The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 264 - 157: Unreal World

(Thank you, Alston-King, for your generous reward! Although the writing is slow, there must be an attitude.)

The observation report room of the marketing department is actually a brightly lit meeting room.

This meeting room is different from other meeting rooms because the observation report room’s decor was quite expensive.

It is separated by only one wall from the 1:1 scale "bookstore" experimental site built by the marketing department in the building.

The main wall of the report room is covered by a double-sided mirror, two meters high and five meters wide, facing the reading sofa in the corner lounge area of the "bookstore".

From the volunteers’ side in the next-door bookstore, they can only see a reflective mirror, while the people in the observation room can clearly see the various activities and expressions of the volunteers.

In fact,

Once all test tasks are completed, the various questionnaires filled out by the reading volunteers can also have a similar effect.

However, text-based questionnaires are far less clear and intuitive than this real-time monitoring of the site.

The observation room also has various camera screens and sound recording devices, so that the VIPs in the observation room can be constantly aware of everything happening in the "bookstore".

"You’ve prepared quite well."

The short and fat Director Morgan smiled as he looked at the marketing department staff behind the screen, who were busily arranging the shelves in the children’s literature section of the bookstore with a cart loaded with neatly stacked fairy tale books like bricks.

The marketing department had already bound 50 copies of the "Detective Cat" version of "Little Prince" and 50 copies of the "Vellein" version of "Little Prince" overnight.

Of course,

These are all handmade versions, with the cover illustrations provided by the two illustrators simply typeset and printed, then glued onto blank texts.

There’s only a sample cover; the inside content is completely blank.

But as long as the outer shrink-wrap isn’t removed, it doesn’t look much different from the final market version.

Apart from the new versions of "Little Prince" by the two illustrators, the marketing department also placed several currently circulating old versions of "Little Prince" on the market on the shelves, both in hardcover and paperback editions.

Since market research is being done,

At the same time as deciding which of the two illustrators is better, they can also investigate the volunteers’ acceptance of the group’s soon-to-be-released "Little Prince," compared to the competitors’ versions sold for over half a century.

This will provide a rough estimate of the market share and annual book sales the Scholastic Group’s new version of "Little Prince" can achieve once it officially enters the book market.

"If the volunteers are already present, let’s start. I have to fly back to North America this afternoon," Director Morgan said, touching his chin.

The marketing department selected multiple groups of volunteers from various age groups, each group having eighty to one hundred people. They all enter the bookstore as "buyers" to choose the "Little Prince" they like.

The test content is not complicated, not counting the time to rearrange the experimental site.

Each group test is expected to take about 20 to 25 minutes, which should be done in one morning and afternoon.

Director Morgan plans only to watch one or two groups of volunteer tests, then leave.

With his experience,

Unless the gap between the two painters is very close, the one with better illustrations is simply better.

The outcome is mostly determined once the first group of volunteers enters the field.

Market research is not like a melodramatic variety show.

It’s unlikely that the early volunteers will react poorly to your illustrations and later survey groups will show a reversal.

Director Morgan even refused the marketing department staff’s intention to send sample books of both "Detective Cat" and "Vellein" versions of "Little Prince" to the observation room for everyone to see in advance.

Market research is market research.

Mr. Director does not want to establish any subjective preference; everything will be decided by the final data results.

...

Separated by a wall,

Inside the "bookstore," volunteers are entering the room under the guidance of the staff.

These volunteers are very diverse,

Ranging from elderly gentlemen in their fifties and sixties, to college graduates on internships, to little girls about eight or nine years old being led by their mothers, spanning various age groups.

Kelly is one of them.

She is a junior at the Royal College of Art, considered a professional in the arts, although Kelly’s major is in the fashion design department.

She has loved the art of illustration since she was a child, but with the current pressure of AI creating artworks, the career prospects for mid-to-low-level illustrators are generally bleak.

Kelly might seriously consider whether she could become a professional illustrator.

Appreciating colorful illustrations always provides Kelly with a sense of lightness filled with free imagination, beyond the heavy academic pressures.

This is something that more serious art venues like exhibitions and galleries cannot offer her.

Out of interest, Kelly is more knowledgeable about the illustration industry.

Large publishing houses and high-end illustration studios are the best options for illustrators when seeking employment.

Among publishing giants that highly value illustration quality, there are only two in the Europe and America market—Scholastic Group and its main market competitor, Thomson Man Publishing Group.

Both these publishing groups have market capitalizations of over hundreds of billions of US Dollars and together almost monopolize the entire children’s literature market.

Countless renowned illustrators have collaborated with them.

For this reason, when Kelly encountered a flyer distributor near a bookstore close to her school, inquiring if she would be willing to participate as a volunteer in an internal survey conducted by the Scholastic Group.