Chapter 86: Pricing
The launch of Helmarte Personal Care was scheduled for the first day of July, and for the first time in several years, the senior management of Helmarte Soap Works found themselves genuinely nervous again. It wasn’t because of a new factory, a difficult construction project, or a competitor threatening their market share. They were uneasy because they were preparing to sell products that nobody in the Kingdom of Belfast had ever seen before. Soap had been strange enough when they introduced it. Shampoo, toothpaste, and deodorant sounded almost like inventions from another world.
The conference room on the second floor of the headquarters building had been transformed into a display area. Dozens of samples occupied the long oak table in the center of the room. Small ceramic bottles filled with pale golden shampoo stood beside slimmer containers of conditioner decorated with floral labels. Clay jars containing white toothpaste had been neatly stacked into rows, while wax-wrapped sticks of deodorant rested in wooden trays near the edge of the table. Compared to the rough and practical products commonly sold in the kingdom, they looked unusually refined.
Hollen picked up one of the shampoo bottles and turned it over in his hands. The label read:
Helmarte Personal Care
Herbal Shampoo
He stared at it for several seconds before putting it down.
"So," he said.
Ernest looked up from the pricing sheets spread across his desk.
"So?"
"We need prices."
The room immediately quieted. Several clerks straightened in their chairs and dipped their pens into ink. The pricing meeting had begun.
Price the products too high, and nobody would risk trying them. Price them too low, and customers might assume they were cheap or ineffective. Helmarte had learned long ago that pricing was as much about perception as it was about profit.
Ernest rose from his seat and walked to the blackboard.
With a piece of chalk, he wrote:
Basic Soap – 200 Riels
Premium Soap – 450 Riels
The figures had become famous throughout the kingdom. Even people who had never purchased Helmarte soap knew those prices by heart. They had become benchmarks by which every other soap in Belfast was measured.
Ernest set the chalk down and turned to face the room.
"These products are not necessities yet."
Several managers nodded.
Soap had crossed that invisible line. Families bought it regularly. Inns ordered it by the crate. Merchant ships stocked it for their crews. People had adjusted their lives around it.
The products sitting on the table had not reached that point.
Not yet.
"We need introductory pricing," Ernest continued.
Hollen rubbed his beard.
"Lower than soap?"
"No."
The older man blinked.
"No?"
Ernest smiled.
"Higher."
The room became very still.
A clerk nearly spilled his ink.
"Higher?"
"Much higher."
Confused murmurs immediately spread around the room.
Ernest picked up one of the shampoo bottles.
"This isn’t ordinary soap. It’s a specialized product. It solves a problem soap cannot solve, requires additional ingredients, and nobody else in the kingdom can manufacture it."
Understanding slowly appeared on several faces.
They had a monopoly.
A complete one.
At least for now.
Ernest wrote the first price.
Herbal Shampoo – 500 Riels
The room fell silent again.
That was more expensive than premium soap.
Hollen frowned.
"You think people will pay that much?"
Ernest looked at him.
"You paid nothing, and you’ve touched your hair at least fifty times since yesterday."
Laughter immediately filled the room.
The older man looked offended.
"It was not fifty."
"It was."
One of the laboratory assistants raised a hand.
"Fifty-three."
The room erupted.
Hollen pointed accusingly at the man.
"Why were you counting?"
"I got curious."
More laughter followed.
Eventually, Ernest wrote another number.
Conditioner – 350 Riels
This time, the managers looked surprised.
One of the clerks raised a hand.
"Why is this one cheaper?"
"Because conditioner depends on shampoo."
The room quieted.
"You can use shampoo by itself. But after someone experiences softer and smoother hair, they’ll want this as well."
Several people slowly nodded.
It wasn’t a separate product.
It was an accompanying one.
A second sale attached to the first.
Ernest smiled.
"Think of it as selling a horse and then selling the saddle."
Hollen chuckled.
"That’s sneaky."
"I prefer strategic."
Even the clerks laughed at that.
Next came toothpaste.
Ernest wrote:
Toothpaste – 300 Riels
The room immediately divided.
Some thought it expensive.
Others thought it was too cheap.
One manager finally voiced the obvious.
"People don’t clean their teeth."
"Exactly."
The answer only confused him further.
Ernest folded his arms.
"We need curiosity. Two hundred riels makes it seem ordinary. Five hundred makes experimentation difficult. Three hundred is enough to feel valuable while remaining affordable."
The clerks rapidly wrote down notes.
Again, the reasoning made sense.
Finally, only one product remained.
Deodorant.
Ernest picked up one of the wax-wrapped sticks and studied it for several moments. This product would likely be the hardest to introduce because body odor wasn’t something people openly discussed. Even when someone smelled unpleasant, society simply tolerated it.
After several seconds, he wrote:
Deodorant – 600 Riels
Nobody spoke.
Even Hollen looked shocked.
"Six hundred?"
"Yes."
"That’s more expensive than premium soap."
"Yes."
The older man looked genuinely horrified.
"Who would spend six hundred riels just to smell better?"
Ernest smiled.
"Nobles."
The answer spread through the room like a wave.
Nobles.
Wealthy merchants.
Government officials.
People who attended banquets and social gatherings.
People who cared deeply about appearance and reputation.
People with money.
This wasn’t a mass-market item.
It was luxury.
And luxury, everyone in the room knew, often produced absurd profits.
Ernest wrote one final note on the board.
Premium Product
One of the artists raised his hand.
"So we’re creating different market categories?"
"Exactly."
He organized the products beneath the heading.
Mass Market: Soap, Travel Soap, Toothpaste.
Mid-Premium: Shampoo, Conditioner.
Premium: Deodorant.
The atmosphere in the room slowly changed.
Excitement replaced nervousness.
For the first time, Helmarte Soap Works wasn’t simply selling soap anymore. It was building an entire personal care ecosystem. A customer might begin with soap, later purchase toothpaste, eventually try shampoo and conditioner, and one day buy deodorant.
The value of every customer had suddenly multiplied.
Hollen looked toward the window.
Outside, the factory grounds bustled with activity. Wagons rolled through the gates while workers loaded crates onto waiting carriages. Smoke drifted from the engine house chimney, and the familiar rhythm of the steam engine floated through the open window.
Hiss.
Clank.
Hiss.
Clank.
He remembered their beginning.
A small forge.
A few experimental bars of soap.
Desperate attempts to convince people to wash themselves.
Now they were discussing market segmentation and premium product lines inside a company worth hundreds of millions of riels.
Life had become strange.
A knock interrupted his thoughts.
A clerk entered carrying several documents.
"The first shipment is ready."
The room immediately quieted.
"The labels are complete. Merchants have been notified. Bathhouses and barbers received their free samples this morning."
He handed Ernest a printed notice.
Helmarte Personal Care
For Cleaner Hair.
For Healthier Teeth.
For Greater Comfort.
Available Beginning July First.
Free Demonstrations at Participating Bathhouses and Barber Shops.
Hollen read it twice.
Then he looked up.
"I feel nervous."
"Why?"
The older man folded the paper carefully.
"Because this feels exactly like when we launched soap."
The room shared the same feeling.
The same uncertainty.
The same anticipation.
Nobody knew what would happen.
Perhaps people would reject the products entirely. Perhaps they would laugh at the idea of cleaning their teeth with paste. Perhaps nobody would care about shampoo.
Or perhaps history would repeat itself.
Ernest looked at the rows of products spread across the table.
In his previous life, they had been so ordinary that supermarkets dedicated entire aisles to them. Here, they were innovations capable of creating entirely new industries.
A smile slowly spread across his face.
Hollen saw it immediately.
"There it is again."
"What?"
"The smile."
"I don’t have a smile."
"You absolutely do."
The older man pointed toward the products.
"You know something we don’t."
Ernest looked at the shampoo bottles, the toothpaste jars, and the deodorant sticks. Then his gaze drifted toward the busy factory outside the window.
Finally, he spoke.
"I think we’re about to teach an entire kingdom that they’ve been taking care of themselves the wrong way."
The room became quiet.
A few moments later, one of the clerks slowly raised his hand.
"That’s honestly a little terrifying."
Ernest laughed, and this time everyone joined him.
Deep down, though, every person present understood the significance of what they were doing.
Three years ago, Helmarte Soap Works had taught Belfast how to wash itself.
Now, Helmarte Personal Care was preparing to teach Belfast how to live cleaner, smell better, and take care of itself in ways it had never considered before.
And if the past had taught them anything, it was this:
Whenever Ernest Teucher smiled like that, another industry was usually about to be born.
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