316, 258, 318, this is the report card of SAIC Audi in the first three months. Audi may never have thought that they would do everything they could to introduce the SAIC Audi project in the face of tens of billions of claims from FAW Audi dealers, and only delivered three figures in the first quarter of the fifth year.
At the beginning, Audi insisted on holding hands and taking precautions not only to draw more profits in the Chinese market, but more importantly, to use north-south distribution, copy the volkswagen myth, and consolidate Audi's position as the king.
However, to this day, savoy Audi's dismal monthly sales of 300 make everyone wonder: is SAIC Audi's move wrong? Will SAIC Audi become the second FAW Mazda?
The first shot "Dud"
According to Audi's vision, with the blessing of "four circles", the domestic Audi A7 with strong power, large size and cheaper price will be a hit, and the monthly sales of more than three thousand should be completely fine.
But reality poured a large basin of cold water, no, it should be said that it was ice water.
In the first full month of listing, the A7L achieved 316 units, while the higher-priced imported Audi A7 sold 380 units;
This was not the worst result, the Audi A7L sales fell to 258 vehicles in the second month; in March, there were 2 fewer vehicles, and only 256 vehicles were delivered;
In three months, 830 new cars were sold, less than a fraction of the monthly sales of faw-Audi A6L. It is also far from the goal of "3,000 to 5,000 units per month and more than 50,000 units per year" set by Jia Mingdi, general manager of SAIC Volkswagen's Audi marketing business.
How positive the introduction of the domestic Audi A7 was, how cold the consumer response is now.
Of course, Mr. Jia also gave a plausible, sounding and reasonable reason at the right time: "A7L is still in the climbing stage, delivering only the 3.0T version, coupled with the insufficient number of stores, resulting in sales not as expected." ”
In the eyes of Tianyajun, the biggest reason why the Audi A7L lost was the loss of the soul. SAIC Audi transformed a personalized coupe into a traditional sedan, which is like a trendy hip-hop suit, the engineers had to design a set of straight suits, and the products not only confused consumers, but also had a large overlap with the consumer groups of audi A6L.
Coupled with the official announcement of FAW-Audi: the imported Audi A7 Sportback with standard quattro four-wheel drive, 3.0T engine and carbon fiber interior will return to the Chinese market in the near future, in the face of the real soul of the Audi A7, consumers can easily make the right choice between "physical Lin Zhiling and mass-produced Luo Yufeng".
Positioning of the screw bar
For SAIC Audi, changing the Audi A7 to "four unlikes" is a helpless move.
FAW-Audi has Q2L, Q3, Q5L and Q7, Q8, as well as A3, A4L, A6L, A8L covering almost all models from A class to D class, from sedan to SUV, leaving SAIC Audi with very few options. In order to avoid head-to-head confrontation with North Audi, SAIC Volkswagen can only introduce niche coupes such as A5 and A7.
However, SAIC Audi is certainly not satisfied with the niche share of the coupe market, he wants to take into account the two major "consumption pools" of sports + business, achieve the effect of 1 + 1 greater than 2, and copy the successful model of Lingdu, which has the positioning of "executive-level sports car" Audi A7L screw bar.
However, SAIC Audi seems to have forgotten to create a 500,000-class sports coupe and a 100,000-class sports car is completely different. For just need a family car, young people want fish and bear paws to have both, but for 500,000 luxury cars, consumers either pursue the pure business style of 7 series, S-class, A8L, or choose Audi A7, BMW 6 series and other coupes that will play the sports style to the extreme.
If the A7L is set to "A6L PLUS", just the size is elongated, and then a front face is changed, for those potential users who really spend half or six hundred thousand to buy Audi, they can't get differentiated enjoyment, why should they buy A7L?
In fact, the Audi Q8, which takes the coupe SUV route, sells less than the Audi Q7, Mercedes-Benz GLE and BMW X5 have proved this.
In addition to the Audi A7L, SAIC Audi, which is biased in positioning, has also created a medium-sized and large-scale SUV like Q6 that wants to integrate into China's local design culture and highlight the elements of youthfulness, and from the perspective of market feedback, it is currently more critical than flowers.
Who did Xiao Zhan endorse?
At the beginning of this year, SAIC Audi officially announced that Xiao Zhan became the brand spokesperson of A7L.
Holding hands with Xiao Zhan, the purpose of SAIC Audi is self-evident, not only to create momentum for SAIC Audi and A7L through Xiao Zhan's own traffic attributes; but also to use Xiao Zhan's youth, sunshine and vitality to endorse SAIC Audi and emphasize the young positioning of its own brand.
The problem is that the ultimate purpose of brand endorsement is to attract users and make the audience pay. And Xiao Zhan's fans, most of them are young people, and most of them are women, does this part of the group really have the economic strength to subscribe to the Audi A7L? Will their recognition of the "official car" Audi be higher than that of the more fashionable and luxurious Mercedes-Benz and BMW?
Spending a lot of money to ask Xiao Zhan for endorsements, SAIC Audi is likely to just spend money to buy a hilarity.
Tangled direct sales model
Five years ago, the biggest problem in the promotion of saic oil audi project was the balance of interests of FAW-Audi dealers, and the new channel of SAIC Audi for no reason was tantamount to smashing the rice bowl of northern Audi dealers. In the five-year tug-of-war, a new channel model of SAIC Audi's "entity + e-commerce" was finally born.
Users look at the car online, place an order on the SAIC Audi APP, and then go to the store (Audi Enterprising Hui, North and South Audi business outlets) to pick up the car. Since then, repairs and maintenance throughout the life cycle have been completed within the FAW-Audi network.
The interests of the two sides seem to have been the most balanced, but it also brings hidden dangers to SAIC Audi.
First of all, the integration of north-south channels, SAIC Audi's car is sold in some FAW-Audi 4S stores, sales are obviously more inclined to higher profits of North Audi models, for SAIC Audi, like Audi A7L such official website APP orders, clearly marked price of direct-operated cars, in the sales process dealers almost no interest, and how to patiently recommend to users.
This is easily reminiscent of the Ford NDSD. In 2018, Ford China tried to unify all its passenger cars, including Ford Imports, Changan Ford, and all passenger cars of Jiangling Motors, into one channel to achieve "one Ford" in the sales network.
However, this plan has been resisted in the actual push. Although they are all Ford brands, but the division is clear, some stores only sell Changan Ford, there is a Jiangling Ford Collar, the main engine factory has its own considerations, dealers also have their own difficulties, Ford integration channels have not been going well.
As a reference, IMSS (Jaguar Land Rover China and Chery Jaguar Land Rover Joint Marketing Sales and Service Agency) and NDSD also have a number of similarities, both of which began when the company was in crisis, and the goal was to balance the relationship between the two parties. However, from the results, neither Jaguar Land Rover IMSS nor Ford NDSD has met expectations, and the north-south integration of SAIC's Audi channel is likely to follow in the footsteps of both.
Secondly, for users, buying a car at SAIC Audi, provided by FAW-Audi, the pre-sales and after-sales user experience faults, can not form an effective closed loop.
In addition to the discount on the consumer experience, in the whole life cycle of car purchase and use, the contact point between SAIC Audi and consumers is limited to one month before the car purchase. In the longer after-sales stage, SAIC Audi and consumers have almost zero contact, this so-called "direct" model, it is difficult for manufacturers to win consumer recognition, and then gain loyal fans.
summary
Perhaps it is too early to evaluate the success of SAIC Audi at this stage, but it is undeniable that in just half a year, SAIC Audi has exposed many drawbacks.
These problems are not only manifested in the product side, SAIC Audi has not created products that make consumers shine, and even has some sensational taste; in positioning, channels, including marketing, Xiao Zhan's endorsement has also gone astray.
Next, how to launch a really eye-catching new car, conquer the increasingly picky luxury brand consumers, and test the wisdom of both SAIC and Audi.