Editor's introduction: With the continuous fermentation of the "squinting eye" advertisement, Mercedes-Benz once again stood on the cusp of public opinion. After assuming the position of the marketing leader of Mercedes-Benz after the upgrading of the structure, although sales increased in the first two years, the continuous decline in the image of Mercedes-Benz's reputation, Duan Jianjun may be difficult to blame. This year, Mercedes-Benz encountered a brand crisis again, and sales also declined.
Three years in office Mercedes-Benz is plagued by negative public opinion
Recently, Mercedes-Benz because of the new car advertising, the model uses the Western stereotype of "yellow people squinting" makeup, thus causing public dissatisfaction. The advertising time, it just so happens that some companies in China have recently been boycotted due to the existence of relevant stereotypical publicity, and the public opinion sentiment is high at the time point, so some netizen media questioned whether Mercedes-Benz is intentional.
It is understood that the corresponding advertising video was released on December 25, the video was performed by a man and a woman and two models, the specific content is the advertisement of its new generation CLS four-door coupe. Among them, the female model's hanging eye makeup is accused of catering to the Western "yellow peril" style of discrimination impression, and so far Mercedes-Benz has not made any explanation for this incident, and only quietly removed the corresponding advertising video.
In fact, in recent years, Mercedes-Benz has repeatedly "overturned" at the marketing level, and negative public opinion has been entangled.
At present, the number one at the marketing level of Mercedes-Benz is Duan Jianjun. Duan Jianjun is an elderly Man of Mercedes-Benz, who has been the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing since joining Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co., Ltd. in November 2013.
In December 2018, Mercedes-Benz announced that it will upgrade its sales operations management and organizational structure, focusing on creating a more innovative sales operation model that is different from traditional sales, ensuring that the company continues to be competitive in a dynamic and rapidly changing market. It also announced that Duan Jianjun, executive vice president of Beijing Benz, will assume the position of Chief Operating Officer of Sales and Marketing on January 1, 2019, with overall responsibility for brand sales and marketing related businesses.
It was also shortly after Duan Jianjun took office that the far-reaching "Xi'an Mercedes-Benz Female Car Owner Rights Protection Incident" broke out, although the incident eventually ended in a settlement between the two sides, but many official media, including the People's Daily, commented that there was a phenomenon of shop bullying in the Mercedes-Benz 4S store and the usual disregard for consumer demands.
The People's Daily said bluntly, "Mercedes-Benz issued a statement, but its response is not "Mercedes-Benz" but belated. The reason why a rights defense complaint triggered national solidarity was because the arrogance of large enterprises abounded. Users can only rely on "gaffe" to protect their rights, which is the biggest failure of brand management. ”
From the "Xi'an female car owner rights protection" to this "squinting advertisement" incident, all show that Mercedes-Benz has problems in the marketing link, and as a leader in the marketing level of Mercedes-Benz, it is obvious that Duan Jianjun is hard to blame. Duan Jianjun also said, "The Xi'an incident in 2019 is a profound lesson for us. ”
However, Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, told CRRC bluntly: "Unless the competent authorities make clear penalties for Mercedes-Benz's marketing incidents, the impact of public opinion disputes on the Mercedes-Benz brand is limited, but it may be in the minds of a small number of groups holding extreme emotions, and the image will plummet." ”
At the same time, Shen Meng said, "Foreign enterprises engaged in advertising and marketing in China must understand the current emotional trend of social groups, and must conform to such a trend in order not to be put on the line." Otherwise, irrational emotions will cause operating costs to rise. Therefore, the company's marketing can not have any flaws or flaws, otherwise it may touch the sensitive nerves of some groups. ”
Growth stalled Duan Jianjun encountered a sales crisis
Although Mercedes-Benz has declined in brand and word of mouth, it is often attacked by public opinion. However, after Duan Jianjun took up the position of the marketing leader of Mercedes-Benz with the upgraded structure, it is also an indisputable fact that sales increased in the first two years.
In 2019, Mercedes-Benz sold more than 690,000 vehicles in China, an increase of 6.2% year-on-year; in 2020, the cumulative sales volume of the whole year reached 774,000 units, an increase of 11.7% year-on-year.
Under the premise of continuous sales growth, at last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, Duan Jianjun also said that Mercedes-Benz can not only be the first place in the country in luxury car brands, but also in some newly developed cities, it can even achieve the first place in the passenger car industry.
However, after entering 2021, under the influence of the epidemic and lack of cores, the overall car market declined, and at the same time, Mercedes-Benz sales also declined.
According to the statistics of new car traffic insurance, Mercedes-Benz sold 53,000 vehicles in China (including imports) in November, and the cumulative sales volume in the first 11 months reached 669,000 units, down about 3% year-on-year. BMW and Audi, which are also in the BBA camp, sold 61,000 and 43,200 vehicles in November, respectively, and in the first 11 months, BMW sold 766,000 units, an increase of about 11% year-on-year, and Audi sold 638,000 vehicles, an increase of about 1% year-on-year.
As of now, Mercedes-Benz is in the last place in the BBA camp, and it is difficult to call it a success this year.
Duan Jianjun once said in an interview with the media, "Success is when the market is good, you strive to go faster than others, when the market is not good, you strive to be a little slower than others, who makes fewer mistakes, who can go to the end." ”
But now the "squinting" advertisement shows that the performance of Mercedes-Benz under the management of Duan Jianjun is not lacking in contradictions with its remarks.
There are even more remarks that Duan Jianjun's performance after taking up his new post is famous and difficult to match.
However, some media analysis pointed out that the main reason for the decline in Mercedes-Benz sales in 2021 is that Mercedes-Benz's supplier management is not as good as BMW, especially in China, the gap between the supplier system is large, resulting in Mercedes-Benz being unable to order sufficient parts during the epidemic period, resulting in serious obstruction of Mercedes-Benz's production capacity.
If due to insufficient production capacity, it is difficult for Duan Jianjun to cook without rice, and the decline in sales is not all his responsibility.
Moreover, Duan Jianjun does have unique features in sales, after 2018, the dividend of Mercedes-Benz's previous generation of products faded, and Duan Jianjun adjusted the pace of tasks by dealers while increasing marketing efforts to female consumers, still maintaining terminal profitability. The marketing strategy for female users has also continued to this day, and in the relevant statistics and statistics for female users' preferences for automobile products, Mercedes-Benz C-class ranks first in BBA products.
New tracks are left behind Mercedes-Benz's electrification transformation accelerates
However, in addition to the decline in sales this year, Mercedes-Benz has not performed well on the new track.
"Mercedes-Benz brings new EQS, EQA, EQB, the latter two models will be produced in China. These three models will enter the Chinese market within the year, making this year the 'Year of Mercedes-EQ'. Duan Jianjun said.
Subsequently, Mercedes-Benz launched the new EQA and EQB at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, and in mid-December, the new EQS was officially launched, and Duan Jianjun fulfilled his commitment.
Earlier, Duan Jianjun said in an interview with the media, "From the data point of view, domestic consumers still have expectations for luxury electric vehicles, and we are very proud to position Mercedes-EQ as 'pioneer luxury', hoping to continue our luxury gene in the field of new energy vehicles." ”
In fact, as Duan Jianjun said, domestic consumers are increasingly receptive to luxury electric vehicles. According to the latest data analysis of the Association, in November, the retail sales of luxury cars were 210,000 units, an increase of 17% month-on-month, of which the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has reached 19.4%, close to the overall market penetration rate of new energy.
To achieve this goal, Duan Jianjun continued to expand sales channels, and from the Shanghai Auto Show in April, Duan Jianjun said, "We have established Mercedes-EQ dealers in more than 200 cities across the country." At the Guangzhou Auto Show, Jianjun said, "By the end of this year, nearly 400 dealers will have Mercedes-EQ sales and customer service capabilities. ”
However, even if Mercedes-Benz rapidly expands its channels, it is still not going well on the electrification track, and the "Year of Mercedes-EQ" is also a castle in the air.
According to the data of new car traffic insurance, the EQA and EQB officially listed at the Guangzhou Auto Show were only 2 vehicles in November. As the first pure electric model of Mercedes-Benz, EQC was launched as early as 2019 and has been launched on the market for nearly two years, but the response from consumers has been flat.
Since its listing, Mercedes-Benz EQC monthly sales have been about a few hundred, after a sharp price reduction, in November this year sold 864 vehicles, and finally ranked first in the sales of more than 500,000 luxury electric vehicles, in the first 11 months of this year, cumulative sales of 5411 vehicles. Today, the Mercedes-Benz EQC terminal has made more than 186,800 yuan, and the price has fallen to 310,000 yuan, which inevitably appears to be somewhat insufficient.
Although Duan Jianjun said in an interview with the media that as mercedes-Benz's first pure electric product, EQC has basically met Mercedes-Benz's expectations for the first pure electric vehicle in terms of sales.
However, since Mercedes-Benz announced its strategic upgrade plan in July this year, upgrading the "electric first" of the electrification transformation strategy to "full electric", mercedes-benz's anxiety about falling behind on the electrification track can still be felt.
In fact, on the electrification track, Mercedes-Benz has to face not only the competition within the BBA, but also the challenge from the new domestic forces. "Daimler's market share in the sales of electric vehicles in China is still small, competing in China with many Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers such as Xiaopeng Motors, Ideal Motors and Nio, as well as american electric vehicle giant Tesla." Tang Shikai, head of Daimler Greater China, said this in November.
Auto analyst Zhang Xiang told CRRC that Mercedes-Benz fell behind on the electrification track, the main reasons are four: first of all, Mercedes-Benz's original electric vehicle is changed on the fuel car, resulting in performance indicators, such as mileage can not be improved, not as good as Tesla, Xiaopeng and other new forces; secondly, Mercedes-Benz's intelligence and new car-making forces, the gap is quite large; then the automatic driving function is also behind Xiaopeng, Tesla, Weilai, etc., they can provide this L2, 3 level of automatic driving function, but Mercedes-Benz's EQC, At present, the automatic driving function may only be one or two levels, and there is a gap in the technical level.
Finally, Zhang Xiang pointed out that the main force of car consumers, especially the main force of buying more than 300,000 vehicles, is already a new generation of consumers, such as the post-80s and post-90s, and the traditional BBA brand value has shrunk significantly in their minds, and the first choice for this part of the group to buy cars may be Tesla, Weilai and other new brands.
Many industry insiders said that the domestic new energy vehicle market has entered a steep growth curve, and the China Automobile Association predicts that new energy vehicles will sell 5 million vehicles in 2022, an increase of 47% year-on-year.
At this key node, for Mercedes-Benz, which is accelerating electrification, this marketing rollover accident is not a good start, and the marketing team responsible for Duan Jianjun or should seriously reflect on whether Mercedes-Benz has phenomena such as arrogance such as public opinion feedback, and then truly "adhere to the right things and serve Chinese customers well".