Rethinking Automotive Marketing: User Brand Thinking Behind CEO Live Broadcast

Xiaomi su7 has become very popular recently. What is the marketing method behind it? Let’s read this article to find out.

The popularity of Xiaomi SU7 has taught traditional car companies a lesson and also caused the car industry to suffer from "traffic anxiety". Car companies are eager to seek marketing strategies that can quickly attract attention. Therefore, live broadcast marketing has become a new front that many car companies are trying.

Wei Jianjun of Great Wall said: "I was quite nervous during my first live broadcast."

Yin Tongyue of Chery said: "It forced me, an old man in my 60s, to come out."

These bigwigs, who were once accustomed to operating behind the scenes, have begun to step forward and personally broadcast live. Although they are still not experienced, they are trying to increase brand exposure and promote sales through this emerging form of live broadcast.

However, the problem is that the live broadcasts of these car companies only imitated the form of Xiaomi but failed to grasp the spirit.

Live streaming by traditional car companies is just a link and action, but behind Xiaomi’s live streaming is a whole system of interaction and dialogue with users. The former is still a marketing action under corporate thinking, while the latter is a brand strategy under user thinking.

From the moment the announcement of its car-making plan began, Xiaomi has allowed users to participate in every step of the process, from the announcement of the car-making plan, to the exposure of spy photos of the factory that sparked heated discussions, to letting everyone guess the price, to the sharing of live broadcast stories after the release of SU7. Every node has made users feel full of participation and expectations.

This is like a TV series with a season full of user comments. Users have countless questions, and the TV series is broadcast one episode after another. There are also behind-the-scenes footage after the show, and the trailer for the second season will be released soon (to promote the SUV).

As a producer and director, Lei Jun is like a master of rhythm who controls the plot and keeps users following closely.

This kind of marketing that makes users feel fully involved is the core of Xiaomi's brand marketing. This is not a simple live broadcast, but a full-link system for establishing dialogue and interaction with users.

Next, the show started airing.

1. Episode 1, D2C: Direct Communication with Users System

Xiaomi’s automotive marketing model is D2C, which is inherited from Xiaomi mobile phones.

When Xiaomi Mi 1 was released, most mobile phone brands relied on middlemen such as Suning and D.Phone for sales. Xiaomi, however, took a different approach and chose to sell mobile phones directly on its official website. This strategy not only saved the cost of offline channels and reduced sales costs, but also converted mobile phone buyers into loyal fans of the brand through the close connection between the official website and Xiaomi's social media, including communities and Weibo, and established a longer-term relationship.

The launch of Xiaomi SU7 extends the D2C model from the mobile phone industry to the automotive field.

During the product creation phase, Xiaomi developed products based on user data to ensure that every function and design was in line with user needs. For example, although the car-mounted mobile phone holder was ridiculed by Yu Chengdong, users commented, "I can do without it, but you can't."

During the pricing phase, Xiaomi considered user expectations and market changes to develop a reasonable pricing strategy. Before the launch, the price of Xiaomi SU7 has been changing dynamically so that it can eventually meet user expectations.

During the marketing stage, Xiaomi eliminates the middlemen and sells directly to consumers, ensuring transparency of information and fairness of prices.

During the after-sales service stage, Xiaomi maintains long-term interaction with users through intelligent systems, listens to user feedback and suggestions, and continuously improves products.

Xiaomi's D2C model is a comprehensive system from product development to marketing to service. It is a user-centric brand strategy. This model achieves continuous interaction and deep binding with users.

Compared with Xiaomi's flexible and direct way of engaging with users, traditional car companies often rely on dealer networks for sales and services. This is a typical B2C model, which puts them at a natural disadvantage in obtaining core user data and feedback.

There is always a layer of separation between their interactions with users, just like "looking at flowers in the fog and the moon in the water", which limits their potential in user relationships and product innovation.

Although a number of car companies have tried to shorten the distance between themselves and users through CEO live broadcasts, this method only touches the surface of marketing and has a large gap with Xiaomi's full-link user interaction system.

2. Episode 2: CEO’s Personality: Sincere and Real

In the traditional marketing era, executives of car companies often maintain a high and unapproachable image, and they rarely have the opportunity to communicate directly with users. However, in the current Internet era, this can no longer meet market demand. Users expect the interaction with brands to be more sincere and real, and the personal IP creation of car company CEOs has become the key to achieving this goal.

The rise of CEO live streaming is essentially an attempt by companies to narrow the distance with consumers by building the personal IP of executives, allowing personal charm to boost branding and sales.

But the creation of this kind of personal IP is not achieved overnight, it takes time to accumulate. It is not like in a company, where the boss is usually high and mighty, but when he feels like going to the factory to sympathize with the workers, the boss' image becomes humble and approachable.

Starting with the phrase "Are You OK?" in 2015, Lei Jun established his image of being approachable and sincere. This image is based on years of direct communication and sincere dialogue with users. Lei Jun's approachable style, displayed through live broadcasts and other channels, makes consumers feel that what he says is credible and true.

So, when he talks about ecology, everyone thinks it has value, and when Jia Yueting talks about ecology, everyone thinks it is exaggerating. When he says it is not profitable, everyone thinks it is really not profitable, and when others say it is not profitable, everyone thinks it is a scam.

In the live broadcast on April 18, Lei Jun continued to maintain his usual style. Although he is known as the "shuangwen hero", he admitted in the live broadcast that he was not the top scorer in the college entrance examination and did not have 4 billion in savings, and he still focused on sincerity and reality.

3. Episode 3: Participation: User Discussion

The goal of traditional car companies is to sell cars to users quickly. Their relationship with users is limited to obtaining leads through online marketing and inviting test drives (or at dealers). Once the car purchase process is completed, the relationship between consumers and the brand is often severed. In this model, the dialogue between users and brands is usually limited, and consumers' sense of participation in brand building is relatively low.

The relationship between Xiaomi and its users is reflected in the sense of participation. In 2014, Li Wanqiang, the marketing operator of Xiaomi, published a book called "Sense of Participation", which summarized the essence of Xiaomi's marketing: first, to interact with users to make good products, and second, to rely on word of mouth from users for communication and marketing.

This strategy is fully reflected in the promotion of Xiaomi SU7.

When Xiaomi announced its entry into the automotive industry, they not only unveiled the plans, but also sparked widespread public discussion, with many people even buying shares to participate and wait for appreciation.

Before the product was launched, spy photos of the new car were released intentionally or unintentionally, and through waves of discussion, the brand's popularity and voice were maintained.

At the Xiaomi car technology launch conference, when all eyes were focused on the price that was about to be announced, Lei Jun said, "Stay tuned for the next episode," which sparked widespread speculation and discussion among netizens.

After the product was delivered, Xiaomi Auto continued to maintain close interaction with users. For example, when a netizen suggested that the electric rear wing should have a physical button, Xiaomi not only listened carefully to the suggestion, but also responded and made improvements quickly.

Through these initiatives, Xiaomi not only makes consumers feel part of the product and brand building process, but also deepens users' brand loyalty through continuous interaction.

4. Shooting highlights, fan economy: user co-marketing

Xiaomi may not be the creator of the fan economy, but it is definitely the first brand to promote the term fan economy. It established a fan base - the community when it started with MIUI, and then quickly attracted a large number of fans with the help of social media.

These fans are not only buyers of Xiaomi products, but also content creators and co-marketers of the brand. They share their usage experience, exchange product opinions, and even participate in product improvement and promotion through their social networks, forming a powerful force of word-of-mouth communication.

While traditional automobile companies still rely on high-cost TVCs and large-scale marketing campaigns, Xiaomi has adopted a more open and interactive strategy, allowing users to participate in content creation. This strategy not only reduces marketing costs, but also greatly improves the effectiveness and breadth of marketing activities.

Almost all of Xiaomi SU7’s powerful marketing did not come from the official. No one remembers SU7’s slogan - Man and car are one, my heart is excited, but everyone remembers the jokes of Li Bin, Ideal, He Xiaopeng and Wei Jianjun off the stage.

Even self-deprecation, the phrase "Are You OK" which was originally meant to mock Lei Jun's accent, has been transformed into a friendly and positive joke. Nowadays, jokes about Xiaomi and Porsche appearing in the same frame, and Xiaomi and Zotye colliding with each other are endless on Weibo, but Xiaomi has not defended its rights.

In the era of user brands, the logic of marketing has changed. The influence of traditional brand promotion methods such as TVC and outdoor advertising is gradually weakening. Instead, a content marketing system with higher user participation has emerged, in which the collective creativity of users often exceeds the individual creativity of enterprises.

5. Season 2 preview: Can traditional car companies join the “new drama”?

The live broadcasts by CEOs of car companies are a trend. On the one hand, Xiaomi SU7's marketing method dealt a heavy blow to traditional car companies, which made them face internal and external pressure and forced them to take some action. On the other hand, they had to adopt an attitude of innovative marketing, at least this was a gesture of change.

However, as mentioned earlier, many traditional car companies' live streaming attempts have only remained at the surface level of imitation and have not gone deep into Xiaomi's user-centric marketing strategy.

Xiaomi has built a user-driven brand ecosystem through deep user participation and continuous interaction. This is not only a marketing tool, but also a strategy for the common growth of enterprises and users. It is the result of Xiaomi's genes and more than ten years of accumulation.

For traditional car companies, the transformation from a manufacturing brand to a user brand requires real and comprehensive interaction with users in every link of production, marketing and after-sales service.

This means that companies need to fundamentally restructure their relationship with consumers and incorporate user feedback and needs into every step of product design and service improvement. Companies need to establish a platform for direct communication and interaction with users, allowing consumers to participate in product testing, marketing, feedback and iteration, and truly be user-oriented.

The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, and the second best time is now. Xiaomi planted the user brand tree 10 years ago. If traditional car companies can plant this tree now and harvest the fruits in a few years, it may not be a bad thing.

Author: Xunkong

Source: WeChat official account: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation