Vividly Explain and Flexibly Apply the Thirty-Six Stratagems

Author: Simazi Zhiren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Anita, a British woman who developed a chain of beauty stores and was known as the "Witch of Beauty," was once among the world's top ten billionaires. She owned thousands of beauty chain stores. However, when Anita created opportunities for this vast beauty "empire," she never spent a penny on advertising. In 1971, Anita borrowed ￡4,000 to open a small beauty shop. She rented a store in the residential area near the city center in Kensington Park and painted it green. Although the so-called "unique" famous style of the beauty shop (it is well-known that green is a dark color, and using it as the main color is not eye-catching), the real reason was completely accidental, but this intuitive foresight was fresh and harmonious. Natural colors are green. The small beauty shop struggled to start, blending in with the colorful modern society and not standing out. Moreover, what was even worse was that there was no budget for advertising in Anita's plan. Just as Anita was anxious about this, she received a letter from a lawyer. This lawyer was commissioned by two funeral homes to sue her, demanding that she either not open for business or change the exterior decoration of the shop. The reason was that the flashy exterior decoration of a shop like "Little Beauty Shop" would disrupt the solemn atmosphere of the nearby funeral homes, thus affecting the business of the owners. Anita was both angry and amused. In desperation, she had an idea and made an anonymous call to the Brighton Observer. She claimed to have an exclusive news that would attract readers and expand sales. The funeral homes run by the mafia were intimidating a helpless woman—Rothik Anita. This woman just wanted to open a small beauty shop that sells natural cosmetics to support herself while her husband prepared for a horseback travel adventure. The Observer was indeed fooled. It published this news in a prominent position, and many sympathetic and righteous readers came to the Little Beauty Shop to comfort Anita. Due to public opinion, the lawyer did not come to cause trouble. Before the shop even opened, it had become famous in Brighton. In the first few days of opening, the Little Beauty Shop was bustling with customers and lively. However, soon after, everything changed dramatically. The number of customers decreased, and business became dull. One week, the revenue was only ￡130. In fact, the shop needed to make ￡300 a week to stay afloat, so Anita made ￡300 her goal and the benchmark for success. After deep reflection, Anita finally realized that novelty could only last for a while, not forever. What her shop lacked was promotion. In her view, although the Little Beauty Shop had a unique style and stood out on its own, it still failed to stimulate customers enough, and needed immediate improvement. On a cool, breezy morning, the residents of the city, facing the rising sun in Kensington Park, noticed a strange phenomenon: a woman with curly, disheveled hair was spraying grass perfume onto the leaves or lawn along the street. The fragrant scent drifted far and wide with the morning mist. She was Anita—the owner of the Little Beauty Shop. She wanted to create a fragrant path leading to the Little Beauty Shop, so that people would recognize and fall in love with it, and fall in love with it just by