"Help selling magic water as much as you can until the promotion time expires…"
Baston was confused what the old book meant. He didn't know what magic water was and where he could get one. Since the quest stated of helping, the goods must not be owned by him personally. When he wondered about it, not far from where he stood, there was a stall with full of magic water products. He approached it and found the goods wasn't popular where everyone
just passed it without looking. Rembrant then hurriedly explained about it.
"These things came out from one of many suppliers, but it seems the market is not enthusiastic about the product effect," he sighed, "At first day, the sales are quite good. But the second day and the next one, the
sales plummets terribly."
"Do you know why is it?" Baston asked.
"I checked the news before that several people made a fuss about it. They said it was a fake product since it didn't give the effect of
what they wanted."
"Fake product?" Baston was puzzled, "Since people think it's fake product, why it's still here and not be taken down?"
"It's because the product itself actually is genuine one. This magic water has been tested for sure at the research center, yet since everyone has different talent of perception, not all people can maximize the
effect. If one always takes it every day with no improvement, people will claim it as fake one sooner or later."
"I see. This is a matter of popularity. Are you doing advertisement on this product?" Baston asked the next question.
"The supplier already did so, but it seems the effect is not good enough. The bad rumors before had already claimed its publicity, making it was useless to struggle. Tomorrow will be the latest day of promotion before
taken down from shelf. I guess there's no hope for it."
Baston nodded and gave no care, but inside his head, he was in panic mode. There was only one day left to sell this magic water, but
everyone already doomed the goods to be one of many failures. It was quite a headache, so Baston found a reason to go back to his inn. Rembrant wanted to please him more by picking the more expensive inn, but Baston rejected it. It wasn't because he didn't like the idea, but the present inn had good location from the store.
After closing the door, Baston was thinking deeply what he could do to sell that magic water. Since he wasn't the store owner, there would be a limit of what he could implement. The outsider position was worse than the
insider, so he needed to think how he could influence the popularity of this product. In order to better knowing about it, he decided to go to the store from the morning. Hopefully, there would be a clue of what he could do.
"Too bad I don't have the authority of the store manager…"
It would be easier if he could change the price. Giving a discount was good too, but there were still many ways to sell unpopular product like magic water. Usually, he could bind it with other product. For example,
buy any necessity daily product, you could get free magic water. Even though it seemed useless, but people in this city should not reject it since the item itself was free. If they didn't want it, they would feel it was a loss for them. Because of this, they tended to still buy it even though they wouldn't use it.
There were still many marketing strategies, but since the condition was limited, he had to make use of what he was able to do. Tomorrow, just when the store opened its door, Baston used his puppet to go inside. He would like to do it himself, but he was afraid Panto and Rembrant would come to
greet him, making his one-day plan became awry. If he used the puppet, no one would recognize it since he could use any face that he wanted. Just by this, the puppet then scouted the area where magic water was located.
The shelf was lacking of people around. It was still the same as yesterday. Baston then tried to talk of several customers he could ask. The puppet asked one question, but the answer it got was almost the same from each one of them. The point was they didn't believe such magic water had magical properties on it.
"I told you that magic water is only ordinary one. They lied to us, but who knows that we can see their intention."
"Rather than buying this thing, it's better if you buy some magic items. Even though the price is very expensive multiple times, but it's quite worth it."
"I happened to hear that someone already drank this magic water for years, yet it didn't show any improvement. This product must be a fake one."
"Although it came out from the research center, but who knows that there will be a problem when distributing it. From what I heard; the magic water might be switched with the fake one."
There were many rumors, but all of them discredited the product even thought the supplier had good reputation. Many items had already come from the research center and some of them were very useful for daily life. Since it was quite reputable, that explained the customers around only
whispered this information with others. They didn't dare to make a commotion against it because it would spell a trouble.
Baston smiled inside his hideout at the inn. People might be afraid to trouble, but his puppet wouldn't. If the investigation held down, no one could track where the person came from. The fat boy had preliminary idea,
but he needed two or more people in order to run his idea. Luckily, the second puppet was already on standby position nearby the store.
"Alright, let's do this…"
The first puppet stood near the shelf while the second puppet went straight to the magic water counter. Both of them dressed as modest men, making everyone didn't feel suspicious with them. The second one then took one magic water and then asked the attendant about the price.
"Excuse me, I want to buy this magic water. How much is it?"
The attendant was shocked because no one asked about the price recently, but the woman gave a professional smile before answering, "Good customer, you have a thorough eye to see this amazing product. We still have a promotion and it will be the last day, so you're quite lucky. The price of one magic water is…"
"Hey, don't buy it. This product is the fake one…" the first puppet suddenly interrupted.
"What do you mean by the fake one?" the second puppet asked.
"I heard from everyone this thing is only ordinary water, so it's clearly a scam."
"Really?" the second puppet doubted.
"Sir, please don't speak nonsense about it," the attendant frowned, "The magic water is one of many products that comes out from the research center. You know the reliability of the research center is the best among everyone."
"Then why this thing doesn't have any effect just like what it promotes for. Judging by this, I think the magic water is a failed product…"
the first man arranged his words for the next one after he successfully attracted attention, "Don't get me wrong. I mean it's not suitable for everyone."
The people around didn't notice this side of area until the two puppets slowly made everyone noticed them. They also spoke loudly so people could hear them. When the first puppet discredited the product, everyone didn't dare to agree by words, but they only nodded without saying anything. The attendant thought the man was a troublemaker since no one would dare to
question the research center.
"This…" the second man hesitated before shaking his head, "I'm sorry then. I need to look for other things first."
The attendant felt indignant but there was nothing she could do, "Alright, sir. If you want to buy magic water again, just visit here and I
will take care of your purchase."
"Thank you…"
The attendant looked bad on her face. Just before there was finally a customer who bought the magic water, this one man came out from nowhere. He made the customer became doubtful, leading to the end where he went away. It was hateful, but she couldn't scold him because the customer was king
in this store. In short time, everyone dispersed while several people still hung out in the area to talk about the magic water. At this time, the first puppet suddenly went ahead to the shelf. He grabbed two boxes which each of it contained dozen pieces of magic water before taking it to the attendant before.
"I'm buying this. How much the price? Be quick!"
The female attendant was dumbfounded because the hateful man suddenly came to her, "The total is 2400 pounds, but since we still have promotion, the price is 1200 pounds."
"Alright, take it…" the man paid directly by cash before leaving the store.
Not only the attendant, several people were dumbfounded after seeing the man hurried to go back. They also saw him rebuked the effect of magic water before, yet who knew that he was the one who eager to buy these
useless things. Everyone thought the man was just a simple passerby, but in no time, he bought 2 boxes at once. If they told it to others, no one would believe it. The man was almost at the exit, yet he unintentionally bumped with the customer from before. Baston made it happened so in front of those people, it was just an accident, yet the plan was done in purpose.
"Hey, watch where are you going!" the man grunted before looking at the man, "You? Why are you buying magic water? Didn't you say this thing is fake?"
"Not your business…," the man then walked ahead, "Get out of my way…"
"Hey, you! Damn it!"
The second puppet disguised as the man then hurriedly went to the magic water section. He then also bought 2 boxes before proceeding to pay for it. In that place, he grumbled about the man before.
"Damn it, the man before said this thing was useless yet he suddenly bought so many goods. If I don't find it strange, I will be fooled by him. He thought I'm stupid, but unfortunately, I can see his cunning plan…"
Without anything more to say, the second man then went to the exit, leaving everyone felt the business world was kind of strange. At the beginning, the man smeared the magic water on its reputation, but by the time
everyone didn't notice him, the man quickly bought it without any words. After that, the second man then followed and today, the amount of 4 boxes had been sold.
"Hey, do you want to buy magic water?" one of people started whispering to the others.
"Well, let's see first. If there are several people going to buy it, I will also follow."
"Then, I'm going to buy it first."
"Hey, why you don't wait first?"
"I'm afraid the stock will be gone by the time it's my turn. It's better to buy it now rather than regretting it later."
"Then, I'm going to buy it too. Wait for me!"
"Honey, look at that! It seems some people already buy it. If we don't act now, there will be no stock later."
"But the price is kind of expensive…"
"We don't need to buy many. Just buy 2 or 3. At least in front of everyone, it's enough to show that we can discern that the magic water is quite important."
"You're right… Let's go buy it…"
"Buy, buy, buy… Quick before its stock run out…"
In no time, several people gradually flocked the shelf, eager to buy magic water even though they didn't know whether the effect was good or not for them. People around were curious so they asked the passerby.
Once they knew the news, they hesitated for a minute, but most of them chose to buy it. As soon as the surrounding showed such an intent to buy, people with herd mentality would follow the rest. With this simple plan, Baston successfully made a good sale for Rembrant's store.