The last high-profile appearance of this company dates back to the foundation stone laying of the fourth factory in Chengdu six years ago.
From highlight to darkness, from certainty to confusion, this is not only a portrayal of China automobile market, but also a microcosm of Shenlong automobile.
Some people question whether such a sense of ceremony is necessary when enterprises are in danger.
The answer is yes.
According to Bin Chen, Assistant President of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., General Manager and Party Secretary of Shenlong Automobile Co., Ltd., the fundamental purpose of this activity is to solve the confidence problem. If this problem is not solved, there will be no follow-up work.
According to the report of Automobile Sankei. Com, the cultural festival took at least a few months from the beginning, planning to implementation, but in the end it took less than 30 days.
Borrowing a classic line from The Pretender, "I don't believe anyone says that dragons are unhappy."
Changes and metamorphosis of dragons
This is definitely a hot spot.
If Su Weibin, who took over from a high position in 20 16, still holds at least 700,000, then by the time Rosibo FireWire took office in 20 19, the annual sales of Shenlong had dropped to 250,000, and this year, when it took over in Bin Chen, it was the worst report card in the history of only 32,000 vehicles in the first eight months.
Obviously, this dragon has no way out.
Impatience began to spread.
Less than a week after Bin Chen took office, some employees openly challenged in the circle of friends, saying that if the sales of Shenlong cars can increase by 8% by May next year, he will run a 518km marathon, otherwise he will run.
Surprisingly, Bin Chen readily accepted this challenge, and said that the target of 8% was set too low, and Shenlong would not only fight a turnaround, but also increase its growth rate much higher than 8%.
This is not empty talk. At the event site that day, Bin Chen announced four landing measures in one breath.
The product is more China: the configuration will not increase the price, and the configuration that customers pay attention to and use frequently will be used on the main sales models.
More accurate marketing: further clarify the positioning of the two brands in the China market, Dongfeng Citroen will set a comfortable benchmark for the industry, and Dongfeng Peugeot will take "the beauty of design, the reality of quality and the joy of technology" as its core values.
More reliable service: the brand lowered the official guide price of newly listed models or official website issued a promotion policy to compensate the price difference for users who bought cars within 65,438+0 years, and the prices of nearly 800 commonly used spare parts were completely lowered.
More efficient operation: From June 24th, 10 dual-brand 400 service hotline added the general manager's complaint hotline to respond to customer's demand within 2 hours.
"The policy we introduced did not leave any retreat for Shenlong, because we have no retreat now." Bin Chen said.
Although Bin Chen has not been in office for a long time, his views on the dragon issue are accurate. According to an insider, the boss has read almost all the "negative" reports about Shenlong in the market.
Therefore, when he said at the press conference that "the roofs under the rule of law are beggars", everyone in the audience could not help clapping and applauding while laughing.
Bin Chen believes that the brand value of French cars is seriously underestimated in the market.
"It has its arrogance, but its arrogance is the arrogance of quality, but unfortunately we didn't interpret it."
A little-known detail is that China once suggested that France should appropriately reduce the durability test of car doors, which is twice the industry average, but the stubborn French said that 6,543.8+10,000 tests were indispensable.
Bin Chen said that as long as we do everything to the extreme, I believe the market and customers will give us good feedback. When customers become market beliefs, all problems will be solved.
How to fight a turnaround?
To the outside world, Bin Chen is "lucky" because he has more money.
PSA decided to give each brand an annual brand building fee of 8 million euros from this year. The previously promised 50 million euros also arrived recently. In the first quarter of next year, the shareholders of both parties will continue to help Shenlong solve the funding problem through capital increase.
"No, because the matter of Shenlong is a matter for both shareholders." Zhang Zutong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., deputy general manager and chairman of Shenlong Automobile Co., Ltd. stressed.
He believes that there is nothing insurmountable in front of the revival of Shenlong. As long as we do what we didn't do well in the past from now on, we will have confidence.
Bin Chen is "unlucky" again because there are few cars.
From 20 18, influenced by various objective factors, PSA chose to drastically reduce the number of economical cars in China, which also led to the fact that at present, Shenlong has only 408 models in the A-class car market.
A common sense in the industry is that if the monthly sales volume of A-class cars is less than 20,000, then this brand has no presence in the market.
According to the data of China Automobile Association, among the top ten brands in the passenger car market, seven are the A-class cars with the largest sales volume.
Abandoning this market segment means the lack of bottom-level sales, and such product layout is obviously not conducive to the revival of Shenlong.
Although several senior executives did not directly respond to this problem of automobile production and marketing network at the communication meeting, I believe they are also trying to solve it.
Zhang Zutong said that in the past, PSA imported products from Shenlong, and did not really make product planning, such as what kind of products we really need and how to seize China consumers. Therefore, product planning is the key link, and Shenlong is not static.
This is obviously a good signal.
According to the plan, in the next five years, Shenlong will build and launch 14 new models, the most important of which is the new generation C5 (internal code E43), which is a global strategic model. In particular, Shenlong will be the only production base for E43 models, realizing "Made in China, Facing the World".
"Shareholders' attention to this car is not only the Dongfeng Citroen team, but also has risen to the top of Shenlong Company, whether it is shareholders or Zhu Yanfeng. I believe that we will present you with a different E43. " Ren Guang, general manager of Dongfeng Citroen, revealed.
Write it at the end
One activity can save the dragon from fire and water? Obviously not. After the warmth, the dragon people must face the reality.
"At this time, for DPCA, it's a last-ditch attempt. All of us are on the battlefield. " Bin Chen said.
In September, the sales volume of Shenlong Automobile increased by 28% month on month, and the growth momentum continued in the first three weeks of 10.
As the saying goes, you can never wake a person who pretends to sleep unless that person decides to wake up.