Keywords for automotive marketing in 2024: 3Cization, competition among big players, and tighter budgets

The marketing competition in the automotive industry is fierce, and hot spots are emerging frequently. The author of this article reviewed the various marketing events in the automotive industry in 2023, sorted out 5 points worth reflecting on, and hoped to find the potential possibilities of marketing in this industry. Let's take a look.

Just after the Spring Festival, the auto industry has seen a series of "big events". First, BYD's new car entered the 70,000 yuan range, HiPhi was reported to have stopped production for 6 months, Xiaopeng Motors set a goal of doubling its performance this year, and Xiaomi's first "Full Ecosystem for People, Cars and Homes" press conference and Ideal's spring press conference were also announced to be held in the near future. Except for HiPhi, which is in financial difficulties, most brands are striving to achieve a "good start".

However, the year 2024 that car companies are gearing up for may, to a large extent, become a "timed elimination tournament" for car brands, as predicted by Musk, Lei Jun, and Yu Chengdong. Looking back at the various marketing events in the automotive industry in 2023, Daofa has sorted out 5 points worth reflecting on, hoping to discuss with readers whether there are some new possibilities for the future marketing of this industry.

1. Negative searches on new energy vehicles during the Spring Festival have put all technology marketing in an awkward position

This year's Spring Festival, #How difficult is it to drive a new energy vehicle back home for the Spring Festival# has become a hot topic. Even after several years of "technical competition" and rapid progress, the range anxiety, winter range discounts and charging queues of new energy vehicles still trouble many car owners. Although brands such as Weilai and Ideal have launched policies such as free battery replacement or charging during the Spring Festival, few brands are willing to speak out about the long-distance range issue that users are most concerned about.

Before this, long-distance driving and even winter driving have always been one of the most concerned publicity points for new energy vehicle companies. In December last year, Li Bin, founder of NIO, and Huang Chenxia, ​​general manager of Tencent News Operations, live-streamed a self-driving trip from Shanghai to Fujian to personally test NIO's "150-degree battery pack", driving more than 1,000 kilometers without changing the battery.

In this live broadcast, Li Bin not only suggested that all important evaluations of automobile companies in the future should be conducted by the CEO himself, but also directly connected with He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, and answered many industry and media questions raised by Huang Chenxia during the more than 13-hour live broadcast. However, the public still has some controversy over Li Bin's testing process, such as the vehicle speed was kept below 90 kilometers per hour during the test, and the winter endurance in the south was not enough to reflect the endurance performance on most roads in China.

In addition to the official actions of the brand, third-party media and KOLs also played with the car's self-driving performance in different ways. For example, car blogger @张抗抗KK drove the Buick e5 to Changbai Mountain for a range test in December last year. In the temperature of minus 30℃, the test was not only the comprehensive management of the vehicle's energy consumption, but also the driving stability on icy and snowy roads, the comfort of passengers in extremely cold environments, etc.

The car short video IP "Speed ​​Partner" originated from Bilibili, and transported an Ideal L9 to Africa, starting a self-driving trip abroad. Not only was the program "excellent", it received more than 6 million views on Bilibili alone, showing the performance of the vehicle on rough roads, and also popularized the differences between the Chinese and African car markets in the program, and even brought a wave of overseas exposure to the brand.

However, apart from these official tests or tests with certain brand cooperation, the winter test of new energy vehicles conducted by Dongchedi in Mohe last December caused considerable controversy, and also reflected consumers' concerns about whether the range of new energy vehicles in winter is "greatly discounted". The embarrassing test results were expressed dissatisfaction by Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, and Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Group.

Daofa believes that how to solve the problem of car range discount and anxiety is an industry and product problem. However, in order to demonstrate its technical strength, brands also need to face up to the user pain points in real scenarios. Whether car brands can confidently promote their winter range next year so that users no longer have to suffer from the difficulty of returning home during the Spring Festival requires not only technological progress, but also adjustments in marketing mentality.

2. When it comes to advertising placement, should car brands learn from the Spring Festival Gala or "Fanhua"?

If the appearance on the Spring Festival Gala has added a wave of popularity to the already highly-watched Wenjie M9 and Xiaomi SU7, then the recent hit of the TV series "Flowers" has really brought Cadillac, a long-low-profile second-tier luxury car brand, back into the public eye.

In the play, the Cadillac DeVille that Mr. Bao gave to Miss Wang became an important prop to promote the plot. The dialogue between the characters also revealed two important pieces of information: one is that this flagship sedan is very valuable, and the other is that the Cadillac brand was synonymous with top luxury in China in the 1990s. Just like the beginning of the popular dance hall hit "CHA-CHA-CHA" in China at that time, it was "Baby, get on my cadilac!"

Cadillac's appearance in "Flowers" is nothing less than a brilliant product placement. In the era of full electrification of the automotive industry, luxury car brands with a century of history like Cadillac should not only keep up with the rapid progress of industry competition, but also should not abandon the cultural appeal and image power accumulated over a long period of time. "Becoming a continuation of the classics of the times" is an excellent brand fulcrum for Cadillac.

Daofa believes that in today's automotive marketing field, there is still a certain value in proper film and television or program placement. At the end of January this year, Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Auto, which has repeatedly claimed that its "brand market cost rate" is at a relatively low level in the industry, also issued a statement saying that Ideal will not invite celebrities to endorse, but will try to place products in a small number of popular variety shows, movies, and TV series in 2024.

The biggest concern for car brands is that most variety shows or film and television programs are mainly for women, who are not the main buyers of traditional mainstream models. In this regard, the interview program "13 Invitations" created by writer Xu Zhiyuan is particularly favored by car brands because of its rare and distinctive "cultural elite" characteristics. It has been favored by old luxury car companies such as Lexus and Volvo and has cooperated with them.

In the conversation between Xu Zhiyuan and Fei Xiang, the latter mentioned that the first car his father bought was a Volvo. Because he had a child, he needed a "sense of security" and chose a Volvo that focused on safety. Such a conversation with a "sense of history" and combined with life experience is obviously more touching than the rough oral broadcast in most variety shows.

Volvo's vision is also reflected in another variety show "The Island Forest". In this show, actor Chen Bolin drives Volvo's station wagon V60 and leads his friends to the forests and villages of Taiwan, China. While experiencing wild camping, they also gain a deeper understanding of ecological protection and aboriginal culture. The relatively relaxed and healing tone of the show also adds some color to the Volvo brand.

Of course, there are also cases worth reflecting on when looking back at the placement of car brands in 2023. The animated version of "The Three-Body Problem", which was placed by Changan Deep Blue Automobile at a cost of 60 million yuan, did not receive the expected praise, but instead attracted a wave of negativity. This is not only because the overall production level of the animation is poor and the placement of advertisements is too stiff and far-fetched - more importantly, a good placement should be a deep resonance between the brand concept and the program content, rather than just purchasing advertising space to brainwash the audience.

3. Is it still worthwhile to take advantage of holiday marketing? Luxury brands are getting better and better at it

Not only the automotive industry, but also when the entire market enters a period of price involution, for high-end brands, only by further consolidating their brand awareness can they reduce the damage of being dragged into vicious competition. Daofa observed that in 2023, when various new energy vehicle companies tried to explain their technology and products in depth, BMW was one of the few traditional luxury car companies that still insisted on playing brand advertising with heart.

BMW's online aesthetics in festival and solar term marketing has always been praised by the industry. Although festival marketing is essentially a kind of "leverage", taking advantage of the hot spots of traditional culture to exchange low costs for higher results. However, as a German luxury car company, BMW's understanding and investment in Chinese traditional culture is really higher year by year, which makes local car companies a little embarrassed.

Take CNY marketing as an example. BMW used a bilingual stalk in its 2023 New Year advertisement. When the phrase “招财进宝马到成功” was entered into the translation software, it turned out to be “Lucky money into BMW to success”, which brought a lot of joy to the film. During this year’s Spring Festival, BMW directly made a new year micro-film “Jupiter Project” in the form of a pseudo-documentary science fiction similar to “Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department”.

In the 14-minute film "Jupiter Project", a "cosmic joke" was played with a fast-paced rhythm. BMW, founded in 1916, believes that it is also a dragon and is about to usher in its "birth year". After "research", it was found that Jupiter, with a revolution period of 12 years, may be the source of the birth year. In order to overcome the law that everything goes wrong in the birth year, BMW established a "Jupiter Research Headquarters" to try to influence Jupiter and bring good luck to itself and all mankind. After some outrageous plans were overturned, the conclusion was that wearing red can change gravity and gain good luck, which is called the "Red Luck Law".

In the film, BMW invited actor Yi Yangqianxi, who is also born in the Year of the Dragon, to make a handmade "Lucky Suit", Zhang Chaoyang to teach physics, and even director Ning Hao to make a cameo appearance. At the same time, in order to echo the theme of "Lucky Luck", BMW not only covered its headquarters building with red coats, launched more red cars, distributed red autumn clothes to employees, and Greater China President Sean Green also cooperated by changing his last name to Red.

Many people couldn't imagine that BMW is so good at making things happen before they saw this video. In fact, as early as June last year, BMW and FIRST Film Festival collaborated on a special advertisement called "A Dog's Cannes Film Festival". The inspiration may be from the Cannes Film Festival at the same time. The first "Lifetime Achievement Award" of the "Dog Palm Award" was awarded to British director Ken Loach, and the "Best Dog Actor" was awarded to Border Collie Messy in "Anatomy of a Fall". In the advertisement, a dog rides in the car of BMW mascot BAVA to Cannes, sharing his feelings and observations of the human world along the way.

Maintaining a sense of luxury while being interesting is a difficult task for many brands, but BMW has achieved some of it. However, there is actually a deep gap in the aesthetics of current Chinese society. Whether BMW can win more attention and favor from young people depends on whether it can continue to seriously expand its brand culture and value.

4. If the press conference is turned into a technology conference, will performance cars become more popular?

Looking back at the actions of automobile brands in 2023, we also find that this is the year when local traditional car companies began to truly "show their muscles."

At the beginning of last year, BYD launched its new high-end car brand Yangwang and its core technology "Yi Sifang", and the million-level new energy hard-core off-road U8 and million-level pure electric performance supercar U9 were also unveiled at the same time. In September, Geely's pure electric brand Zeekr held a "Zekr Technology Day" and released a racing-level performance car Zeekr 001 FR with a zero-to-hundred acceleration of 2.07 seconds and a price of nearly 800,000 yuan. Its series of "explosive" parameters including single-gun output power and satellite communication have completely changed people's views on the technical strength of Geely, a traditional automobile group.

These two launches have significantly raised the price ceiling of BYD and Geely. Whether it is the U8 or the Zeekr 001 FR, their prices are unimaginable a few years ago. The reason why they have the confidence to do so is, first, the long-term accumulation of products and technologies, and second, the significant increase in the attention of the consumer market in the past two years. Therefore, high-end technology is not only a "concept car", but also mass-produced, and some people believe in it and buy it.

Of course, whether it is a million-level luxury off-road vehicle like the U8 or a new energy supercar like the Zeekr 001 FR, it is actually a very niche demand, and it is more about showing technical reserves and R&D capabilities and establishing a brand image. In terms of marketing, Zeekr not only invited the legendary F1 racer Kimi Raikkonen as the chief performance consultant, but also sent the 001 FR to the Zhejiang International Circuit, breaking the Zhejiang race mass-produced electric car lap record with a score of 1 minute 37 seconds 041.

Another car that "breaks the game" by making performance cars is the Xiaomi SU7, which was released late at the end of the year. During the 3-hour press conference, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun mainly talked about the performance indicators of the three-electric system, wind resistance, 0-100 acceleration, battery life and heat dissipation, benchmarking the two brands of Porsche and Tesla. In terms of product positioning, Xiaomi has always emphasized that SU7 will be a performance car with a lot of materials, which is not cheap, and it is not the "extreme cost-effective" car that everyone expects Xiaomi to be.

As a result, two different paths have evolved on the road of new energy vehicle marketing. One is the "high-profile" players like Yangwang and Zeekr, and the other is the new power brands like Wenjie and Ideal that focus on daily experience and usage scenarios and have the "national car" mentality. Although the latter is currently better in sales, with the improvement of brand power and the decentralization of top technology, the explosive power of traditional car companies in the later stage should not be underestimated.

5. The more noise, the better sales. The car market will be more crowded this year.

Finally, let's talk about what the public opinion war between auto brands in 2023 has left for the industry. This year, the new forces and the mutual attacks between traditional automakers seem to have become the most cost-effective source of traffic. Some media commented that every time the big bosses of auto companies quarrel, the popularity of the brand increases, and the more fierce the quarrel, the more sales.

The most fierce dispute among traditional automakers is between Great Wall Motors and BYD. In May, Great Wall released a statement on its official Weibo account, saying that it had submitted complaint materials to relevant departments in multiple countries, reporting that BYD's two models used normal pressure fuel tanks and were suspected of not meeting the emission standards for evaporative pollutants. BYD also responded quickly on the same day: "We firmly oppose any form of unfair competition! We reserve the right to take legal action! Our products and related tests meet national standards and have been certified by national authoritative agencies."

The "fight" between the two did not stop there. In August, when BYD's 5 millionth new energy vehicle rolled off the production line and Wang Chuanfu affectionately shouted "Together, that's what Chinese cars are", Great Wall Motors CTO Wang Yuanli said on his personal Weibo: "If you just emphasize being together verbally, it must be honey on the mouth but poison on the heart. It's better to fight first and then be together."

Equally impressive is the debate between Huawei's Richard Yu and Xpeng Motors' Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng about AEB technology. AEB is an active safety technology for cars, also known as "automatic emergency braking system." He Xiaopeng said in an interview with the media: "Companies talked about AEB, and I think 99% of it is fake. It is fake. Those promotions are not officially released by the company, but all come from short videos."

Yu Chengdong, who had just vigorously promoted AEB technology at the Q&A conference, immediately complained in his circle of friends: "There are car company leaders who don't even understand what AEB is!" Then He Xiaopeng publicly stated: "I recently commented on an industry chaos, but the industry was not anxious, but people outside the industry were anxious. I don't know why he was anxious." Li Xiang, founder of Ideal Auto, commented calmly: "I won't quarrel with Huawei, because I can't win the argument."

There are many debates like this. But in terms of sales, the above brands have each maintained a good growth rate. BYD has firmly established itself as the "number one" in new energy sales. It has experienced "resurrection" to "far ahead", quickly surpassing Ideal Auto, which is at the top of the new power list, while Great Wall Motors and Xiaopeng Motors have also increased by 15.29% and 17% year-on-year respectively. Although BYD's tribute to its opponent is seen by the public as "having a pattern", and Xiaomi Motors has followed suit, the entire smoke-filled atmosphere may only increase in 2024.

With the participation of technology companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi, and digital evaluation media and bloggers turning to the evaluation of new energy vehicles, the overall marketing atmosphere of the automotive industry is now more and more like the mobile phone and digital industry, and is caught in a fierce discussion of parameters and performance. Executives from traditional car companies are no less impressive. There are 15 executives of Great Wall Motors who collectively opened Weibo accounts on the same day, and there are also Zeekr executives who formed a group to criticize Xiaomi's "ecological car manufacturing." It seems that even some low-key and pragmatic luxury car brands need to make plans in the future to avoid being suddenly involved in verbal disputes one day.

6. Analyst Summary

There are actually many points worth discussing in automobile marketing in 2023. Although the average customer price is high, the industry's technological iteration speed is fast, which puts the marketing environment of the domestic automobile industry in a special stage. Traditional car companies often slowly accumulate and shape the brand tone, while today's trend is more inclined to learn from the "short, flat and fast" marketing approach of the technology and digital industries. However, under the short-term effects of attracting user attention, gaining new product volume, and reducing marketing budget investment, how much should new energy vehicle companies pay for long-term brand building? This question is worth thinking about, and it also means an evolution from the automotive industry to automotive culture.

Author: KUMA; WeChat public account: Knife Skills Research Institute (ID: DigipontClub)