Author | Chenwen
Source | Insight into the New Research Institute
The three cars sold 50,000 units a year, which is not a lot of sales, but for VOYAH, it is not easy, CEO Lu Fang called it "a turnaround", and expressed his gratitude in the "family letter" to all employees, saying that "everyone's unity and struggle drive VOYAH to achieve 'jointing growth'".
Compared with itself, the year-on-year growth of 160%, VOYAH has been successful in the past 2023, but putting the annual sales of 50,552 units into the sea of new energy vehicle market, VOYAH has not even crossed the "life and death line" of annual sales of 100,000 units, and it cannot stir up waves at all.
The paradox of VOYAH is that the product has no shortcomings, but it also lacks a memorable longboard, and the feedback to the sales side is "unnoticed", and it is drowned out by the noisy and noisy market volume of friends.
01 Desperately begging for a hot style but can't
To be honest, VOYAH's annual sales target of 50,000 units is not high, but it is still difficult for VOYAH to complete it, and it was not until the last month that it was able to "cross the line" with sales of more than 10,000 units for the first time.
Data source: VOYAH official Drawing: Insight Xinyansha
According to VOYAH's official statement, after the launch of VOYAH Chasing Light in April 2023, VOYAH will form a high-end product pattern of "SUV + MPV + sedan", complete the strategic layout of "three cars in three years, three categories in three years", and become China's new energy vehicle company with the most complete product layout.
However, in the annual sales PR draft sent by VOYAH to various media, there was not much ink on its various models, and only mentioned the new VOYAH Dreamer, saying that the monthly sales of this model exceeded 5,000 units in December, achieving "four consecutive increases".
When a niche MVP model becomes the brand's "best-selling model", it reflects the reality of VOYAH's lack of "explosive models" in one level.
Source: VOYAH Official/Network Comprehensive Tabulation: Insight Shinkensha
In fact, the first model chooses SVU, and directly aims at the ideal L7/L8 (ideal ONE) in terms of positioning, which can be seen that VOYAH still has some sales expectations for VOYAH FREE, but the market performance of VOYAH FREE is not satisfactory, and the monthly sales volume for several months last year did not even exceed 1,000.
Obviously, it is a mass model in the mainstream market, but due to the fact that the sales volume is too small, the VOYAH FREE has a "niche" feeling.
After VOYAH FREE, VOYAH pinned the hope of "explosive models" on Chasing Light, and warmed up with multiple rounds of exposure to pave the way for the listing of Chasing Light.
In September 2022, at the celebration of Dongfeng Motor's 52nd birthday, VOYAH warmed up the light chasing for the first time in the form of "Tribute to 53", and then officially announced the brand image of "Light Chaser" in October, and unveiled the back veil of light chasing and announced the pricing on December 15.
On January 13 last year, the first batch of mass-produced models of VOYAH Chasing Light officially rolled off the assembly line, and VOYAH officially announced the "record" of more than 10,000 orders in the first month of the debut of the Chasing Light model.
Source: VOYAH Auto's WeChat public account
Like VOYAH FREE, the market trend of chasing light did not go according to VOYAH's expectations, and even after the delivery ramp-up, the monthly sales of chasing light did not exceed 1000.
Among them, in May last year, VOYAH also made a price adjustment to chase the light, narrowing the original three versions to two, shouting out the sales strategy of "entry is the top configuration", but these operations did not reverse the sales of chasing light.
At this time, looking back at the battle report of "sales exceeding 10,000 in the first month of debut", there are many mysteries in it, and I don't know how to explain why there is such a big contrast.
If a brand does not have a hit, it means that there is no brand recognition, no accurate crowd, and no growth foundation, which is one of the reasons why VOYAH is struggling.
02What's the problem?
Generally speaking, when the business performance of car companies is tested, the common practice is to "replace people", and in the past year or so, VOYAH has made many adjustments to its management positions.
In March 2022, Lei Xin was transferred from the position of Chief Brand Officer (CBO) of VOYAH Automobile, and the parent company Dongfeng Motor Group was appointed separately.
Then, in July, VOYAH underwent a "major reshuffle" of the management team.
CEO Lu Fang will no longer serve as the chief technology officer (CTO) of VOYAH Automotive, and will be succeeded by Wang Junjun, deputy director of the technology center of Dongfeng Company, Qin Jie will be appointed as a member of the interim party committee and secretary of the party committee, Liu Mingjiao will be appointed as a member of the interim party committee, a member of the discipline inspection committee and the secretary of the discipline inspection committee, and Gong Xuesong and Shao Mingfeng will be appointed as assistants to the general manager.
Soon after, Yu Fei, the former general manager of brand marketing of Great Wall Ora, joined VOYAH to be in charge of the automobile sales business, and Liu Zhanshu, the former senior director of the ZEEKR Automotive User Development Center, also joined VOYAH to take charge of the brand and marketing sector.
As a result, in less than a year, Yu Fei and Liu Zhanshu left Lantu for personal reasons. Yu Fei's whereabouts are unknown, while Liu Zhanshu has joined Jaguar Land Rover as Executive Vice President of Product Management.
In terms of product strength, VOYAH is not inferior to its competitors, and the workmanship materials, configuration functions, and handling quality all show what a high-end model should look like.
However, the product positioning is difficult to describe, on the one hand, the pixel level benchmarks the ideal L series, on the other hand, and wants to make its own difference, under this kind of thinking that both want and want, VOYAH looks like it has everything on the outside, but it lacks the soul of being remembered, because imitation is only to follow, and cannot be surpassed.
Frequent changes in the senior management team will definitely have an impact on the stability of the brand strategy, and it is understandable that VOYAH has a vague product positioning.
In terms of marketing, VOYAH is also working hard and devoting a lot of resources to continuously creating buzz.
From the first 1,000-person brand launch conference held in the automobile industry after the epidemic in Wuhan in 2020, to the VOYAH user night on the Hanjiang "Bosom Friend" cruise ship, from the high-profile sponsorship of Luo Zhenyu's New Year's Eve speech, to the gift of the "strongest koi carp in the Spring Festival Gala" for two years VOYAH FREE, and then to join hands with Mango TV and TVB's well-known music variety "The Sound of Life" to become the official designated car......
The volume is there, and the market influence is also there, but the sales volume can't go up, and the channel has to bear the blame more or less.
As of December 2023, VOYAH has opened a total of 268 VOYAH spaces and user centers in China and 14 overseas, with a sales and service network covering 108 cities around the world.
By comparison, NIO has 99 NIO centers and 303 NIO spaces around the world, while Li Auto has 480 stores, including 337 retail centers and 143 showrooms in 158 cities.
Obviously, the current number and scale of channels are not bad for a new brand, but for VOYAH, which stands on the shoulders of Dongfeng, it is still not fast enough.
03 dilemma
The problem with VOYAH is that sales are related to the survival of the moment, but if we lower our posture and make a slight concession on price, we may tear a hole in the market, but this will contradict VOYAH's "high-end mission".
In fact, against the backdrop of pressure on sales, VOYAH has already voted with its feet.
At the "2023 VOYAH NIGHT User Night" in August last year, VOYAH launched the new VOYAH FREE, which was previously in the price range of 300,000 yuan and went toe-to-toe with the ideal L series, but in a blink of an eye, it dropped by 66,700 yuan to a starting price of 266,900 yuan.
Hitting small with big and low with high is a common marketing technique in the automotive industry, but this change of the new VOYANTU FREE is likely to hit the steel plate.
In the price range of 300,000 yuan, the competition is not ideal L series, back to the 200,000 price range, the new FREE faces the same price reduction AVATR 11, Wenjie M7, as well as the more price advantage of Extreme Krypton X and the main focus on this price range of Weilai sub-brand Alps and other competitors, can not be said to have an absolute chance of winning.
What's even more fatal is that the price of the old and new models is separated, and in a small way, the high-end positioning of the FREE series that has been adhered to for more than two years has been dissipated, and in the big picture, it is VOYAH's self-denial of long-termism.
The problem that the new VOYAH FREE released to Lu is that if the price adjustment is useful, then the follow-up VOYANTU Dreamer and Chasing Light will not follow?
If the competitiveness of the low-level market is guaranteed by reducing the price without reducing the quality, then we have to ask whether the bullets of VOYAH can be enough, and if the profit is guaranteed by both quality and price reduction, then VOYAH has to bear the result of the brand image continuing to decline.
If you don't, let the product continue to be mediocre, and VOYAH needs to worry about whether it can survive until the day when new energy completely replaces fuel vehicles.
In September last year, Lu Fang said at the Industrial Health Development Forum, "If there is a market, there must be competition, and if there is competition, there will be volume, but the essence of the volume should be the battle of efficiency and innovation." Only by continuously improving their own operational efficiency and innovation capabilities can they win market recognition. ”
It has been more than 3 years since VOYAH was born, and sales have not improved so far, do VOYAH's operational efficiency and innovation capabilities match the current pace of market competition?
Lu Fang once revealed in a media interview that there is a popular saying within VOYAH, "If you don't win, you will roll up", I don't know which executives of VOYAH will "roll up" in 2024.