The new requirements for traction qualification models and the new technology standards for pickup trucks issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have officially taken effect on May 1, and the positive signals about the pickup truck market at the policy end are frequently released. However, on the market side, according to the data of the China Automobile Association, the production and sales of pickup trucks in the first quarter of this year showed a downward trend year-on-year, bringing people an "illusion" that the pickup truck market turned from hot to cool.
The reason is that the impact of the current round of epidemic on the automotive industry chain, coupled with the short-term tightening of market demand and the Spring Festival holiday and other factors have a greater impact. So, after the "freezing period", can the warm current in April re-recover the heat of the pickup truck market, and how should the relevant manufacturers rekindle the consumption enthusiasm of potential users of pickup trucks? Take a look at the analysis report of the First Commercial Vehicle Network.
Top ten major adjustments Head brand influence declined
According to the statistics of the First Commercial Vehicle Network, in the four weeks of April 2022 (April 4, 2022 to May 1, 2022), the total score of the top ten brands in the "Pickup Truck First Impact Index" was 1328 points, down 12.2% month-on-month, a year-on-year decline of more than 30%. This also confirms the evaluation of the first commercial vehicle network on the highlight moment of the pickup truck market at that time last year. At present, suppressed by multiple factors, the demand for high-end pickup trucks is not enough to grow, after experiencing a round of new product positioning and price rushing, want to drive the overall sales of the brand to increase, more affordable and cost-effective products have become fragrant.
Judging from the score of the impact index alone, the ranking has changed significantly compared with March, especially the brands such as Jiangling, Changan Kaicheng, and Jiangxi Wushiling have improved significantly. Obviously, from a brand perspective, all three have their own distinct audiences, but they seem to have reached a "consensus" when it comes to capturing customers in the sinking market.
Relying on mature marketing strategies to let consumers remember the brand, and then impress them with more cost-effective products, such as the upgraded Jiangling Baodian, Changan Kaicheng's newly listed F300, Futian Mengjun 8AT and Jiangxi Wushizu Gasoline Version of Suzuto, which points to the target user group. Compared with the models listed in the same period last year, such as Jianghuai Huntu, Foton Dajun and SAIC Bull, there are obvious differences in positioning.
In the face of the menacing group attack, although the Great Wall Pickup continues to rank first with a score of 280 points of "Pickup First Impact Index", its proportion in the Impact Index has dropped from 56.71% in March to 48.34%, and the second and third echelon pickup brand influence index has improved with the listing of new products and the development of corresponding marketing activities.
Firmly grasp the sinking marketing channels to expand overseas markets
Consumption upgrade is the most talked about topic in the automobile market before the epidemic, but time is easy, although high-end pickup trucks occupy a considerable proportion in the terminal market, but from the actual sales, the functional pickup trucks with more affordable prices still occupy a larger proportion, and similar to the Great Wall King Kong Gun, Foton General 8AT and other models, have been higher configuration to explore the lower price range, improve the quality of user use at the same time, enhance their own market competitiveness. Under the pressure of economic downturn, grasping the current consumer psychology of most users is a compulsory course for pickup truck brands.
With its own strong pickup truck system capabilities, Great Wall Pickup's marketing activities in April are to grasp the brand influence and sales together, professional segmentation of users and cross-industry needs to take into account. For example, the tasting meeting of 100 cities and thousands of stores held by the Great Wall King Kong Cannon was not carried out in accordance with the usual way of inviting customer representatives and media to test drive, but directly delegated the vehicle to each dealer store, allowing customers to experience more closely, which is both grounded and can intuitively see the conversion effect, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
The series of activities of "Entering Xishuangbanna and Exploring the Journey of the Tea King" not only excavated more products around, set up a Great Wall Cannon Property Co-creation Base, but also let netizens who were stuck at home due to the epidemic go out of the far door, feast their eyes, and emotionally resonate with them.
In addition, the delivery activities in April also showed some differences from the past, not only the Great Wall locomotive gun users in the domestic market ushered in the first batch of deliveries, weishi 1949 national delivery is underway. At the same time, the 280 T8 trucks delivered by JAC pickup trucks in Colombia, as well as the large orders of ZTE pickup trucks in Ecuador, Libya and Saudi Arabia, have strengthened the brand impression of Chinese brands in overseas markets, and also showed that domestic pickup trucks are gaining more influence in the international market.
Talking about the new pickup truck products launched in April, Jiangxi Isuzu Suzuto and Changan Kaicheng F300 equipped with gasoline engines are the focus of this month.
In terms of the momentum of new products, Jiangxi Isuzu takes "can be a cool challenge" as the theme, provokes the competitive mentality of young people, releases themselves in fun challenges, and has rich prizes to take, which captures the hearts of young people very well. The Changan Kaicheng F300 deepens the impression of users in the form of countdown posters, and allows potential buyers to better understand the selling points of the products through video evaluation. Driven by the popularity of the two new products, Jiangxi Isuzu and Changan Kaicheng also improved their impact index rankings in April.
In terms of marketing highlights, the Great Wall pickup truck in April live broadcast - exploring the Pu'er tea king, re-walking the tea horse ancient road is quite innovative, pulling people's thoughts back to the simple and long countryside, tasting the passage of time between the tea fragrance; and Zhengzhou Nissan's Douyin Challenge continues the high popularity scene of the previous issue, and the Great Wall can be said to be a static movement, give full play to their own powder-sucking physique, have received good results, enhanced the brand height, deepened the market influence.
epilogue
The overall declining market environment has inevitably caused a certain impact on the pickup truck industry, but from the consumption habits of the pickup consumer population and the positioning attributes of the pickup truck itself, we cannot judge that the pickup truck market will "turn from hot to cool" based on the short-term decline in sales, but when more analysis of the change in market demand, and adjust.
Professional, player-level products to grasp, tool-level, functional products should also meet the user's demand for product upgrades, it is gratifying that we have seen the rapid adjustment and transformation of pickup truck manufacturers. Under the consolidation of strong epidemic control measures and the promotion of marketing strategies, the market has reason to continue to maintain confidence in the pickup truck industry and appreciate the love of pickup truck users.