Unexpectedly, Mercedes fell to the altar again!
On February 18, Beijing Benz filed a recall plan with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, and decided to recall some EQC electric vehicles with production dates from November 30, 2018 to December 15, 2021, with a total of 10,104 units, from August 15, 2022. Therefore, some netizens joked that the number of Mercedes-Benz recalled vehicles was comparable to the cumulative sales of its new energy vehicles.
Speaking of Mercedes-Benz's defeat in the field of new energy, it is necessary to mention Duan Jianjun, chief operating officer of Mercedes-Benz marketing, who is a hot marketer, who once said that "electrification is an unstoppable trend, with the change of market track, there will be more participants to enter the electric vehicle market, making the competition more sufficient." "In fact, at the beginning, Mercedes-Benz was indeed full of momentum, and one Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle after another was listed, intending to quickly seize a piece of the pie.
In December 2019, Mercedes-Benz's first domestic pure electric SUV - EQC was launched. In 2021, Mercedes-Benz launched 5 new energy products in one go, including a large pure electric luxury car EQS, EQA SUV, EQB SUV, and two hybrid models. On December 17 of the same year, the pure electric flagship EQS, which represents the future of Mercedes-Benz electrification, was officially launched. But in any case, the performance of each of Mercedes-Benz's electric vehicles is unsatisfactory and disappointing.
Just like the EQC that was selected to be listed on the night of the winter, it seems to be in the middle of the winter curse - sales are lower than the temperature, from January to November 2019, the cumulative sales of mercedes-Benz EQC in the past year were only 5,411. As a result, in order to save face, Mercedes-Benz gave the highest discount of 186,800 yuan in history, but it was like suffering a second insult.
Other new energy models, EQB and EQA, also performed badly. Among them, EQB lost to Hyundai IONIQ 5 in the cover story of Auto Bild Weekly, one of Germany's representative automotive media, in the comprehensive evaluation of 7 categories and 53 sub-categories. Not only that, but this model fell below the price in less than a month on the market... It can be said that these three models nailed Mercedes-Benz to the "column of shame". In other words, Duan Jianjun, as the marketing helmsman, has made decisions and choices in Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles, which has hit many supporters in the face.
Some people may not understand why Duan Jianjun has predicted the trend of electric vehicles, and has also promoted the listing of pure electric new cars many times, but in the end, Mercedes-Benz has failed so thoroughly to impact the electric vehicle market? So next, let's take a closer look at the two sins of Jianjun as the marketing boss of Mercedes-Benz.
Original sin for the helmsman: failing to recognize the best time, missing the best outlet, making the wrong choice
Duan Jianjun has always stressed that the time has not yet come, so in the first few years of the new energy vehicle boom, Mercedes-Benz not only took a step slower, but also took the wrong road. Because, in Duan Jianjun's view, the runway of new energy vehicles is divided into ordinary and luxury, and Mercedes-Benz is naturally destined to only take luxury.
In the past few years of the rise of new energy vehicles, domestic new energy automobile enterprises have sprung up like mushrooms, and new energy automobile industrial parks and supporting factories and enterprises have landed in many cities in China. Through the tianyan inspection, the inquiry based on the condition that the business scope includes new energy vehicles, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and power batteries found that there were 479,000 related enterprises in the country, and 173,000 newly registered related enterprises in 2021, an increase of 62% year-on-year, setting a record for the fastest increase in the calendar year.
It is not difficult to find that the profits in this Red Sea are more affordable new energy vehicles. Therefore, I only want to do ultra-high-end luxury new energy cars and Mercedes-Benz that take the luxury car track, and always do not wait for the most appropriate time. In short, when new energy vehicles are in full bloom, Mercedes-Benz misses various red square and good opportunities, and even lags behind its old rival BMW.
A dramatic comparison is that in 2021, BMW's new energy models will sell more than 48,000 units, an increase of 69.6% year-on-year. Among them, BMW pure electric BMW iX3 sold more than 21,000 vehicles in the first full sales year. Since 2014, the BMW Group has delivered nearly 140,000 new energy vehicles in China, which is in stark contrast to Mercedes-Benz's poor performance.
How long does Duan Jianjun have to pave the way for the luxury electric vehicle track to be eligible for mercedes-Benz electric vehicles to start the motor? Maybe he didn't know it himself. Because, until the media interview in January 2022, he still thinks so: the luxury electric vehicle track has just entered the Spring and Autumn Period, and it is far from the Warring States Era, let alone the unification of the Qin Dynasty.
But what can be seen is that after entering the luxury battlefield, Mercedes-Benz's performance is a bit "panicked": mercedes-Benz EQC sales in January 407 vehicles, EQA sales of 261 vehicles, EQB sales of 207 vehicles. So far, Mercedes-Benz's three models on sale have successfully formed an embarrassing situation of "thousands" of cumulative sales in January. What does the Missed Mercedes-Benz electric car rely on next to squeeze into the team to fight? Is it the "belated arrival" of EQS, EQA, EQB, or the heavy crown that Duan Jianjun has worked hard to wear on Mercedes-Benz for several years - arrogance.
Although it is not possible to know Duan Jianjun's next move for the time being, it is not difficult to summarize the lessons, from cognitive errors, to market analysis errors, to decision errors, and finally directly missed the outlet, so that Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles "died before they were successful", Duan Jianjun, as the marketing helmsman, bears the original sin.
The original sin of marketers: inferior marketing methods, eating up the dividends of the previous generation of products, and misestimating the consumer market
Missing the policy dividend and the future market of the big lost car, Duan Jianjun should bear important responsibility, which is no objection. However, the bigger problem with Duan Jianjun is that he lies flat and does not make progress. In fact, Duan Jianjun lying flat to eat brand dividends is not a day or two, but it is not ugly to eat before, so there is no big problem, so that in 2019 and 2020, Mercedes-Benz can maintain sales by relying on the dividends of brands and previous generation products.
A hundred-footed worm, dead and then frozen. The evil consequences of the decay of the internal system and the decline in the reputation of brands and products will never dissipate, but the time has not yet come. The inertia of eating up the dividends of the previous generation of products has made Mercedes-Benz inert and no longer aggressive in research and development. Finally, in 2021, the major negative effects are spewing out.
Looking at Mercedes-Benz's new energy pure trams, in addition to the latest Mercedes-Benz EQS and EQE, EQA, EQB, EQC, etc. are all "oil to electricity" models without exception, these cars not only have less endurance than the new forces of car manufacturing, but even in terms of vehicle safety performance is not better than our own brand. In addition, in terms of automatic driving, Mercedes-Benz is also far behind Xiaopeng, Tesla, And Weilai, which are the rising stars of new energy vehicles. Problems such as these have laid a big thunder for Mercedes-Benz to embark on a new energy journey.
Coupled with Duan Jianjun's miscalculation of the consumer market, perfunctory and inaction in marketing, the final mercedes-Benz fiasco was more thorough. It can be said that it is precisely Duan Jianjun's lack of control in marketing and the perfunctory way of dealing with consumers that makes the image of Mercedes-Benz be pulled into the bottomless quagmire again and again.
In 2021, Mercedes-Benz's new car promotion advertisement caused fans to denounce because the model used the Western stereotype of "yellow people squinting" makeup. What is even more indignant is that this move occurred after some domestic enterprises were boycotted due to the existence of relevant stereotypical propaganda, whether it was "knowing that there are tigers in the mountains and preferring tiger mountain travel", or deliberately disgusting people's pure enthusiasm, but also have their own cognition.
As for word of mouth, Duan Jianjun played the arrogant and slow characteristics of Mercedes-Benz. At the end of 2021, a number of Mercedes-Benz EQC owners repeatedly concentrated on the post to reflect on quality problems, when the incident caused great concern and reporting from all sides, just when people were looking forward to how the century-old brand would respond to the domestic consumers who had been sincere. Duan Jianjun chose silence and did not reply for a long time. I don't know if I pretended not to see it, or if I was really speechless. Or do you feel that consumer condemnation is nothing more than duckweed and fleeting.
What is even more ironic is that after a long time, the owners of the car who have been defending their rights for a long time have only waited for an arrogant recall order.
I just don't know whether mercedes-benz staged the bitter meat drama before the 3.15 festival "recall" this time, and whether there is an audience. Clear-eyed people know that the large-scale recall of Mercedes-Benz must be based on the fact that there is indeed a problem with the car. In short, under the leadership of Duan Jianjun, Mercedes-Benz's temperament has undergone a qualitative change: from luxurious and generous to arrogant ignorance that consumers cannot accept.
Write at the end
Duan Jianjun once said, "Mercedes-Benz has not yet opened the door of the electric car, at most it is a small slit to push this door open." Just in the face of today's chaos, Duan Jianjun, who has ripped off the "fig leaf" of Mercedes-Benz, really has the ability to pull this small slit that is about to close from the hands of consumers and open a bright opening? Judging from the performance of Duan Jianjun in the past, I am afraid it will be difficult.