Written by Coco
Domestic motorcycles, no brand?
How many people want to buy a motorcycle?
Including me, I believe that many people often click on the search box to find motorcycles suitable for novices after seeing the cool posture of motorcycle bloggers. However, even if motorcycles have been popular since the eighties and nineties, they are still a niche hobby.
Trapped in technology, safety, price, coupled with the huge ban on motorcycles and motorcycle license plate restrictions in China (the price of Shanghai A yellow plate is about 500,000), motorcycles are also known as a money-burning hobby for young people. However, thanks to the domestic motorcycle brand gradually seizing market share, the price of lower motorcycles has appeared, and domestic motorcycles have also become a new choice for motorcycle enthusiasts.
But readers who know the motorcycle market know that once domestic motorcycles were abandoned by domestic consumers for various reasons such as "copycat" and "poor quality", and Japan's Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Honda are true love. In fact, in recent years, the wind direction of domestic motorcycles has changed, and the reputation of domestic motorcycles has gradually improved, among which Chunfeng Power CFMOTO (hereinafter referred to as "Chunfeng Power") is called "Domestic Harley" by many motorcycle enthusiasts, believing that the brand is most likely to stand on the world stage.
Technology is the foundation, and the spring breeze passes the jade gate
Chunfeng Power can break into a world in the domestic motorcycle industry, and it is inseparable from the founder Lai Guogui who insisted on investing in technology at the end of the last century when the motorcycle market was in ruins, and accumulated little by little to today.
Before Lai Guogui founded Chunfeng Power, because of a friend's words, he grasped the motorcycle trend in the late eighties of the last century and established Chunfeng Motorcycle Parts Factory in Wenzhou, but unfortunately the small workshop-type parts factory could not keep up with the development speed of motorcycles at that time. The dilemma that hundreds of thousands of accessories cannot be sold has made Lai Guogui sober: technology is the core productivity.
One wave is not flat, and another wave is rising. Lai Guogui plunged into the deep sea, and the team spent three years to produce the most popular water-cooled engine at that time, which was quiet and environmentally friendly. At that time, domestic engines were still mainly air-cooled, loud and discharged to affect the environment, which was one of the reasons why the government implemented the ban on motorcycles.
However, the market trend at the end of the eighties and nineties was not good, quality, word of mouth, cottage and other problems were the original sin of domestic motorcycles, consumers only looked for imported goods, and their loyalty to foreign big brands was very high, such as Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki and so on in Japan. Under this market atmosphere, even if Lai Guogui faces difficulties, the self-developed water-cooled engine is still not favored by manufacturers and consumers. Therefore, Lai Guogui chose to create his own domestic motorcycle brand, self-research, self-production and self-sales.
Since 2000, Chunfeng Power has continuously invested in research and development of all-terrain vehicles, boat engines, large-displacement motorcycles, yacht products and motorcycle electrification. Many people began to understand that Chunfeng Power is also based on its technological advantages in the domestic market. So far, its popularity in China has also become more and more popular, and it has also ushered in an unprecedented peak of development.
In 2001, Chunfeng Power exported two motorcycles overseas, opening up the markets of Europe, America and Southeast Asia.
In 2003, Zhejiang Chunfeng Power Co., Ltd. was formally established.
In 2013, Chunfeng Power signed an agreement with the Austrian brand KTM to focus on electrification. The cooperation with well-known veteran guns in the circle has strengthened the technical advantages of Chunfeng Power, and created the KTMR2R brand to gain popularity in the domestic motorcycle market.
In 2014, Chunfeng Power became the designated partner of the State Guest Guard, and was even praised by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as "representing the highest level of domestic motorcycles". The reputation is great, and it has brought a lot of sales conversion to Chunfeng Power. At the same time, it has also won many urban official motorcycle projects in one fell swoop. For example, the motorcycle that the traffic police rode on the streets of Hangzhou is "CFMOTO".
In 2017, Chunfeng Power was successfully listed. Until recently, Harufeng was rumored to have established a partnership with the well-known brand Yamaha. If the cooperation officially lands, it is simply explosive news in the domestic market, which shows that the spring wind power is still soaring.
The birth of Chunfeng Power is a non-negligible existence for domestic brands and international big brands. From unknown origin to today's fame, Chunfeng Power certainly has its core advantages. But to be honest, compared with the giants, Chunfeng Power is still not comparable. However, when the spring wind power has grown so far, after the foundation has been built, brand power has become more and more important. So, in the dilemma of domestic motorcycles without brands, how should Chunfeng Power break the situation?
Tide brands entered the market, and the sales of explosive products were amazing
In fact, Chunfeng Power found a breaking point: to build a motorcycle trendy brand.
This idea may have something to do with the current general manager. In 2008, Lai Guogui's son Lai Minjie joined Chunfeng Power and served as marketing manager, creative director, and vice president of the research institute. Compared with Lai Guogui, Lai Minjie, born in 1985, is obviously closer to consumers and easy to capture every move of the consumption trend.
From the brand positioning and visual VI, Chunfeng Power is more inclined to take the trendy culture as the core, or in other words, it is a brand with young vitality.
However, it is more worth pondering in product development. Whether it is consumers, peers, or investment institutions, they are very concerned about the unique skill of Chunfeng Power to create explosive products.
Station B locomotive UP master Xiaolion You-chan still remembers the sales performance of the Chunfeng Power 250SR model: "As far as I know, the sales of the 250SR car exceeded 100,000, which is very exaggerated and can be said to be the industry's top selling level. ”
Guojin Securities also said that Chunfeng Power's 250NK and 450NK main models occupy the 250-400CC displacement segment. With 12,000 and 15,500 units, the Chunfeng 250NK won the 250 sales championship in 2018 and 2019, ahead of the second place Suzuki DL250 or GSX250.
The creation of explosive products is closely related to product strategy and market trends. In 2008, Lai Guogui encountered an economic crisis just after opening up the four-wheeler market in the United States, which had a huge impact on the company. It is also because of this opportunity that Lai Guogui turned the steering wheel and turned to the large-displacement market. At that time, the demand for play motorcycles in European and American countries gradually increased, and considering that large-displacement motorcycles could also serve the official motorcycle project, 250CC and 400CC large-displacement motorcycles began to join the development and production.
Back to the domestic market, the consumption trend of large-displacement motorcycles is later than that of foreign countries, coupled with Chunfeng Power's accurate grasp of motorcycle consumers, the success rate of creating explosive products has also increased by six or seven percent. Looking back at these explosive models, in summary, it can be described as "value for money". For example, the Spring Wind 250SR is recommended by many bloggers as a female-friendly novice model that takes into account both appearance and price. There is also the 450SR, which some bloggers rate with "on this car you can find a lot of high-end configurations that do not belong to this class".
When it comes to tide brands, Chunfeng Power's ZEEHO (Extreme Nuclear Electric Motorcycle), which specializes in electric motorcycles, is also very representative. In the brand's official website, Teochew culture is used to the extreme. Regarding this point, UP master Little Lion Youchan also said that the breakthrough point of new energy motorcycles is in the play model.
When motorcycles were still regarded as "high-end toys for krypton gold players", Chunfeng Power broke in one fell swoop and crushed first in terms of price and quality. Coupled with proper marketing, the success rate is even higher. When interviewing many motorcycle friends about Chunfeng Power, they all mentioned one point: Chunfeng Power's marketing is very good.
Regarding marketing, Chunfeng Power has two ideas, one is to bind the brand with "professional" and "international" through international events, outdoor sports and other highly professional activities, and make full use of social media platforms in China to take "tide" as the core in content promotion.
Professionalism is reflected in the frequent sponsorship of international events in professional sports. In 2022, he also participated in the world-class motorcycle event MOTOGP Moto3 and finished third in Indonesia. This victory is the first time that the national team has stood on the podium, winning more applause for its brand in the international market. Even in the movie "Wolf Warrior" starring Wu Jing, there are spring-powered all-terrain vehicles appearing. Including becoming a partner of the national guest team mentioned above, Chunfeng Power has put "high-quality professional" directly on the brain.
In addition, Chunfeng Power attaches great importance to the operation and launch of social media platforms. For young people, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, public accounts, etc. are the key entrances for them to contact motorcycles, or even the only entrance. At present, motorcycles are still a niche hobby, and consumers are sticky to motorcycle bloggers and more loyal to the brand. Taking XO baboons as an example, Chunfeng Power chooses female riding bloggers from product details to blogger placement, especially if the height is not tall, which is more in line with the standards of most women.
As well, Chunfeng Power focuses on creating ecology in motorcycle derivative products. The brand's own motorcycle community app has been registered by 1.1 million people, focusing on motorcycle community culture and strengthening the weak connection between brand and consumer, and between consumer and consumer. Recently, a headset for motorcycle scenarios and a special action camera for cycling have also been produced. Including cycling clothing, helmets, etc., it looks no different from trendy brand clothing.
Multi-line development, the first market share in Europe
Although Chunfeng Power, which started with a two-wheeled motorcycle, its largest proportion of revenue is all-terrain vehicles facing foreign markets.
According to the 2022 annual report, the export value of all-terrain vehicles in 2022 accounted for 74.28% of the export value of similar domestic products, and it has been in the leading position in the export of all-terrain vehicles all year round. During the reporting period, the cumulative sales of all-terrain vehicles were 166,700 units, and the sales revenue was 6.838 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.14%. The cumulative sales of two-wheelers reached 145,300 units, achieving sales revenue of 3.372 billion yuan.
For Chunfeng Power, the strategy of developing an all-terrain vehicle in 2004 was of great significance to the company.
Lai Guogui said that he saw that all-terrain vehicles are at the peak stage of development in North America and Europe, while China is still in the embryonic stage, and he is determined to open up overseas markets with all-terrain vehicles. Compared with the high price of the all-terrain vehicle boss Polaris, the cheap and high-quality Spring Wind Power slowly tore open the overseas opening.
According to Statistia, North America accounts for 73% of the global distribution of the all-terrain vehicle consumer market, and Europe accounts for 16%. Chunfeng Power has conquered the European market to become the first place in local share, and the market share of the North American market is also steadily increasing. In the future, if it is not affected by external environmental such as international politics and taxation, Chunfeng Power will also increase its firepower to boost the overseas business of all-terrain vehicles.
epilogue
A senior motorcycle enthusiast commented that Chunfeng Power is a brand that has done well in domestic quality and marketing, precisely because Chunfeng Power is cheap and high-quality, so that foreign large goods realize the necessity of price reduction. All in all, Chunfeng Power has achieved a better balance between price, quality, technology and marketing, a sense of balance that is rarely seen in domestic motorcycle brands or even electric bicycle brands.
But in fact, today's spring wind power is full of controversy. On the one hand, it sighs that it has brought the hope of the rise of domestic motorcycles, and on the other hand, it sighs, and there is still a big gap with big brands. An industry insider commented on Chunfeng Power: I would recommend people around me to buy Chunfeng Power's stocks, but I would not recommend buying Chunfeng Power's motorcycles.
Needless to say, Chunfeng Power is an excellent businessman. It is accurate enough to judge the timing, strike at the right time, and then through marketing, products, ecology, etc., to create a brand position belonging to Chunfeng and become a leading domestic motorcycle enterprise. But in fact, in the market share part, it is still the world of motorcycle giants. For example, in the Southeast Asian market. According to the estimated car intelligence, there are about 200 million motorcycles in Southeast Asia, but on the streets of Southeast Asia, you can rarely see domestic brands, but are monopolized by Japan's Honda and Suzuki.
For domestic motorcycles, exporting overseas is as important as expanding the domestic market. Competition is fierce at home, and the same is true overseas, and even overseas is under more pressure. Tariffs, local policies, offline dealer channel networks, etc., are not friendly enough for domestic brands. It is worth looking forward to whether Chunfeng Power can still maintain a growth rate of 20% in the future.