For the restart of Denza, Zhao Changjiang is more urgent than anyone.
Compared with the "Buddha" of denza's official account, Zhao Changjiang, general manager of Denza's sales division, has repeatedly disclosed denza's progress on the personal social platform. For example, the publication of high-end MPV manuscripts, the exposure of spy photos, the name of dentist MPV, and the recent updates on the warm-up map and some configurations have triggered widespread discussion among car owners.
This shows that BYD's territory of rising again has been slowly unfolding under the control of Zhao Changjiang.
Zhao Changjiang's new "test"
"The business license of Denza Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. was officially issued, and the rebuilding of high-end services and experiences is about to begin." On February 15 this year, Zhao Changjiang's words on Weibo instantly expanded the imagination of the outside world for Denza.
According to the information of Tianyancha, the new company was established on February 14, 100% controlled by BYD, and its business projects include new car sales, new energy vehicle sales and so on. The establishment of Denza Automobile Sales Company is considered to be BYD's move to build an independent sales channel for Denza and express its dominance.
Although the equity transfer with Daimler will not be completed until the middle of this year, it is clear that BYD cannot wait to restart the Denza brand.
Also in the same period, Zhao Changjiang's Weibo certification was updated from "Director of BYD's High-end Brand Preparation Office" to "General Manager of Denza Sales Division", which can be regarded as a specific new destination.
Regarding Zhao Changjiang's change in the performance of his duties, we must start from a year ago. At the beginning of 2021, BYD Automobile made organizational adjustments to the sales company. Among them, the sales division of Dynasty Network was established, with Lu Tian as the general manager; the e-network sales division was established, with Zhang Zhuo as the general manager; the brand and public relations division was established, with Li Yunfei as the general manager; and the after-sales service division was established, with Gao Zikai as the general manager. Zhao Changjiang, the former general manager of BYD Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., was transferred to a high-end brand and was responsible for the preparatory work.
This means that the BYD Automobile Sales Company, which previously fell under the jurisdiction of Zhao Changjiang, was restructured into four parts. At the same time, Zhao Changjiang, who was the previous leader of the sales company, was transferred to be responsible for high-end brands.
From the background of personnel changes, BYD's determination to restart the high-end was already very obvious at that time. The reason for choosing Zhao Changjiang may be because of the professionalism and ability, or it may be to inject young people and young models into high-end brands.
Because the reality is that the high-end brand Denza, which has been silent for 12 years, is indeed more like a hot potato, and if you want to re-fry it to create a new taste, you need a different recipe. Therefore, Zhao Yangtze River, who is holding a mountain fence in his hand, has an arduous task.
Denza: Hot potatoes are also mountain sticks
From Daimler's "generous" attitude of getting rid of his hands, it can be seen that Denza's situation was once extremely embarrassing.
Since its inception in 2021, Denza has actually launched 2 models, one is the dextile version, which is currently discontinued, and the other is denza X, which contains pure electricity and PHEV versions, but it has not caused much splash after listing.
And BYD took over completely, naturally it is still a choice made for its own sake. On the one hand, advanced high-end has always been the "big thing" of independent brands, and playing high-end products can improve the rank and make better profits, which is BYD's current gap. On the other hand, among the current independent brands, the first model of Dongfeng Lantu has been listed, Geely has extreme krypton, the Great Wall has a salon, Changan has released Avita, and SAIC is incubating Zhiji... Compared to the speed of its opponents, BYD is more urgent than others.
But there are also urgent ways to play, for example, with a new posture, first throw the denza as a stone to try the effect. And this new catapult who was selected was obviously Zhao Changjiang.
In Zhao Changjiang's personal social platform, almost all the states of the new Denza can be seen, especially the high-end MPV that has been "fried" out of the heat.
On November 8 last year, Zhao Changjiang, who had just certified himself as the director of the "Byd Auto High-end Brand Preparation Office", released the first Weibo message "How to define a large seven-seat MPV, in addition to the 232 layout of the seat, what configuration do you think you need". After this question was issued, it triggered a heated discussion and suggestion from netizens.
After quietly entering the Denza system in mid-February, the news released by Zhao Changjiang began to focus mainly on Denza, and the frequency of updates became more and more frequent.
On February 23, Zhao Changjiang released a spy photo of high-end MPV on social platforms. From March 10 to 18, Zhao Changjiang announced the hand-drawn and official warm-up map of Denza's high-end MPV, and called for the first high-end MPV of Denza.
Later, it was also revealed that at this year's Beijing Auto Show, Denza will be exhibited as an independent brand. At the same time, in the development of Denza's new app, it will realize functions such as sales, car control, and community, and the Denza logo will have new optimizations.
By March 21, the configuration part of the MPV was announced. For example, it is equipped with double sunroof, double-sided electric slide, four-door double-layer silent glass, high-end brand tires, etc.
For Zhao Changjiang's high-frequency sharing and detailed answers, some people even ridiculed, "Zhao Changjiang almost assumed the role of half of dentist product manager." ”
Judging from Zhao Changjiang's style of play, the way the new Tengshi returns is a model close to the new forces. The reason why I chose to constantly enliven the atmosphere on social platforms was to get closer to users, and also to create momentum in advance for the appearance of new denza.
Throwing stones to ask for directions, whose way is it?
At present, returning the new Denza to the eyes of consumers will be the first priority of Zhao Changjiang. However, from the perspective of various evaluations, there is actually no shortage of controversy about deforestation's "comeback", and most of the reasons for the controversy revolve around its products and competitive strength.
At present, the new forces of car manufacturing and independent and foreign capital have entered the melee mode, and the competition for high-end new energy vehicles is even more difficult. Compared with the new high-end brands of competitors, accepting Denza, products are excellent on the one hand, and consumers may also need to establish new ideas and impressions.
However, from the perspective of BYD's layout, the significance of Denza's restart should not only be used to improve BYD's brand matrix.
On February 17 this year, both the BYD brand and BYD Automobile upgraded their logos. In the new logo application chart released by the BYD brand, BYD Automobile includes four passenger car brands, namely Dynasty, Ocean, Denza and high-end brands.
It is speculated that in addition to the high-end sub-brand of Denza, BYD Automobile will also release a new high-end brand. The new high-end brand may be a more important role.
On January 27 this year, the minutes of the "20210126-BYD Conference Call" were exposed, saying that BYD will "launch high-end brands in the next 1-2 years".
Earlier news also shows that BYD will launch a new high-end brand in the first half of 2022 and implement a new brand strategy of "two not only, three leading", that is, not only China, not only automobiles; technology leadership, quality leadership, market leadership. The brand's marketing and sales network will be independent of BYD's existing brand.
This means that BYD has a lot of things to do with another rush higher. From Zhao Changjiang's reply to netizens, it can also be seen that in addition to the upcoming high-end MPV, Denza has two SUVs this year, which shows that Denza's preparations have also been in place. At present, the difference may still be a "east wind".