Gu Yebin, although there is no hector in the automotive industry, but for SAIC-GM, he has "great achievements" and is one of my personal favorite masters in the industry.
All the way up from the grassroots level, to the senior management position, from the overall design and development of the first generation of Encore, to sit in Wuhan to become a big member, Gu Yebin has accumulated a lot of rich experience in the field of research and development, sales, and marketing, what is rare is that Gu Yebin has always maintained a down-to-earth, pragmatic style, never procrastinating.
At the Oncola press conference, the concise and passionate preaching, pouring countless media colleagues, still fresh in people's memories, I have always believed that Gu Yebin should be the best candidate to succeed Wang Yongqing as the helmsman of SAIC-GM, under his leadership, perhaps SAIC-GM will go further under the solid style.
Now, Gu Yebin, who is pragmatic and diligent, has sat in the position of director of the marketing department of SAIC-GM Cadillac, becoming the vanguard of Cadillac's expansion of business in China.
Presumably, SAIC-GM made such an arrangement in the hope that Gu Yebin could help Cadillac get out of the current predicament, but for Gu Yebin's current situation, I would like to borrow a poem by Mr. Tan Sitong: There is a heart to kill thieves, and there is no ability to return to heaven.
Now Cadillac is already a hard to return, it is different from Buick, Buick in the Chinese market is more pragmatic, in china designed models, can be sold back to the United States, enough to prove Buick's emphasis on the Chinese market, and the efforts made. Gu Yebin can play his role more in such an environment.
But Cadillac is now too "virtual", virtual to the eyes of consumers, it has no car market breakthrough tool except for the empty shell of a "luxury brand", but even the empty shell of this luxury brand is weathering at a speed visible to the naked eye, and it will be eliminated in the near future.
If you are more serious, Cadillac in the Chinese market, has never become a luxury brand, but China's own brands are still in their infancy, all imported brands have come up with a noble posture, taking advantage of the fact that the Chinese people do not understand, instilled the idea that high prices are luxurious.
Today's Chinese consumers are no longer those shallow little Amon, and their understanding of luxury is also more profound.
Brand luxury, you must have a different identity, such as BBA, although these years have been through the way of reducing the entry price, but the suitors are still flocking, that is because driving BBA, whether it is high-end or entry, in the circle is to have face, at first people rely on cars to raise face, and then people to the car upgraded, all the career success of the giant businessman Jia, who does not have a few BBA cars, this is called luxury. High-end people, are buying a car, it is a tractor, that is also high-end.
But Cadillac never seems to have been treated like this, and no one thinks that the Cadillac brand can bring such a sense of glory, and the title that makes Cadillac famous is "Bath Emperor", a name that even Cadillac himself is ashamed to mention, and I will not explain the meaning in detail.
In addition, in fact, it is not another, or to investigate why BBA can achieve a double harvest of sales and profits in the Chinese car market, and why Cadillac has sold a lonely problem.
For Chinese consumers, BBA has been adjusting its own design, business pioneers, sports experts, these luxury brands have been capturing, and adapt to the changes in the needs of China's high-end consumer population, but Cadillac's changes over the years, simply too limited, and now still advertising what diamond cutting, what tear headlights, diamond cutting can enhance the driving experience of the vehicle? To put it bluntly, it is just a kind of propaganda gimmick, this old-fashioned design method has long been unpopular, what headlights are highly recognizable, but they have no value in themselves, what is the use of high recognition, that is, knowing that it is Cadillac, and then what?
Even if some people say that the BBA has long lost its original tone, it is using the brand to "cheat money", but at least people are working very hard to "cheat", and we have not seen cadillac's efforts, a price cut on their own, Cadillac is the most valuable luxury brand, luxury? In addition to saying luxury themselves, how many consumers think cadillac is a luxury brand.
That is not a luxury brand, but also to sell more than the value of the vehicle itself, really when China's elite class of people stupid money, the same is the American brand, the price is so much more expensive than Buick, buy Buick, buy crowd is not good? Is it bad to buy a Toyota? Who dares to say that Cadillac owners have a sense of superiority over Toyota and Volkswagen owners? If the problem of brand positioning and product strength is not solved, no one can change anything.
However, can Gu Yebin solve the above problems? I don't think it can, Cadillac or Chevrolet, the problems on the body are a lot, if you change to your own brand car companies, you have long since changed your face and washed your bones. Now it is not that SAIC-GM does not want to change, but there is a weak heart, SAIC-GM can not change the status quo of Cadillac, can Gu Yebin? Or the poem: There is a heart to kill a thief, and there is no power to return to heaven.
So the question is, why doesn't SAIC-GM put talent in a position that can play its greatest role, but let him carry the cauldron of Cadillac, and in a few years, I don't know if Gu Yebin can maintain such a pragmatic style, at that time, Buick lost a handsome talent that can be independent.
One person is very "real", a brand is very "virtual", I don't know who tied the two of them together, anyway, in my opinion, Gu Yebin and Cadillac are the least right combination.