With the rise of new car-making forces, the gap between the strength of traditional car companies and new car-making forces is narrowing, especially in the two major transformation directions of rejuvenation and electrification, and the new car-making forces have even shown a leading posture, but it is too early to judge that traditional car companies will lose in this transformation war.
It is true that in the tide of rejuvenation, the new car-making forces from Internet technology companies have a natural affinity and fit with the young people who have grown up in the Internet era, which also makes the new car-making forces have obvious long versions in the rejuvenation of products and marketing, but the car-making experience, research and development advantages, product reliability, and perfect service system accumulated by traditional car companies for many years are beyond the new forces in a short period of time.
In other words, the duel between traditional car companies and new car-making forces in the field of rejuvenation is more like a showdown between systematic warfare and individual combat, both of which have advantages and disadvantages, and it is difficult to say which one wins or loses, but one thing is certain that traditional car companies want to make up for products and marketing rejuvenation is not so difficult, and it is very difficult for new forces to form a strong system strength in a short period of time.
This is not on paper, in the transformation of traditional car companies represented by the automobile and Volkswagen, we can already see the new transformation ideas of traditional car companies, and from the perspective of results, the transformation speed of traditional car companies may exceed industry expectations.
Change "shackles" into "barriers" and regain the right to speak about products
For traditional car companies, it is difficult to make a complete change in the product system and brand positioning that has lasted for many years, but this "shackle" is also an advantage, and the performance of traditional car companies in safety and reliability is incomparable to the new forces of car manufacturing, so the new forces of car manufacturing will talk more about technology, futures configuration and user co-creation, but because they are good at telling stories with Internet thinking, they appear to be particularly loud among young people.
What traditional car companies need to do is to find more youthful elements on the basis of the existing product system and product positioning, create products with their own original characteristics and meet the needs of young people in the new era, and regain the right to speak in the definition of products in the new era.
SAIC Volkswagen's approach is a two-pronged approach, on the one hand, it "reduces the age and renews" the classic products, and on the other hand, it boldly innovates in new products. In the traditional models, the new Passat and the new Langyi have innovatively adopted the "double front face" strategy, one is responsible for continuing to strengthen the original product positioning and stabilizing the basic disk, one is responsible for attracting the attention of younger users and transforming younger; the new Tiguan L and the new Weiran start from the technology of interior design and configuration, so that young people who pursue introverted can also have more choices.
In terms of new models, last year's SAIC Volkswagen "three arrows in a row" ID. series is enough to explain the transformation of the enterprise, especially the finale of the ID.3, itself the current A-class pure electric vehicle market product choice is not much, cross-border style A-class pure electric models are even less, and ID.3 is aimed at this gap, at this point, SAIC Volkswagen is doing more than the new forces that have begun to homogenize car manufacturing.
Adopt the agency system to establish a new era of sales model
The original product system is difficult to subvert for a time, the original dealer model is also difficult to easily subvert, and under the vigorous publicity of the new forces, the traditional dealer model seems to be "outdated", but in fact, the direct operation model of the new forces is not a perfect solution, and the high cost of direct stores and the lack of after-sales service have limited its large-scale popularity.
In this regard, SAIC Volkswagen chose to combine the traditional dealer model with new models and new formats to create an "agency system" model, and first began to land on the ID. series. Under the new model, product prices are transparent, consumers no longer need to compare prices, and agents can also focus on offline services such as invitations, test drives, and model introductions, and are committed to providing customers with a better service experience.
It is worth noting that thanks to its own strong traditional dealer system, the number of SAIC Volkswagen agents has grown very fast, as of the end of last year, the number of ID. agents has reached 757, basically achieving coverage of first-, second- and third-tier cities, and the number of ID.Store (X) settled in the bustling business districts of major key cities has also exceeded 50.
Such model innovation, not only fully take into account the current consumption habits and reach of young consumer groups, but also make good use of the original advantages of the enterprise, to make up for the lack of direct sales model of new car-making forces, for consumers, in the case of purchase methods, reach methods are similar, SAIC Volkswagen also has a more perfect after-sales service system, how to choose is very clear.
In this future-oriented transformation, the new forces with a large volume appear to be unlimited, giving outsiders an illusion that the model they advocate is the illusion of the general trend, in fact, the transformation of traditional car companies must not be misled by these voices, we must explore our own transformation path on the basis of our own advantages, which is worth referring to saic-Volkswagen's transformation sample.