How to break when it is rolled up?
Photo: Kidnapper
Edit: Mei Mei
I don't know if I don't know if I
Shanghai is not only the financial center of China, but also a key city in the automotive industry. Volkswagen, GM, and Tesla have taken root in Shanghai, and the new car-making forces in Shanghai are even more numerous. It can be said that Shanghai is a city that has both money and car knowledge, so the Shanghai market can reflect the development trend of the Chinese market, especially the luxury brand market, to a certain extent. Let's start with a chart.
Admittedly, the above picture is a bit of a flattering ingredient, because in the first 5, except for Weilai, there are car products delivered. However, we see that the average transaction price of Weilai reached 443,500 yuan, ranking third among luxury brands, and its own sales are really good, indicating that the recognition of Weilai by local tycoons in Shanghai is still very high.
Although there is still a big gap between Weilai and BBA in terms of overall volume, I think some of Weilai's initiatives can bring thinking or inspiration to many luxury brands.
At present, it is in the most volume period of luxury brands
I think the car is a "tool + experience" combination. Carl Benz's Mercedes-Benz 1, developed in 1886, was just a tool to get people from point A to point B, with no experience at all. With Renault inventing the differential, Universal designing a fully automatic transmission, and Volvo popularizing seat belts, cars gradually became what they are now.
In fact, in the more than 100 years after the invention of the car, we have optimized the "tool" attributes of the car, such as how to be faster, how to load more things, how to save fuel, safer and so on. The reason why luxury brands are regarded as luxury brands is because they have made more efforts in the "experience" attributes of the car, such as how to make the occupants sit more comfortably, how to make the driver drive more easily, how to make the air in the car smell better, and so on. Ordinary passenger cars are "tool > experience", luxury brands are "tool < experience".
But now, the "tool" attribute of the car and the "experience" attribute of the car itself have entered a period of serious internal volume. On the one hand, after more than a hundred years of development, especially in the past one or two decades of rapid development, the automobile has reached a state of very high integrity. On the other hand, the automotive industry is now in a period of handover of the baton between oil trucks and trams, and major brands have slowed down the research and development of oil vehicles, and trams are in their infancy.
To take a simple example, people often see BMW as sporting and Volvo as safety. But in fact, bmw cars are not safe? Can't Volvo handle the car? Not really!
Why is the breakthrough a service?
As people often say, it's often not your peers that beat you, but crossovers. Apple beat Nokia that year not because it had a better signal, or because it could smash walnuts better than Nokia. On the contrary, Apple's mobile phone signal and durability are inferior to Nokia's, so what is the key to its victory? In Jobs's words, it was a "touchable widescreen iPod + a revolutionary phone + a breakthrough Internet communicator." While "Nokia" is still complacent in the "tool" dimension, Apple's "experience" advantage has crushed them into slag.
Similarly, when the "tool" attribute of the car and the "experience" attribute of the car itself have been seriously involved, and the electrification and networking are all in the initial stage, and even rely on the supplier, trying to find answers in the dimensions outside the car is undoubtedly a better choice. In fact, WEILAI has embarked on a very feasible road, that is, in addition to the "tool + experience" of the car, it is superimposed on the brand's "experience" attribute - service.
Many people understand Weilai's service as car repair, which is actually a bit one-sided. Services should not only revolve around the car, but around the user, and even help the user maximize the benefits of resources. In the brand experience, it is still a blue ocean for luxury brands. Taking the mobile APP as an example, most of the BBA's mobile phone applications still revolve around the car itself, and only the APP of BMW and SAIC Audi will pay attention to the user's car life. BMW won the top spot in the Chinese market in 2021, and there may be some reasons for this.
Of course, all roads lead to Rome, not only the "service" of this canoe bridge, I just think that this is a very feasible road. Some luxury brands with a keen sense of smell have actually laid out in this regard. Some time ago, Cadillac released the point system and growth value system of the user community in a brand live broadcast, which will further directly connect with users and create a better service system. And Wei Pai also released the "user-centric" service concept at the recent "Super Call, Really Understand You" fan festival. It is worth mentioning that the preparation and planning of the entire fan festival have the deep participation of Weipai users. Helping users realize their self-worth is also a very important part of brand services. If a brand gives you a platform to display your talents and gives you a very great sense of accomplishment, will you stand up for this brand?
Write at the end
The BBA has been "lying" for decades of money, in the current automotive industry changes, can the BBA maintain its dominant position? Or which new brand can break the game? No one dares to make a conclusion, anyway, the automotive industry is good, and it is our consumers who roll up the benefits.