Brand building can be called difficult, which can be known from some of Lei Jun's recent public remarks. Even for existing brands, brand transformation and upgrading is also extremely difficult. At the beginning, Volkswagen and Toyota both hoped to increase the brand premium by launching more high-end household products, but they still failed.
Therefore, BYD's ability to successfully achieve brand improvement is admirable. It is not easy for the Wenjie brand to stand firm in the mid-to-high-end market. For the current Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile, it is also at the crossroads of brand transformation, so does this brand have a chance?
At the just-concluded Dongfeng Fengxing 2024 brand night, two new products for the mid-to-high-end market were released, medium and large new energy MPV, Dongfeng Feng Xinghai V9, and medium and large pure electric sedan, Dongfeng Feng Xinghai S7.
Taking the Wind Planet Sea V9 as an example, this medium and large high-end plug-in hybrid MPV not only has a pure electric range of 200km, but also has a pre-sale price of only 199,900 yuan. It can be called an absolute price butcher! I believe that Xiaomi cars have never had such courage.
In terms of price and product, Xinghai V9 is undoubtedly very competitive, plus Xinghai S7, can it help Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile to successfully achieve brand transformation? 51 Jun believes that good products are the top priority, but Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile with the right time and place still needs people. And this person, in addition to the newly appointed general manager Lin Changbo, there is also an important person.
In fact, for Dongfeng Liuzhou, this is not the first time to face brand transformation, such as in 2000, from business to ride, launched the famous "one car sold for ten years" Lingzhi. There is also the brand 2.0 in 2016, which changed the brand image of Dongfeng Fengxing to be more suitable for the family car market. At the key nodes of these brand transformations, they are inseparable from an important promoter, Yao Liwen.
Speaking of Yao Liwen, most readers may be relatively unfamiliar, but for those who know the Dongfeng Fengxing brand, it is a person who is in awe.
Yao Liwen joined Dongfeng Liuzhou in 1992, as a graduate of Wuhan University of Technology, majoring in mechanical engineering, after entering Dongfeng Liuzhou, he started as a technician in the most basic stamping workshop, and later rose all the way through personal efforts, and participated in enterprise management, planning and sales.
That's right, Yao Liwen is the role that shoulders the marketing responsibility of Dongfeng Liuzhou. Especially in 2016, his identity was promoted from "assistant general manager" to "deputy general manager", and he is in charge of Dongfeng Liuzhou's commercial vehicle and passenger car sales. It has always been the marketing "number one" of Dongfeng Liuzhou.
For a long time, Dongfeng Liuqi will give people the impression of "the mountain is high and the emperor is far away". On the one hand, among the many independent brands in China, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile has always had a poor reputation, and Wuling Automobile, an enterprise in Liuzhou, has a much louder reputation.
On the other hand, a model like Lingzhi can be sold for 10 years, which has also accumulated enough solid wealth for the brand. Perhaps this kind of wealth is not popular for big brands, but for Dongfeng Liuzhou, a good profit margin is the best basis for the sustainable development of the brand.
In 1991, relying on commercial trucks, Liuqi successfully achieved annual sales of more than 10,000 vehicles, and also firmly occupied its own place in China's commercial vehicle market, second only to FAW and Dongfeng. Generally speaking, it is difficult to achieve leapfrogging with its own comfort zone, why did Dongfeng Liuzhou start to transform at that time?
There are two reasons for this 51 Jun, on the one hand, Dongfeng Liuzhou can realize that although the sales of commercial vehicles are good, after all, the technical requirements are relatively low, the market is relatively limited, and if you want to develop, you must also develop passenger cars. On the other hand, the tide of that era was to build cars, such as Chery, Geely and other independent brands have emerged.
As a result, the first generation of the popular MPV Lingzhi was born, and the market results also showed the success of this car. Even in the past few years, it is still entrenched in the domestic fuel MPV sales list.
The picture shows the new Lingzhi M5
Although Yao Liwen was promoted to deputy general manager in 2016, in fact, as early as 2004, Yao Liwen had already begun to serve as the position of "assistant general manager and general manager of the sales company". In other words, for so many years, it has been he who has led his colleagues to charge forward in the first-line market.
Of course, on the road of transformation of Dongfeng Liuzhou, it is not all smooth sailing, on the contrary, endless wind and waves are coming to this brand that has not been transformed for a long time. Taking 2010 as an example, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile launched another family MPV product, which was popular Jingyi, and was already facing a crisis situation of only three-digit sales for six consecutive months.
For Yao Liwen in this matter, the responsibility for the failure of the product is self-evident. And in difficult circumstances, he chose the latter between giving up and innovating.
According to his personal response, there were two main reasons why Jingyi was unsalable at that time. One is that the quality is not up to par, such as wipers, glass regulators, air conditioners and other functional parts frequently have problems. The other is the price and positioning, Jingyi's 1.8L displacement leads to no advantage in policy, and the positioning of family MPV is too niche at that time.
For the consumer market, quality and price are important factors in determining the purchase of a car, so if these problems are not solved, the product will never be marketable. So at the initiative of Yao Liwen, the brand was quickly adjusted. Replacement suppliers of parts with quality problems, free maintenance of problem cars, and more importantly, all-round upgrades to vehicles.
So in just a few months, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile has brought a new model Fengxing Jingyi XL, first of all, the vehicle is equipped with a 1.5L more energy-saving engine, and at the same time positioning to turn to a "large hatchback family car", more importantly, the quality problems that have been complained about have been greatly improved!
For people on the sales side, a strong product is the first element to ensure sales. At this time, Yao Liwen, who was confident, led the team to carry out a drastic marketing battle. Soon, three months after the launch of the new car, monthly sales exceeded 5,000 units, and five months later it exceeded 8,000 units.
According to Yao Liwen's later recollections, "We didn't expect to exceed 8,000 units a month, but we thought it would be a big win to recover to 3,000 or 4,000 units a month." ”
This seemingly accidental victory, in fact, the result of success has long been predestined. A team that can reflect on its own shortcomings and even change, a marketing leader with a keen insight into the market, has created a miracle in sales. It is precisely because of the success of the car that Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile has also opened a new Jingyi era.
2016 is the second key node of Dongfeng Liuzhou's transformation, when a large number of independent brands put forward the brand upward 2.0 plan, for Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile is no exception to enhance brand influence and value. In that year, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile launched a new car, the Dongfeng Fengxing SX6.
Compared with the previous models, it can be clearly seen that this car has been upgraded more substantially in terms of design, function, and configuration. So in that year, Dongfeng Fengxing's sales came to 261,300 units. The models that went on the market later, such as the popular T5, with a starting price of 84,900 yuan and a two-year interest-free policy, have had a great impact on the industry.
Judging from the transformation of the above two key time points, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile is actually following the trend of change of the times. As the pioneer echelon of their own brands, they are conscious of constantly keeping up with the times, have the obligation to lead the brand to a higher dimension, and have the responsibility to provide consumers with better products.
The same is true for the new energy transformation faced by Dongfeng Liuzhou today. Of course, this time, Dongfeng Liuzhou's preparations are obviously more adequate than before. Whether it is the new Xinghai S7 and Xinghai V9 models, or the Lingzhi plug-in hybrid, they are confident to compete with other brands in the mainstream market area.
On the eve of the 2024 Dongfeng Fengxing Brand Night, Yao Liwen presided over a communication meeting with the media. It can be seen from the exchange meeting that on the one hand, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile is indeed confident this time and dares to come up with its own technology, products and open and honest exchanges with the media.
On the other hand, Yao Liwen attaches great importance to this new transformation battle. For today's market, new energy is not a simple plunder, on the contrary, the fierce competition is unprecedented. Therefore, in addition to excellent products, how to market has become the top priority. And Yao Liwen has to bear the pressure again.
To borrow Yao Liwen's words in 2016, "When a new product is upgraded to the 2.0 era, we have more confidence and confidence in marketing." "Nowadays, Dongfeng Liuzhou's passenger car products have already moved towards the future intelligent era, and we are looking forward to what kind of sales miracle Yao Liwen can create with Dongfeng Liuzhou this time.
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