Brand innovation marketing methods need to be "careful"

In December 2021, new power car companies announced their November delivery results: NIO delivered 10,878 smart electric vehicle vehicles in November, an increase of 105.6% year-on-year; Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 15,613 vehicles in November, an increase of 270% year-on-year; Ideal Automobile delivered 13,485 Ideal ONE in November, an increase of 190.2% year-on-year. Under the dual adverse impact of the epidemic and the shortage of chips in the supply chain, the three car companies handed over a beautiful answer. However, along with the upward growth curve of new car-making forces, it is the increasingly frequent public opinion on the rights protection of car owners. The reason is that the "new" marketing methods of new power car companies have become the key, and how to reasonably guide user expectations, balance the interests of new and old users, and prevent excessive "rice circle" of the community has become a problem that new force car companies must consider.

"User first" is a "double-edged sword"

"Wei Xiaoli", as a representative of cross-border car manufacturing, implanted Internet thinking at the beginning of the establishment of the brand. By introducing the community marketing method commonly used by Internet companies to expand the new, the new power car companies have built a set of user-centered marketing models. Through the self-built community, once the customer feedback the problem, the enterprise can quickly understand and give feedback, in the efficient solution of user problems at the same time, but also the reverse promotion of products and services improvement. In the case of benign interaction between enterprises and customers, users not only become "tap water" and promote the brand for free, but also play a role in anti-black and maintain the brand in the case of the public relations crisis of the enterprise.

However, with the climb in sales volume, the number of users has also increased rapidly, and the cost of providing high-quality services for enterprises has begun to rise sharply, and the pressure on capital expenditure has been increasing. At this time, whether the enterprise marketing system still continues the previous investment and strictly implements the concept of "user first", making itself into a dilemma. If we continue to maintain the previous meticulous and responsive service level, affected by the expansion of the customer base, the return on the marginal investment in service costs is getting lower and lower, and the operational pressure is increasing. If the quality of service is reduced hastily, the question of how to balance the interests of new and old users is implicated. If the quality of service of old users is reduced for the purpose of innovation, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among users.

For example, in the "Mercury Gate", ideal car released a new ideal ONE 1 month before the incident, which triggered the dissatisfaction of the owners of the old car who bought the old car by listening to the sales of "new cars will not be listed within the year", and then triggered collective rights protection, some of them later became the supporters of the owners of the "mercury car" rights protection; in the "seat door" incident, Weilai caused dissatisfaction among the owners of the vehicles that had previously ordered the upgrade before the upgrade because of the new model seat upgrade, and they defended their rights by forming the "Wei You Bend" group.

It is worth noting that compared with the traditional car enterprise rights protection incidents, the organization and system of the rights protection of the new forces of car owners (slogans, documents, clothing and other materials are complete, and often form a linkage online and offline) has been greatly improved, and the diffusion of negative effects has also been significantly expanded, which is inseparable from the opportunity for community operation to provide users with "hugging groups and heating".

In the context of enterprises pursuing an increase in market share and facing compression of operating costs, enterprises often can only resort to reducing the quality of service of old users, which leads to old users starting to shift from internal feedback needs to external reflection problems in the case that their own demands cannot be met, which in turn triggers public opinion and damages the corporate image.

Combing the complaints of "Wei Xiaoli" on the car quality network in the past 3 years, it was found that the number of complaints from the three car companies showed a rapid upward trend, and the proportion of complaints about non-product quality problems (service attitude, sales fraud, seat comfort, etc.) remained high (all more than 50%). Due to the different experiences of brand services between new and old car owners and buyers of the same batch of products, the user's recognition of the brand has also diverged, and there has been a trend of layering the rice circle (divided into "black powder" and "only powder") (for example, in the Weilai ES8 storm, there has been differentiation within the user, and the fierce confrontation of views has aroused public concern), which is undoubtedly not conducive to the construction of a harmonious community.

After the innovation of marketing forms,

New power car companies need more "hard power"

In the automotive industry, brands often have a strong influence on the added value and premium ability of products. Compared with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and other car brands with a long history, the new forces of domestic car manufacturing are in a critical stage of brand power construction. Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, previously said, "The development of new energy vehicles (in China) is still in a critical period of climbing over the hill, and its own market competition is very fierce." At the same time, there are many problems in terms of technology, quality, or consumer feelings, which need to be further solved. "This reflects that although the development trend of domestic new energy vehicles is good, there are still many shortcomings that need to be filled." Another car company manager pointed out that "many new forces are in a state of category competition, and have not yet entered a real brand competition state." "All this shows that the development of new forces car companies is still in a stage of unstable foundation, and the real big test has not yet arrived."

As traditional car companies gradually set up high-end brands of smart cars and learn the marketing methods of new car companies, it will be more and more difficult for future consumers to be impressed by gorgeous concepts, and product power may return to the center of consumers' vision. As an entity enterprise, the new force car companies still have to base themselves on themselves and steadily improve product quality, which is not only the key to supporting brand power, but also the fundamental way to reduce customer complaints.

At the same time, we must be vigilant against "empiricism." The Internet background of the founder of the new power car company has injected new vitality into the automobile marketing, opening up a new path in the market, and at the same time, it is necessary to be vigilant about the characteristics of the automobile itself, dynamically adjust the marketing system, and not copy the Internet company model in its entirety. For example, the connotation of the "user first" value needs to be further refined and improved, and enterprises should guide user expectations in an orderly manner, reduce the unbalanced mentality of new and old users due to the difference in service "sense of gain", and prevent enterprises from falling into a dilemma; the inclusiveness of community culture needs to be further enhanced, and enterprises should avoid the tendency of "rice circle" in the user group by building an open and diversified user community atmosphere.

Author: People's Network Public Opinion Data Center Wang Hu Zhang Zixuan

Editor: Yang Xinru | Editor-in-charge: Li Yaqi Yang Weina

Every one of your likes and looks at it, I love it