Author: Song Jiating
In the third week of April, the news that Shanghai began to resume work and production finally gave the auto industry a sigh of relief. Previously, Changchun, the hardest hit area of the epidemic, has just announced that the social surface has been cleared, and enterprises have shifted to normal production.
Since the beginning of the year, the recurrence of the epidemic has brought many places in China's automobile production to a standstill, including FAW Toyota, North and South Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, Tesla and other car companies have successively announced the suspension of production.
Taking FAW Toyota as an example, since several major production bases in Changchun and Tianjin happen to be located in several central control areas, FAW Toyota has also encountered a more serious impact than other automobile brands.
Among them, the epidemic in Tianjin at the beginning of this year caused FAW Toyota's three factories to stop production for nearly two weeks, and the annual production capacity of these three factories was about 470,000 vehicles, which seriously interfered with normal operations in January. Unexpectedly, in March, FAW Toyota's production base in Changchun was suspended again.
It is understood that FAW Toyota's Tianjin plant mainly produces models including Vios, Corolla, Crown Lufang, Asian Dragon and Asiatic Lion, and FAW Toyota Changchun Plant is the production base of SUV models, mainly producing RAV4 Rongfang, Lingfang and other models. The factories in Tianjin and Changchun have stopped production for many consecutive days, resulting in a serious shortage of new car supply, and the contradiction between supply and demand has become more and more prominent.
According to the association, the cumulative sales of passenger cars in the first quarter of this year were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year.
Not only are manufacturers under pressure, but front-line dealers have a worse life. According to FAW Toyota officials, more than half of the company's dealers are under control, the operation cannot be carried out normally, and the supply and demand and marketing rhythm are completely disrupted, resulting in a structural backlog of inventory and difficulties in performance and delivery.
In order to boost the confidence of front-line dealers, FAW Toyota has launched a number of support policies to cheer for more than 600 of its dealers.
A few days ago, Hu Shaohang, secretary of the party committee and general manager of FAW Toyota Sales Company, issued an open letter to the dealer group, in which he wrote: "Although the difficulties are far beyond expectations, we believe that as long as all people work together to overcome the difficulties, the methods will always be more than difficult!" ”
It is understood that this is the first letter of condolence issued by the main engine factory to the dealer partners since the large-scale suspension of production caused by the epidemic in 2022.
The handwritten letter is now caring
For FAW Toyota, the first quarter of this year is indeed a "cold spring".
Faw Toyota has maintained growth in the past few years, especially in the case of a chip shortage last year, FAW Toyota's sales still reached 860,000 units, an increase of 8% year-on-year. FAW Toyota is also confident and plans to sprint to a million-unit sales target this year.
However, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic has made this year's target variable increase sharply. In this case, it has become a problem for FAW Toyota to further revise the goal or further adhere to the established goal.
It is gratifying that the problem is that FAW Toyota's dealers did not choose to "lie flat", but did their best to attack the market more actively. Reflected in the first quarter, although sales were affected, FAW Toyota retained its market share under the efforts of all employees, and official data showed that FAW Toyota's market share remained the same as last year, and the after-sales service increased by 4% compared with 2021.
On this basis, FAW Toyota has also officially announced several plans to keep its important targets unchanged after a thorough market assessment.
The first is not to abandon the channel profit policy. FAW Toyota believes that dealer profitability is the fundamental driving force for career development, and the current normal operating income is the basis for manufacturers to overcome difficulties together, so FAW Toyota will not give up its profit target.
To this end, FAW Toyota will strive to provide support for the profitability of first-line dealers, including using the flexible production advantages of the TNGA platform to adjust the structure to the greatest extent, adjust various business policies, and fully support the first-line income generation. In the field of after-sales and value chain, FAW Toyota will further strengthen various policies and improvement activities.
The second is not to abandon the target of one million vehicles in 2022. FAW Toyota said that achieving one million units is both a performance target and a capacity building goal. The experience of the past few years has proved that the market situation always has ups and downs, and most of the companies that can resist risks come from the whole system value chain established by themselves, and FAW Toyota is also benefiting from this.
Therefore, FAW Toyota said that it adheres to the annual target, but also puts forward requirements for the company: it must be able to follow the trend in good market conditions, and it must also have the strong resilience to survive and continue to develop in a harsh environment. At present, it is the moment to once again show the strength of FAW Toyota's comprehensive system.
Make every effort to help dealers make profits
So, how to ensure that the above goals can be successfully achieved under the severe market test? In an open letter to dealers, Hu Shaohang said that in the coming period, the company will make greater efforts in several aspects:
First, expand the clues and cherish the clues. FAW Toyota believes that under the influence of the epidemic, traditional marketing methods are inefficient and costly, so it must rely on online marketing, customer marketing, and full staff marketing.
Second, cultivate talents and maintain the backbone of the business. This is reflected in the fact that FAW Toyota will revise the performance incentives for the special period in a timely manner, strengthen the existing business shortcomings, and carry out new marketing learning at the same time.
Third, upgrade the customer experience. This year, FAW Toyota still has a number of new cars on the market, including the new Crown brand, the appearance of bZ products, etc., and will also carry out the third-generation store transformation, FAW Toyota hopes to help its dealerships stand out from the market.
Based on the above goals, FAW Toyota has made a series of specific "special support" for dealer partners based on "caring for dealer partners and ensuring business safety".
The first is to implement financial support for medium- and high-risk dealerships. Faw Toyota promised to give up to 25,000 yuan of financial support to each store in response to the distribution stores identified as medium- and high-risk areas within March 2022, as well as the local government's explicit announcement to achieve municipal, or district- and county-level, street administrative area control, or to implement full nucleic acid testing in the city, district, or county, and street of about 247 dealerships.
The second is to provide dealers with multi-faceted marketing advice to help stores operate normally. Among them, the implementation of non-contact showroom reception, door-to-door delivery and other marketing actions, while ensuring a safe working environment, in order to bring customers and employees a sense of peace of mind, sense of security; strengthen online means such as live broadcasting, follow up to meet customer service needs; strengthen the store products, services and other training work, continue to improve the staff's business capabilities, better provide customers with high-quality service experience.
The third is to adjust or reduce the assessment and evaluation of distribution stores according to the epidemic situation. For dealers who are difficult to operate normally due to the epidemic, FAW Toyota will adjust or reduce their assessment and evaluation, and each business department will adjust or reduce the period evaluation of multiple business projects according to the development trend of the epidemic.
At the same time, FAW Toyota has also launched an exclusive lifelong maintenance plan for medical staff, in order to pay tribute to the national medical staff who are fighting in the frontline of the fight against the epidemic.
It can be seen that from cash support, marketing assistance to assessment and reduction, FAW Toyota has shown that there are always more methods than difficulties with practical actions, which also reflects its determination and will to help dealers keep profits.
Hu Shaohang, Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of FAW Toyota Sales Company
In a letter to dealers, Hu Shaohang emotionally said that although the spring of 2022 came later than expected, "nothing can stop the pace of spring." FAW Toyota hopes to achieve a higher position by relying on its continuously strengthened brand, products, channels and comprehensive system strength.
Judging from the experience of fighting the epidemic in the past two years, the market demand that has been delayed due to the epidemic will eventually be released. It is believed that with the orderly resumption of work and production in Changchun and Shanghai, car companies in the hard-hit areas of the epidemic, including FAW Toyota, will eventually usher in the spring of willows and flowers.