Chapter 85: Preparing the Product Launch
The following morning, the Product Development and Testing Laboratory was far busier than usual.
Clerks moved in and out carrying ledgers. Workers transported wooden crates filled with sample bottles and clay jars. Several laboratory assistants arranged ingredients on long tables while a pair of artists sat near the windows, sketching different label designs on sheets of paper.
The entire building had suddenly become another headquarters.
Another company inside the company.
Ernest stood before a blackboard with his arms folded while Hollen sat across from him, still occasionally touching his hair.
"You’ve done it again."
"What?"
"I used that shampoo last night."
Ernest looked up.
"And?"
The older man looked offended.
"I couldn’t stop touching my hair."
Several workers nearby burst into laughter.
One of the laboratory assistants spoke up.
"My wife said my hair looked cleaner this morning."
Another worker nodded.
"Mine too."
A third man raised his hand.
"My children kept touching my head."
The room dissolved into laughter.
Ernest couldn’t help smiling.
This was exactly why he had spent months experimenting.
The products were useful.
Not slightly useful.
Genuinely useful.
Which meant they would sell.
Very well.
Hollen finally stood up and approached the blackboard.
"Fine. Let’s assume these things make us another fortune. What now?"
Ernest picked up a piece of chalk.
He wrote four words.
Shampoo.
Conditioner.
Toothpaste.
Deodorant.
Then he underlined them.
"We prepare production."
The older man nodded.
"Reasonable."
"And marketing."
The forge owner frowned.
"You mean advertising?"
"Exactly."
This time, everyone looked interested.
Soap had been relatively easy.
They were introducing cleanliness itself to a kingdom that barely had access to affordable soap.
These products were different.
People didn’t know they needed them.
Which meant Helmarte Soap Works would have to teach them.
Ernest drew four circles on the board.
"We’re not selling products."
The room became quiet.
A clerk frowned.
"But... we are."
"No."
Ernest smiled.
"We’re selling solutions."
That earned several confused looks.
He pointed toward Shampoo.
"We’re selling healthier and softer hair."
Then Conditioner.
"We’re selling manageable and smooth hair."
Then Toothpaste.
"We’re selling clean teeth and fresh breath."
Finally, Deodorant.
"We’re selling confidence."
The room became completely silent.
Hollen slowly looked at him.
"You make soap sound philosophical."
The young businessman laughed.
"I’m serious."
He looked around the room.
"Nobody buys a product because of what it is. They buy it because of what it does for them."
The laboratory workers exchanged looks.
The idea felt strange.
Yet it made sense.
A woman didn’t buy soap because she wanted soap.
She bought soap because she wanted to be clean.
A merchant didn’t purchase perfume because he liked bottles.
He purchased it because he wanted to smell pleasant.
The products themselves were only tools.
The result was what mattered.
Hollen sat down again.
"You’ve thought about this."
"For months."
"I really need to stop asking that question."
Several people laughed.
Ernest began writing again.
Demonstrations.
Free samples.
Traveling salesmen.
Merchants.
Bathhouses.
Barbers.
The list grew longer.
One of the clerks raised his hand.
"Why barbers?"
Ernest smiled.
"Who understands hair better than barbers?"
The workers blinked.
Actually...
That made perfect sense.
"If a barber recommends shampoo, people will trust him."
He underlined the word trust.
"And if bathhouses use our products, customers will experience them themselves."
He wrote another word.
Experience.
Then another.
"Free samples."
The room became quiet again.
Hollen looked horrified.
"Free?"
"Yes."
"Without charging money?"
"Yes."
The older man looked as though someone had stabbed him.
"You’ve become too rich."
Ernest burst into laughter.
"It’s temporary."
"Nothing temporary should involve giving away products."
The laboratory erupted into laughter once more.
Eventually, Ernest explained.
"If people try shampoo once, they’ll notice the difference."
He pointed toward Hollen.
"You’re living proof."
The forge owner immediately touched his hair again.
More laughter followed.
"I really need to stop doing that."
Nobody believed him.
Ernest continued.
"Once people experience the products themselves, they become easier to sell."
A clerk slowly nodded.
"Like soap."
"Exactly."
Three years ago, people had doubted soap.
Then they used it.
Now they couldn’t imagine life without it.
The room suddenly became excited.
Ideas emerged one after another.
One worker suggested giving free samples to inns.
Another proposed sending products with merchant caravans.
A laboratory assistant recommended approaching noble households first.
One of the artists suggested colorful labels.
The room slowly transformed into a brainstorming session.
Papers filled with notes accumulated rapidly.
Outside the laboratory windows, workers continued moving through the factory grounds while the distant sound of the steam engine drifted through the air.
Hiss.
Clank.
Hiss.
Clank.
The familiar rhythm somehow made the room feel alive.
Finally, Hollen raised another question.
"What are we calling this new line?"
The room became quiet.
Everyone looked toward Ernest.
The young businessman thought for several seconds.
Then he smiled.
"Helmarte Personal Care."
Silence.
The words sounded strangely sophisticated.
Almost noble.
Almost foreign.
One of the clerks repeated it.
"Helmarte Personal Care."
The artist repeated it too.
"It sounds expensive."
"Good," Ernest replied.
That made everyone laugh.
Because if there was one thing everyone in the room understood, it was that people often equated expensive with quality.
The older man looked at the blackboard.
Four products.
Four entirely new markets.
Shampoo.
Conditioner.
Toothpaste.
Deodorant.
Another industry.
Another expansion.
Another absurd idea that somehow sounded completely reasonable after spending three years around Ernest Teucher.
Finally, he sighed.
"You know, I used to make horseshoes."
Ernest looked up.
"I know."
"I had a simple life."
"You still do."
The forge owner pointed toward the blackboard.
"We’re discussing nationwide marketing campaigns for products I couldn’t even pronounce yesterday."
The room burst into laughter.
Hollen looked around the laboratory.
The workers.
The samples.
The sketches.
The labels.
The stacks of papers.
The plans.
A slow smile spread across his face.
The same smile he had worn when they built the first factory.
When they built the first steam engine.
When they crossed one hundred million riels.
Because despite all his complaints...
He liked this.
Building things.
Creating industries.
Watching impossible ideas become reality.
Outside, another wagon entered the factory gates.
Inside the laboratory, the first samples of Helmarte Personal Care sat neatly on the table, illuminated by the morning sunlight.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Then Ernest picked up one of the shampoo bottles.
A pale golden liquid swirled inside.
In his previous life, it had been one of the most ordinary things imaginable.
In this world?
It didn’t exist.
Not yet.
A smile slowly appeared on his face.
Hollen saw it immediately.
"Oh no."
"What?"
"You have the smile again."
"I don’t have a smile."
"You absolutely do."
The older man pointed toward the bottle.
"How much money is that thing going to make us?"
Ernest looked at the product in his hand.
Then at the blackboard.
Then at the busy factory outside the window.
Finally, he grinned.
"I have absolutely no idea."
For some reason, that answer made Hollen even more nervous.
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