Make Dongfeng Citroen more trustworthy! Dialogue with Li Yang, general manager of Dongfeng Citroen brand
Shortly after learning the news of Li Yang's new appointment, Huanqiu Auto exclusively connected Li Yang, the new general manager of Dongfeng Citroen brand department. Faced with the next stage of Dongfeng Citroen's work, he gave a key answer: "Make Dongfeng Citroen more trustworthy"!
Finishing: Zhang Kun
On January 10, Huanqiu Auto exclusively learned from Peugeot-Citroen that Li Yang, who was formerly the secretary of the marketing party committee and the director of the network and marketing support department of Peugeot-Citroen Automobile Co., Ltd., has become the general manager of the brand department of Dongfeng Citroen.
From 2020 to now, the changes that have occurred in the entire Shenlong including Dongfeng Citroen are obvious. In the past period, Dongfeng Citroen implemented the five-heart guardian action and won the battle to turn over Versailles, completing the transformation of the brand from the edge of the cliff and precarious to returning to normal and slowly upward.
For a long time, whether Dongfeng Citroen has the opportunity to be a hot topic of public opinion in China. Now, with the improvement of business conditions, more and more people are beginning to care about how high Dongfeng Citroen can go in China.
Behind this change in understanding are both changes in Dongfeng Citroen and huge changes in the Chinese auto market. The opportunity of electrification makes all enterprises have to rethink, and the new demands derived from digitalization must make all enterprises have to start anew. At this time, taking over the baton of Dongfeng Citroen, Li Yang's role is obviously not to stick to Jiangshan, but to take the initiative to attack and put a new label on Dongfeng Citroen in the new era of electrification, intelligence and marketing change.
What's next for Dongfeng Citroen? In the face of the new needs of the times, how does Dongfeng Citroen change? With these problems, shortly after learning the news of Li Yang's new appointment, Huanqiu Auto exclusively connected Li Yang, the new general manager of the brand department of Dongfeng Citroen. In the face of these problems, Li Yang, who was born in the outer plateau of Serbia, did not evade. In view of the core focus of the next stage of Dongfeng Citroen, he summarized a keyword: "Make Dongfeng Citroen trustworthy"!
丨"Dongfeng Citroen is a brand worthy of consumer trust and heritage"
Huanqiu Auto: Judging from your past resume, Mr. Li Yang is an old man of Dongfeng and an endogenous talent who has grown up with Dongfeng all the way. Dongfeng people generally have feelings for Shenlong, and I believe you are no exception. Working in Shenlong in the past period, I must have also gained some observations and understanding of Shenlong's past problems and future development. When you learned that you were going to be in charge of Dongfeng Citroen Marketing, what was your journey? What was your first thought? Or what was the first reaction? How did you express your own attitude at that time?
Li Yang: The first thing I feel is responsibility. In recent years, Shenlong has made great progress under the leadership of Chen Bin. For Dongfeng Citroen, how to continue this momentum of progress is a heavy responsibility. For me personally, I will do my best to implement the action in the past experience in the marketing field, in line with the principle of integrity and innovation, lead the Dongfeng Citroen team to do a solid job, and contribute all my wisdom and strength to the revival of Dongfeng Citroen and the revival of Shenlong with the spirit of revolutionary fearlessness.
Then there's the challenge. As we all know, Citroen is a car brand with a history of more than 100 years, worthy of consumer trust, and has a rich history in the world automotive stage. After entering China for 30 years, the former "Fukang" car is one of the well-known representatives of the old three models. Since the birth of the brand, Citroen has had a distinctive style of technological innovation, such as the earliest back model, rear wheel follow-up technology and now PHC technology. To be responsible for the further development of such a brand with a long history and distinctive characteristics in China, especially in the current market changes, leading Dongfeng Citroen to integrate into a new market will be a new challenge for me.
Global Auto: As you just expressed, Dongfeng Citroen is a brand with a deep heritage, and it is also a brand with a history in China, and it has left a lot of achievements in the past. What is your understanding of Dongfeng Citroen's brand character or image in the Chinese market?
Li Yang: Dongfeng Citroen is a brand worthy of consumer trust. In 1992, Dongfeng Citroen's first CDK-assembled "Fukang" car officially rolled off the production line, successfully firing the first shot of the Dongfeng Citroen brand. Soon after, Fukang spread all over the motherland, becoming a household name and becoming the top of China's car brand. In the following years, Dongfeng Citroen successively launched many highly competitive models, which have created a new understanding of the market at different times.
If I summarize my personal understanding of the brand characteristics of Dongfeng Citroen, I think there must be dare to innovate and be good at innovation. As a humane care travel brand that dares to innovate, Dongfeng Citroen always hopes not only to provide customers with products and services, but more importantly, to dare to make breakthroughs, dare to innovate, create more products that meet customer needs, and provide customers with more "different because of you" driving life. For example, we will join hands with the China Cycling Association to create a new life of "4+2" healthy travel, and use practical actions to convey the healthy and comfortable lifestyle advocated by Dongfeng Citroen.
Huanqiu Auto: So the focus of Dongfeng Citroen's future work is also innovation and change?
Li Yang: The ultimate goal of Dongfeng Citroen's innovation and change is to win the trust of more consumers and more dealers. In the next stage, Dongfeng Citroen's marketing team needs to further emancipate its mind, not stick to the old ways, and adhere to integrity and innovation.
In the face of the changes and needs of the times, the first is to continue to learn, learn advanced marketing practices in the industry, learn the new forces of car manufacturing and the good practices and models of traditional car companies; The second is to realistically analyze its own conditions and existing main problems, based on its own resources, main problems and development needs, and formulate targeted improvement measures; Third, actively promote marketing transformation, use new media to quickly expand customer touchpoints, improve marketing efficiency, provide customers with the ultimate experience, and continue to build an innovative marketing team.
丨Let Chinese consumers trust Dongfeng Citroen and be moved by Dongfeng Citroen
Global Motors: Innovation is the guiding principle of Dongfeng Citroen's actions. If there is a keyword, what do you think the innovative Dongfeng Citroen should bring to consumers? Or, what kind of label do you most hope to put on Dongfeng Citroen to bring users a new perception?
Li Yang: I think the most important label that Dongfeng Citroen should bring to consumers is "trustworthy". This trustworthiness includes not only the trust of the product, but also the trust of the brand, and the trust of the user's communication method.
The core of manufacturing is product quality, and marketing without quality and quality is rootless. In the past, the quality of Dongfeng Citroen's products has been well-known in the industry, which is the advantage of Dongfeng Citroen, and we must continue to inherit and carry forward it.
Since 2020, under the influence of Peugeot-Citroen Automobile's five-heart guardian action, Dongfeng Citroen has continued to narrow the communication distance with users and achieved good results. This is the right direction in terms of sales and user feedback, so we will continue to stick to it. And I think that such a service model will definitely enhance users' trust in the Dongfeng Citroen brand.
In addition, as a brand with a certain reputation in the Chinese market, Dongfeng Citroen added 32 new 4S stores across the country in 2022, which is enough to reflect the partners' firm confidence in the brand. Against the backdrop of sudden pressure on the automobile market, retail prices of Dongfeng Citroën's outlets and directly-operated centers continued to remain stable. Versailles C5 X has been on the market for nearly a year and a half, and has won the recognition and trust of users through a series of measures such as Versailles C5 X value preservation and repurchase. In terms of user services, Dongfeng Citroen's user service index has also been in the forefront of joint ventures. User service actions, including the Five Hearts Guardian Action, have been highly recognized by users. This is also a reflection of trust.
In general, Dongfeng Citroen has always been committed to providing consumers with a comfortable 360° travel life. With highly recognizable exterior shapes, a product experience that perfectly integrates humanized technology and design, and a co-creation method that shortens the distance between the brand and the customer. In the past, Dongfeng Citroen has done some work and achieved some results, which is also the way Dongfeng Citroen users communicate and improve their trust.
Huanqiu Auto: The five-heart guardian action is already a trademark action of Dongfeng Citroen, and it has also achieved very good results in the industry. For this plan, does Dongfeng Citroen have any plans to continue to improve in the future?
Li Yang: There is this, and it has been included in the current work plan.
In terms of time, 2020-2022 is the five-heart guardian 1.0 stage of DPCA Company, Dongfeng Citroen has launched "spare parts lifetime warranty", "free door-to-door pick-up and delivery" and "lifetime free rescue" and other industry-first policies, exceeding customer expectations, wholeheartedly protecting everyone's car life, and achieving customer satisfaction. Judging from the situation on Dongfeng Citroen's side, the Five Hearts Guardian Operation has achieved great success, and many users are full of praise after experiencing the service. This also strengthens our determination to continue to promote the Five Hearts Guardian Program.
Starting this year, our "Five Hearts Guardian Operation" will be upgraded from 2023 to 2025. The newly upgraded "Five Hearts Guardian Action" will continue to focus on "buying a car with confidence, using a car with peace of mind, caring service, changing cars happy, and working together all the way" to serve customers throughout their journey. Our goal is to exchange actions for sincerity, let customers trust, and then let customers move and recognize.
丨The key next step for Dongfeng Citroen: electrification layout
Global Motors: Back to a key question. The outside world knows that since 2020, Dongfeng Citroen, an enterprise, has undergone great changes in China. Not only has sales changed, but there is also a new understanding of French cars, and the momentum is good. What's next for you, or what kind of vision do you have to take this momentum even further?
Li Yang: A rather acute question, I would like to talk about it from several aspects. As we all know, Dongfeng Citroen has undergone a huge change in China since 2020, thanks to the fact that the entire "customer-centric" concept of DPCA has taken root in the hearts of DPCA employees, and a series of marketing activities and customer service actions guided by this have been carried out.
As a large consumer product, it is unthinkable for cars to leave users. Therefore, this adjustment of concept is an important reason for the changes in Dongfeng Citroen in the past period. If we want to continue Dongfeng Citroen's business in China, we must adhere to this "customer-centric" concept and create products and services that customers can trust.
In the future, Dongfeng Citroen will continue its efforts along the following three aspects:
1) Insist that the products are more Chinese. Combined with the current domestic customer needs and industry development trends, we will vigorously develop electric vehicles, relying on localization, electrification, intelligent network technology and French chassis technology to create advantageous products that meet the needs of domestic customers. In August last year, Tianyi BEYOND was newly launched with more than 80 leapfrog configurations, realizing "standard configuration is high configuration", and brought six optional packages to meet customers' personalized and flexible optional needs, and solve customers' concerns due to configuration problems.
2) Insist on more accurate marketing. Based on customer needs, we take customer use scenarios and customer experience as the starting point, build a new media matrix online, increase exposure and attention, and do a good job offline by relying on the dealer team to do a good job in customer operations. Last year, Dongfeng Citroen launched the "Experience Versailles for All" Versailles C5 X 48-hour free trial activity; joined hands with Liu Genghong to form Versailles CP debut and launched "Versailles exercise"; Cooperate with Sky Band to open activities such as the national tour of the sea and sky, combine online and offline, play with customers, and further improve marketing efficiency.
3) Insist on service and be more reliable. If Dongfeng Citroen wants to build cars that ordinary people can afford, we must let customers trust our quality, trust our services, and thus trust our brand. In the future, Dongfeng Citroen will continue to create more high-value products and experiences for our customers, build a deeper sense of trust, and enhance brand value.
Global Motors: Joint ventures are all electrifying, but the joint venture electrification products do not seem to be recognized by consumers in the market, what do you think? What kind of label will Dongfeng Citroen electrification products brand themselves?
Li Yang: This is a common phenomenon in the industry, and there are many reasons. From my understanding, the mismatch between product power and user demand is the biggest problem. The different needs of users should match different products, and some joint venture electrification products often face a problem that is clearly a basic function to meet the product, it is necessary to match the electrification needs of advanced users, benchmark advanced products, and eventually form a dislocation of the market and products.
Focusing on the electrification of Dongfeng Citroen, the first thing is product strength. As I said earlier, manufacturing is to fight for product power, and no amount of marketing can do without product power. Although I can't disclose specific information yet, I am responsible to tell you that the competitiveness of electrified products that will be introduced to the market is still outstanding. Of course, what I am referring to is the comparison of the same level and the same price. Our electrification products are within the same level and price range that we have circled, and we definitely have a competitive advantage.
In addition, I would like to say that China is a hot spot for electrification innovation, and China has the most forward-looking technical reserves and resources for electric vehicles. Dongfeng Citroen's electrified products will continue to adhere to the concept of open car manufacturing and continuous co-creation. With the superior resources of both shareholders, I believe that Dongfeng Citroen's electrification products will win the recognition of customers.
Whether it is marketing or products, Dongfeng Citroen's electrified models must make users feel "trusted". This is how oil cars used to do this, and so did trams. In the future, electrified models will be combined with a series of things such as the Five Hearts Guardian Action to realize users' sense of trust in Dongfeng Citroen electric vehicles.
Global Motors: You just mentioned the problem of efficiency improvement, how to understand this so-called "efficiency improvement"?
Li Yang: There are three main aspects of efficiency improvement. The first thing to improve is the service efficiency of customers, respond to customer demands in a timely and accurate manner, and continuously improve customer satisfaction; The second is the improvement of marketing efficiency, efficient and accurate marketing activities will reduce marketing costs for us, and we have more sufficient resources to further improve the new and old customer experience; The third is to improve internal management efficiency, build an efficient team, and quickly respond to changes in the market situation and stand out in the fierce competition in the market environment where the industry situation is complex and changeable and the new technology intelligent network is developing rapidly.
Global Motors: On some level, the key to efficiency improvement is still dealers. For Dongfeng Citroen, dealers are still the core to promote the progress and development of Dongfeng Citroen's business, how to mobilize dealers?
Li Yang: As a traditional joint venture, distributors are still our important partners, our community of destiny, and the whole of sharing honor and disgrace.
Frankly speaking, in the new market environment, there are many new explorations in the dealer system industry. But I think the exploration and change of form are not the key, the key to the problem is how to better serve customers, and then continue to improve the profitability of dealers under the premise of serving customers well, and continue to win the trust of dealers. The form is secondary, mainly to let customers perceive Dongfeng Citroen, so that all dealer partners can make money.
Based on this goal, we have the following work:
The first is a clear product plan. As I just said, electrification products and new fuel vehicle products are all planned. The specific information cannot be disclosed, but it is certain that these products have very strong market competitiveness.
The second is stable and predictable business policies. Frankly speaking, the dealer system of Dongfeng Citroen now accompanies Dongfeng Citroen in the most difficult times. When we enter a new stage of development, we cannot abandon the dealer partners who have shared our difficulties, and we must use more scientific policies to improve the profitability of dealer partners. At the same time, it insists on introducing transparent car purchase policies such as one-stop price, stabilizes terminal prices, and continuously improves dealer confidence.
The third is more empowerment. For example, jointly build a customer operation base with Dongfeng Citroen characteristics, jointly create cultural and creative products, and so on.
All in all, Dongfeng Citroen has entered a new stage of benign development, and there is no reason not to do a lot. It is believed that with the trust of dealer partners, internal colleagues, external suppliers and customers, Dongfeng Citroen will definitely make further breakthroughs.