Automobiles have entered an era of equal rights. “Are there any different species among kings, princes, generals and ministers?”

With the rapid development of the automobile industry, consumers' perception of cars and car-buying concepts have also undergone earth-shaking changes. In the following article, we will take a look at the concept innovation and coping methods that the automobile industry is experiencing. Recommended for Internet friends to read.

No product has ever aroused the public's attention and enthusiasm for discussion like the automobile. And few industries are experiencing the stormy and earth-shaking changes like the automobile.

The new energy and intelligent waves are surging forward, and the global automotive product chain has undergone fundamental changes, which in turn has led to unprecedented upheavals in the entire automotive competition landscape. Some car companies have made a big splash, while others have plummeted, and some even have to leave the market in disgrace.

Behind all this is essentially a disruptive change in consumers' perception of cars and car-buying concepts.

In the past, buying a car was a very simple matter, because the automobile industry has long been composed of three "forces": luxury, joint venture, and independent.

If the budget is around 100,000, you can buy domestic brands such as Great Wall, Changan, Geely, and BYD; if it is over 200,000, you can choose Volkswagen, Toyota, Buick, etc.; if it is over 300,000, BBA is almost the standard answer; if the budget is higher, there are also Porsche, Rolls-Royce, etc.

Now, before buying a car, you should ask these questions:

• Is it a fuel car or new energy?
• Is it domestic or foreign-funded?
• Is it an old car store or a new force?

We see that the country-specific approach is outdated and consumers do not think that domestically produced cars are inferior.

The theory that bloodline is the only thing that matters has also failed. Luxury and high-end products are no longer just the domain of foreign brands such as BBA and Porsche.

The theory of qualifications has also disappeared. Whether it is a century-old car company or a new force, they are all competing in the same market, and consumers treat them equally.

It can be said that this is a true era of equal rights for automobiles. It can even be said that the automobile industry has become a place where “kings, princes, generals, and ministers are all of different species.”

I think everyone agrees that the long-term competitiveness of enterprises must be rooted in the minds of users, and the fundamental purpose of marketing is to influence user perceptions. This is especially true in the automotive industry, because cars are closely tied to people's consumption and values, and represent the user's personality image and social status.

In such an era, if car companies still follow the old marketing methods, ignore the huge changes in consumer concepts, and ignore the shaping of car brands in social opinion and culture, their practices are tantamount to seeking fish in a tree.

In this article, we will talk about the conceptual innovation and coping methods that the automotive industry is experiencing.

1. Re-understand the new selling points of automobiles

In the past, the selling points that consumers paid most attention to when buying a car were basically appearance, space, power, configuration, fuel economy, etc.

I still remember more than ten years ago, when I just started serving car customers, many new cars on the market liked to use a concept called "leap-level", which meant providing larger space, more configurations, etc. than cars of the same level and price.

This was also the popular car-making concept at the time. Car companies had a strong engineering mindset and always tried to pile as many functional configurations as possible in the product development process, making sure their own models surpassed competitors in all aspects. They believed that only in this way could their products be competitive.

But this kind of thinking has undergone two changes today:

1. Consumers nowadays prioritize technology when buying a car

I still remember when Tesla was first launched, in addition to its fashionable and avant-garde appearance, the most eye-catching thing was the huge "Pad" on the car. Many operations had to be completed on the large screen; and when the front hood was opened, the position where the engine should be was actually a suitcase. These innovations made people feel that Tesla was completely different from previous car brands.

The cutting-edge exterior design and the size of the central control screen became consumers' initial perception of the car's technological sense. Later, as more technologically competitive battery life joined the fray, more car companies began to focus on driving range.

Today, with the rise of new forces and the entry of technology companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi, the sense of technology has gradually shifted to smart car machines, assisted driving, and the futuristic style of the entire vehicle.

(Data source: White Paper "2023 Weibo Automotive Industry Ecosystem Analysis and Hotspot Value Insights")

Therefore, when car companies launch new models, they must think about which selling points can enhance consumers' perception of technology. For the overall brand, car companies must also strengthen the shaping of their own technological image and the output of relevant information, such as creating technology brands and technology festivals.

It can be seen from the white paper "2023 Weibo Automobile Industry Ecological Analysis and Hot Value Insights" that the automobile industry's competition for technology labels has entered a deep water period.

In 2023, there are 23 more automakers with technology labels than in the previous year, an increase of 48%, and 70% of these brands are independent and emerging forces. This should serve as a reminder for joint venture cars and luxury cars.

(Data source: White Paper "2023 Weibo Automotive Industry Ecosystem Analysis and Hotspot Value Insights")

When technology becomes the core driving force of automobiles, it will also have a huge impact on the brand building and marketing of auto companies. They need to strengthen the creation of technology labels and continue to bind technology-related hot topics to grab consumer attention and cognition.

For example, when the new M5 was launched in April this year, #New M5 makes parking an art# and #New M5 performs a textbook-like braking# became hot topics. Various voices discussed its remote parking and omnidirectional collision avoidance technology, allowing consumers to feel #how powerful today's active safety technology of automobiles is#.

2. Today, consumers not only pay attention to product selling points, but also pay attention to the use scenarios of cars

In the past, car companies always put all possible configurations and functions when developing models, but they were often not recognized by the public, which was not only useless but also increased the cost of the whole vehicle. Nowadays, when making cars, companies need to start from the usage scenarios and lifestyles and pay more attention to user experience.

This is very obvious in the Ideal brand. Its founder Li Xiang once founded the vertical portal website Autohome and is well aware of the value of user insights. They found that among the group purchasing cars with a price of more than 200,000 yuan, family users accounted for as high as 89%, thus determining the brand strategy of focusing on home scenarios.

Another example is Wuling Motors. Data research shows that 80% of Chinese users have a travel demand of no more than 30 kilometers per day and a speed of no more than 30 kilometers per hour. In this short-distance scenario, Wuling found that consumers generally face the pain points of difficult parking, high user costs, and insecurity.

Therefore, the new generation of "magic car" Wuling Hongguang MINI EV came into being, accurately grasping user needs in the scene, implementing cost control and developing product functions. This is also the embodiment of Wuling Motors' idea of ​​"full-field 2C, scene-defined car".

Based on the interactive behaviors of hot topics on social platforms, we can identify different types of segmented customers, such as commuters, self-driving drivers, and home buyers. They have different concerns about car models and consumption preferences for hot topics. Only by paying more attention to user needs and scenarios can we create better automotive products and brands.

2. Redefine the car brand

Like domestic brands in many industries, Chinese car companies started late and had a low starting point. Their basic competitive strategy is to take the cost-effective route to expand the market size and then break through upward (brand upgrades and breakthroughs in 300,000+ models have always been strategic issues for major car companies).

Foreign brands have monopolized the high-end market, gained excess profits, and then increased their brand moat by investing in next-generation technologies. The two are clearly distinguished.

Until the advent of a new wave of technological innovation, this brand barrier was broken. New forces such as Wei, Xiaoli, Wenjie, and Xiaomi Auto have demonstrated strong competitiveness and started to occupy a place in the high-end market. At present, Wenjie M9 has been ranked first in sales of models above 500,000 in the domestic market for 9 consecutive weeks this year, regardless of energy form or body type.

The consumption concept of high-net-worth users has always been brand-focused and conservative, especially in car purchasing behavior. After all, cars can be used as social products to externalize identity.

Why did the automobile market structure that lasted for 20 to 30 years break down? What changes have taken place in people's perception of automobile brands? Understanding this question will benefit not only high-end automobile companies, but all automobile brands.

1. The automotive value system has undergone a disruptive change. Intelligence and safety have become new high-end standards and new brand "beliefs".

When BYD launched its luxury brand Yangwang, which costs up to one million yuan, it used a black technology called emergency floating water to win the admiration of consumers, which not only strengthened the sense of technology, but also made users feel stronger security. The challenge of Yangwang U8 owners to cross the Xiangjiang River also became a hot topic on social platforms.

The official website of BYD Fangchengbao directly has a line of words written on it: "Safety is the greatest luxury of electric vehicles." These words are true!

When I was serving some high-end brands in the past, I spent a lot of energy studying the secrets to success of luxury goods. My summary is three levels: scarcity and hand-polishing at the functional level, aesthetic design at the experience level, and the symbolic level using brand history and aristocratic lineage to solidify social consensus and form an identity label.

This formula also applies to top luxury car companies, such as Porsche, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, etc. However, for a long time, domestic cars have not possessed these elements, making it difficult to move towards high-end status.

However, as the automotive industry moves closer to technology products, this logic begins to fail. For example, in the mobile phone industry next door, 8848 Mobile Phones once tried to achieve luxury brands through rare materials and limited supply, but it was difficult to succeed.

The high-end of luxury goods looks to the past, tracing back to history, lineage, origin, and craftsmanship; while the high-end of technology products looks to the future, requiring a sense of cutting-edge technology, a guide to the future, and a humanized, intelligent, and smooth user experience. This is exactly what has made many car companies successful today.

An automotive industry consulting agency conducted a survey on the first batch of M9 owners and found that the top five reasons driving their purchase were: smart driving, smart cockpit, brand, safety, and comfort[1].

From the above report, we can also see that high-net-worth users are paying more and more attention to the unique experience brought by cars and hot topics related to intelligent technology. Therefore, if car brands want to break through, they must design content and topics around these points.

BBA also needs to reshape its brand awareness. In April this year, Mercedes-Benz released the all-electric G-Class, which produced a lot of content from the two dimensions of cutting-edge all-electric technology and off-road heritage, such as #Being electrified by the G-Class# #The ceiling of luxury all-electric SUVs has come#, etc., allowing the public to re-perceive Mercedes-Benz's technological luxury attributes and feel the brand's determination to #Surpass Mercedes-Benz among Mercedes-Benz#.

Another example is that many car companies are competing to build technology brands to demonstrate their technological strength, such as Geely's CMA super matrix, Thor power, Aegis battery, etc., Changan's Blue Whale power, Ark architecture, Force electric drive, etc. My colleague once calculated that there are 116 car brands in China with annual sales of more than 2,000 vehicles, but there are as many as 142 technology brands released by car companies.

As the automotive industry gradually incorporates more technological attributes from industrial products, consumers' understanding and definition of automobile brands have undergone fundamental changes.

The past cannot be changed, and past brands may not be recognized by today's consumers. Any car company must rethink how to reshape user perception. The future can still be pursued. By doing a good job in technology and experience, and building products and disseminating content around them, there will still be plenty of opportunities in the future market.

2. The purpose of a brand is to provide emotional value and spiritual support to users, which is becoming increasingly important for car brands.

This year, although many people say that the overall situation is not good, consumers are becoming more rational and conservative about spending money. Pinduoduo is becoming the first choice for many people to shop, but on the other hand, we can also see the popularity of brands such as Arc'teryx and Descente.

The same is true for the automobile industry. According to the data from the China Passenger Car Association, from January to October 2023, the sales of new cars in the price range of more than 300,000 yuan exceeded 2.33 million, a year-on-year increase of more than 30%. The year-on-year growth rate of sales of models below 300,000 yuan was 0%. In other words, the growth in overall automobile sales was mainly contributed by high-end models.

Consumption upgrading and consumption downgrading are actually happening at the same time. People value both tangible quality and cost-effectiveness, and pay attention to the idea that you get what you pay for; they also value emotional value and are willing to pay a lot for their feelings, experiences, and identification with values.

For example, the Xiaomi SU7's sun protection, mobile phone holder, and how to place an umbrella in the car. As a person working in the automotive industry, I am particularly impressed by the fact that these may have been considered to have no technical content in the past, but for consumers, they are real product value, and they can also make people feel Xiaomi's sincerity in considering users.

The same is true for the privacy sound shield design of the Wenjie M9. After turning on this function, 90% of the conversation information of the second-row passengers can be prevented from being heard by the driver, and the sound can be adaptively shielded by following the movement of the driver's head to fully protect the privacy of the passengers. This kind of detailed design not only allows users to feel the sense of technology, but also gives them a sense of satisfaction, making them feel valued, and their emotional value is maximized, which in turn leads to identification with the brand.

3. Re-understanding the automotive industry landscape

As an advertiser who has served automotive clients for many years, I deeply feel that the structure and boundaries of the automotive market have been completely broken. The boundaries between independent and foreign capital have disappeared, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has continued to increase, and they are competing fiercely with fuel vehicles. The former ace models and leading car companies are under increasing pressure, and the new forces are also fighting hard.

However, this is not the worst time. The mindset of car consumers has changed, and we have the opportunity to reshape cognition and market structure. Behind the competition in the automotive industry is a battle of concepts and minds at the level of social culture and public opinion.

In this situation, there are really only two things that car companies need to do.

The first thing is to be truly user-oriented and make products based on user experience and car usage scenarios.

Some time ago, Lei Jun, Yu Chengdong, Wei Jianjun, Zhou Hongyi and others represented the trend of creating founder IP in the automotive industry. Many executives of automotive companies have opened social media accounts to speak out for their products. Many marketing experts and new media experts in the industry are also desperately emphasizing the importance of creating founder IP and providing corresponding courses and services.

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether the car company executives personally participate, and it is actually very dangerous to equate the founder’s IP with being an Internet celebrity or a self-media, and it is even more likely to cause a public relations crisis (this sentence is worth repeating three times). The key is whether the brand can communicate with consumers in an equal manner, listen to the voice of users, and invite everyone to participate.

In August last year, Baojun Yunduo was officially launched. The great thing about this new car is that it was jointly created by netizens and Baojun. For example, the heads of each series of Ideal product lines also frequently interact with netizens online to understand user needs and feedback, and thus determine product positioning.

For car companies, they must build user-oriented organizations, introduce user participation in the entire life cycle of product creation, strengthen contact and interaction with users, and gain insights into user needs and psychological changes. This is not about sitting in the office and reading user research reports, but going to the front line to listen to users.

The second thing is that car companies must pay more attention to brand building and long-term content ecosystem construction.

Concepts always precede behavior. The disruptive change in automobile consumption concepts means that relying solely on large corporate scale and high brand awareness is just a way to make a living. What car companies need is not overnight advertising and media, but the management of their own ecology and social context, and the construction of long-term content.

Especially in today's highly homogenized market, automakers need to better create public topics and stick to social hot spots to ensure that they always live in user discussions and in the social culture and hot atmosphere. Many times, a hot search or a topic can not only affect the sales of a certain model, but may even affect the market value and life and death of the company.

Today, we are talking about how Chinese cars are becoming a global force. We are not only far ahead in the new energy market, but also have outstanding automobile export performance. In the past two years, at the Shanghai Auto Show and the Beijing Auto Show, many executives of foreign auto companies came to the booths of Chinese brands to observe and learn. The global auto industry is entering the Chinese era.

But at the same time, we should not forget that the Chinese automobile market is falling into a state of high internal competition, with inverted production capacity, serious homogeneity, intensifying price wars, and chaos in every market segment. Many car companies have sales but no profits, and are even mired in long-term losses.

In this era of equal rights for cars, who will be the new "kings, princes, generals and ministers"? Then I would say -

Those who start from users and focus on user experience and scenarios are the best! Those who are smart-oriented, focus on technology experience, and strengthen technology labels are the best! Those who value brand building and strengthen long-term content ecology and hot topic contexts are the best!

Author: Empty-handed

Source: WeChat public account: "Empty Hands (ID: firesteal13)"