The current Lockheed is not yet the Lockheed Martin of later generations, the world's number one arms dealer. Although it received many orders during the war, there is still a big gap between it and Boeing.

Lockheed did make a lot of money during World War II, producing nearly 20,000 aircraft for the military, including the famous P-38 Lightning twin-engine fighter.

As a child, Hardy played an airplane shooting game called '1945', which featured the P-38 Lightning.

After the end of World War II, the U.S. military laid off a large number of employees and cut war spending. At the same time, a large number of aircraft were eliminated. Lockheed's military orders dropped sharply. They thought of using civilian aircraft to make profits and produced the "Constellation" series of aircraft.

The Constellation series of aircraft have good performance, but they have encountered stronger opponents, Boeing's B-377 Stratocruiser and Douglas' DC-6B. In the past two years, Douglas' DC-6B has received orders for more than 100 aircraft, while Lockheed's Constellation has only received 17 orders.

In order to expand its market share amid fierce competition, Lockheed has recently started a high-margin sales campaign, allowing sales staff to pay 10% to 20% of the total price of an aircraft as public relations "expenses" to obtain orders.

But it still can't be sold.

Robert Gross was very anxious. He saw Hardy today and knew that he had an airline, so he took the initiative to ask Hardy if he wanted a plane.

The concept of Hardyon Airlines has long been determined. They only want the cheapest aircraft and do not want anything slightly complicated. If they want to buy an aircraft, they will only buy Douglas, which is relatively cheaper and more durable.

Lockheed's products have always been based on the concept of being good, expensive, and delicate, and have nothing to do with being tough. Their products are good, but too expensive and have high maintenance costs. An aircraft costs nearly a million dollars, and it may take more than a decade to earn back the money from an aircraft. The investment is meaningless.

Historically,

Later, due to the poor performance of passenger aircraft business, Lockheed Martin completely abandoned the passenger aircraft business within a few years and turned to the research of military aircraft.

Hardy thought to himself, I don't want the plane, but if you plan to sell the stocks, I can consider taking them. However, he is not in a hurry about this matter. Lockheed will still have a long period of depression in the future, so it will not be too late to acquire it when there is a good opportunity in a few years.

Robert Gross chatted with Hardy for a few more words and then went to talk to others.

The time was almost up and everyone was ready to say goodbye. When Hardy walked into the courtyard, PepsiCo Chairman and President Walter Mack caught up with him and said, "Mr. Hardy, when are we going to talk about the development of Pepsi?"

"Why don't we find a place to talk now?" Hardy said.

"OK."

Walter Mack got directly into Hardy's car. Mack had his own manor in San Francisco and invited Hardy and Andy to visit the manor.

On the road,

Hardy saw a Coca-Cola billboard and a Pepsi billboard, so he stopped the convoy.

Hardy pointed to the plaque and said to Walter Mike, "Do you feel something is wrong?"

Walter glanced at the billboard and said, "This is an advertisement made by a professional advertising company. I don't think there is any problem with it."

Hardy shook his head.

"I don't see any distinctive features in these two billboards. Pepsi has been trying to catch up with Coca-Cola, taking it as an example. But for so many years, it has been left far behind. Don't you think there is something wrong with your guiding philosophy?"

Walter thought for a moment and said, "To be honest, Mr. Hardy said that we had a strategy before, which was to imitate Coca-Cola as much as possible. Coca-Cola has a high market share. As long as we create the illusion that Pepsi is competing with Coca-Cola for the market, we can greatly increase Pepsi's popularity."

Hardy understood.

Simply put, it is the theory of commercial fraud.

This method was also used by some brands in later generations, but Hardy believed that it was a lazy method. It might have certain effects in the early stage, but it would have a bad reverse effect on its own brand in the later stage.

"I think Pepsi needs to go its own way and differentiate its marketing from Coke," Hardy said.

"But, there is almost no difference in taste between Pepsi and Coca-Cola, and the markets are almost completely overlapping," said Walter.

"Then divide the market and highlight one point: this is a drink for young people. Drinking Pepsi makes you young, happy, free and flying."

Pepsi-Cola later rose to prominence by playing the youth card.

After listening to Hardy's words, Walter was thoughtful.

Hardy said to Henry, "Go to a grocery store and buy two cases of Pepsi."

Henry immediately led everyone out of the car and returned with two boxes of drinks soon after. The convoy continued to drive towards Walter's manor.

Arriving at the manor, the hostess came out to meet Hardy politely, then sent someone to bring tea, and Hardy and Walter continued to chat.

"President Mike, the advertising differentiation and new positioning strategy I just talked about is a long-term promotional plan that may take several years to develop. The next two methods I will talk about can increase Pepsi's sales in the short term," said Hardy.

Walter Mike was shocked and asked anxiously, "What method, Mr. Hardy?"

"The first method is cans."

"Cans, what are cans?" Walter asked puzzled.

Hardy asked someone to bring a pen and paper, and quickly drew a simple can shape. Then he pointed to the mouth of the can and said, "This can body can be made of aluminum. The most important thing is that there is a pull ring on the mouth of the can. You can open it with a light pull, which makes it convenient to drink anywhere."

This was the first time Walter had seen this kind of design and he found it very novel. “Where can I buy this kind of filling equipment?”

Hardy shook his head. "Not now. This can be a future development direction. PepsiCo can do its own research and apply for a patent after the research is completed. I believe Coca-Cola will ask us to buy the right to use it."

"But, it can't be used now." Walter said.

Hardy took a bottle of Pepsi from the box and handed it to Walter, saying, "Please open it for me."

Walter didn't have a screwdriver, so he quickly asked someone to get one. After a while, the housekeeper came back from the kitchen and helped Hardy open the bottle cap.

"Have you found the problem? It's very troublesome to open the bottle cap without a screwdriver. We can design a pull-ring bottle cap that can be opened immediately with just a light pull. Isn't it much more convenient?" said Hardy.

"In fact, many people like to use their teeth, lighters, or table corner stools to open bottle caps," Walter said.

"Don't worry, with this pull-tab method, people will love it, especially girls. Just pull it gently, and with a pop, a cool breeze comes out of the bottle. It feels great to open the bottle, and people will like that feeling."

"When the new bottle cap for Coke is released, we can shoot a TV commercial and broadcast it on ABC. Someone uses his teeth to open the bottle cap, and his teeth break. Someone uses his mouth to open the bottle cap, and the cap goes down his throat. Someone uses a lighter to open the bottle cap, and the lighter explodes. Someone uses the corner of a table to open the bottle cap, and the table collapses. There will always be various accidents. In the end, a beautiful girl picks up a can of Pepsi, opens it with a bang, and drinks it down elegantly. A group of injured men are stunned."

“By the way, all those bad shots were made with Coca-Cola,” said Hardy.

When it comes to fraud, Hardy is also an expert.

Walter was somewhat excited after hearing this and nodded, saying, "I'll ask the product department to make this pop-top bottle cap later. It shouldn't be difficult."

"Is there any other way, Mr. Hardy?"

Hardy took the bottle cap in his hand. There was a Pepsi logo on the top of the bottle cap. Hardy turned it over and there was a layer of rubber pad underneath.

Hadi said: "The second method is to hold a lottery."

Walter still didn't understand. "Can you explain it clearly, Mr. Hardy?"

Hardy had people open dozens of bottles of Coke in a row, tear off the plastic pads at the bottom, and write on them "Thank you for your patronage, another bottle, reward of 10 cents, reward of 25 cents, reward of 50 cents, reward of $1", and the highest reward was $100.

Then he put the pad back on, pressed the bottle back on, looked at Walter and said, "Do you understand now?"

Walter had been running Pepsi for so many years that he immediately understood what Hardy meant. Thinking about how people would buy Coke in the future, he believed that many people would choose Pepsi for the chance to win a lottery.

Walter picked up a bottle from the table and pretended to open it with a pull-ring, making a "pop" sound in his mouth. Then he turned over the lid with an excited expression on his face.

"Will I be lucky today?"

After peeling off the rubber pad, I found a 50-cent reward on the back. "Wow, I won a prize. With 50 cents, I can buy 10 bottles of Pepsi."

The more Walter thought about it, the more excited he became. This was a great idea that would attract a lot of customers.

Walter was excited. He seemed to have seen the scene of Pepsi selling like hot cakes. People would rush into convenience stores and choose Pepsi over Coca-Cola without hesitation.

Hardy held the bottle cap and said, "We can apply for a patent for this pull-tab design, and we can apply for copyright protection for the reward design on the bottle cap. If Coca-Cola or other beverages and beers want to imitate this in the future, we can sue them for infringement."

Walter nodded continuously. "Yes, apply for patents and copyrights to prevent others from imitating. Mr. Hardy, your idea is simply brilliant!"

Walter now has great admiration for Hardy, who is indeed a business genius who can come up with the idea of ​​holding awards on television.

Andy was sitting nearby, and in his heart he couldn't help but admire his boss's idea. He was sure that Pepsi would definitely sell well in the future if it used his boss's idea.

If Pepsi-Cola sells well in the future, the stock price will surely increase a lot. Andy has already started thinking about buying a batch of Pepsi-Cola while the stock price is low. It should not be difficult to make a 30% profit within a year.

At this time, Hardy said to Walter: "President Mike, how about we go out for a walk? I want to see your garden."

Walter paused for a moment, then stood up with a smile, "Please, Mr. Hardy. Although my manor is not as big as Mr. Giannini's, my wife likes to take care of it, so she has decorated it in a very unique way."

The two were walking in the garden.

Only Andy followed behind him. Walter's men and Hardy's bodyguards were scattered dozens of meters away. Hardy looked at Walter and said, "I think we need to re-plan the share of Pepsi-Cola."

Walter was shocked and wondered if Hardy was going to buy out his shares.

"What do you mean, Mr. Hardy?" Walter asked.

"You now hold 21% of the shares, right, President Mike?" Hardy asked.

"right."

"I have 23% of the shares, which I think is too little. I dare say that with my two ideas, Pepsi will be a big seller in the future, and its market share will increase significantly. As sales increase, the stock price will naturally soar."

"Now, PepsiCo's stock is at a historical low. I think we can make some moves and buy more shares. What do you think, President Mike?"

Walter Michael was shocked.

He understood what Hardy meant.

Hardy was trying to manipulate the stock secretly, hoping to further lower the price of PepsiCo's stock and then acquire more shares.

It is illegal to do so.

If discovered, the CSRC will give him trouble.

However,

As long as the coordination is good, the chances of being discovered are almost zero, because everything can be turned into normal operation without any flaws.

Andy followed behind and naturally heard what Hardy said. He thought to himself, the boss is the boss. I am thinking about going back to buy some Pepsi shares and waiting for them to appreciate in value, but he is already thinking of manipulating the stock to make a fortune.

Walter was silent for a while, then said, "PepsiCo will release its fourth quarter financial report in a while. PepsiCo's revenue in the fourth quarter is still lower than that in the third quarter."

When Walter and Hardy said this, it showed that they were beginning to unite.

Hardy smiled and said, "After the New Year, there will be an accident at the Pepsi Cola pulp factory. A pipe burst and caused a two-day shutdown. The pulp leaked and the company lost tens of thousands of dollars."

"In a few days, news will come out that representatives of the Hardy Group, PepsiCo's largest shareholder, will question the chairman's management ability and make trouble at the board meeting. PepsiCo may see major personnel changes."

"A few days later, a newspaper reported on PepsiCo, detailing that PepsiCo has been in a slump in recent years and may be in danger of exiting the market in the future."

Walter couldn't help swallowing when he heard this. Hardy had arranged everything. After this operation, PepsiCo's stock price would probably drop by half.

Even the shareholders on the board of directors may be unable to sit still, and some may be tempted to sell their PepsiCo shares.

Andy's expression didn't change. They had done what Hardy said before, and it was almost a standard way to suppress stocks.

Normal operation.

After Hardy finished speaking, he smiled and said to Walter, "Christmas is coming soon. Let's talk about these things after the New Year."

"Okay, let's talk about it after Christmas."

"By the way, regarding the can, pull-ring, and bottle cap prize idea I told you about before, I will ask the lawyers of the Hardy Group to contact PepsiCo to discuss and plan the dividend distribution. You can ask someone to receive them when the time comes." Hardy said.

Walter couldn't help but have two black lines falling from his forehead.

No wonder Mr. Hardy has achieved such great success in just two years. There is a reason for everything.