Text: Zheng driving @ Tan Qing said AI
After WM no longer responded to the "lock electric door" incident and finally briefly stepped into the safety zone, he was "on fire" again in the past two days.
According to a surveillance video circulating on the Internet, in the early morning of April 18, a white Weima EX5 electric car in Hainan was charging at a charging station under a viaduct, and then the bottom of the vehicle began to smoke, gradually appearing open flames, and soon the fire spread and smoke filled.
According to the statistics of Phoenix Technology, this is already the 11th spontaneous combustion accident that has been exposed in recent years in WM. WM seems to have developed antibodies to a large number of spontaneous combustion negatives, while consumers obviously do not.
After all, from the perspective of the number of spontaneous combustion accidents of "top-notch children", this will undoubtedly have a considerable impact on the purchase decisions of potential consumers, and WM really needs to officially disclose and follow up on this matter as soon as possible.
However, as of press time, the spontaneous combustion incident has passed a few days, Tan Qing said that AI has not yet received a relevant response from WM, and on the official Weibo and WeChat public accounts of WM Motors, there is also no relevant announcement and detail follow-up of the incident.
The "closed wheat" Weima seems to be going farther and farther to the bottom of the valley...
Weima "closed wheat"
In recent years, as the C-end electric vehicle market has begun to blow up, the once new force big brother Weima has been almost completely surpassed by Wei Xiaoli today, and even Nezha and Zero Run, which were once the second echelon players of new forces, have also begun to crush Weima in terms of monthly sales.
"Growth" seems to be one of the keywords that WM most desires at the moment.
In fact, a few years ago, WM Motor set up a CGO (Chief Growth Officer) such a position, WM's current CGO Wang Xin's LinkedIn account "Cindy Wang" public information shows that he has served as the chief marketing officer of Uxin Group for more than three years, and also has nearly two years of marketing executive resume in the early Uber Chinese market.
However, although as a marketing veteran, in the CGO position, Wang Xin seems to have a much more stumbling block in the road ahead than in the past marketing battlefield.
At present, the marketing communication of Weima is still opening wheat, and the new E.5 from ToB to ToC on the two micro-official numbers is fierce, and the years are quiet.
But for the dark side of the moon, public relations problems, Weima seems to have been "closed" for a long time.
The spontaneous combustion storm of "closed wheat"
Among the spontaneous combustion players, BYD is actually a regular customer, but compared with it, WM spontaneous combustion can be said to have achieved considerable differentiation.
First of all, looking at BYD's spontaneous combustion case, few can point directly to the power battery as the culprit, but the safety hazards of Weima have formed a relationship with the power battery from the previous year.
On October 27, 2020, in the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, a WM EX5 exploded violently, and the intriguing news was the next day, WM released on Weibo that due to the safety hazards of power batteries, 1282 cars produced between June 8 and September 23 of that year should be recalled.
In January this year, a WM EX5 caught fire in Hainan, and the follow-up Fire Rescue Brigade of Jiyang District of Sanya City made a "Fire Accident Identification Letter", which determined that the car's "power battery failure" caused the fire, but WM refused to recognize the appraisal report form issued by the fire department, insisting that the vehicle did not have any quality problems.
Secondly, compared with BYD's 2021 punch new forces and kick Tesla's sales, Weima spontaneous combustion is somewhat embarrassing, after all, "not sold much, burned a lot", no comparison is no harm, although the heart, but it seems to be so.
Today, WM chose to "close the wheat".
"Locking the electric door" of "closed wheat"
Before "burning love" in Hainan, Weima also received a shot.
In January, according to many Weijia owners, from December 23 last year to January 15 this year, WM Motor launched the "New Year User Premium", selected 18,000 car owners, and gave them comprehensive vehicle inspection services and gift cards of 200 yuan, but after the vehicle inspection returned, the mileage dropped significantly.
As a result, WM Motors began to fall into the vortex of "locking the electric door", first on January 10, 173 car owners jointly issued a lawyer's letter to WM, and on February 8, another hundred car owners issued a collective complaint on the black cat complaint network on the matter.
However, to this day, the matter has not yet been decided, and therefore, Tan Qing said that the AI will not comment on the authenticity of the incident for the time being.
But this time, WM still chose to "close the wheat" on the official platform.
Monthly deliveries of "closed wheat"
Announcing the monthly delivery volume has now become an unspoken activity in the heart of a new faction camp, and whoever announces it earlier is more likely to have a higher probability.
The unique activities within this new faction not only have marketing value for potential users, but also have confidence in maintaining value for existing users, and even for the social side, it is also a very good brand public relations means.
But this game will inevitably have a backlash, that is, either don't play, or play hard, play until halfway through, it is inevitable that it will be somewhat intriguing.
Since 2021, WM seems to have gradually become less interested in this game, and the monthly sales that were once released on the official WeChat public account at the beginning of each month have rarely appeared now.
However, in July last year, Shen Hui publicly stated that WM was in a silent period (listing) and there were many things that could not be actively disclosed.
Not continuing to publish sales on the official WeChat public account seems to be related to this, but if consumers are a little more careful, it seems that they will inevitably see through another rift.
Pacific auto sales data show that WM Motors sold 2200, 1557 and 3700 vehicles in the first three months of the year, which is certainly not a good thing for the new big brother.
It seems that all this, he "closed the wheat" again.
Looking at it all the way, Weima can be said to be very good at the "happy wheat" and "mourning wheat" of marketing and public relations.
Did Weima do something wrong in PR? Some people may say that WM is "not responding" and "not acting" to the public, but Tan Qing said that AI believes that in terms of crisis public relations, we can say that WM has not done enough, but he has not actually done anything wrong.
After all, a company "suppresses the negative", this behavior itself is not right or wrong, apologize or mutual intimidation or do not respond, in fact, it is not a single choice.
Presumably last year, everyone has seen Tesla China's crisis public relations level, which is indeed like an industry mudslide, but today, Tesla's sales are still a few cows can not be stopped.
Let's look at Weima again, the crisis public relations digestion method of "responding to changes with no change", let the public opinion boom die on its own, compared with last year's Tesla fire, it is already a level of winning hemp.
But a relative victory in public relations does not mean that it has been completely won. If the follow-up products and services do not work, it will point to another result - to hold yourself out of internal injuries.
In Tan Qing said AI's view, it is like Kryptonian player technology can still beat the technical flow, corporate crisis public relations is the same, crisis public relations technology is extraordinary, or can not hold back the product dish to pick their feet, the best quality wheat chips or products and services.
The same is true for marketing and daily public relations, and the geometry of products and services is the basic premise for brands to lay a high-quality relationship between social enterprises.
So now, the pressure has actually come to Wang Xin's side, although the previous marketing experience is rich, but as a CGO, "G" is no longer a pure "M" (Marketing). We must grasp the market, products, services, operations, etc., which is the basis for a company to start stable growth.
This is likely to mean that the hidden dangers that Wang Xin needs to help Weima solve in the future have been buried many years ago, but she does not seem to have done a good job of coordination and planning for the above many elements in these years.
Under the Internet gene: blockbusters and thinking patterns
Tencent Periscope mentioned in the article "New Car Crossing the Line of Life and Death" that an investor who switched to Xiaopeng Automobile had a view of Weima: lack of Internet genes.
When we analyze the success of Tesla and Wei Xiaoli today, a key factor that is most likely to be mentioned is their so-called Internet genes with very high attribute points.
However, the Internet gene does not mean that the car can keep up with the demands of the times.
Just imagine, if from the beginning of its establishment, Wei Xiaoli has tried to follow the trend and strive to make himself Tesla 123, then they will most likely not survive today's episode.
Tan Qing said that AI believes that the reason why they can survive and live better and better is partly because they are not trying to keep up with the times, but are as creative as Tesla.
Today's electric vehicle market, whether electric or intelligent, is no longer a scarce commodity, and what is really scarce is other products derived around these two elements.
Blockbuster
In the case of weak sales, WM needs a blockbuster. However, the emergence of blockbusters is often based on creativity.
WM has certain advantages in its early development, one is that many new forces have entered the high-end market in the same year, and the other is that the mass market has a large number of inferior naked swimmer companies.
Weima first aimed at the broader mass market, and then, a water fuel vehicle veteran, self-built factories steady and steady, in terms of product strength and market positioning, the regular army objectively existed in a certain period of time there was a certain "scarcity".
But the scarcity of Weima in a specific period of time, today there is really no moat to speak of, because it is difficult for anyone to stop the benign development of an industry.
Today, BYD, great wall and other independent car companies have begun to fight back, Nezha, zero run can not hold back, Wei Xiaoli still has barriers, Weima is somewhat helpless.
On this point, through advertising and marketing, there will be a more intuitive embodiment.
From the perspective of advertising and marketing, we can often see what is the "scarcity" that a car company is most proud of. Through WM's WeChat official account, it is not difficult to find that #威马W6停车专家这一话题, since October last year, 19 contents have been updated, and during the golden time during the Spring Festival, it is an eight-day uninterrupted Amway W6 parking video.
The WEIMA W6 equipped with AVP seems to be his proudest "moat" now, but it may be difficult to go smoothly without optimism.
For example, the ideal can sell well, because he bites the fat meat of the middle-class family group, which can be described as tailor-made cars for them on the background of "electric + smart", mileage anxiety? On the journey; the baby wants to drink milk? Putting bottles, etc., is the point of hitting the market from the surface of a product.
What about Weima? It seems to be eyeing the small white group that can't park, and wants to use ADP to hit the market.
However, the reality is the best testing ground, the crazy Amway W6, the first three months of the year sales have not broken through 1,000, Pacific Auto Network data show that W6 in February even only 415 sales.
WM is still trying to keep up with the times, but in terms of marketing, it seems that the point of parking alone is far from the explosion.
Mindset
Regarding the blockbuster, we mentioned the creativity contained in the Internet gene, which is based on product creation and also based on model creation. The strategy is clearly related to thinking, which can also reflect the missing Internet gene of WM.
Regarding the mode of thinking, Weima's hidden worries are reflected in two aspects.
The first is the market, WM seems to have misjudged the market situation in the early years.
In April 2018, WM's first SUV: EX5 officially announced the price, but then Shen Hui said a very domineering "One More Thing", and today it is really not so sexy.
Because on the same day, Shen Hui not only announced that EX5 also has a travel cooperation version for the B-end market, but more importantly, compared with the ToC version of 112,300 yuan after subsidies, the starting price of the travel cooperation version after subsidies is only 99,000 yuan.
Electric vehicles look at the C-end money like a spring, all want to desperately go to the B-end today, Shen Hui once B-end C-end both hands to grasp the strategy, it is like winning the new energy sales crown for seven consecutive years, and now has long been the no longer the big B-end electric vehicle - Beiqi Blue Valley.
However, such misjudgment problems as Weima and Beiqi Blue Valley are rarely seen in Internet players like Wei Xiaoli, which may be hidden in the unique thinking inertia of old auto people.
Based on such legacy problems, let's look at WM sales.
According to Pacific Auto Network, EX5 and E.5 have been listed in the "Key Customer Sales" option of WM Motor's official website today, with a total of about 36,000 units sold in 2021, accounting for about 80% of WM's total sales last year.
It is not difficult to find that in the C-end market outbreak, B-end market contraction today, if the future of WM's B-end sales ratio is still too large, the future can not catch up with the C-end dividend, can not grow at a high speed to maintain the hidden worries of the enterprise, it is likely to be more prominent, which is undoubtedly one of the problems that Shen Hui urgently needs to solve.
Another problem with WM's thinking is that it seems to have misjudged the definition of the "soul" of electric vehicles in the early days.
According to Tencent's periscope "New Car Crossing the Line of Life and Death", in those years of new forces car financing, such as Ideal and Xiaopeng have seen Baidu, but after Baidu proposed the need to use Baidu's automatic driving system and other related non-compete terms, the two have been cancelled.
Only WM seems to have agreed to this condition, and since 2017, WM has successively accepted cooperation with Baidu in autonomous driving. Tianyancha APP shows that WM Motors has indeed been led by Baidu Capital in the B round of financing.
Baidu's automatic driving technology blessing, to a certain extent, can be said to have helped WM achieve a closed loop in that year, there are veterans in car manufacturing, intelligent rely on giants, compared with Wei Xiaoli, who was "downcast" in a period of time, Weima is indeed the same.
However, Baidu's non-compete clause left by Baidu in that year undoubtedly left a time bomb for Weima, because today, when the soul of electric vehicles has been revealed, Weima's intelligent climbing seems to be dancing in shackles.
After saying all this, it is still back to the problem of "closing the wheat".
We still firmly believe that there is no absolute fault in "closing wheat", but as a CGO, Wang Xin really needs to pay close attention to the treatment of this horse, after all, the longer the wheat is closed, the more likely it is that the five bars on the Weima logo that are still balanced for the time being will gradually develop towards the metaphor of "three long and two short".