Written by /C Jun
Edited / Kilig
Design / Zoi.
Everyone knows about Wang Lihong.
After spending a weekend of chasing more, at the moment when all the workers opened the takeaway box, Wang Lihong finally sent a second small essay, directly slipping on his knees and admitting his mistake, ending the century melon.
In other words, the difference in Honghong's handling of crisis public relations this time is completely beyond my imagination.
Like this kind of scandal, the first thing to do is of course to apologize, the attitude must be as sincere as possible, the posture must be as low as possible, so low that the other party is embarrassed to hammer you, first put the fire down, do not give the other party the opportunity to attack all the time.
On the contrary, the crisis handling of the "bitter lord" Infiniti this time has been unanimously praised by netizens.
After all, from "Li Lianglei's post" to Infiniti's weibo official announcement of termination, in less than three hours Infiniti made a quick decision: cut the seat.
Pure and pure carried out the first public dissolution of cooperation, set an example for the later termination of the brand, perspective the Infiniti public relations team to deal with the crisis quickly and decisively, but also harvested a wave of popularity.
Nowadays, it is a high risk for brands to ask for spokespersons, and the Infiniti brand is frequently "unladylike".
The last spokesperson for the overturned car was Wu Xiubo. Uncle Bo's name terrier "In love? Jailed kind of", at that time, Infiniti was ridiculed by the netizen group, "There are such pig teammates, no wonder sales do not go up." ”
Further ahead, Infiniti is out of the circle because Gao Xiaosong's drunk car happens to be Infiniti...
Sales declined, 315 was named by CCTV, the spokesperson overturned, and who was worse than Infiniti?
Proud QX60
Although Infiniti has a reversal trend in this incident, it is still difficult to hide the current situation of weak brand power, eating melon netizens have eaten half a day of melon, few people can really focus on this grand "daily toss endorsement" QX60, is the third domestic model that Infiniti has given high hopes, shouldering the heavy responsibility of increasing sales and "turning over" in the Chinese market.
The new generation of Infiniti QX60 is positioned as a luxury large SUV, with a total of six models launched, and the pre-sale price is 450,000-660,000 yuan.
According to the official website, Infiniti currently has five models on sale: Q50L, Q60, Q70L, QX50 and QX60 (imported).
According to the data of the Association, in the first 10 months of this year, the Sales of Dongfeng Infiniti of the five models was only more than 5,000 vehicles, which was less than the sales of Lexus in one month.
Limited brand power and market positioning, the QX60 priced at more than 500,000 ranges is now unable to compete with mainstream second-tier luxury car brands, Lincoln Aviator and Cadillac XT6 Although sales are not bad, but at least rely on differentiated configuration and product strength, they can also break through in first-line luxury cars.
Take a look at the QX60's parameter configuration: wheelbase 2900mm, more than the overseas model size, proper medium and large SUV; new 12.3-inch full LCD HD 3D instrument cluster, 10.8-inch HUD head-up display system, BOSE brand 17-speaker surround sound system, InTouch 2.0 intelligent interconnection system...
From the size of the vehicle to the intelligent configuration of science and technology, Volvo XC90, Lincoln Aviator, and even the independent brands Lynk & Co 09 and Hongqi GS7 can be matched; in terms of price, the official price of cadillac XT6 is 60,000 yuan lower than that of QX60, and the terminal is close to 60,000 yuan of concessions... Whether in terms of price or configuration, Infiniti is not significantly more competitive.
Originally, there were some expectations for the replacement of the QX60, but the price of this arrogant price made the possibility of becoming a "flat replacement" for the BBA's largest SUV basically zero.
Of course, the CVT gearbox named by CCTV at the beginning of the year was upgraded to a 9AT gearbox this time, and Infiniti also promised that the engine and gearbox could enjoy a lifetime free warranty, and the attitude of make-up classes was still very positive.
The former "dare to love" people are set up and never returned
Looking back on the years of Infiniti's "water retrograde", sometimes I have to sigh that fate really loves to joke.
In 2014, Infiniti's sales continued to grow after achieving localization, and in 2017, it achieved the best results with sales of 48,000 vehicles, and the cumulative sales of its Chinese models Q50L and QX50 reached 29,000 units in the whole year, accounting for more than 60% of sales. In 2015, Infiniti sold 40,000 units in the domestic market (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), an increase of 33.8% year-on-year, becoming the only luxury car brand with a growth rate of more than 30%.
At that time, Infiniti's marketing was also with the courage, "dare to love" brand slogan with the hottest several variety shows at that time out of the circle, with the "Where Daddy Goes" series, "Xiao Say", "China on the Tip of the Tongue 2" several TV programs were popular, Infiniti also got a lot of exposure opportunities, all kinds of offline theme activities held around the program, such as parent-child interaction, self-driving experience, etc., have also been carried out, bringing excellent publicity effects to Infiniti's products.
However, the overly vague brand positioning and the lack of selling points in the product itself have made Infiniti not achieve the retention of target users and the expansion of their own influence through this wave of traffic.
With the departure of Daley, Infiniti has also entered a long period of turmoil, frequent personnel changes, bringing about the problem of strategic inconsistency and weak marketing.
"Ten years ago, the car design, the interior style is too old, people who really understand the car will love it, but in practice, it is difficult to find dealers in small cities 4S stores, and after-sales services are also a bunch of problems." An old Infiniti FX35 owner media said at the press conference.
In just a few words, infiniti pointed out several hard injuries in the Chinese market: old design, distributor channels, quality problems... In addition, the layout of new energy is also a lesson owed by Nissan's overall planning.
Sitting at the QX60 conference site, there is a sense of crossing, who now dares to press the treasure on a fuel vehicle that cannot be related to the dual carbon target and intelligence?
Electrification is heavy, brands are too lazy to do their homework, personnel turmoil, marketing shrinkage, slow localization process and outdated design... Infiniti, which adheres to the concept of sports and focuses on technology, has become an old cannon with a stick, lacking insight into the young market and failing to touch the escalation pain points of emerging high-end people.
How to break the game?
It is reported that Infiniti China will merge into Dongfeng Nissan in the near future as an affiliated brand of Nissan, just like Venucia.
Infiniti officially denied this claim.
But Infiniti, which has been operating independently, has not escaped Nissan's control. Whether it is the exterior design of the product, or the core technology such as internal research and development, Infiniti almost relies on Nissan's vehicle strength.
Nissan's attitude toward Infiniti has been wavering, but for Dongfeng Nissan, with the addition of the Infiniti brand, it can complete the layout of high, medium and low brands, as well as the full coverage of various market segments.
It is said that Infiniti's headquarters has moved several times in the past few years due to cost issues, from North America to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong back to Japan. The relocation of the headquarters also means that Infiniti and Nissan are fully closer. Infiniti really has no way to do anything about it. The aging of products, the mediocrity of technology, and the termination of the partnership with Mercedes-Benz have made "Nissan Plus" an embarrassing situation for Infiniti.
"In Nissan's view, Infiniti is just a product name, and it only needs to develop tactical measures in product development and sales." A person close to Nissan insider said. Infiniti is not wrong to try to occupy the core market position through precision marketing, but today's market is fiercely competitive, and it takes time to win, and it needs absolutely innovative products to rebrand.
In the competition of luxury brands, this is not enough. Now more and more enterprises emphasize "long-termism", a mature luxury brand can not rely solely on products and technology, brands, products, services and channels are indispensable, and to do long-term investment to create a unified system.
Enterprises do not have a clear vision and clear strategy, which is the continuous "water retrograde" of Infiniti.
In addition, dimensionality reduction treatment also loses a way out, and selling at a reduced price will not die. If sales cannot rise rapidly through change, what awaits Infiniti is a situation that will slide further into the abyss.
Write at the end
Infiniti, which started with marketing, is now back in front of people's eyes because of an entertainment dog blood incident, and I don't know whether it is a blessing or a curse, and I don't know whether to be happy or worried. The sky is full of stars, but there are chicken feathers.
If a business wants to be recognized by the market, marketing is only part of it. Overmarketing is not advisable, what is more important is technology, quality and service. Returning to the original point of Infiniti, whether to continue to walk with the product, or to return to the ground, integrate into the east wind, and rebuild the brand with a strong system force, it is an opportunity for Infiniti to change its course and rejuvenate.
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