Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Unmanned factories are not very special for factories in the Nanshan system.

After all, efforts have been made in this regard a few years ago.

Objectively speaking, if some products are produced in unmanned factories, the cost in the implementation phase may not be advantageous.

After all, the investment in various automated production equipment is not low at all.

However, through the construction of this kind of factory, it will promote the development of sister companies such as Nanshan Equipment and Nanshan Robotics, and help these companies obtain unmanned factory orders from other customers. The final benefits will be considerable.

After several years of technological iteration, various unmanned factory projects jointly promoted by companies such as Nanshan Equipment and Nanshan Robotics have become relatively mature.

The artificial diamond unmanned factory currently invested by Nanshan Equipment is the latest project.

The first batch of dozens of devices has been installed and is in use.

Other production equipment is being produced continuously on the assembly line. In just one month, there will be 300 more pieces of equipment in this unmanned factory.

The large six-sided pressing machine is one of the core equipment of artificial diamonds.

This kind of equipment is not unique in the industry, but Nanshan Equipment has made full use of its advantages in the equipment industry, and finally produced a large six-sided press with higher efficiency and better performance.

"Mr. Cao, it is not very difficult for our artificial diamonds to replace natural diamonds in industrial applications."

“However, the most profitable part of the diamond industry is in the jewelry field, which is currently basically monopolized by De Beers.”

In the morning, I reported to Cao Yang about the diamond production equipment. In the afternoon, Cao Yang went to the production factory on a whim to check it out in person.

After all, if diamonds are to be used for special occasions, the output needs to be sufficient and the price must be cheap enough.

Otherwise, no matter how advanced the product is, it will be difficult to promote it if the price is too high.

Why can so many independent brand car companies in China survive and grow? Are their technologies more advanced than Mercedes-Benz and BMW?

This is obviously not the case.

For a product to sell well, it is very important to lower the price.

The contribution of China's various independent brands in promoting the reduction of automobile sales prices is absolutely huge.

This is a credit that no one can take away.

Otherwise, if you want to buy a Nissan Sylphy of 79,800 yuan or a Honda Accord of 149,800 yuan in the future, don’t even think about it.

"De Beers has made money for hundreds of years, and it's almost done."

"Leave the diamond market to us."

Cao Yang really doesn't have a good impression of De Beers.

In the early days, diamonds could only be mined in a few natural mines. The principle of scarcity and De Beers' successful advertising and marketing made rare diamonds highly sought after and sold for very high prices.

But on the other hand, the carbon element that makes up diamonds is one of the least scarce elements on earth. From this perspective, diamonds are actually nothing special.

"Mr. Cao, the global demand for diamonds is actually quite high."

"Although we have greatly improved the production efficiency and quality of artificial diamonds, it is still a bit difficult for us alone to completely make De Beers unviable."

"When we were studying this product, we also did some research."

"In Central Plains Province, the artificial diamond industry is actually developing very fast, but they mainly follow the mid- to low-end route."

"I think we can leave the mid- to low-end fields to them and leave the high-end fields to ourselves."

"By promoting these two methods together, China's artificial diamond output will eventually account for more than 80% of the world's production."

"Let those overseas man-made diamond companies find no room to survive."

To expand the market for artificial diamonds, the best way is obviously to lower prices.

As long as this method is used, at least in the field of industrial application, sales can be quickly opened.

As for the luxury goods market, this aspect is quite particular.

De Beers' advertisement used to be called: Diamonds are forever, a diamond is forever.

Under their publicity, diamonds are beautiful and rare, symbolizing love and loyal love.

They represent eternal and unbreakable love.

They are also often a symbol of expensive luxury, attracting countless people to be fascinated by the brilliance of diamonds.

But before the 18th century, diamonds were not great compared to other gemstones.

The golden bird turned into a phoenix and became the "King of Jewelry". This is actually a classic marketing case.

Objectively speaking, it is difficult to find another marketing method that can compete with it until now.

So after De Beers has made so much money for so many years, it still has its own reasons.

For a long time after the discovery of diamonds, they were just decorations of royal and Confucian wealth, with fixed sources and scarce production.

The situation changed at the end of the 19th century, when a diamond mine was miraculously discovered in South Africa, producing tens of millions of carats.

This is so surprising that businessmen who invest in diamonds are completely confused.

If these diamonds enter the market, the value of the diamonds will drop significantly.

This is why the English businessman Rhodes founded the famous De Beers company in 1888.

From then on, diamond marketing began for a century.

De Beers' first step was to take control of production.

They carefully control diamond production, mining only a small amount of diamonds for sale each year.

The market supply exceeds demand and diamond prices have stabilized.

At its peak, De Beers controlled 90% of market transactions and monopolized the entire diamond market.

The second step is to force everyone to buy diamonds.

Initially, diamonds not only displayed a noble aura but also had industrial uses.

However, since the advent of man-made diamonds, the diamond market has declined significantly, and most people have no need to buy diamonds.

If diamonds cannot be sold, the diamond price system will collapse.

To create demand for diamonds, the mighty De Beers did one thing: they associated diamonds with love.

After 1938, the Oppenheimer family, the real controller of De Beers, spent huge sums of money on advertising to create the so-called diamond culture.

It is said that hard diamonds symbolize eternal love, and diamonds are only accepted as engagement gifts around the world.

De Beers added diamonds to the film.

Whenever a handsome man proposes and kneels down on one knee in front of the beautiful girl he loves, he will definitely propose with a diamond.

Diamonds are the witness of their love.

With the help of various superior advertising methods, the connection between diamonds and beautiful love is strengthened.

In the wedding photos, the bride is wearing a beautiful wedding dress, with a happy smile on her face, and the diamond ring on her hand dazzles everyone.

De Beers' "Diamond Proposal" campaign, which has been heavily used in advertising, has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Thanks to De Beers’ classic marketing strategy, diamond sales continue to grow every year.

Do you think this is all De Beers does?

No!

People have more means.

To give a random example, Africa is rich in diamond resources. In order to compete for rights and minerals, African warlords use labor to mine diamonds manually.

These warlords had no money to buy weapons, so they ended up with diamonds, and then De Beers marketed the diamond purchase as funding genocide, calling it "blood diamonds."

De Beers signed the Kimberley Process agreement in 2001, urging the world not to buy diamonds from war-torn countries.

The logic behind this is self-evident, as De Beers can control consumers, but he cannot control warlords.

If warlords sell diamonds in large quantities, the diamond market will get out of control.

Therefore, by closing sales channels, the diamonds remain firmly in the hands of De Beers.

In addition, De Beers realized that although African warlords mined large amounts of diamonds, they did not have the corresponding processing technology, so he came up with another trick: diamond technology.

…

Although De Beers' business methods are very good, I'm sorry to say that you have raised the price of diamonds so high, which has raised the cost of Nanshan equipment's cutting tools.

In addition, Cao Yang is also planning to let Daystar Technology combine diamonds with gallium nitride power components to produce a new generation of active phased array radar.

Then there will be more demand for diamonds.

Cao Yang would never let De Beers cut this knife.

If you want to cut me, I will overturn the table.

"It's okay. Our production equipment can be sold if someone wants it."

"Of course, the ones with the highest production and sales will be kept for your own use, and the others will be sold externally."

"Priority will be given to supplying customers in the Central Plains Province, and foreign manufacturers will be looked at later."

"There is another trick. They are also diamonds, but the price of artificial diamonds is much lower than that of natural diamonds. This is unreasonable."

"You see, when doing maintenance at a 4S store, if you use natural engine oil, the price is cheaper than synthetic engine oil."

"Because synthetic motor oil is of better quality."

"In terms of diamonds, the quality of synthetic diamonds can actually be better than that of natural diamonds. There is no reason why the price should be the other way around."

When Cao Yang said this, Pan Jinxing immediately became interested.

Not to mention making the price of artificial diamonds higher than that of natural diamonds, even if the two can be equalized, it would be a very remarkable existence.

The purpose of Nanshan's equipment is to obtain a large number of cheap diamonds. As for whether these diamonds are produced by themselves or purchased from outside, whether they are natural or artificial, it is actually not very important.

As long as the quality meets the usage requirements, it's fine.

In this way, it is interested in anything that depresses diamond prices.

Of course, it is also necessary to take this opportunity to sell a wave of diamond production equipment.

After all, natural diamonds are basically found in Africa, polar bears and other places, and have little to do with China.

Therefore, whether it is China or the United States, the demand for artificial diamond production equipment is actually relatively strong.

"Mr. Cao, I want to find a way to arrange for people to engage in a public opinion war to let everyone know that the quality of natural diamonds is not as good as artificial diamonds."

“Don’t be fooled by the various publicity about natural diamonds.”

The trick Pan Jinxing could think of was to start with publicity.

This direction cannot be said to be wrong.

However, Cao Yang thought more harshly and said: "When diamonds are sold now, they will distinguish between artificial diamonds and natural diamonds. Since the two are essentially the same, there is no need to distinguish them."

"We can push the relevant departments to modify the definition of diamonds and no longer distinguish between artificial diamonds and natural diamonds."

"At the same time, we can also find ways to push the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to amend the definition of diamonds, delete the word 'natural', and classify both natural diamonds and man-made diamonds as diamonds."

"If the two most important countries in the world modify the definition of diamonds, it will definitely have a huge impact on the diamond market."

Cao Yang knew that even without his own promotion, the United States would do such a thing.

After all, the United States is not a diamond-producing country, and protecting the value of natural diamonds is of no benefit to them.

So as long as Cao Yang arranges people to push it behind the scenes, there will definitely be companies in the United States that will take the initiative to promote implementation.

By then the price of diamonds will definitely fall further.

Of course, Nanshan Equipment also invested in a diamond cultivation factory and kept the price of diamonds very low, which seemed to be of no benefit.

But in fact, the final result is that the sales of diamonds have increased significantly, and the demand for artificial diamond equipment has increased significantly.

Nanshan Equipment makes a fortune selling a variety of artificial diamond cultivation equipment.

As for Nanshan Equipment, from now on, the main goal will be to meet its own needs and will no longer expand the scale of production casually.

After all, prices have been lowered. It would be a pity to expand the scale but not make much money.

"Mr. Cao, I think this can be done."

"But in this way, we will seriously offend De Beers, which is equivalent to destroying their jobs."

Although Pan Jinxing is not afraid of De Beers at all.

Even the shareholders behind De Beers have nothing to fear.

Enterprises in the Nanshan Group are no longer entities that can be easily bullied by cats and dogs.

In the future, Anglo American, the group behind De Beers, is expected to have certain conflicts with Nanshan Investment.

Cao Yang doesn't mind if everyone takes a few moves in advance.

…

Pan Jinxing's ability to act is very strong.

On the one hand, Nanshan Equipment has officially added artificial diamond cultivation equipment to the equipment catalog on its official website. On the other hand, it has also taken the initiative to connect with customers in Central Plains Province and promote its equipment to them.

Of course, what is even more ruthless is that he began to use his influence to push for changes in the definition of "diamond".

This kind of thing is obviously in China's interests, and the relevant departments will naturally not stop it.

Soon, several related departments issued a notice formally setting out new regulations on some definitions and requirements related to diamonds.

For example, when selling diamonds in a jewelry store, there is no need to distinguish between artificial diamonds and natural diamonds, just write diamonds directly.

During import customs clearance, no special remarks are required for natural diamonds.

Even in the import catalog, the catalog of natural diamonds was directly removed, leaving only the word diamond.

If you make unnecessary remarks, the customs may not be able to clear it for you by then.

At the same time, the United States has also made considerable moves.

Although they did not immediately follow China's lead in revising it, some people have already put forward proposals in this regard.

By the end of this year at the latest, there is a high probability that the definition of diamonds will be revised.

As a result, De Beers immediately became anxious.

"Sheldon, we can't let this matter develop. China is completely messing up."

As the president of De Beers, Black is very aware of the adverse impact that China's modifications on diamond-related content will have on the company.

From now on, the luxurious feeling of natural diamonds will no longer exist.

Why are so many people willing to spend a lot of money to buy diamond rings?

The main reason is that De Beers has done a good job in publicity.

Otherwise, the sales of diamond rings will definitely be cut in half again and again.

But now that the difference between man-made diamonds and natural diamonds has been erased, it would be fatal for a company like De Beers, which mainly produces natural diamonds.

It can be said that the value of De Beers dropped by at least 20% when China announced this policy.

If the United States also announces a similar plan, it will not be surprising that the value of De Beers will be halved.

After all, diamonds, apart from their special uses in industry, really rely on publicity to gain a foothold in the jewelry field.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be better for everyone to buy a gold ring?

"The policies have been announced, and even if we oppose them, it will have no effect."

"What I'm worried about now is that other countries will follow suit and announce such a regulation, which is fatal to us."

Although De Beers' profit margins are not low, they have actually been affected by the continuous development of artificial diamonds in recent years.

After all, the cost of digging natural diamonds is higher than artificially cultivating them.

However, the value difference between the two is constantly shrinking.

"Then what can you do?"

What De Beers does best is publicity.

As the person in charge of publicity and sales, Sheldon is definitely very capable in this area.

That's why Blake asked him directly.

"On the one hand, we need to change the advertising slogan to let everyone know that natural diamonds are real diamonds."

"I already have some ideas for this advertising slogan, which is called: Truth is rare, truth is diamond."

"Man-made diamonds are unreal and worthless; natural diamonds are real; people should stop buying man-made diamonds."

"On the other hand, we can specialize in producing a man-made diamond detection device, which can quickly detect which diamonds are natural and which are man-made."

I have to say that Sheldon’s marketing ability is really very powerful.

A solution was quickly found.

However, Blake was still a little reluctant to give up such a classic advertisement by De Beers.

“If we still can’t change the situation of falling diamond prices, what should we do?”

Regarding this question, Sheldon unexpectedly didn't think about it for long and answered directly: "If this doesn't work, then we need to consider producing artificial diamonds ourselves."

“Whether it’s natural or man-made, we can produce it.”

"And our De Beers man-made diamonds have to have unique markings and some unique craftsmanship."

"When promoting, we can promote that hand-polished diamonds are more valuable than machine-cut diamonds, etc."

“In short, it’s still the same sentence: when buying diamonds, buy De Beers.”

It has to be said that the response plan proposed by Sheldon is probably another classic diamond marketing.

A product with no value basis of its own relies entirely on manual management of the supply chain and ultra-large-scale marketing to support its price, and can maintain high prices for many years.

Whether it is an IQ tax or a scam, from an advertising perspective, De Beers' diamond marketing is undoubtedly a marketing classic.

This shows that De Beers’ marketing strength in this area is really strong.

"Now that you have an idea, let's implement it as soon as possible."

"We cannot let shareholders and consumers lose confidence in us!"

Blake finally let out a slight sigh of relief on his face.

However, he soon stopped laughing.

Because many companies in China have begun to order the most advanced artificial diamond cultivation equipment from Nanshan Equipment.

The original equipment manufacturers in Zhongyuan Province, such as the Third Milling Institute, also quickly followed up on technology.

Although the quality and size of the diamonds grown by the equipment they produce are not as good as those produced by Nanshan equipment.

But the number of people who can't stand it is relatively large.

Industrial products such as many glass cutting knives have no special requirements for the size of diamonds.

As long as the price is cheap enough.

So soon, diamond prices in the Chinese market began to drop significantly.

It started from the industrial market and then quickly spread to the jewelry market.

Bringing the prices of artificial diamonds and natural diamonds to the same level will soon be achieved in the Chinese market.

"Mr. Cao, gallium nitride components can improve the power and sensitivity of radar, but temperature control may be a thorny issue."

"According to the ideas you provided, in order to solve the overheating problem, we are combining artificial diamonds with military transistors and circuits, so that the extremely high thermal conductivity of diamonds can be fully utilized."

Over at Daystar Technology, Zhao Siyu took Cao Yang to visit the latest products in the laboratory.

It will take time for large-scale radars to be mass-produced, but verifying the impact of combining diamonds with gallium nitride power components can be achieved relatively quickly.

"If we can alleviate the overheating problem of the radar's components, we can turn up the amplifier and increase the radar's detection range."

"If the final project is successful, the radar's detection range may be increased by 2 to 3 times."

Diamond has excellent thermal conductivity, with its thermal conductivity far exceeding that of metals such as aluminum, silver and copper.

Since diamonds can dissipate heat quickly, using diamonds in radar power devices can improve the overall heat dissipation performance and thereby reduce heat dissipation costs.

In addition, diamond also has extremely high insulation properties, which is particularly critical for solving the cooling problems faced in increasing radar power.

The latest research and development task that Cao Yang assigned to Daystar Technology based on this information is definitely a project worth looking forward to.