Head map source: Weilai official
Not Taobao, nor is it the popular anchor with goods, li bao's shopping routine after the 80s, starting from a car company APP.
The formation of habits begins with "wool". After becoming the owner of NIO ES8, Li Bao's account has a lot of points that can be used to shop and spend in NIO Life. Referring to past experience, she does not have much expectation for the quality of this "peripheral" product. However, several experiences that exceeded expectations directly opened her new doors to shopping.
After running out of points, Li Bao took the initiative to transform into a "Kryptonian Gold" player. Since 2018, as small as a few yuan of pens, dozens of yuan of waffles and other daily necessities and snacks, as large as hundreds of yuan, thousands of yuan of trench coats, gift boxes, she will NIO Life on the shelves of the products almost "bought over and over".
As a lifestyle brand under Weilai, after four years of operation, the official also gave a set of data, the current cumulative shipment of NIO Life exceeded 5 million, of which consumers have both car owners and non-car owners.
If you look at the entire automobile circle, in addition to car manufacturing, many car companies have begun to change their ways to engage in side business.
From Musk's first hat, To now Tesla has launched more than 100 peripheral products. Among them, the "Tesla Tequila" launched in 2020, which costs $250, has been speculated all the way to higher than Feitian Maotai. And SAIC-GM-Wuling is also a good hand in the side business, in addition to snail powder, perfume, in March 2020, it was completely out of the circle because of the workshop to produce masks.
Engaging in side business, are car companies serious?
"The best car company"
At the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, in addition to once again moving NIO House to the scene, in the area occupying a considerable proportion, Weilai also neatly displayed clothing, lamps, the latest joint bags and even mahjong of different sizes, which belonged to NIO Life's exhibits, which seemed to be incompatible with the "protagonists" of the major booths around it, but it also earned enough eyeballs for Nio.
The reality is that this seemingly "amateur" peripheral business has gained a lot of loyal users.
In the App crazy "chopping hands" of the big household, jokingly called themselves "centipede in, earthworm out", Weilai also set up a "Golden Centipede Award" for this purpose. Official 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.
Image source: NIO App
At the end of 2020, during the 2 months of waiting to pick up the car, ES6 owner Jiang Tao was also "planted". At first, he just followed up on the progress of the pick-up in the app and discussed it with other riders. Even if he becomes the owner of the car, he still has a natural sense of distrust for the car company to sell the goods itself, "the surrounding is nothing more than OEM, OEM, practicality is also very general."
But as a "cookie control", Jiang Tao was still impressed by a cookie in the mall. To his surprise, the cookie, which was redeemed for free with points, tasted far beyond expectations and was "deliciously touching." The truth is that because of this cookie, NIO was even nominated by non-owners as the "tastiest car company".
"Click," a thin crisp cookie Image source: Nio App
After this, Jiang Tao began the "journey of chopping hands". In 2021, he placed 210 orders at NIO Life, buying a total of 571 items.
Li Bao attributed the reason for the transformation of his shopping position to "saving time". Compared with other e-commerce platforms, it is necessary to select from homogeneous goods, out of recognition of the Weilai brand, she feels that "there is no need to make too many choices, and the quality of the goods will be guaranteed."
The increase in the number of loyal users makes it difficult to grab hot items, even no less than ice piers and Moutai piers. Li Bao also remembered that in order to snap up the Weilai limited edition badge, he also set an alarm clock in advance, but with the kung fu of a phone call, the badge was sold out.
Under the strong brand effect, the matter of car companies selling goods seems to become simple. In December 2021, Tesla launched a limited edition whistle that cost more than 300 on the official store. According to the official description, the shape of the whistle is inspired by the Tesla pure electric pickup truck Cyberruck, which is extremely collectible.
On the day of the sale, Tesla owner Wang Meng stayed on the official website early and constantly refreshed the webpage until he successfully bought the first batch at the original price. "Others laugh at me for being stupid and have a lot of money, and I laugh at others for not seeing through it." In his opinion, as the prospective owner of Cyberruck, the whistle represents a meaning far beyond itself.
Judging from people's pursuit of it, there are not many people who have similar ideas. On the second-hand trading platform, the price of this whistle was once speculated to a thousand yuan.
The design that will not "choose" is not a good car company
For the non-main business of selling goods, although the play methods of car companies are different, in contrast, positioning to be a brand, NIO Life has undoubtedly chosen a heavier way.
Liu Jie, head of NIO Life, remembers that in the initial stage, Weilai's public account only had a few hundred people to pay attention to, and Li Bin set a KPI for the team at that time and sent 100,000 copies of things within a year. Even without spending money, the difficulty was still beyond expectations, "We thought of all kinds of tricks, and only gave away 10,000 copies in the first year." ”
"Once others understand that something is a giveaway, there is no time to turn over." After that, Liu Jie's team summed up the experience, to become design-driven, to launch products that can represent the lifestyle and aesthetics advocated by Weilai.
Jili Liu, head of NIO Life and assistant vice president, image source: NIO
However, it is not easy to break the stereotypes of the outside world. When entering other platforms, because of the identity around the car company, the other party does not recognize it. After three rounds of selection, NIO Life was finally able to make it on the shelves by quality. "Good design can really move people's hearts." Liu Jie said that behind each product, there are basically 6-9 designs, which have to go through three rounds of screening.
To this end, starting from 2021, after internal discussions, NIO Life decided to withdraw from Weilai's offline stores and switch to online channels. Liu Jie found that cars are Niolai's main business, and "anything placed next to it is like a giveaway, losing its sense of existence." There will even be car owners asking, "If you buy a car, can you send me a few NIO Life products?" ”
"We do what users need." Although the direction was established, NIO Life also took a detour in the early days of its establishment. In addition to daily necessities, Weilai has also tried to travel hotels, but it not only involves real-time price changes, but also provides better prices and real-time scheduling compared with large platforms, so in the end, "this category has been optimized."
For the "layman" of car companies, the biggest difficulty lies in how to implement category development strategies. That is, compared with the vertical competitors, whether they can come up with better product strength and price. In Liu Jie's view, the solution is to start with categories with structural advantages.
She took the current NIO Life with the highest repurchase rate of food as an example, the current food industry is dominated by offline stores, most of which have to go through multiple circulation channels, often with a shelf life of up to 12 months. NIO Life chooses to sell in a fixed channel, cutting out the middleman, which is convenient for pre-sales and reduces additives, and gives users more competitive prices.
Mooncake Making Image source: NIO App
But being in control of your design, supply chain, and inventory also means greater risk. In order to solve this problem, the number of goods on the shelves of NIO Life at this stage will not be too large.
In contrast, Tesla's peripheral products are often unexpected, and the function and price of the product do not seem to be the primary consideration. From the 50,000-strong "boring card" hat in 2017 to the $150 belt buckle on the shelves in 2021, Tesla has also been expanding the category of derivatives.
Interestingly, whenever there is a product release, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spares no effort to bring goods for it. After seeing Apple's 145 yuan "sky-high polishing cloth", he vigorously promoted on Twitter, "Don't pay IQ tax on Apple polishing cloth, come and buy a Tesla whistle!" ”
Before the new car was built, traditional car companies had already played the "peripheral business" well.
As early as 1973, Volkswagen made currywurst and went to supermarkets all over Germany. In 2001, BMW cooperated with Baozi Group to produce and sell high-end clothing brand BMW Life style, which was later renamed BMW Studio. Ferrari has introduced perfumes and lipsticks.
Don't make money, what do you want?
With the continuous improvement of NIO's delivery volume, the consumer groups covered by NIO Life have also become more diversified. Compared with more than 80% of male consumers in the early days, the proportion of female consumers has now accounted for more than 30%.
More consumers also represent greater challenges. Starting in 2021, NIO Life has launched a number of sub-brands. The increase in categories and sub-brands also means that it needs to match the larger supply chain size and team size.
Photo by Future Auto Daily
In Liu Jie's view, in the long run, "NIO Life's investment is not heavy enough." It believes that it is impossible to make products with ingenuity, spend less effort and investment than others and do better than others, "Now we also need to cultivate internal skills, work hard, and improve standards to make good products." ”
However, firmly doing design brands, Liu Jie has long been mentally prepared, "It is difficult for a brand to make everyone like, unless it is a basic model like Uniqlo." ”
Liu Jie believes that for NIO Life, it is not so important to make money at present. "Always thinking about profitability, the product must not be done well." After the product is done, many things will come naturally. ”
In an interview with Shentu, Yuan Kefei, The SVP of The Fun, took the mahjong launched by Xiaopeng Automobile 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. And this kind of mahjong is still a limited model, can not go to the amount, the cost is higher. Zheng Song, head of Lantu user operations, also admitted that the courtesy mall of Lantu App is also "not for the purpose of making money".
Not making money, and time-consuming and laborious, what do the "Weilai people" want?
Foreign media technology columnist Elizabeth Lopatto once pointed out that Musk sells hats, surfboards and flamethrowers, in addition to giving fans the opportunity to show loyalty, like selling band commemorative shirts at concerts, further consolidating the fan community, but also to prove his magic and effortlessly turn his wonderful ideas into reality.
What's more, the advent of these products makes The Boring Company seem more interesting and shows people that the company has other goodwill in addition to revenue.
Zheng Song said that the launch of this business is conducive to creating a Lantu ecology, and the purpose of creating an ecology is to increase the sense of yearning, activity and viscosity of users and non-users.
Li Bin proposed at the beginning of its establishment, "WEILAI is not just an automobile company, our mission is to create a pleasant lifestyle for users." As a way of life outside the car, Liu Jie admitted that NIO Life hopes to really accompany the user's life, "This is very important." ”
(Note: Li Bao and Jiang Tao are pseudonyms in the text)