Wen 丨 深途(ID:shentucar), author 丨 Zhou Jifeng, editor 丨 Dawn
During the Spring Festival, in addition to visiting relatives and friends, watching the East Olympics, and grabbing ice piers, is there a wave of chopping hands?
Many car companies have launched New Year gift packages during the Spring Festival. Xiaopeng is more fierce, launched a mahjong, priced at 1999 yuan, known as "PengKr metal mahjong", more expensive than a bottle of 53 degrees 500 ml feitian Moutai official price.
This mahjong has not been on the shelves for a long time, but it has gained a wave of attention.
The voice kept complaining: "This is a new way to cut leeks?" "How did Xiao Peng learn Tesla?" "1999 yuan mahjong, this mahjong will be gold-rimmed?"
In fact, as early as Xiaopeng, the "big marketer" Tesla has launched a lot of outrageous things, a whistle that costs $50, a belt buckle of $150... Nezha Automobile has also launched a children's electric car.
Selling cars sells well, why do you suddenly run over to sell belt buckles and mahjong? Is this a new round of IQ taxes?
How wild is the new forces selling the surroundings?
Can a car company only sell cars?
The pattern is small.
Now you casually open an APP of a new car-making force, which not only sells cars, but also sells alcohol, clothes, eye masks, massagers, etc...
Taking Xiaopeng as an example, xiaopeng APP sells a keyboard for 399 yuan, a pocket vacuum cleaner for 499 yuan, an air fryer for 299 yuan, and even a canvas bag and chicken breast...
The most well-known is Weilai, Weilai's official APP has a surprise mall, the goods in the mall basically cover all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Surprise mall on the NIO APP
Some new second-tier car-making forces have also kept up with this wave. For example, the Nezha APP has also launched mahjong, quick-drying towels, and even children's electric vehicles.
Only you can't think of it, there is nothing they won't sell, they can't sell.
The first to set off this "not doing business" trend is the first Internet celebrity in the car industry - Tesla.
Tesla sells "wild" things.
On Christmas Day 2017, Musk tweeted that he was ready to sell a hat, limited to 50,000, in order to sell this hat, Musk even changed the Twitter profile to a hat salesman. In just a few days, the $20 hat was snapped up.
This is the first time Musk has seen the amazing purchasing power of the masses. Soon, Tesla copied the routine again, launched a flamethrower gun, and declared that it was the safest flamethrower in history, selling for $600 (about 3977 yuan). The flamethrower once went viral on YouTube, and almost all well-known Tubing UP owners have taken video reviews.
Since then, Tesla's online merchandise has become more and more outrageous: in order to fight back against shorts, "short" shorts have been introduced; on the verge of the company's delisting, the $1500 surfboard has been launched on the backhand; to celebrate the imminent completion of the Texas Gigafactory, the belt buckle has been introduced...
Tesla's famous short shorts
The point is that these bizarre peripheries, which are not low in price and can be called IQ taxes, do not worry about no buyers at all.
In October 2021, Tesla launched a Tesla glass wine bottle on Tmall, priced at 799 yuan. Yes, a wine bottle, there is no wine in it, but a polished metal stand is included. It was this empty wine glass, which sold out in 2 days on the shelves, and was once fried to $499 (about 3174 yuan) on ebay.
On January 3 this year, Tesla's official website in China put on a whistle, similar in shape to Cyberruck, which costs $50. This mediocre whistle was snatched up as soon as it was on the shelves, and even became the annual wealth management product for many people - the price on ebay has been speculated to $42,000.
Tesla resembles Cyberruck's whistle
Weilai has set up the "NIO Life Golden Centipede Award" for the local tycoons who dare to "chop hands" to reward the owners with the highest shopping amount every year. NIO Life is an original design lifestyle brand founded by NIO, the brand will select some products that conform to NIO's aesthetics and design, and the main sales channel is NIO's official APP. The data shows that the three car owners with the highest consumption amount of NIO Life in 2020 spent 185,000 yuan, 177,400 yuan and 170,600 yuan respectively.
Are you all crazy?
How profitable are peripheral products?
The price is so expensive, and there are a large number of "leeks" willing to recharge for the faith. Teslas must have made crazy money by selling peripherals, right?
Unfortunately, I asked a lot of people in the deep way, and the answer was no.
Take Xiao Peng's mahjong as an example. "From the perspective of mahjong alone, it is definitely not profitable. Because its mold opening fee and manufacturing costs are very expensive. Yuan Kefei, a trendy SVP, said to Shentu: "And this kind of mahjong is still a limited model, which cannot be taken in quantity and cost higher." ”
In the field of industrial manufacturing, the marginal cost of production of small batches of goods is high, and many factories are even reluctant to accept customized goods. Most of the peripherals launched by car companies are for their own customer groups, and it is difficult to go. This also means that doing customized peripherals may be to lose money, even if teslas that sell out may not make money.
Tesla's glass wine bottle priced at 799 yuan
Even if you don't make customized products, it is difficult to make money.
Nio Life's model is to do its own design, do all the direct procurement of the supply chain management, do its own operations, but it falls to manufacturing and does not build its own factory. Equivalently, a considerable part of the products in Weilai Mall are cooperating with upstream suppliers.
But even so, these difficult commodities have not brought much profit to Weilai.
The person in charge of NIO Life once explained his business model to the future auto daily: NIO Life only does private domain traffic, and the user scale will gradually expand with the expansion of the scale of NIO users, but there is no one day when there is suddenly huge traffic, which is not NIO Life's business model. Making money is currently less important to NIO Life.
Translated, it doesn't make much money.
Can't make money, it takes time and effort, what do these new forces do around the map?
"Whether you can make money is secondary, some people pay attention to it, some people discuss it is the focus." The most important thing is to have a topic degree. Yuan Kefei pointed out.
Wilde, the greatest writer of the 19th century, once said, "There is only one thing in the world that is worse than being talked about, and that is that no one talks about you." ”
Taking Tesla short selling wine glasses as an example, as soon as the news was released, it quickly rushed to the Weibo hot search. Not to mention that by "selling wine bottles" to harvest several waves of traffic, Tesla can save a lot of advertising costs by the way. Many friends who have never paid attention to cars know that Tesla has launched such a product.
"In people's common sense, alcohol and cars cannot be linked, after all, drinking does not drive, driving does not drink. Tesla cleverly found such a controversial topic, broke common sense, launched an empty wine bottle, and immediately attracted people's attention. Yuan Kefei analyzed.
Xiaopeng's introduction of metal mahjong is the same logic - how many sets to sell is not important, what is important is to break the circle to get attention.
Now the new energy vehicle market situation is very good, and sales are rising higher and higher. However, the penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles in 2021 is only 14.8%. For the entire auto market, new energy vehicles are still a niche. Occupying the top of the car market are still the old depots that have lived for hundreds of years.
What are the new forces? For most Chinese, there is still no recognition.
A typical example is that many malls in small third- and fourth-tier cities have also appeared in the booths of new energy brands such as Xiaopeng, Weilai, and JiKr. Next to the booth, someone pointed to Xiao Peng's sign and asked: "Where is this brand, how can it be sold so expensive, do I have the money to buy an Audi?" ”
In the current Chinese market, consumers have certain obstacles to the brand recognition of many new forces. In this case, car companies must do some circle-breaking behavior to attract more consumers to pay attention to their own brands.
In Yuan Kefei's view: "Using products, or some cross-border products to highlight the brand tone and break the circle, is actually a very simple and effective way." ”
Hunting young people from the periphery?
Car companies do the surrounding, in fact, is not a new thing.
BMW has cooperated with Baozi Group to produce and sell high-end clothing brand BMW Lifestyle (later renamed BMW Studio), and has opened more than 50 stores in China; Rolls-Royce has launched an umbrella for 100,000 yuan; FAW-Volkswagen Audi has also sold watches worth 5,000 yuan...
For a long time, traditional car companies have basically launched peripheral products around the car, such as car pendants, storm jackets, car models, etc.
"And most of the products are relatively chicken ribs, and there are not many people who buy them." An industry insider pointed out.
The contrast is obvious that most of the surrounding areas launched by the new car-making forces are not related to cars, but involve all aspects of life. There are really people around these areas to buy, and some categories even sell out.
Taking WEILAI as an example, according to the official introduction, NIO Life has sent more than 3 million products, involving 8 categories of clothing accessories, travel bags, technology products, household products, car life, car model toys, hotel experience and food.
Source / NIO official website
At the end of the day, times have changed.
In Yuan Kefei's view, the original old marketing methods, such as simply emphasizing the physical properties of the car, actually did not work.
At the moment when social media and the Internet are very developed, the acceleration, machine system, and performance of a car can soon spread throughout the country through the network.
After having a certain understanding of the performance of the car itself, what do people value more?
It is the identity attribute or living state behind the car.
"A car under 100,000 yuan is just a means of transportation." But once the car is sold for more than 150,000, it is no longer just a simple means of transportation. What kind of car to drive, to some extent, represents the aesthetics, values, identity and social class of the owner. Yuan Kefei believes: "So the psychological logic of consumers is that who can help me create a better identity, then I am more inclined to buy whom." ”
In this case, the periphery has another layer of function - to create a certain lifestyle and improve the tone of the brand.
Take Weilai as an example. Their logic is that the neighborhood I sell is not just a peripheral, but represents a boutique life. This is a great part of brand building.
BMW owner Ah Liang bought more than a dozen large and small goods in NIO Life, including refrigerator stickers, backpacks, scarves, umbrellas, electric toothbrushes, clothing, wallets, and various snacks. In Ah Liang's view, the real fans are still because of the excellent selection.
The experience of buying the surrounding area is very good, and finally A Liang conveniently booked a Weilai ET7.
"In addition to the car itself, car companies cut in from the bits and pieces of life, but it is easier to reach consumers." Yuan Kefei said: "Relying on these surroundings, Weilai is also trying to create a way of life, telling its own consumers what exquisite high-end life should be like. These products have indeed raised the tone of Weilai's brand as a whole. ”
From the perspective of industrial scale, in 2021, mainland automobile sales will reach 26.275 million units. In such a huge market, 260 million Gen Z are active. Whoever can reach these people the fastest and seize the mind will control the future. How to attract young people is a lesson that all car companies need to do.
"Now it's more important to play a little more lively." Yuan Kefei said: "There are actually many scenes that reach and influence potential consumers, not only cars. The thinking of traditional car companies should change, they should start from the personal life of consumers, what else does a consumer need in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation? Can brands meet the needs of more diversity in your life? At this point, many new car-making forces are relatively advanced. ”
Note: At the request of the interviewee, A Liang is a pseudonym in the text.