Su Hui: Learning from the Brand Strategy of Auto Giants

Car brand image gradually enters consumers' minds through various channels such as politics, economy, culture, marketing, media, advertising, etc., and can play a great role and even a decisive role in consumer decision-making and selection of models. The competition service of car brands through it not only includes the competition between independent brands and independent brands, between joint venture brands and joint venture brands, between imported brands and imported brands, but also between autonomous, joint venture, and imported brands. Competition and automakers have been competing for the competition among consumers in order to increase market share. Multiple brands of cars have already staged a game in the Chinese market. Fierce competition promotes mutual development. In the second half of the automobile market, more intense market competition has emerged. Despite price competition, marketing competition, new product competition, and channel competition, China has become the world’s largest producer and seller of products. Some large and medium-sized cities have taken the lead in entering the automobile society. With rapid growth in the number of possessions and consumers becoming more mature, consumers are paying more attention to car brands and their image. The automobile market has entered the era of brand competition. Therefore, brand competition will become a new hot spot in the automobile market in the second half of the year. It is necessary here to learn from the successful brand strategy of foreign multinational corporations or automobile giants to guide the market to compete in the high-level, high-level and high-grade automobile market.

I. Resource integration to increase brand voice

With the loosening of the foreign policy of the automotive industry, a large number of internationally renowned multinational companies have established manufacturing bases in China, using the advantages of well-known brands to attract consumers, while some auto manufacturers in China have introduced technologies through joint ventures and factories. The introduction of products, the introduction of marketing, the introduction of the same time the introduction of automotive brands, of course, these joint ventures are mostly international famous brands, and some even have a history of several hundred years, its brand image has long been remembered in the hearts of consumers. Competition in the automotive market will also become a battle for major brands. In the tide of joint ventures, China’s own brands will develop rapidly at the same time. In 2009, the market share of independent brands has reached 40%, which has caused the height of multinational corporations and automobile giants. Concern and attention, while its own brand has also accelerated the trend of cooperation with the international auto giants, which Geely acquired Volvo, has created a huge shock to the auto market, this trend is only just beginning, so who will become the competition The last winner, only let the market prove it. However, it is very necessary to learn from the brand strategy of multinational corporations, which will play an important role in improving the market competition of independent brands.

Volkswagen is a famous foreign car manufacturer that appears on the Chinese market as a leader. Starting in the 1980s, when other automakers did not have a good time, it actively established joint ventures with SAIC and FAW. Through long-term and steadfast efforts, Volkswagen has occupied two of the three major car bases in China, and its market share has also reached 50%. Even if it is "one step ahead," the public does not seem to enjoy the "step by step" ease. As other auto giants landed in China, the public also had to pay more attention to how to enhance their brand influence to maintain their market position. It puts the Volkswagen brand under the charge of the German Volkswagen (China) investment company. At the same time, Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen have unified calibers, and the publicity has fully highlighted the “mass” brand. At the time, a spokesman for Volkswagen Germany stated that Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen were just two production bases of the Volkswagen Group in China. They produced several models, but they all belonged to the same brand "Volkswagen." In addition, at the 7th Beijing Auto Show, U.S. General Motors and Shanghai GM stood shoulder to shoulder, and Dongfeng Shenlong and French Citroën’s “close-knit” smile all illustrated the same principle. Since then, the tide of multinational corporations and auto giants has generally flooded into the country, and joint ventures have become a huge driving force for the auto industry and have also greatly increased market share. Its brand image has long been in the eyes of consumers.

Second, rational appeal to target market

Relying on the integration of resources to increase the brand's voice is, of course, only the first step of the Long March. The loudness of entering the consumer's ear does not mean entering the brain. Therefore, there is still a lot of work to be done in the communication between brands and consumers.

Automotive is a special consumer product. How does the brand appeal? Is it emotional or rational? On the one hand, it cannot be introduced into imaging production equipment; on the other hand, it cannot be as hyped as any cosmetic or health care product. Therefore, we have found that most automotive advertisements often take into account the rational basis even if they use emotional appeal. There are also classics in pure emotional appeal, which is often the leading brand whose quality is already in the minds of consumers. Such brands, they will be more relaxed interpretation of their own culture and values, so that their own brand has a strong vitality.

Oldsmo-bile, a subsidiary of U.S. General Motors Group, has launched Aurora, the new luxury car. The target audience of the car is the upper-middle-level successful person. This group of people pursues freedom and liberating human nature throughout their lives and is eager to manage everything. In response to the psychological characteristics of this group of people, Au Rora's advertisements are represented by Western modern abstract paintings (modern abstract paintings are art forms frequently touched and interested by middle and upper class people), and television advertisements entitled “American Dream” are produced.

The advertising shows that people are talking at a party in an art gallery. A beautiful woman is admiring an abstract painting. Slowly, another dynamic space develops on the continuous U-shaped lines on the screen. A new type of sedan is slowly opened from a distance, and the woman rushes to the ground. Cars, free to ride in another dynamic space, cars in a fantastic environment, very exciting ... Then, a silhouette of a man in the gallery cast in the three-dimensional three-dimensional painting, the two spaces cleverly connected, Returning to the gallery’s real space, the man looked at this abstract picture, puzzled, and sang out: “When it’s a brand new...a very new and exciting sedan... when you’re just ready to buy it, When you're excited and hate to scream, come to your life... It's no accident... When you're pursuing better, there's the Aurora sedan and see what happens.” At this point, staring The man in the picture finally saw the car in the painting... The copy on the ad screen: "Aurora, an American dream." What kind of actions do men and our consumers take in that picture?

From the real space to the dream space, and back to the real space, the advertisement is full of mystery. This surreal style is fascinating; and the advertisement uses the “American Dream” as the advertising connotation, which is very attractive. In short, advertising not only satisfies the artistic aesthetic taste and visual cultivation of target consumer groups, but also satisfies their desire for unremitting pursuit and control of reality. It meets the potential of consumers with certain cultural levels at home and abroad to appreciate the taste, and the target market has a high hit rate. . Domestic joint venture brands and independent brands also have similar advertising works. The screen also has rich connotations and deep artistic conception. However, the atmosphere of modernization is too strong and the cultural dream is not enough.

Third, multi-brand strategy to increase market share

In order to break the monopoly in the automotive sales field, the European Union vigorously promoted the reform of auto sales. The multi-branded, aggregated sales forms once denounced by some activists have begun to appear in the European market. This dramatic change will undoubtedly provide a good reference for the Chinese automobile circulation industry that is constantly exploring. The European Union has decided that: In the past few years, it has begun to vigorously promote the reform of automobile sales, completely break the industry monopoly of the automotive market for a long time, introduce competition mechanisms among car dealers, and change the sales methods of the current designated car dealerships. General consumer goods are no longer allowed to franchise, in order to reduce the cost of circulation, and revitalize car sales. The new rules stipulate that automakers must give sellers more freedom. For example, sellers can look for consumers anywhere, sell cars from different manufacturers, and give cars to supermarkets to sell. Moreover, dealers in the future do not necessarily provide after-sales service and maintenance to car buyers. The European Union’s reform measures on the automotive retail industry are currently being implemented in the United States. There are three key points: First, companies that have conditional sales of automobiles include dealers, supermarkets, shopping malls, etc. They can sell several brands of cars at the same time and provide financial services at the same time; secondly, they are individually responsible for maintenance and supply in one region. The maintenance engineers of the spare parts and components undertake the after-sales service to consumers and realize the organic combination of sales and maintenance. Third, the organizational structure of the company will change, shifting from production-oriented to service-based, and profit from service trade The profits from manufacturing are much greater. This new EU regulation has caused a revolution in the European automobile retail industry. More retailers will realize their desire to sell cars. They can sell cars to sell services and they can even sell online. In the EU's new rules for car sales, it reflects the trend of "global economic integration." Therefore, in the wake of the international financial turmoil in 2009, the automobile industry in the United States and Japan was hit hard, and even the GM was on the verge of bankruptcy. Although the European auto industry was also affected by certain shocks, there was no great crisis in the automobile industry like the United States and Japan.

Multi-brand strategy has always been an important strategy adopted by the world's auto market competition. Whether it is GM, the veteran Volkswagen Group, or the Japanese Toyota Motor Corporation, which ranks among the top sellers in the world, they have adopted a variety of brand strategies to withstand their competitors and expand their market share without exception. In the mid-1980s, GM invested 3.9 billion U.S. dollars to defend against offensive Japanese cars in the small car market and established a subsidiary company called Saturn to produce a small car to compete with the Japanese car division to change the long-term market. The situation occupied by Japanese cars. Finally, Saturn Automotive successfully defeated four major brands, namely Hyundai, Subaru, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi, with unique design, distribution and pricing systems and advertising strategies. The multi-brand strategy formed by the current joint venture brand and its own brand has already proved this point. Of course, the multi-brand strategy must also include a boutique strategy. That is to say, auto companies must have their own world-class brands as their foundation. Domestic self-owned brands have been successfully implemented. Brand strategy, but as the latter is far from being really regrettable.

Fourth, quality service casting brand reputation

After-sales service is an important link in the automobile circulation field. It covers the quality assurance, claims, maintenance services, auto parts supply, maintenance technical training, technical consultation and guidance, market information feedback, etc. of the car after automobile sales. . After-sales service is like a "double-edged sword", good after-sales service can play a strong support and promotion role in product sales, marketing, brand influence and reputation; after-sales service can also make products slow-moving, decline in brand reputation It can even discredit the brand.

U.S. automotive after-sales service industry employs 3.5 million people, has an annual output value of up to 200 billion U.S. dollars, and the profit rate of the auto maintenance industry reaches 27%. The development of international automotive services has seen new trends. Although China has become the world’s largest producer and exporter, mainly driven by policy incentives, China’s spare parts industry and automotive aftermarket are relatively backward, and the contradiction between incompatibility between the aftermarket and the auto sales market is increasingly prominent, and the demand for senior talents is high. Contradictions have become more prominent. Therefore, focusing on the post-market, promoting the high-level, high-grade, modernization, standardization, and networking of the auto aftermarket will become the most important focus of the auto industry in the future. Otherwise, it is very likely that the post-car market will restrict the development of the car sales market.

Fifth, brand management

Brand management is an art. Brand management requires companies to bid farewell to mediocrity and impress customers. Some people think that the automobile industry is the only industry that involves fashion in heavy industry because cars represent the image of manufacturers and also represent the image of users. In foreign countries, the product trademarks of famous automobile manufacturers are also service marks. Especially when it comes to car repairs, if you hang out the trademark of a large company, it means that the service provided is confirmed by the company, and the use of the trademark is approved by the company. For services as a brand, the country is still far from understanding. At the beginning of this year, Delphi claimed to establish the image of automotive brand services in China. It should be said that it is the beginning of foreign brand services to enter China. Recently, multinational corporations and auto giants have already begun or have begun to launch franchising programs in China, placing great emphasis on the huge domestic auto market. Cake and social needs, market demand, in fact, is to promote service network construction with brand. If the self-owned brand only attaches great importance to expanding production and sales volume, expanding market share, and expanding new product launches, without paying close attention to the follow-up and expansion of the auto aftermarket, brand strategy will be affected and affected. The desire to speed is not reached, is the ancient training of the millennium, especially in high-level market competition.

Sixth, mainly from repair to maintenance

Foreign car manufacturers believe that the real service is to ensure the normal use of the user, through the service to add value to the customer, the manufacturer proposed a zero repair concept on the product manufacturing, after-sales service focus turned to maintenance. In the 1980s, the American car repair market began to shrink, and the number of repair factories dropped by 315,000. At the same time, professional car care centers have seen explosive growth, which has increased by tens of thousands in the first two years alone. At present, the automotive industry in the United States has accounted for 80% of the US automobile warranty industry, with an average annual income of more than tens of billions of dollars. In the United States, there is a trend toward the separation of sales and maintenance. Specialized sales are being promoted. Specialized methods (low-cost, high-efficiency) have been adopted to replace large, small, and full-scale auto sales, while China’s auto sales are large and small. All of them are developing at a high speed and are being promoted as a model for domestic automotive marketing. The backwardness of concepts and the backwardness of innovation necessarily lag behind others, lagging behind the fierce and complex competition in the automotive market.

Seventh, electronic and informatization

With the development of automotive technology, the electronic level of automobiles has become higher and higher, and the latest automotive products have achieved computer control of almost all functions of the entire vehicle. For example, power systems, brake systems, on-board internet systems, and on-board electronic navigation systems are also increasingly used. Therefore, the car's warranty is becoming more and more complex. The era in which workers judge by experience is already past. Now the car's warranty requires special equipment for testing, special equipment to adjust, and the product data needed for car repair is also provided in the form of computer networks and data discs, eliminating the need for extensive repair manuals. Automobile manufacturers and repairers will also provide online consultation to help users solve problems in use.

In short, the automotive industry and the automotive market in 2009 have achieved historic development and deserve our pride. We are full of confidence in the future development of the automotive industry and the development of the automotive market. Due to the impact of the international financial crisis, due to the influence of unknown factors, the automobile market in 2010 is also unpredictable. We must maintain a calm mind, seize opportunities, meet challenges, innovate and develop, develop the automotive industry, and develop the economy. Make new contributions!