Introduction: In this era when Musk, Li Xiang, and He Xiaopeng are all advertised as super product managers, funny and resilient marketing leaders like Yu Jingmin are becoming more and more rare.
(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Lou Bing) "Returning to the Volkswagen brand, I am still 'Fat Head Yu', and I want to always young. This is the mentality that Yu Jingmin, executive deputy general manager of sales and marketing at SAIC Volkswagen, has shown when communicating with the media just over the past month after he took office.
Yu Jingmin is an optimist, and this has never changed during his tenure. Whether it was initially as regional general manager at SAIC Volkswagen or then taking over SAIC Passenger Cars, Yu Jingmin has never seen the heyday of the corresponding brand in his more than 20 years of career at SAIC. However, none of this has affected the positive evaluation of Yu Jingmin's professional ability and affinity.
Perhaps in the eyes of many consumers, returning to the familiar SAIC Volkswagen is the beginning of Yu Jingmin's career promotion again. However, for Yu Jingmin himself, in the face of the "old owner", bringing a positive, optimistic and enterprising attitude to SAIC Volkswagen has become the biggest wealth he has brought to SAIC Volkswagen in these 7 months.
Coincidentally, a similar situation, Yu Jingmin has experienced once 7 years ago.
The rim "Fat Head Yu"
Born in 1974, Yu Jingmin did not have much honor halo before graduating from university and entering SAIC, and perhaps because of this, it is difficult to find the so-called "idol baggage" in Yu Jingmin's body.
On July 3, 2014, after Jiang Jun, the former deputy general manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company, ceased to serve as the company's deputy general manager, Yu Jingmin took over the baton and moved forward. Although the position has been further improved, the well-known reality is that SAIC passenger cars at that time were known as roewe and MG, which were known as "unable to support the wall".
Since 2013, SAIC's passenger car sales have begun to decline, from 230,000 units that year, to 180,000 units in 2014, to 170,000 units in 2015. According to the financial report data, in the past three years, the annual net profit of SAIC's parent company after deducting investment income has reached more than 6 billion yuan.
More importantly, at that time, Roewe and MG's products were aging, and it was unrealistic to blindly pursue sales when the crux of research and development, products, brands and so on had not yet been opened.
In order to change this situation, Yu Jingmin chose to carry out targeted reforms for SAIC passenger cars. During the SAIC passenger car period, Yu Jingmin gave full play to the advantages of his own brand having greater "autonomy" and comprehensively launched the brand strategy optimization project to clarify the differentiated competitive advantages of Roewe and MG brands in the market. It is also from this point that Yu Jingmin, who is optimistic and "looking forward", has officially grasped the lifeblood of the times.
The story is well known, in the Roewe RX5, Yu Jingmin successfully created the concept of "the world's first Internet car"; the sales volume of the MG brand in recent years is also inseparable from Yu Jingmin's creative revival of a century-old international brand that was acquired by SAIC Motor, not subject to mg's past and history, but according to the current domestic market's latest demand for automotive products, a series of development and innovation, and finally successfully revived MG in the Chinese market and fed overseas.
However, Yu Jingmin's story is far from over, and the creative thinking and creative practice formed in the marketing process of successfully operating SAIC passenger cars have further stimulated Yu Jingmin's new possibilities at the operational and marketing levels. Internet celebrity car company executives - "Fat Head Yu" was born.
In the face of the changes in the marketing environment under the epidemic in 2020, Yu Jingmin dared to try, and quickly created industry names such as "the duan hand that was delayed by the sale of the car", "the talk show sales boss", "the circle DJ" and other industry names through the form of personal efforts, and even helped SAIC Passenger Cars successfully create a "marketing group" for SAIC passenger cars in the most difficult marketing period.
Yu Jingmin, who put on the battlefield, stimulated the vitality of the team, and empowered the brand with personal charm, completed the image transformation from the manager of the car company to the leader of the team, "Fat Head Yu".
SAIC Volkswagen's "advance team"
On April 1, 2021, Yu Jingmin was formally transferred to serve as the executive deputy general manager of sales and marketing of SAIC Volkswagen and the general manager of Shanghai SAIC Volkswagen Sales Co., Ltd.
However, at this time, SAIC Volkswagen is facing a moment of urgent change on the sales side, with the Chinese auto market entering the stock era in 2018, SAIC Volkswagen, as the leader of the domestic car market, began to stall in the war of quantity. In 2019, it gave up the top spot, and sales in 2020 fell by 20.3% year-on-year. The pressure on Yu Jingmin to return to SAIC Volkswagen is no less than when he took over SAIC Passenger Cars seven years ago.
In the eyes of public opinion, the 2019 Passat "Zhongbaoyan" collision incident is recognized as the fuse of SAIC Volkswagen's decline, and some people even speculate that SAIC Volkswagen will be devastated by product quality problems. But for Yu Jingmin, who just graduated as a translator at Shanghai Volkswagen and has since been promoted to the sales director of Shanghai Volkswagen Skoda brand, he naturally knows the most about the current situation and problems faced by the "old owner".
"The gap between the north and the south of Volkswagen is not mainly in the Volkswagen brand itself, but FAW-Volkswagen has an Audi brand bonus. With the saicid Audi project officially launched, I believe that the gap in this regard will be smoothed out in the future. In an interview, Yu Jingmin once again showed his optimism.
In fact, for SAIC Volkswagen, the competition between the same doors may not be the biggest problem. In the stock era, the competition for market share depends more on the brand's own product strength, as Yu Jingmin said, in the common context of the epidemic and the lack of core, the north and south Volkswagen, which also belongs to the Volkswagen brand, and many joint venture brands, will be fully impacted by the production and marketing end. But between this and the other, SAIC Volkswagen is still the second closest to the top of the market.
The fundamental reason for the real narrowing of the sales gap between brands is how to better launch products that meet the needs of users in the era of intelligent and electrified industry changes. Compared with Toyota and Honda, which made the transformation at the same time, Volkswagen's slower transformation plan eventually led to its decline in new and sales in recent years, and in this environment, SAIC Volkswagen, which relies on local adjustments and updates based on Volkswagen products, naturally has a slower "turnaround".
Therefore, in the eyes of Yu Jingmin, the decline in sales of SAIC Volkswagen today is an inevitable trough period that Volkswagen will inevitably experience under the strategic planning of Volkswagen's transformation. However, in this regard, Yu Jingmin is not passive, under the challenge, opportunities often coexist.
"Volkswagen or that Volkswagen, whether it is brand power, market share or competitiveness, is still second to none." But volkswagen is no longer the volkswagen, its determination and speed of turning around and innovating are impressive. For Yu Jingmin, 2021 is a big year for SAIC Volkswagen's products, and it is also the key to his ability to exert his fists.
In addition to the new Tiguan L and the new Passat products in terms of fuel vehicles, the introduction of three ID.series electric vehicles launched on the MEB platform has become the best endorsement of SAIC Volkswagen's new vitality.
"This time I don't bring goods but I want to 'take the lead', take the lead in changing ideas, and do real young marketing." The most important thing is to create a 'men's group' that belongs to SAIC Volkswagen. Not surprisingly, Yu Jingmin brought the young marketing experience of SAIC passenger cars to SAIC Volkswagen. But this time, Yu Jingmin went from the front of the stage to the backstage.
Since taking office in April, Yu Jingmin has no longer appeared in major live broadcast rooms and listing sites as frequently as in the past, but instead, Yang Siyao, executive director of SAIC Volkswagen brand marketing, Wu Yun, senior director of SAIC Volkswagen brand marketing, and Fu Qiang, senior director of SAIC Volkswagen brand network development and management, stood in front of the stage to interpret the youthful marketing of SAIC Volkswagen's new products.
Marketers of Japanese joint venture brands are still trying to interpret the advantages of HEV (Oil-Electric Hybrid), when marketers of American joint venture brands are just beginning to promote the construction of new electric platforms. Yu Jingmin has removed the barrier between technology and entered the market to reshape the trust between SAIC Volkswagen and users and the brand's youthful image.
Since taking office, Yu Jingmin has visited dealers non-stop to communicate with the media and consumers. A staff member of SAIC Volkswagen said, "If you don't drag him, he won't rest for a day throughout 'May Day'." It is precisely for this reason that Yu Jingmin's white hair on his sideburns is increasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
However, Yu Jingmin has never complained about this, but instead in terms of user operation, SAIC Volkswagen has transformed into a way of direct docking with users to improve customer satisfaction. "It's my passion to face your customers when you're stressed, and it's what I'm used to."
In addition to facing consumers, Yu Jingmin also brought this habit to SAIC Volkswagen's dealer partners, in the second half of this year, when each new dealer opens, the top head of SAIC Volkswagen will definitely take off his suit, go to the store and play with the store manager, clerk, and customers, absorb the needs of users and dealers in in-depth exchanges, or record promotional videos with 4S stores.
In the words of Yu Jingmin, "In the era of electric intelligence, elephants are also running fast. Under the multiple changes led by Yu Jingmin, SAIC Volkswagen began to change at the market level: ID.4X and ID.6X, which were not optimistic at the beginning of the listing, began to rise rapidly in sales from the second half of the year. Under the influence of the continuous fermentation of the North and South Volkswagen ID. family products, in November, Volkswagen ID. delivered a total of 14,167 new vehicles, an increase of 11.2% month-on-month, and achieved sales of more than 10,000 for three consecutive months. Among them, the SAIC Volkswagen ID. family has achieved sales growth for eight consecutive months, exceeding the 7,000-vehicle mark in October and November for two consecutive months.
According to the latest November production and sales report released by SAIC Motor Group Co., Ltd., SAIC Motor's total sales in November were 581,000 units, down 13.33% year-on-year. Among them, SAIC Volkswagen sold 206,900 units, down 6.72% year-on-year. Although it still has not stopped falling, in contrast, SAIC Volkswagen's decline has narrowed sharply compared with other joint venture brands and previous months.
Obviously, in the 7 months since he served at SAIC Volkswagen, Yu Jingmin's optimistic attitude and positive attitude have rapidly changed SAIC Volkswagen's decision-making system and brand image. More importantly, when competitors are still focusing on how to change the market pattern through products, the arrival of Yu Jingmin has brought a new life to the marketing model that SAIC Volkswagen has been lying on the merit book for a long time.
Looking back at the present, in any vehicle company with a huge system, how much change can a leader or leader bring, it may be difficult for anyone to give a quantitative standard answer.
In his nearly 30-year career, Yu Jingmin often appeared as a deputy at the management decision-making level of the enterprise. For the products and research and development of the company's endorsement, Yu Jingmin has little involvement, but whether the company is in a difficult situation at the strategic level or in the spring breeze, as a decision-maker in marketing management, Yu Jingmin, who has always been able to take the lead in charging ways YOUNG, is not a model and benchmark among the executives of the current joint venture car companies.
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