2021 is a difficult year for many car companies, especially joint ventures. On the one hand, the car market has been surviving under the shadow of the chip crisis since the beginning of the year; on the other hand, with the upward breakthrough of its own brand SUV models and the further exploration of luxury brands, the joint venture brand has been withdrawn from the comfort zone of the era of high growth and high profitability for many years.
However, individual car companies and brands have still shown excellent pressure resistance. For example, taking stock of the sales ranking of joint venture SUVs in the automotive market in the first 11 months of this year, it is not difficult to find that FAW-Volkswagen brand SUVs still have full dominance in the SUV Red Sea market in the market environment of many unfavorable factors.
In fact, FAW-Volkswagen only launched its first domestic SUV model in the middle of 2018, and the time to force SUV products was only three years, why did it achieve such results?
Planning and then moving is the key to determining the future strategy and tactics of enterprises, and faw-Volkswagen is also the same
Looking back at FAW-Volkswagen's attitude towardSUV products, it has undergone a before-and-after change from conservative to offensive. Thirty years ago, FAW-Volkswagen, which started with a joint venture project of 150,000 vehicles, was officially established, and in the past thirty years, it has deeply cultivated the car market, with jetta, golf, Bora, Sagitar, Maiteng, CC, and each of them is a popular model that we are familiar with, and FAW-Volkswagen has also become a brand that Chinese users cannot bypass when choosing a joint venture car.
But thirty years later, when the overall market share of cars is shrinking, passive stability maintenance is obviously unable to compete with the general trend. When potential consumers' expectations of products are transformed into SUV models that pursue functionality and a more balanced sense of quality. At this time, compared with the relatively higher saturation of the car market, the SUV market for FAW-Volkswagen is undoubtedly very attractive.
As a result, three years ago, FAW-Volkswagen planned to move backwards, introducing the first SUV product Tange in a timely manner, and then launching Tanyue, Tanyue X, Tanyue X, Tanying, and Lanjing in just three years, a total of five new cars were intensively bombarded, so that FAW-Volkswagen quickly gained a foothold in the SUV market. Compared with other mainstream joint venture car companies, the complete product line and the speed of product launch are among the best in any dimension. When you choose a joint venture SUV, FAW-Volkswagen has become an option that cannot be ignored.
From the planning of research and development to the official launch of a model, the product cycle takes at least three to four years. FAW-Volkswagen has launched SUV models that comprehensively cover market segments in just three years. From the product structure side, it is once again explained that FAW-Volkswagen has begun to plan at least three to four years in advance in terms of SUVs. Plan and then move, be prepared.
Why can FAW-Volkswagen quickly lay out? And how to make products break through in the highly competitive market segment?
First of all, strong institutional strength is the foundation of everything. Volkswagen's brand appeal in China Needless to say, after more than 30 years of development, FAW-Volkswagen has achieved balanced development in various sectors such as research and development, manufacturing, products, marketing, and services, as a veteran car company, it has accumulated a relatively strong system strength in the production and marketing system, laying a solid foundation for the car market to enter the highland of deep competition and extend the layout of new areas of SUV.
Secondly, from the product timeline, FAW-Volkswagen's SUV model layout is indeed a little late, but it can enjoy the latest design language of the Volkswagen brand, the most advanced innovative technology and configuration, as well as sufficient response time, insight into changes in market demand, and finally create a complete SUV product line, and each product has its own clear market goals, intensive cultivation in each segment, and full blossoming.
Taking Tangge and Tanying as an example, the young generation of consumers who are dynamic and lively in shape and target positioning after 90, thanks to the advantages of the MQB platform, break the traditional styling shackles, adopt the public's new SUV design language, more personalized, stylish and expressive, bringing a more dynamic brand appearance to young users.
The mid-level SUVs for the new middle class, Tanyue X Gemini, are well aware of the characteristics of this group of users who pay attention to taste and enjoyment, and meet the demands of middle-class car owners for self-release in addition to assuming family responsibilities.
Another example is faw-Volkswagen's R-Line design, which forms two relatively independent and mutually reflective product lineages with the basic model, and a more diversified SUV design style will further meet the future needs of the market.
The newly launched Lanjing this year is positioned in the high-end medium and large SUV market segment, based on the Volkswagen "MQB41B + MQB EVO" platform. With the upgrading of consumption structure, the two- and three-child policy, public business travel and other factors, consumers' demand for SUV space, power, safety, configuration and other factors has been comprehensively advanced, which can meet the rapid growth of medium and large SUVs traveled by multiple members of the whole family.
It can be said that every FAW-Volkswagen SUV product has clearly found a "new paradigm" that suits the rhythm of the Chinese market.
The expansion of market share is not the ultimate goal, and the direction dominated by user demand is more important
Consumption upgrading has become a major trend in the development of the automobile market, and if the joint venture brand wants to develop sustainably and healthily, the brand upward has become an inevitable choice for enterprises. The flagship SUV model range mentioned above was born for this purpose, and has already made FAW-Volkswagen see the results.
First of all, from the perspective of the four major focus elements of the product side, whether it is the quality sense of the flagship luxury car, the thoughtfulness and comfort of the large 6-seater/7-seater for all passengers, or the digital cockpit and intelligent experience that are more in line with the characteristics of Chinese consumption, and the "golden power" system representing "professionalism", it is enough to lead the industry again and assume the flagship image and brand connotation of the entire FAW-Volkswagen brand in the domestic market.
Secondly, the underlying logic of consumption upgrading should be "product upgrade", not "spending money to upgrade". Different from the idea of some car companies' brand breakthrough, it transcends the "step" of the self-development stage, resulting in a completely different audience group, and the company often touches the head and bleeds. Focusing on consumers' mental affordability in the new era, smoothing the prices and smoothing of users of high-end products, so as to make the value smooth way to promote the brand upwards, is the key to FAW-Volkswagen's response to consumption upgrades.
Such a "Huairou strategy" landed on the territory, that is, the use of the entry-level and luxurious price ratio product strategy, changing the rules of the market game:
Lanjing is the first joint venture medium and large SUV to push the mainstream configuration into less than 350,000 yuan, reducing the entanglement of potential consumers in the purchase decision-making process, and at the same time, it is also the lowest price threshold among models equipped with auxiliary driving systems at the same level. In the same price of competitors, while maintaining the comprehensive level of products, to provide users with more than expected configuration, quality enjoyment. From the side, it also reflects the insight ability of FAW-Volkswagen on the expectations of market consumption upgrading.
Whether it is product layout or brand rise, behind each breakthrough is actually the result of the FAW-Volkswagen brand's continuous deepening of the Chinese market demand, leading the market segment trend, and opening up new market space for many years, which in turn allows the brand to have strong product support upwards and complete the accumulation of strength for higher quality market expansion. The dominance that finally shows in the SUV market is also the root cause of FAW-Volkswagen's high-quality development in the past 30 years, and it will also be the foundation for it to continue to run in china's automotive industry and market in the future.