In recent years, with the increasing diversification and personalization of user consumption, coupled with the wave of independent brands impacting the high-end market through new energy, car companies have competed for products and services around users, which has become a new direction for the development of the current automotive industry. We have found that from new car-making forces such as Weilai and Weima to traditional car companies such as Geely and Great Wall, all of them must be called "user co-creation".
However, in practice, some car companies currently only regard "user co-creation" as a brand marketing gimmick, and some car companies are still in the stage of preliminary exploration and trial and error. The core essence of user co-creation is that enterprises and users accompany each other and continue to give each other value in companionship.
Many people will think that the thinking of user co-creation is brought into the automotive industry by Internet companies, in fact, as a car company that has been working in the automotive market for ten years, SAIC Maxus MAXUS aspired to become the most user-aware enterprise at the beginning of its establishment, and its C2B user co-creation customization model has long been maturing and "going to a higher level" in 2021.
The tide rushes high. Based on the deep accumulation of being a "Chinese automotive customization expert" for many years, what is the latest thinking and exploration of SAIC Maxus MAXUS in the user co-creation model in 2021? What is the significance of its perfect user co-creation customization model for a group of latecomers?
The results of the user co-creation customization mode have begun to appear
In 2021, the outside world has seen a new industry model for users to create a customized model - SAIC MAXUS MAXUS from product definition, development, naming, to pricing, configuration, improvement and other car manufacturing process, can be decided by the user. Whether it is the world's leading full-size luxury intelligent pure electric MPV MIFA 9, or SAIC Maxus MAXUS off-road gem twin star SAIC Cow Demon King and D90 Pro Amazon Edition, are the results of user co-creation.
MiFA 9, the "pioneer" of the new intelligent track, has been co-created with users online and offline for many rounds in the stage of still being a concept car. Throughout the development process, a product is defined step by step by the user. Online, SAIC Maxus provided a "ME hair" mini program, which has a lot of owners' discussion and feedback; in the process of gradual molding of the product, SAIC Maxus gradually arranged offline activities, based on the state of the project, and users in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other places to carry out a number of offline co-creation activities. Among them, the "floor-to-ceiling window" idea of MIFA 9 comes from the co-creation of users, and the sliding door side windows that descend to the end bring an ultra-wide visual experience, so that users can also have a clear view of the surrounding scenery during driving. In September, SAIC Maxus MIFA 9 rolled off the production line at the Nanjing C2B lighthouse plant and was officially unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November.
From the perspective of corporate strategy, MIFA 9 has been entrusted with heavy responsibilities, carrying the "banner" of SAIC Maxus MAXUS's comprehensive promotion of the all-energy strategy, which not only leads the domestic MPV market to advance upwards, but also launches an impact on the field of high-end new energy passenger vehicles in Europe. It is reported that SAIC Maxus maxus plans to launch ten new energy models close to the real use scenarios of users in the next 3 years, to achieve the goal of more than 40% of new energy sales in 2025, which shows that SAIC Maxus is "facing" the new energy industry changes with full preparation and determination, and chasing the new energy high-end automobile track.
Similarly, SAIC Bull Demon King and D90 Pro Amazon Edition are also the first products to carry the new model of SAIC Maxus users. At the beginning of product development, these two off-road custom models began to co-create with off-road enthusiasts, incorporating special configurations such as electric winchs with a drag force of up to 12,000 pounds that are more in line with off-road scenes.
Whether the co-creation effect is good or not, the user said it. At last year's Chengdu Auto Show, the crowdfunding versions of the two models opened a global limited crowdfunding, and in just one month, the number of subscribers for the two products exceeded 100, entering the mass production delivery stage in advance, and the user heat can be described as exceeding expectations.
From the birth process of the above model user co-creation, it is not difficult to see that the key to the successful landing and pursuit of the new model of SAIC Maxus maxus users co-creation is whether it has formed a deep connection with the user and generated a temperature connection. In other words, the closer the relationship between the car company and the user, the more comprehensive and in-depth the communication between the two sides, the better the effect of user co-creation.
C2B users co-create customization continues to advance
Communication with users is precisely SAIC Maxus's strength. In 2021, on the road of building a direct user connection system and exploring service models, SAIC Maxus has made another bold innovation. In October, saic motor Maxus user co-creation center, the first user co-creation center in the enterprise park, was officially unveiled, pioneering the "0 distance" interaction between brands and users.
As an important link for SAIC Maxus to reach users, the User Co-creation Center marks a further upgrade of SAIC Maxus' direct user connection model. The user co-creation center is a bridge for users to deeply understand the brand and participate in product definition, and users can directly participate in the whole process of product definition, design, research and development and landing, and become brand owners and co-builders.
The establishment of the user co-creation center allows SAIC Maxus and users to form a more intimate connection before the product lands, and after the product lands, how to customize user services and listen to the voices of users more fully? In this regard, SAIC Maxus also has the courage to break the tradition and walk in the forefront of the industry.
In the era of intelligent electric, the core business origin is still to create value for users. SAIC Maxus maxus undoubtedly saw this, focusing on the intelligent new energy products co-created with users as the support, integrated and developed the domestic vehicle enterprises to create a three models of authorized distribution, brand direct sales, new retail direct sales coexistence and integration of the channel system. Different from the simple direct sales model of new car manufacturers in the industry and the distribution model with traditional car companies, the channel system created by SAIC Maxus uses digital direct connection to establish user connections, listen to user needs, customize user services, and optimize user experience.
By the end of 2021, SAIC Maxus has opened 14 directly operated and 8 directly operated RVs stores in Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Beijing, Shenzhen and other places, with the total number of directly operated stores exceeding 20. From the data point of view, the integration and coexistence of three channel models has an intuitive boost to the market share of SAIC Maxus MAXUS, taking the Suzhou region as an example, after the single dealer model was converted to three modes in parallel, SAIC Maxus achieved significant results, from January to October 2021, its wide-body light passenger market share reached 33.71%, especially in July, the market share was as high as 47.81%, ranking leading in the industry.
Rome was not built in a day. In the past ten years since its establishment, the concept of "user-driven" has been in the GENES of the MAXUS brand of SAIC Maxus. Innovate and change around user needs, constantly subvert the original business process and carry out technological innovation. Therefore, SAIC Maxus MAXUS has been able to become a leader of the new model with strong experience and foundation when "user co-creation" has become a new trend in the industry.
Supported by systematic and intelligent hard power
For car companies, customization puts forward higher requirements for efficient collaboration, delivery cycle, after-sales service and other aspects of the upstream and downstream industry chain, which is a matter that requires a lot of time and energy. Therefore, in the automotive industry, customization has always been regarded as the "patent" of niche luxury brands.
The reason why SAIC Maxus can create a mature user co-creation customization model is behind its strong technology, products and systematic manufacturing capabilities.
In 2018, SAIC Maxus MAXUS took the lead in the world to build and put into operation a new C2B custom factory, THE MAXUS Nanjing Intelligent Factory of SAIC Maxus. This smart factory was selected as a "lighthouse factory" in The Davos Forum Industry 4.0 in 2019 and drove the intelligent upgrading of the entire manufacturing system of SAIC Maxus MAXUS. SAIC Maxus MAXUS was not only the only Chinese car company selected that year, but also the second automobile company in the global automotive industry to receive this award after BMW.
For a long time, the industry's understanding of "software-defined cars" has mainly focused on the vehicle itself, but "software-defined cars" have changed not only the automotive products themselves, but also the business model of the entire automotive industry.
SAIC Maxus maxus undoubtedly sees this, in the form of digital direct connection, it has built a new business model of "software-defined car", through the continuous iteration of software services, to create more direct and potential economic benefits for enterprises, but also to bring users a more convenient and efficient service experience.
A typical example is that in November 2020, SAIC Maxus MAXUS launched max · Care cloud service platform, directly connected to users by the exclusive cloud butler online, after the user purchases a car, he can enjoy digital after-sales service without leaving home. By the end of 2021, the cloud service platform has served 217,000 vehicles and completed more than 442,000 cloud services.
As far as SAIC Maxus' user co-creation customization model is concerned, intelligent manufacturing capabilities are its "bones", and flexible institutional mechanisms are its "flesh and blood". In order to make itself more sensitive in terms of user insight, SAIC Maxus has re-engineered its organizational processes and shifted to a digital, platform-based mesh structure to realize the digital online of the whole business of the enterprise and make the connection with users smoother.
Brilliant 2021 under mutual empowerment with users
From the establishment of a product manufacturing system and user service mechanism with user needs as the logic, to the creation of products co-created by users in all scenarios such as family, travel, off-road, and sports, it can be seen that SAIC Maxus has been constantly making new breakthroughs on the road of user co-creation and customization, walking in the forefront of the times and the industry, and truly returning the decision to users.
The user co-creation customization model allows car companies and users to empower each other. From the perspective of SAIC Maxus, this is the source of motivation for its high-speed development trend in 2021. In December 2021, SAIC Maxus set a new record for single-month sales, while total sales in 2021 reached 182,837 units, up 30% year-on-year. Among them, in the overseas market, SAIC Maxus achieved sales of 52,094 units in the whole year, and Europe, the Americas and Australia and New Zealand all rose sharply year-on-year, with an increase of 99%, 214% and 65% respectively, forming four major "10,000-vehicle" markets in Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, and the Middle East, with cumulative sales of more than 140,000 units in overseas markets and exported to 51 countries and regions.
By model, SAIC Maxus MAXUS wide-body light passenger family sales reached 80,701 units, a year-on-year increase of 35%, becoming the first single-brand sales force in the domestic wide-body light passenger segment, while the growth contribution rate is also in the forefront; in the MPV field, SAIC Maxus MAXUS sold 45,146 units in the whole year, while its pickup truck models sold 35,455 units in the whole year, an increase of 27% year-on-year.
For SAIC Maxus, the 2021 results may be just the beginning. The era of intelligent electric vehicles in the automotive industry has come in an all-round way, the needs of users are more segmented and diversified, the imagination space of automotive products is more abundant, and the new era is more testing of the ability of car companies to communicate with users and the ability to serve users.
It is undeniable that SAIC Maxus has been deeply cultivated for a long time and has sufficient staying power, whether in the creation of user co-creation of customized models or in the accumulation of intelligent and electrification technologies. These two forces will undoubtedly become the core engine leading the future development of SAIC Maxus.
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