After the mutual tearing incident, how far can Weilai's rice circle thinking go?

On August 18, a owner of NIO posted a post titled "Joint Statement of 400 Car Owners" in the NIO APP. In this post, the owner said, "We are clearly aware that NIO's NP/NOP is currently an assisted driving system, not an automatic driving system or an unmanned driving system; NIO's introduction and publicity of NP/NOP does not confuse and mislead us." ”

After the statement was released, it quickly went out of the circle and caused controversy in the official APP of Weilai Automobile, as of 22:00 on august 18, the topic of "opposing the joint statement of car owners" has been participated by nearly a thousand car owners. Most of the owners said they were unclear about the specifics of the above "statement", did not participate in it, and did not want to be represented. By the next day, the number of people who opposed the declaration had reached 7,500.

Car owners "tear each other up", putting the division of Weilai's car owners' circle and values in front of the public. "In the past, the owners of Weilai gave me the feeling of being a group of people with highly convergent values, but now I find that there are so many fanatical fans in it." One topic participant talked.

Since its inception, NIO has always adhered to the ultimate "user experience", which is also where the company believes that its core competitiveness and moat in the future lie. The user-oriented model pioneered by WEILAI Automobile has also been continuously studied, borrowed and imitated by traditional car companies. The outbreak of the car owner tearing each other apart has caused the industry to reflect on the "user-type" enterprise model of Weilai Automobile.

"Buying a WEILAI car in the early days is equivalent to getting a ticket to enter the high-quality social circle, and as the number of users increases, the challenge of the operation and maintenance mode of the small circle of customer relations will also become larger, and different levels of users have been split among Weilai users." Jiang Wen, a marketing executive at a new power car company, said.

At the same time, he believes that the owner of the statement is a die-hard fan and the most valuable asset of Weilai Automobile, "but if the operation of Weilai is based on them, then this community is not big, and there should be different people in a healthy and more dynamic community." ”

Where did WEILAI's "die-hard fans" come from?

The 400 OWNERS of Weilai jointly stated that in addition to denying the existence of excessive publicity of Weilai Automobile, the responsibility for the accident was also attributed to the owner. And this is not the first time that Weilai car owners have taken the initiative to "maintain" Weilai cars.

In 2019, during the most difficult period of NIO's cash flow, a car owner used his LED screen resources to advertise for Qingdao NIO Service Center for free in the golden area of Qingdao Jiashike East Shopping Center. In the same year, NIO Macau Riders' Association raised 400,000 yuan internally, rented a booth to set up a booth, and participated in the Macau Auto Show at its own expense. Nio SPACE in Weihai, Macau, Changchun and Jiangyin was created by NIO's first or first car owners in the local area.

At the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, there were 200 car owners working as "volunteers" at the WEILAI Automobile booth to explain for free to the audience, and a person close to Weilai Automobile told reporters that the number of car owners who signed up reached 500, and 200 candidates were confirmed after training and screening.

"Weilai car owners are really a very magical group, and their loyalty exceeds that of many users of century-old car brands." A marketing executive of a car company told the first financial reporter.

Why is the owner loyalty of NIO so high? How was it built step by step? Runwise Innovation Consulting summarizes it as: establishing user thinking, marketing with common values, and building sticky communities. The so-called user thinking, the core is to serve the needs of customers, not limited to the car hardware, thus generating a close connection with the user.

Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile, said in an interview that traditional car companies can rarely be responsible for the overall experience of the car brand, and Weilai jumped out of the original framework, not only providing services when users buy cars, but also providing a good experience in the process of users using cars.

Yi Ran, a partner at Geran Road Consulting Company, explained that in the past, high-end cars and high-end services were separated, "Traditional car companies use marketing resources to advertise to obtain users, and after obtaining, very little money is spent on users." Weilai's approach is the opposite, spending more money on maintaining users. ”

A Weilai car owner showed the first financial reporter the owner service group showed that there are a total of 11 people in the group, in addition to him are all Weilai used to serve his employees, respectively, sales, after-sales, charging, delivery and other different areas of personnel composition, "once I sent a message at more than 6 o'clock in the morning, about 15 minutes later someone replied, which is impossible to achieve in the traditional car company." ”

Weilai Automobile's rapid response and processing speed to faults, maintenance or repair of door-to-door pick-up, illegal handling agency, etc. also make traditional car companies hopeless. It is the differentiation established by the service that makes car owners generally recognize the WEILAI brand very highly.

NIO's user operations do not stop there. An employee of Weilai Automobile told reporters that the quality and stability of the early Weilai products were not high, and most of the ES8 genesis version was sold to Li Bin's friends and the senior management of Weilai Automobile, "Basically there are at least one or two high-priced imported cars in the family." ”

He said that due to their own wealth value and personal relationship with Li Bin and other WEILAI executives, these car owners have a high tolerance for product quality problems, but even so, Weilai still poured a lot of costs to do a good job.

Zhao Si, an early employee of Weilai Automobile, told reporters that the early weilai service was not only to solve the problems in the process of vehicle use, but to penetrate into the lives of users, and many FELLOW (store sales service personnel) finally became personal friends with the owner. Su Ming, the owner of the founding version of the WEIO ES8, recalled one of the things that touched him the most: "Once I forgot my daughter's birthday, NIO's FALLOW not only remembered my daughter's birthday, but also helped me prepare a birthday gift. ”

The high-net-worth population coupled with the community activities that Weilai Automobile strives to create gives the outside world a perception that Weilai car owners are elites.

"After the elite circle layer above, the people who have not yet reached this circle below also want to enter this circle, and buying a Weilai car will become a ticket to enter this circle, or a status symbol, which is a key step for Weilai Automobile from seed users to batch." Zhao Si said that Weilai has established high-end brand recognition through hardware such as NIO HOUSE located in the core CBD, held a large number of interest communities and social activities, and also fulfilled the slogan of creating a lifestyle thrown out when it was founded.

"Elite labels, high-quality services, and high-quality social activities have given users a sense of yearning and expectation." Zhao Si said that he believes that the most loyal to Weilai is mostly relatively early car owners, who spend 400,000 to 500,000 yuan to buy Weilai products when electric vehicles are generally not recognized by all parties and there is great uncertainty about the survival prospects of Weilai Automobile Company, and these values are close to and the early owners who are highly recognized by Weilai, forming a "subculture" small circle.

"I sincerely hope that everyone will buy Weilai's car, such a good company should not let it die, it should develop better." At a research meeting of a car company's intelligent electric vehicle project, a Weilai car owner said so.

The user circle is splitting

Shanghai EC6 owner Huang Yanming is an active participant in NIO's offline activities, in addition to volunteers at the Shanghai Auto Show, his unofficial car friends organization will also regularly hold a variety of offline activities, such as badminton competitions, tea art sharing, suburban self-driving camping and so on.

Huang Yanming told reporters: "Most of the people who can spend 400,000 yuan to buy a Weilai are still the backbone of society, everyone has similar interests, and there are more related resources, and every offline activity experience is very good." For example, badminton, a person 20 yuan can play in a court with particularly good hardware in the city center, and the balls provided are all good balls from Yonex. ”

In the first screen of the Weilai APP, there are not only car pick-up and car diary, but also life sharing such as the owner's self-driving tour sharing and food exploration shop, similar to a WeChat circle of friends with Weilai as the theme. At the same time, WEILAI's official and unofficial car friend organizations will also publish event convocations and event site reviews on the APP.

Li Bin once said that enterprises can create many emotional experiences by connecting with users through mobile social means, which has surpassed the automotive products themselves.

"Now many people take their mobile phones every day to brush Weibo, brush vibrato, social circles often only rely on WeChat contact, which will make the old social circle gradually fade, the new social circle is difficult to expand." NIO has also helped users build a social circle. This may also be the reason why Weilai can firmly grasp some users. For Weilai's social attributes, Huang Yanming thinks so.

However, compared with the early Owners of the ES8 of Weilai, he believes that he is not a believer in Weilai, and after the joint statement of 400 car owners was released, he sided with the opposite side.

The reporter noted that after the release of the "joint statement", more car owners released the topic of "opposing the joint statement of car owners" in the Weilai APP, and quickly obtained the support of a large number of car owners in the short term, and as of press time, 11,000 people have participated, of which not only the joint statement cannot represent the voice of all The owners of Weilai, but also some of the owners of Weilai believe that at the moment, the owners of Weilai should be united and have a correct position. In the Weilai APP, under the dynamics of the joint affirmation of the initiator "Lin Wei Lawyer", it was attacked by a large number of Weilai car owners, and some car owners even took the initiative to maintain the owners of Weilai as "guardians of Wei army".

This is actually not the first phase of Weilai's fan confrontation event. In 2018, a owner of the founding version of WEILAI ES8 was not satisfied with the quality of Weilai's products after picking up the car, and expressed his hope to cancel the subscription on the Weilai APP, and then the owner was "human flesh" and harassed by the Weilai car friend organization "Jingweijun".

At the beginning of 2021, some car owners gave feedback on the seat comfort problem on the WEILAI APP and established the Weilai Seat Sound Group. Although the incident has received the attention of WEILAI officials, the comfort of Weilai seats has also led to the division of car owners. In this topic, in addition to the owners who complain about the poor comfort of the seat, some car owners think that this is a case caused by the personal body shape, complaining that the owner is too picky, and some car owners say that the seat comfort is still good, and more extreme car owners say: "After getting sick, I don't need medical insurance, no insurance, buy a Weilai package." ”

Li Bin also said that enterprises can create a lot of emotional experiences by connecting with users through mobile social means, which have surpassed the automotive products themselves.

Jiang Wen believes that the owners who are incomparably loyal to Weilai are undoubtedly the most precious wealth, but the current problem is that they show too flattering and non-judgmental support for Weilai, "and also show that they impose their own values on others, enter this circle and accept his cognition and culture, and the expression of the normal needs of other car owners will be questioned whether they love this brand." ”

If the "Jingwei military meat" in 2018 only raised objections between individual Owners of Weilai and most of the owners, then since 2021, seat comfort and joint declaration have become a confrontation between the owner group and the owner group.

Wang Feng, the owner of the founding version of the ES8, told reporters: "The current owner of Weilai and the first batch of users who buy Weilai car owners have changed. The owners who bought the ES8 in the early days will not be too bad in terms of economic strength and social status, although the first batch of cars has many problems, but they are more concerned about the circle created by Weilai. And now That Weilai has launched ES6 and EC6, there are definitely fans of the Weilai brand recognition among this part of the car, but a large part of them will not only care about the circle provided by Weilai, but also care about the use of products. ”

Chen Wanfeng, the owner of the new EC6 in Shanghai, also expressed the same view, the reason why he bought EC6 on the one hand is that Weilai has a good product strength in the same price range, on the other hand, Weilai's more thoughtful service can make him more worry-free, but EC6 is still just a commuting tool for him, not a ticket to enter the elite circle, and he also thinks that he has no "brand belief" in Weilai.

After the joint statement incident, some car owners exposed the owner solitaire information that started and participated in the declaration, which showed that the first car owner who participated in the solitaire was "Lin Wei Lawyer", and the WEILAI APP certification information showed that he was the owner of the founding version of the NIO ES8, and was also the first and second user trust director of NIO Automobile.

In addition, some car owners said that the owners involved in the declaration of solitaire included members of the Weilai Ep club. Ep club is the most high-end user club of NIO, EP club members can enjoy benefits including EP9 driving experience, FE viewing, overseas study tours, and big coffee sharing.

Wang Feng believes that most of the owners involved in the joint declaration are the earliest owners of Weilai, and they also want to express their identity as "die-hard fans" of Weilai, "Maybe in the future, Weilai Automobile will be kidnapped by this group of people." ”

Is the heavy operating model sustainable?

While traditional car companies have learned and imitated Weilai's user operation model, the debate over whether this model is sustainable with the expansion of user scale is also chattering.

In order to maintain better user service and operation, NIO's marketing and administrative costs have remained high. According to the 2020 NIO annual report, THE MARKETING AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES OF NIO IN 2020 WERE 3.932 BILLION YUAN, AND THE INTERIM REPORT IN 2021 SHOWED THAT NIO HAS INVESTED 2.695 BILLION YUAN IN MARKETING AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES, COMPARED WITH 1.570 BILLION YUAN IN THE SAME PERIOD.

Xiaopeng Automobile, another leading new energy vehicle company in China, will invest 2.921 billion yuan in marketing and administrative expenses in 2020, 1.752 billion yuan in related expenses in 2021, and 1.399 billion yuan in research and development expenses in the same period. Ideal's marketing, sales and management expenses for the whole of 2020 were 1.119 billion yuan, which was almost the same as the R&D expenditure (1.1 billion yuan).

At the beginning of 2020, Li Bin said: "Not counting the labor cost and the investment of mobile service vehicles, the single 'service worry-free' project Weilai will lose more than 4,000 yuan per year on each car owner." ”

"Now That Weilai is a 100,000-vehicle car company, how much energy and money does Weilai need to invest in maintaining the quality of its current services when the number of Weilai's ownership reaches 300,000, 500,000 or even 1 million vehicles?" An executive of a domestic joint venture car company told reporters.

For the development of the service system, Qin Lihong believes: "The entire demand and service capabilities are an alternate upward process, always led by the demand to respond to patching, user satisfaction will decline." So how to balance it is a very artistic thing for the management team. NIO's service facilities are relatively advanced, but may have been two steps ahead in the past, and now the team is considering returning to the lead by half a step. By constantly predicting the supply and demand relationship in the service, the tension is controlled within the bearable range and can be made up in time. ”

Jiang Wen believes that if the loyal believers of Weilai in the early days were group A, and now because the owners of products and services to buy Weilai are group B, "relying only on group A is definitely not big, and establishing a pluralistic, healthy and dynamic community can make Weilai move towards scale while maintaining its characteristics." ”

The recent "Wei you bend waist" incident also reflects the superiority of Weilai Automobile's organizational model over traditional car companies to a certain extent. Xu Feng, a seat research and development engineer of a joint venture automobile company, told reporters that the traditional seat comfort user survey, targeted is difficult to compare with Weilai, most of the company's feedback on seat comfort, are provided by third-party research companies, in the real data review and actual user research, the pertinence will not be as strong as Weilai, and due to the sample size, research data accuracy and other issues, it is difficult to improve as fast as Weilai.

"For example, a seat size problem, we received complaints from the research company about the small size of the seat, and then need to feedback to the foreign party, if the amount of data is not enough, we may also need to organize a new special survey separately, and then a round of coordination with the foreign party and other departments, but also need to consider the economics of the change, Weilai this kind of February users complain, July proposed improvement plans, in my opinion is almost impossible." Xufeng believes that WEILAI's user participation and rapid response model has greatly helped to improve user satisfaction.

At the same time, WEILAI will also directly listen to the voice of users in the process of product design and research and development, and even let users participate in the research and development process. Li Tianshu, head of PRODUCT EXPERIENCE of NIO, in the APP, in response to some users' demands for seat comfort improvement, NIO collected 29304 questionnaires on the app, and 423 NIO users with comfort experience improvement demands in 23 cities participated in the evaluation. Earlier, Weilai also invited Users of Dading and above to participate in the seat supplier Antaotuo User Open Day to comprehensively demonstrate the complete production and manufacturing process of car seats.

However, Xufeng also believes that excessive "pampering" for users may become a constraint in the development of Weilai. "Now there are 2,000 car owners who say that the comfort is not good, Weilai will change, which is of course a good thing, but Weilai will inevitably need to pay a lot of money, we do a seat foam sample, usually the cost of a single piece is more than 6 figures, and if the subsequent batch change, it will also involve the supplier's liquidated damages, as well as changes in the cost of parts." But when there are more users, it is difficult to adjust, can Weilai invest money and energy to modify and maintain every time? ”

In a conference call after the release of NIO's second-quarter earnings report, Li Bin revealed to the outside world that NIO is ready to launch a sub-brand positioned as a "Volkswagen brand" to enter a segment with relatively low positioning to compete with the electrification products of Volkswagen, Toyota and other brands.

In this regard, the owners of Weilai interviewed generally believe that sub-brands may be boycotted by "loyal fans". "The early Owners of Weilai, whether it is economic conditions or social status, is indeed a group of relatively high-quality people, of which a considerable number of people who have become 'loyal fans' are still very confident, they feel that Weilai is not worse than Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi, and some people will compare with Porsche." So after Weilai launches new products, the price drops to 150,000 yuan or even lower, can this batch of 'loyal fans' accept such a gap? One of the ES8 owners said.

In the Weilai app, some users have expressed their concerns about the Weilai sub-brand, some users believe that Weilai should not provide the same services as the current Weilai brand on the sub-brand with lower positioning (such as canceling the power exchange or free battery replacement service), and a small number of users believe that Weilai should establish a new APP and a new community on the sub-brand to separate the operation.

Li Bin once said that enterprises can create a lot of emotional experiences by connecting with users through mobile social means, which has surpassed the automotive products themselves. Jiang Wen believes that there is nothing wrong with the direction of direct connection between brands and users and long-chain services for users, and now is the opportunity for Weilai's user operation to transform from rapid development to maturity.

(At the request of the interviewees, Jiang Wen, Zhao Si and Huang Yanming are pseudonyms)