It has been nearly four years since China's auto market sales experienced a frightening year-on-year decline in 2018; during these nearly four years, the competition in the auto market has gradually changed from orderly fierceness and white-hot to disorderly "fighting and killing

It has been nearly four years since China’s auto market sales experienced a frightening year-on-year decline in 2018; during these past four years, the competition in the auto market has gradually changed from orderly fierceness and white-hot to disorderly “beating”. Kill kill”. There is no way, the competition in the existing market is about you grabbing it and me grabbing it.

High-ranking luxury brands have lowered their status and begun to compete with joint venture brands for the market. However, Chinese brands that are considered weak have truly begun to compete with joint venture brands, and are showing an increasingly obvious advantage - the market share of Chinese brands has repeatedly hit new highs.

In addition to internal factors in the automobile market, many external unfavorable factors have also continued to affect the "recovery" of the automobile industry in the past two years. The "chip shortage" caused by the new crown epidemic and the global inflation caused by the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 and Oil prices continue to rise, and so on.

The sudden stop of growth and the continued impact of unfavorable factors on the market have plunged the entire automotive industry into unprecedented anxiety. More importantly, at a time when automotive technical barriers are gradually and completely broken down and products are extremely homogeneous, how to impress rational purchasers who want to purchase products has become a difficult problem for every car brand.

Of course, through the analysis of the world's highly developed and mature automobile markets, it is not difficult to find that if a brand cannot attract additional users, then the future of this brand will be extremely dangerous.

In the Chinese market, Hyundai, , Kia were once all-powerful, and high cost performance became the trump card for capturing users. But unfortunately, as the market competition becomes increasingly fierce, joint venture brands such as Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda are gradually declining. Hyundai and Kia, which have no brand image labels, are losing ground and are in defeat.

From January to May 2022, the Korean market share in China dropped from 2.7% from January to May 2021 to 1.5%. The share was almost halved in one year, which is not terrible.

In sharp contrast to Korean cars, the market share of French cars has doubled from 0.4% from January to May 2021 to 0.8% in 2022. Are Korean cars inferior to French cars in terms of technology and quality? Obviously not - Korean cars have a pretty good reputation among users. So why is it that the Korean system keeps falling, but the legal system is going upstream? The answer lies in the difference between and brand marketing strategies. Korean cars have always focused on rational cost-effectiveness, while French cars have always adopted a more emotional brand/product marketing approach.

For example, apart from its highly differentiated cross-border design, the Citroen C5X, which is known as an Internet celebrity car, has any innovations? The core engine, gearbox and chassis are all familiar "old recipes" and there are no breakthroughs. However, since the launch of the Citroen C5X Versailles, waves of "French" marketing have indeed attracted a lot of people's attention. Throughout the marketing process, Citroen C5X Versailles has been using a "trend + art" approach.

Facts have proved that consumers in the stock era seem to be more and more "emotional".

I remember once reading a passage from a world-renowned marketer. He said that marketing is to spread the word that your product is better than your competitors. But usually, no matter how excellent your R&D department is, you cannot rely on technology to improve performance. Too far away from competitors.

Marketing is rational, but "communication" should be more emotional. Isn’t the means of marketing just “communication”? From a certain perspective, competition in the era of stock in the automobile market is more about a competition between brand tonality and image - how to make consumers interested in and favor your brand is the key.

"Not doing business properly" seems to have gradually become a new method of car brand marketing, and the effect is not bad. There is a reason why I say the effect is pretty good and I am definitely not doing my job properly.

Recently, Dongfeng Nissan’s “sofa chair” designed entirely based on car seats has become a hot topic in the automotive circle.

After I received this sofa chair, I assembled it in the office. Some friends came to the office and they all found the "chair" of the car seat very interesting and tried it one after another. After the experience, they all unanimously praised it as "comfortable".

So, some friends asked, if the seats on the Teana are so comfortable, the first thing to consider when changing cars is a Nissan car. Maybe he said it half-jokingly, but the impact of Dongfeng Nissan's comfortable seats was formed in a natural scene "outside the car". Obviously, such a unique memory is more profound.

This morning, FAW-Volkswagen video account released a video called "More Than Half", which is an "inner drama" of Lanjing spokesperson Yu Hewei - Yu Hewei's heartfelt views on himself, acting and The understanding of life is explained - after playing so many roles, halfway through life, I realized that the hardest thing to play well is myself... Fortunately, no one can play your role better than you, and your life will be successful. Fall, the good show is yet to come, the past can be remembered, the halfway point is just right.

The video does not reveal much about the car, nor any information about the car, but it is precisely this "abnormality" that made me start to find out why FAW-Volkswagen made this video. After thinking to no avail, I accidentally glanced at the calendar on the table: June 30th. This made me instantly realize the meaning of "halfway" - starting from tomorrow will be the second half of the year - 2022 is already halfway through.

I was just about to lament that time flies by, but suddenly I heard "Life has its ups and downs, but the best is yet to come", and I was instantly relieved. I thought to myself that seeing such a video on the special day of June 30th, "halfway through" the year did not bring anxiety, but instead gave me the expectation and longing that "the best is yet to come."

This is another kind of beauty brought to people by FAW-Volkswagen on this special day. As expected, Moments flooded the screen.

The day before yesterday, I had dinner with a friend who is the head of public relations of a certain brand. When we talked about brand marketing, she said that what impressed her deeply was the micro-movie "The Untold Story" jointly performed by "Chen Shu&Wang Jingchun" - that feeling It goes so well with the Lexus brand, the characters, stories and brands complement each other. This film was probably filmed in 2019. Three years later, it still has a strong "vitality" in the hearts of some people.

But looking back now, how many people can really understand a car brand to shoot such a micro film? How many people find this creative detour from emotion to brand to product to be inexplicable?

At present, the unprecedented competitive pressure in the automobile market has caused many people to fall into the quagmire of the "traffic only" theory, hoping that huge traffic will bring considerable sales. Even if it goes against the marketing concept, communication creativity and brand tone, just increase the traffic. Yes, when reporting to the leader, there is a better excuse: the traffic is so strong, the lead conversion is still not possible, it is too "volume".

Indeed, if you do this to get traffic, others can easily get it. When the traffic is easily obtained, the natural value will be greatly reduced. After all, you and many others are competing for resources in this "traffic pool".

And those marketing that seems to be "not doing their job properly" slowly attract "those people who are interested in the brand and products" through differentiation and long-termism. Marketing is the process of establishing and transmitting values. To put it bluntly, marketing is like making friends. Friends made with a strong purpose will most likely not last long.

For products, people buy for the sake of buying; but for brands, people buy because they believe in them. Nowadays, products are getting harder and harder to sell. It is the worst of times, but it may be the best of times for building a brand - everyone is gathering together to build traffic, and the road to building a brand is no longer crowded.

Note: The picture comes from the Internet