Anxiety makes luxury brands fight for face and change their minds.
Author: Du Junyi
Edit: 1 reminder
Editor's note| it's been said lately: "My lord, times have changed. In these words, there is both a slight fear of change and a nostalgia for the glory of the past. The "golden period" of China's automotive industry is really too dazzling. Many people wonder whether the successful experiences of the past can continue to be reproduced in the future; many people are worried about whether the so-called trend that is currently raging should really keep up. Dylan Thomas said, "Don't walk gently into that good night," but we're in the middle of a Good Night, and it's time to get out.
"How do you deal with competition with new forces such as Tesla?"
Such interview questions have been seen dozens of times by BBA media, and almost every media outlet is keen to compare the every move of luxury brands and Tesla, waiting to verify whether the case of "Apple subverting Nokia" will be repeated in the automotive industry.
Good opponents can have good development, like Mercedes and BMW. Tesla will make the industry better and inspire everyone to develop. Traditional enterprises and technology companies are moving in the opposite direction, and will eventually fight in the unified battlefield of intelligent networked electric vehicles.
(Gao Le, President of BMW Group Greater China)
In the field of electric mobility, Mercedes-Benz's strategy is still to maintain a leading position in the luxury car market and achieve further development on the basis of consolidating the original advantages.
(Conlinson, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler)
The words of the executives often do not lose their dignity, on the one hand, they affirm Tesla's role in promoting the electric vehicle industry, on the other hand, they emphasize that they have a hundred years of experience in building their own cars, and their advantages are not reduced.
But this kind of frequent questioning with a stance, like a little spark splashed on the skin, has made traditional luxury brands also start to worry.
#01
The "face" battle
When the Mercedes-Benz pure electric flagship sedan EQS was released in China, the German headquarters had high expectations for this car. It's a product that has done a lot of additions, and the innovative features that can be basically conceived are on the car. In the eyes of the Germans, EQS can be said to be invulnerable, and since the ammunition is well prepared, the pressure of dissemination and sales naturally comes to the Chinese team.
A Mercedes-Benz insider, who did not want to be named, revealed, "It is said that the boss has given a task to the marketing public relations team, and the EQS will overshadow Tesla." He shrugged, "It's going to be hard. ”
How to grab the limelight with Tesla, who dominates the headlines every day? This is not just a problem in front of the Mercedes, BMW, Audi and so on have the same troubles.
In the past, BBA brand marketers could easily achieve tasks, and the company had a deep brand heritage and product strength, as well as a considerable marketing budget, and a high premium ability. In the Chinese market for more than ten years, BBA has won nearly 70% of the luxury car market, even if the car market has ups and downs, its upward trend is still high. But this glory is limited to the field of fuel vehicles.
In the face of the strong rise of Tesla and Wei Xiaoli, the Internet giants rushed to enter, and the interest of capital and media suddenly shifted the target. The traditional aristocracy had to make up for itself in public opinion. As a result, "the person who invented the car" and "the first person to launch the electric vehicle brand" began to be limited to how to find the explosive point.
Wang Li (pseudonym), who has worked in BMW for many years, talked about her confusion, why does the outside world mention the concepts of electrification and intelligent travel, and naturally feel that these strokes come from new forces such as Tesla and Weilai, rather than car companies that have been doing so many years? Obviously BMW has also invested a lot in the field of electric intelligence, but the public has little interest.
New car manufacturers seem to be able to become news about anything, even sales can be broken and crushed, "monthly sales of 5,000", "monthly sales of more than 10,000", "cumulative delivery of more than 50,000 vehicles", "year-on-year new high"... Partial attention is still very high.
"We are also very passive, should we get a big word report on electric vehicle sales to send out." Wang Li couldn't help but smile bitterly.
The new forces rush to issue sales success reports on the 1st of every month, just like the "yan pressure" press release of female stars, and they cannot lose momentum. Volkswagen did not resist but also got involved, starting in September, the sales of the single-shot ID series began, and the latest issue of the slogan was "Breaking ten thousand in March". This player, who has millions of orders of magnitude in China every year, has also begun to seize the minds of electric vehicle users from scratch.
The brand of a century-old luxury car company is accumulated by products, events, advertising, and public relations activities, spending thirty or forty years to gain a firm foothold, and then rolling out one by one market, continuously spreading for decades, and the brand growth and cognition cycle are very long.
But now the new forces have emerged in a short period of time, tesla and Musk's growth history, has become everyone's talk of conversation after dinner; Weilai, ideal, Xiaopeng and its founders have their own distinct personalities and personalities, they are good at using social media, continue to create topics to attract the attention of the car circle and even the whole society.
In such an era of information explosion, the need for novelty is pushed to the peak. On the one hand, the century-old story of luxury brands has been so long that it is difficult to resonate. On the other hand, the traders behind the scenes are all professional managers, and the image is copied and pasted meticulously, and the external speech is not leaky, but it is also like chewing wax. No matter how good the giants look, it is also a matter of duty. The one-on-one-glance personality does not make people feel energetic.
At the end of the day, the way and meaning of marketing has changed a lot. This means that car companies need to directly contact consumers and need to know what consumers care about and like. You need to market yourself through social media, expand your influence, and ultimately drive sales growth through the fan economy.
BBA is not without touch, trying to save the country through a series of digital marketing means, opening up contacts, developing exclusive ID accounts, launching Apps... Try to get closer to the user.
The deeper you go, the BBA may find that the electric vehicles that users want do not seem to be consistent with what they can give today.
#02
To improve or to reinvent
In the logic of a luxury fuel car, the first wave of BBA offensive - BMW iX3, Mercedes-Benz EQC, Audi e-tron, performance is excellent. But from the perspective of a smart electric vehicle, these cars seem to be invisible, and there is no explosive point.
Although the change from oil to electricity is an objective reason, the decisive factor is the difference in the position of car manufacturing. The premise of BMW to build an electric car is to ensure the "original taste" of BMW. Audi designers have also said: "We don't want to turn The Audi e-tron into the product of a genetic mutation." ”
As a result, BBA has spent a lot of effort to make its own electric vehicles as close as possible to the original fuel vehicles from the exterior interior to the handling texture. Instead of creating a new species. Their logic is that the user's basic disk is large enough, and consumers will recognize the BBA brand first, and then choose the car.
Autohome user big data shows that the potential users of BBA electric vehicles, most of the competing models at the time of purchase are BBA fuel vehicles, "Wei Xiaoli" did not squeeze into the waiting circle, but Model Y went straight into the hinterland - the user groups of BBA electric vehicles are invariably compared to this car.
The BBA's user circle is indeed relatively stable, and most of the people who are willing to buy their electric vehicles are also users who would have bought BBA fuel vehicles. This seemingly "correct" approach brings two limitations: the battery cost of electric vehicles is there, and it is impossible to sell cheaper than the fuel version. The practice of converging on the fuel vehicle also determines that the product force cannot be detached. "So why buy your electric car?"
Beyond the walls, Teslas have reshaped a new set of value standards, and endurance and intelligence have become the core evaluation indicators of electric vehicles. From 2020 onwards, China's electric vehicle sales have expanded to a critical point, and consumer groups have entered a more mainstream range from early adopters and geeky models. Whether users buy or not, Tesla has preconceived notions, and its performance, evolution speed and price are the new baseline.
The sales performance confirms that BBA's electric vehicles have not yet been able to get out of the circle. By the end of 2021, the monthly sales of Audi and Mercedes-Benz's respective EVs are still in the hundreds of digits, and only the BMW iX3 has climbed to more than 1,000 monthly sales. Even so, it was still difficult to exchange for the official reduction of 70,000 yuan.
In the end market, the discount on BBA electric vehicles is even greater. It is understood that the current quotation of dealers in some regions for the BMW iX3 is 349,900 yuan, which is 50,000 yuan with the official guidance price of 399,900 yuan. The bids for mercedes-Benz EQC and Audi e-tron are also much lower than the official guidance price, with a maximum drop of 150,000 yuan.
The large-scale loss of price is considered to be a matter of greater concern for luxury brands than the loss of sales and market share.
The BBA can't sit still with the naked eye, no longer eating the old books of "safety", "control" and "quality" slowly and methodically, but instead competes with real knives and guns for endurance and intelligence. A landmark event is that the last BMW to insist on changing the platform from oil to electricity also bowed its head, announcing the launch of a pure electric exclusive platform in 2025. The traditional giants grind back and forth on this decision-making several times, and finally reach a unification.
Putting aside the works of testing the waters, Mercedes-Benz and BMW now have the intention of setting a new benchmark. As a representative of the technological innovation and integration of the two, Mercedes-Benz EQS is priced at 107.96-151.86, BMW iX is priced at 846,900 yuan, and the mileage is mentioned to be more than 800km and 600km respectively. The change in the design and interactive experience of the central control shows that BBA is trying to get rid of the old track and intends to regain the right to speak in the more high-end segment. The products in this range may not be able to go in volume, but they can help the brand consolidate its image in the field of electric vehicles.
The next step is the "car sea tactics". In 2022, the BMW Group will sell 5 pure electric models in the Chinese market, and in 2023 it will directly increase to 13; Mercedes-Benz plans to provide pure electric models in all market segments by 2022 and provide pure electric versions for each model by 2025; audi plans to provide 20 pure electric models by 2025.
The speed of the new car launched by the old senior player "pouring beans" cannot be underestimated compared with the new forces' "squeezing toothpaste" car. It is a little regrettable that in the next three or four years, BBA's electrified products will continue to follow gradual improvements.
Mercedes-Benz's self-developed MB.OS operating system will be launched in 2024, thus retaining control over all vehicle architectures and user interfaces, enabling more frequent and rapid updates.
Backed by the "radical" Volkswagen group, Audi led the development of a unified electronic architecture and operating system. Starting with the Audi Q4 e-tron, more digital functions will continue to be added. At the end of 2024, the first Audi model under the Artemis project will use the new software platform.
BMW will not use a newly designed IT and software architecture until the "new generation" model launched in 2025.
Stills from All The Sleepless Nights
The whole world is changing dramatically, but the Chinese market is changing particularly fast. "Generational change" may take twenty or thirty years in developed countries, but only three to five years in China. When Tesla announced the establishment of a factory in Shanghai in 2018, the traditional giants were still holding a wait-and-see mentality, emphasizing their irreplaceable advantages. Now that new forces have entered the room, the urgency of BBA transformation has been reflected in more prominently.
The new technical route, products, and service experience are from 0 to 1 construction process for Teslas, but for those who once ruled the era, the label on the body has long been solidified, and it takes enough courage and price to tear off the label, break the status quo and rebuild when the new era comes.
For the BBA, the current anxiety is far better than the inertia of "arrogance".
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Article transferred from: Car Market Story
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