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Recently, I heard that Jihu Automobile exclusively sponsored an online rock concert, and it was inevitable that it was another sigh. Why hear? Because, for Cui Jian's concert, the author has long lost interest, and naturally will not spend too much time to pay attention. So why do you have to sigh again? Quite simply, although Cui Jian's concert has traffic, what is the use for the struggling Jihu automobile brand? Instead of spending marketing dollars on this, it's better to study what young Gen Z people like.
It must be admitted that as the father of Chinese rock and roll, Cui Jian does have a good influence and appeal. But there is also an indisputable fact, the most influenced by Cui Jian is actually the sixties, seventies, even if the post-eighties like me do not have much excitement, not to mention the post-90s and post-zero.
So, the question is, who is the target customer base of The Extreme Fox Car? In the author's opinion, no matter what the current situation of the user portrait of the Jihu brand, the future must be the post-90s and post-zero generations of the Z generation. Don't forget, the post-90s are actually in their early thirties, and they not only have purchasing power, but also have a love for new things on the Internet.
Speaking of the Jihu automobile brand, although it is born from the traditional fuel vehicle company BAIC, in terms of products, it is not only a high-end electric vehicle brand, but also an intelligent technology brand like Weilai, Ideal, Xiaopeng and other new car-making brands. It should be said that in terms of temperament, the polar fox is more suitable for the young people of the Z generation. From this, you should be able to understand why the author sighed!
Itself is underexposed, sales are sluggish, but also spend marketing expenses on marketing events that are inconsistent with their own product customer base, I would like to ask the technical background of Dai Kangwei and the marketing veteran Fan Jingtao, what do you really think? Are you all focused on the product? Such a marketing event, does Chairman Liu Yu know? Of course, these questions, I am afraid, it is difficult for the author to get answers. Therefore, we may wish to put aside the marketing of Polar Fox and talk about the products and future of Extreme Fox.
First look at the big level, on the evening of the 25th of last month, Beiqi Blue Valley released an annual report showing that the company achieved operating income of 8.697 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 64.95% over the same period last year, but the net profit attributable to the mother was -5.244 billion yuan. In this way, if you calculate the net profit attributable to the mother in 2020 - 6.482 billion yuan, the loss of Beiqi Blue Valley in two years has reached 11.726 billion yuan. On this loss, if it were not for the fact that BAIC is a large state-owned enterprise, I am afraid that it would not be able to catch it.
In terms of brands, Beiqi Blue Valley currently has two brands: ARCFOX (Polar Fox) and BEIJING. What we mentioned today to sponsor Cui Jian's online rock concert is its high-end intelligent new energy vehicle brand Jihu brand. At present, Polar Fox has launched two high-end pure electric passenger cars, Alpha T (αT) and Alpha S (αS). Unfortunately, since the launch of the highly watched αS-HI version of the new product during the Shanghai Auto Show last year, its delivery time has been pushed back and forth, allowing the Jihu brand that could have soared with this car to continue to decline.
From the data point of view, BAIC had set a target for Jihu to reach 12,000 vehicles in 2021, but in 2021, Jihu only sold 4993 vehicles. In 2022, Beiqi Blue Valley will sell 100,000 vehicles, including 40,000 Jihu. The ideal is very full, but the reality is as bone-chilling as ever. Although the specific sales data of Jihu in the first quarter of the 1st quarter was found, from the March sales data and summary data released by the Association of Automobiles, Jihu Automobile ranked 44th in the sales list of its own car brands, and sold a total of 3,000 cars in the first quarter. According to this sales volume, Mo said that the target of 40,000 this year is whether it can complete the target of 12,000 set last year, I am afraid it is not easy to say.
Going back, let's look at Cui Jian's rock concert. It is said that the cumulative number of viewers exceeded 46 million, receiving 120 million applause and 2.43 million online reviews. Seeing these figures, some people may say that it is very successful, even if 1% of the audience pays attention to the polar fox, what is the task of 40,000? Hey, or a sigh, I asked everyone, who are these 46 million people coming to see? As mentioned earlier, Cui Jian's loyal fans are more after the 60s and 70s, of course, there are also many post-80s, but for the Z generation of post-90s young people, how much attention is really difficult to say. Therefore, Mo said 46 million, that is, 460 million, let me ask, what is the relationship with the Extreme Fox Car? The exposure of no sales can certainly enhance brand awareness, but for the current Jihu Automobile, is the most important thing is not sales?
So, why is the Pole Fox, which has high hopes from the BAIC Group, not as good as the new car-making forces such as Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng? In my opinion, it is still a problem of marketing awareness. Once you get used to the original BAIC BJEV way of life, it is not so easy to achieve a gorgeous turn. For example, sponsoring Cui Jian, I really don't know whether it is after studying the user group, or whether the leaders have once again decided the head with their butts and made decisions only from the perspective of their own preferences. Look at the latecomer Extreme Krypton 001, although people have not touted what Huawei's intelligent driving, does not it also sell well?
If I had to discuss the reasons for the sluggish sales of the Extreme Fox, I could say so. In general, it is nothing more than a matter of branding, product and marketing.
In terms of brand, although the Jihu brand has the sign of Beiqi Blue Valley, a listed company, it is still difficult to be completely separated from the original BAIC New Energy. In this way, if you want to shape the high-end, you naturally have to go a longer way; in terms of products, it should be said that with the help of high-quality suppliers such as Magna and Huawei, it is not bad. Why is the delivery problem of an αS-HI version so difficult to solve? Some people speculate that Huawei gave limited resources to the "pro-son" AITO Q&A brand, which led to repeated delays in the delivery date of the αS-HI version.
In this regard, it may be possible, but the most fundamental reason is definitely still in beiqi blue valley itself. After all, since January 2019, BAIC BJEV, the predecessor of BAIC Blue Valley, has signed a comprehensive business cooperation agreement with Huawei in Beijing, while Xilis only cooperated with Huawei in January 2021. Compared with Beiqi Blue Valley, Xilis can be said to be a latecomer, first joining hands with Huawei to release a new Huawei smart model, and then in December 2021, launching a new high-end new energy vehicle brand AITO. In this way, the unknown Xilis instantly burst into flames and became Huawei's "pro-son". If the supply of the own son has not been solved, how can he take care of the "adopted son"?
According to Dai Kangwei, general manager of Beiqi Blue Valley, in the first half of 2022, Jihu will deliver the new HI version of Jihu Alpha S in batches; at the same time, based on the in-depth cooperation with Huawei, the HI version of the model will continue to be installed on the ARCFOX Jihu follow-up model. By 2025, the brand will form 5 major product lines, and all of them will have versions of Huawei HI. However, it is almost The month of May, and at least I have not seen any signs of the Pole Fox delivering a new HI version of the Alpha S. However, even if the Polar Fox can grasp the tail of the first half of the year and successfully deliver this model that has attracted the attention of dealers and users, how much can it help the sales volume for the whole year of 2022?
Speaking of Alpha T, from the appearance to the inside, it has a certain competitiveness, but this car is also tepid after all. The reason is that, first, the pricing is still a bit high, and second, the popularity of the entire product is still a little worse than those new car-making forces. Finally, there are too few channels, too poor marketing, in other words, even if it is a good product, consumers do not know, how can they choose to start?
After talking about brands and products, let's go back to marketing. Counting the big moves of the Jihu brand, the Jihu Night at last year's Shanghai Auto Show was a success, but unfortunately, after the grand event, we did not see the continuity of the Jihu brand in the brand's continued momentum and product experience activities. Therefore, within a few months, the Polar Fox fell silent again.
Later, because of the collision result of BYD Han EV and Polar Fox Alpha S, Polar Fox once again made Polar Fox on the industry hot search. For a time, there was more talk about the hardcore quality of the Polar Fox Alpha S. Unfortunately, BAIC Polar Fox seems to be indifferent to this incident, coupled with BYD's continuous public relations to extinguish the fire, it was not long before the original opportunity to take advantage of the momentum to enhance the reputation of the brand and products was wasted.
In addition to the grasp of the event marketing opportunities, the only thing that can be remembered is the Jihu Automobile Beijing Guoan 2022 brand cooperation conference and this Cui Jian concert called "Continue to Sprinkle Some Wild". For these two marketing campaigns, I really dare not compliment. Cooperate with Cui Jian, even if the user group is not right, at least the word of mouth is no problem. But what about Beijing Guoan? Is it because they are all Beijing brands? I just want to ask Jihu, are your target customers also from Beijing? Do you know that Beijing Guoan's reputation and achievements in recent years have not been good? Cooperation with Cui Jian can be understood as brand promotion, why is it to cooperate with Beijing Guoan? If you want to say it for feelings, I won't believe it anyway.
From this point of view, the marketing of BAIC Polar Fox, do you feel very speechless? Saying that it has a good hand of cards to play a mess, there should be no objection to it!
Car World Perspective:
As mentioned earlier, in 2022, the sales target of Beiqi Blue Valley is 100,000 vehicles, including 40,000 Jihu, and strives to impact 300,000 vehicles in the future. In fact, if Beiqi Blue Valley completes its sales target in 2022, its sales will increase by 282% year-on-year, of which the sales volume of the Jihu brand will increase by 701% year-on-year. Compared with the growth of the entire new energy market in 2021, the wholesale sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.507 million units, an increase of 165.10% year-on-year; the production and sales of pure electric passenger cars were 2.76 million units and 2.73 million units, respectively, an increase of 179% and 174% year-on-year. Looking at the 701% increase in this way, I ask you, do you still have confidence?
Finally, the author would like to say that there are still many problems with BAIC Polar Fox, and the time left for the three executives of Beiqi Langu Liu Yu, Dai Kangwei as general manager and Fan Jingtao as executive deputy general manager seems to have not been so much. As for the three aspects of the Jihu brand mentioned by the author, whether it was caused by the decision-makers of baiqi group or by several executives of baiqi blue valley, it is really difficult to say. For the Beiqi Polar Fox, it can only be said that the obstruction is long!