but it was almost the same as the first one. When the
conference ended, everyone had no doubt that the KING Group was going to be on headlines the
following day.

Darren was a smart man and didn't allow any opportunities of succeeding pass by. He intentionally
informed the reporters that the price cut on their snacks would only last for a few days.

All the media outlets were so efficient with their work that almost everyone in the country knew of the
discount the following day.

Everyone who loved the KING Group's snacks was so excited that they went to the stores before the
shops even opened. Passers-by saw the commotion and decided to join the discounted snack craze.
Since it was only for a limited amount of time, the offer ignited a desire in everyone to buy the products
as soon as they could. As a result, the demand was far too much for the supply to keep up. The KING
Group had so many orders that their factories had to run all throughout the night and day.

The secretary saw firsthand how much money the group was making and it made her admire Darren's
brilliance. However, Darren himself was still dissatisfied with his recent success. He couldn't sit still
when he knew that there was still more he could do. After going through the KING Group's past
business ventures, he found exactly what he was looking for.



He couldn't believe that he hadn't realized it sooner. It was all about advertising! He had to make sure
that everyone in the world had heard of the KING Group and their snacks.

Success in the business world was heavily tied to a company's brand recognition, brand awareness,
and good reputation. With that in mind, Darren checked up on the KING Group's public relations. What
he found out left him in shock. Their PR was so bad that he snapped. He went over there to give them
a much needed dressing-down.

Just when the ruckus about excess sodium had ended and he was finally able to breathe a sigh, a new
problem emerged. What made him even more annoyed was that it was all happening right under his
nose. The PR department's work was decent, but it was not up to par with the KING Group's standards.
They might have become too complacent since their snacks were almost on every store shelf in the
country.

With an irritated expression on his face, Darren scolded his subordinates. “What are you doing? Don't
you know how much more work you could've done? Does anybody here know some celebrity idols? Do
you know how much sales those people can bring? Whatever they deem good, fans will buy them
crazily. Does anyone here know that one mobile phone company was mocked for being too expensive
yet having ugly designs? No one wanted their phones. But when they went hard on their promotion,
they suddenly became everyone's favorite. Their success came from hiring superstars to endorse their
products. Despite their rough start, they managed to rank third in mobile phone sales. “

The blank expression on their faces immediately told Darren that not a single one of the PR team had
even thought of hiring a suitable spokesperson for their brand. He was so upset that he asked to see if
they were even working or not. He was presented with a mock-up of an advertisement that was
supposed to go up on the billboards. Unfortunately, it looked like it was made by a child during an art
class. He completely lost it, and the PR team couldn't even breathe out of fear. Darren exclaimed,
“Answer me. Are we selling snacks only for little children?“



Everyone knew the answer was no, but nobody had the courage to open their mouths.

Darren didn't want to waste his time anymore. With so much determination, he said, “Go and find me a
celebrity who can endorse our snacks. I need someone that is closely associated with positivity and
has a good smile.“

The PR team knew Darren was a man that should never be disappointed. As a result, everyone rushed
to their desks and called as many celebrity agents as they could. Just a few hours later, Darren was
flooded with options for their endorser.

Unfortunately, the recent controversy about their snacks had caused a few more problems.

Although they had bounced back, the KING Group's reputation was still stained to the public. For that
reason, a lot of famous celebrities didn't want to work for them or were reluctant to endorse the KING
Group. As for the remaining options, they asked for an unreasonable amount of compensation for their
services. Moreover, the kind of endorser that Darren was hoping to hire didn't want to risk their good
image to the public. They were left with two options: hire a celebrity and pay them a huge amount of
money, or pick a celebrity with subpar influence, which would likely end up doing nothing in achieving
their goal.

With the PR team feeling beaten to the ground, they looked towards Darren for any kind of suggestion.

Right at that moment, Darren tried to focus really hard. Everyone stayed silent and waited for him. After
a few minutes, he came up with the perfect person for the job.

The person was not as popular as the other mainstream celebrities. But he had gone viral on the
internet a few years ago for eating ten humongous bowls of soybean paste noodles. Naturally, his
popularity died down since being an internet personality could only last for so long. But in the past few
days, he had regained some attention for helping an old woman. So, Darren thought that he was a
suitable candidate for their endorsement materials.



Darren dispatched some representatives of his company right away to negotiate with the online
influencer. Soon enough, they got a reply from the person.

In this day and age, money had become so significant that one could not live without it. Back then, the
online influencer had become famous all of a sudden. Then gradually, he had lost all of his fans. It was
beyond doubt that he had been frustrated by the changes that this had brought upon his life. Now that
the KING Group was willing to hire him as their endorser, he agreed to their offer at once.

After settling the terms with the online influencer, Darren came up with some more ideas.

There was a never-ending number of celebrities, but all of them were asking for unreasonably high
compensation for their advertising. However, online influencers and personalities were emerging in
terms of the marketing value that they could bring. Needless to say, this phenomenon brought forth
some great concerns. But that was not Darren's concern anymore.

With these thoughts in mind, Darren had sealed endorsement deals with a lot of online influencers at
very low costs. Naturally, a lot of positive news about the KING Group spread all over the internet. A lot
of these influencers shot videos of themselves holding products of the KING Group to comment on how
delicious the snacks were. Besides, Darren took some measures to improve the flavor and packaging
of their products. After these improvements, the snacks looked quite exquisite and appetizing.

The news about the KING Group occupied the headlines once again. But this time, it was not about the
sodium content, but a certificate issued by the Food Safety Bureau to prove that the snacks of the
company were qualified for public consumption. In the news reports, the public relations personnel of
the KING Group made themselves appear credible enough to assure the masses that all of the snacks
had passed the necessary tests. They claimed to everyone that the sodium content of all their
company's snacks was in line with the quality standard, and eating the snacks wouldn't bring them any
other problems.



After Darren took this range of measures, the KING Group had recovered its reputation and its sales
had reached an unprecedented high level. However, Darren was still unsatisfied. He was still trying to
improve the reputation and sales of the KING Group to the greatest extent.

Even so, the achievements that he had gained over such a short period of time aroused great
controversies in the industry. The stock price of the KING Group kept rising, which made their
competitors envious.

One of those people was Jacob, who kept a discerning eye on the KING Group's ability to recover in
such a short amount of time.

In their industry, Jacob's company could be regarded as a big fish. But now, the corporation seemed
miserable because of the KING Group. It even suffered a considerable loss in mere weeks. He finally
couldn't sit still, so he had no other choice but to discuss with a multimedia company that he was
familiar with.

New Age was a prominent news and media company. In fact, they had already heard about what
Darren had done recently. In view of how competitive and powerful the KING Group was, they dared
not make any negative reports about the company. So after rejecting Jacob, the editor-in-chief of New
Age gave him a suggestion, in order not to offend him. “Mr. Gu, the last controversy on excess sodium
content in their snacks nearly made that company go bankrupt. But now, the company has been
brought back to life because of that issue. Would you like to make a fuss about this?“


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