Electric cars can also be very trendy.
Text/Zheng Yawen
Editor/Fan Tingting
In 2020, in the Nanning Electric Motorcycle Competition, the brand-new No. 9 E200pone, which had just left the factory, and a number of modified electric motorcycle speed and racing bending, won the top three places in several projects. This matter, Ninebot Nine electric vehicle marketing general manager He Feilong can blow a lifetime.
There is never a shortage of electric vehicles on China's roads. The takeaway brother will use the streets and alleys as a racing track; the uncle and aunt dance in the park, play chess, but also ride an electric car; office workers in order to avoid the morning rush hour hot road conditions, prefer to choose a lightweight and flexible electric two-wheeler; even housing agents, also regard electric vehicles as an essential tool to take people to see the house.
The electric vehicle market has never lacked influx. According to data from the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, from January to August 2021, China's electric bicycle production reached 23.888 million units, which is close to the 29.66 million units in 2020.
And when the county uncle and aunt straddle the two-wheeled electric car in the street. They may not yet know what brand of car they are sitting on.
This is a common phenomenon in China's electric vehicle industry: many people care about the price of electric vehicles, not brands. Therefore, in order to compete for customers, brands fight to the death with price wars, and eventually "roll" beyond recognition, which also leads to fewer and fewer young people buying traditional electric vehicle brands.
For a long time, He Feilong has been thinking, do young people not need electric vehicles, or do they think electric vehicles are too LOW?
If it is the latter, how can young people feel that electric vehicles are not LOW?
In April 2020, the No. 9 electric vehicle with the first series of models opened a conference with a tone no less than that of a technology product. It was launched in the mode of "Tmall order, offline car pick-up". This year, the annual sales of The No. 9 electric power have exceeded 100 million. Among them, the post-00s account for 20%, and most of the rest are post-85s.
China's electric vehicles for 30 years
Electric vehicles, which were labeled "soil LOW", were once synonymous with foreign qi.
China's first electric vehicle was born in 1985, faster than the bicycle, cheaper than the car, lighter model, in the past few decades quickly swept the trend, becoming a national means of transportation.
Young people may not have heard of the brand "Continental Pigeon", but before 2005, The Continental Pigeon had thousands of dealers in the country and was the well-deserved first brand of electric vehicles. Subsequently, the various electric vehicle brands launched a comprehensive publicity offensive, Emma looked for Jay Chou endorsement, Yadi to find Van Diesel, Lee Min-ho endorsement, in the star blessing, cramming advertising communication, all over the street distribution of the joint action, the national popularity of electric vehicles is unprecedentedly high.
According to the statistics of the China Bicycle Association, in 2020, the number of electric vehicles in China will be close to 325 million, and it is expected that it will reach 400 million in 2022.
But I don't know when electric vehicles have become a market for middle-aged people. They are the largest consumer group of electric vehicles, and the price of the shop is usually compared. On a single street, the phenomenon of brushing open more than a dozen stores abounds.
At the same time, in order to compete for customers, the price war between brands is intensifying, and the price is not transparent. "Most of them are cars under 3,000 yuan, and some even roll up to 499 yuan." He Feilong said.
Young people are rarely willing to drive electric vehicles out, in the final analysis, they still feel that electric vehicles are "LOW".
Lao Wu, who has just turned 30, has driven 5 electric vehicles, and he will also shop around like his parents. But the difference is that what he values most is the model. "Every car I buy, the model is a modified motorcycle shape." Such a car looks good, but for him, there are also drawbacks: "too bulky, very inconvenient to turn." ”
In the years of riding electric vehicles, Lao Wu looked at the young people around him and complained more and more about the appearance of electric vehicles. "Looking at the past from a distance, they all look like a model, and if you change the color and material, you will say that it is a new model." The appearance is not enough, the price advantage to make up. This is also one of the reasons for the price war between brands.
But this does not mean that young people do not want to ride an electric car, just like a rustic autumn coat, you do not want to wear it, but also inseparable from it. Free and flexible electric vehicles have a large stock market among young people.
In the face of serious homogenization, resulting in the phenomenon of price involution, the No. 9 electric vehicle is determined to develop products from the needs of young people, so as to stay away from the price war and support longer-term development.
In the past, the logic of doing a brand was to spend money on advertising, quickly expand popularity, establish user awareness, and then go offline to lay a large number of stores. However, the young group is scattered in various cities, and it is difficult for localized stores to accurately and batch capture young users, and the operational efficiency is not high.
However, if the brand is allowed to open a store online, it can be based on the localized store, and the crowd can be fixed and reached to solve the problem of insufficient customer flow in the store. "On Tmall, half of the electric vehicle consumers are young people, which can quickly help No. 9 build a brand mentality."
"Young people don't have so much time to visit the store repeatedly, and the transparent price on Tmall and the complete pre-sales service are enough to ensure that they can place orders with confidence." Offline stores are guarding the door of customers, but here, there are countless young people looking for products. “
He Feilong revealed that the OTO model created by No. 9 and Tmall allows brands to communicate with consumers through content online, and the platform determines the geographical location of consumers and diverts them to the nearest local store to pick up goods.
Placing an order online, picking up a car offline, and starting an electric car are as simple as going out for a meal. After the bridge was built, within a year, the first series of the ninth number sold more than 100,000 units, and about 50% of the users who placed orders were young people.
Leave a "just in case" for consumers
In addition to the GenZ population (young people born in 1995-2010) gradually becoming the main consumer army of society, how to innovate at the level of goods is the premise for the brand to attract users, and it is also the key to the brand's true rejuvenation.
The consumption characteristics presented by the Z generation crowd - paying more attention to consumption upgrades, advocating personality trends, preferring intelligent products, and paying more attention to transparent consumption, let electric vehicle brands see another way out.
Like Lao Wu, most young people are "face value control". They don't buy a car like middle-aged people, eager to visit the shops all over the city, and the first thing that attracts them is often the appearance of the car.
Tmall's feedback on the data and technical level has successfully allowed no distance communication between the ninth and the young people.
"Tmall helps us to do user classification, and No. 9 can quickly understand the age, preferences, and occupations of buyers, gain insight into each type of consumer, and we can make decisions from products and marketing."
From the first series, Number Nine has made bold attempts in the color of electric vehicles. "The data shows that in recent years, custom goods have been popular, and we can customize more than 200 colors." To He Feilong's surprise, the dazzling color that looks sparkling and very bright has become the popular color number of the ninth. To this day, each of The Nine's series has a dazzling color.
In addition to color, No. 9 also cooperated with ip that young people liked to launch IP cooperation models. Cute girls like linefriends, No. 9 has made a series of brown bear, Ke ni rabbit joint models; young people like the national tide, no. 9's car can also be tide; young people like China's Li Ning, no. 9 also cooperated with Li Ning, made a batch of clothes out, hung in the store to sell.
"So far, every car of No. 9 has a brand imitation." Appearance allows young people to focus on number nine, and for them to become fans of number nine, they have to rely on performance.
Before the launch of electric vehicles, the star products of No. 9 were electric delivery robots, electric balance vehicles, children's go-karts and so on. Its parent company, No. 9 Robot, is a company with Internet genes and scientific and technological capabilities, with no less than 1,000 R&D personnel.
For a long time, compared with other industries, the intelligent process of electric vehicles has lagged behind, which also means that the development potential is huge.
Building a car is not difficult for No. 9, "In the past, electric vehicles claimed to be intelligent, and at most they could install an APP on their mobile phones, which could be located, which was not smart in The Ninth's view, because you still had to use the key to unlock the lock." He Feilong believes that true intelligence is to be able to simplify the cycling process to the greatest extent.
"You can't find a keyhole on the body of The Ninth, as long as you turn on Bluetooth, get close to the car, and don't have to take out your mobile phone, the car will automatically unlock." This is the first trick that the R&D personnel of the ninth came up with.
A group of technicians sat together looking for stubble when developing, and someone said: "What if the Bluetooth link is not smooth?" Therefore, they developed NFC unlock, most of the mobile phones have their own NFC function, directly point the mobile phone to the center console, brush the mobile phone to unlock.
Elderly people do not use smart phones, you can get an NFC card to unlock. In case the card falls, you can call customer service and remotely control the unlock. "What if a customer gives us feedback that they don't even want to bring a card?" OK, we give you a 4 digit passcode, direct password unlock can also be. ”
During development, the R&D personnel used "poor thinking", "to always leave a 'just in case' for consumers." ”
It can also be a little more high-end
People who buy electric cars don't necessarily have to afford to buy them. This is the conclusion reached by He Feilong for more than a year, they have done user research, found that many customers have private cars, more than 350,000 models account for a high proportion.
Once looking at the background data, He Feilong unexpectedly found that many of the people who bought electric cars in the store were customers of Tmall's high-end women's wear brand. These data helped No. 9 to complete the customer portrait, "the proportion of post-85-00s is the highest, reaching 80%, and 00 accounts for 20%." Interestingly, many boys will buy the Cute series of models and give them to their girlfriends or wives. ”
Among the high-end users harvested on Tmall, Number Nine has been precipitated, forming a total of more than 1.6 million car clubs across the country, and the fans of the car friends clubs have called themselves "Nine Friends".
The success of The Nine is that it has turned low-frequency consumption of electric vehicles into a product portfolio that can be repurchased multiple times. This is something that can only be done by brands that have a high degree of intimacy with consumers.
For more than half a year, a User in Guangzhou "attacked" No. 9 for different reasons in the group, and He Feilong chatted with each other privately, only to learn that he bought 6 No. 9 electric vehicles and parked them in his own parking lot.
He Feilong suddenly felt that users were willing to complain, not because they were dissatisfied, but precisely because they liked it. "For the Number Nine, it may just be a matter of the details of a few cars, but for the customer it is all."
There are many people looking for stubble in the car friends' club, but those who consciously recommend the number nine to their relatives and friends are also these users who like to find stubble. "Several people have bought the full range of electric vehicles for the No. 9."
Another magic weapon to precipitate more brand loyal users and close the distance with fans is the live broadcast room.
Through the live broadcast preview inside and outside the station, users are attracted to enter the live broadcast room, not only can intuitively feel the intelligence of the product, but also through the activity play. For example, sending peripheral tail boxes, co-branded helmets, etc., so that live broadcasting becomes an efficient online shopping guide.
At the same time, through the live broadcast room, No. 9 further precipitated its own "car club" users, and high-viscosity members are not only an important fuel for the future growth of the brand, but also repair the severe relationship between the previous electric vehicle brand and the user.
On the day of the pre-sale on October 1 this year, the ninth completed the 20% performance of the big promotion. The second wave of pre-sales began, and the remaining sales were completed at the same time.
As of the double 11 promotion, relying on the new and repurchase of the live broadcast room, the ninth completed the annual sales of 120 million, which made the ninth see the charm of the live broadcast, "Next, our new product launch will also be placed in the live broadcast room." ”
For more than a year, No. 9 has completed the brand image shaping on Tmall. A jiuyou shared the product evaluation of no. 9 on Zhihu, and commented that No. 9 is already a representative of high-end electric vehicles.
But He Feilong feels that No. 9 can also have a more high-end product line.
In July last year, The Ninth launched E200pone, with a list price of 18999 yuan - three batteries, a speed of 7 seconds to break 100km/s, imported abs, shocking the industry. No. 9 took this product to participate in the Nanning Electric Motorcycle Competition, and the speed of 100 yards can be bent by more than 40 degrees, conquering the professional players on the field.
When this car was listed, He Feilong was trembling in his heart. "Too bold, what if no one buys it?"
The result of "listing is out of stock, queuing for at least three months" has made He Feilong put his mind at ease, and so far, this model is still being transferred in the form of idle fish original price or increased price.
Since its establishment, Nine has been making unprecedented moves.
Tmall two-wheeler Xiao Er Wang You told the "Seller" reporter that 2021 is the first year of the localization of two-wheelers, the success of No. 9, is being copied by more electric vehicle brands, Emma, Luyuan, Feige, Yadi and other traditional electric vehicle brands, are opening up online and offline, completing the localization model, "Through the O2O model, the brand side and stores to complete digital transformation, online drainage, offline services, many brands have clearly felt the growth brought by online." ”
Emma Electric Vehicle, which has been established for more than 20 years, also opened a store on Tmall, and the hottest sales model sells 400+ per month, and in the buyer's comments, the word that appears the most is "good-looking".
Searching for electric cars on Tmall, there will also be some factory stores, as well as unknown small brands. But they also have a broad market, under the endorsement of Tmall, do a complete pre-sales, after-sales service, can quickly complete the brand cold start stage.
The change of the model will inevitably bring about product innovation. These brands that are rushing ahead are opening up a new market for electric vehicles on Tmall.
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