Settings? Plan? |? microworld
Supervision? System? |? Zixuan Chen
Engaged in automobile news and media work, although I have tried countless new cars and experienced many dazzling new technologies, whenever I communicate with my relatives and friends in my hometown, I will find that our concerns are far from each other.
Perhaps, while chasing the industry wave, it is time to slow down and look at this truly popular and grounded market.
Starting from 20 18, the automobile market in China has gradually declined in the shock, and has entered a trough in 2020. Thanks to the effective control of the China epidemic, China's automobile consumption market is also the first to wake up. "Golden September and Silver 10" has always been the peak season for car companies. In order to lay out the traditional sales season that has arrived, various brands have sounded the horn of attack.
In this context, Beijing Auto Show and Mid-Autumn National Day holiday will greatly promote the domestic market, stimulate market vitality and create a sales atmosphere, especially in the fourth quarter.
In the first half of this year, the target completion of most car companies was not satisfactory. Even if the market picks up, the year-end impulse of enterprises is still under great pressure. At this time, price reduction has become the most direct and effective means for car companies to quickly clear inventory and increase sales.
The price war is on the verge.
In just a few weeks after the National Day holiday, all kinds of terminal promotion activities, such as the direct drop of car prices, installment of 0 down payment and 0 interest rate, replacement of gift packages, car lottery, large subsidies for epidemic prevention personnel, and rural hukou, came one after another. Holding high the banner of the brand war, everyone is too lazy to hide the quick success of the data.
Recently, Auto Tasting visited 4S shops and auto dealers in Dongying, Linyi, Handan and Nanyang, and found that they all had sufficient promotion policies. Many people who go to the store to see cars also said that in order to enjoy the greatest preferential strength, they plan to buy cars in the near future.
In fact, in the low-end passenger car market segment, the purchasing power of consumers in the fourth-and fifth-tier cities is getting closer and closer to the traditional first-and second-tier cities. It is observed that the former is not only more sensitive to price, but also very different from the latter in the concept of car purchase.
After all, compared with the commuting time of car owners in big cities, the commuting distance of car owners in cities usually does not exceed 10 km, and many people only have two or three kilometers.
For this kind of users, the car is only a means of transportation that is briefly contacted every day, and meeting the face and practical needs is the first. The so-called entertainment and social attributes promoted by car companies can only be expressed after hearing it: you big city people really know how to play. Misplaced marketing concerns abound.
In this way, the basic functions of vehicles have been able to meet their daily needs, and the social interconnection functions of intelligent assisted driving system and car networking are relatively insignificant.
Moreover, when the car purchase budget is clear, when faced with the choice of "chicken head" and "phoenix tail", urban consumers usually choose the latter, buy low-profile and high-profile models with limited budget, gain more space, enjoy more advanced driving quality, and more importantly, have more face.
As an amateur digital technology enthusiast, I use both Samsung and Apple phones on weekdays to meet the different needs of different scenes.
However, every time I go back to my hometown on holiday, I will face the soul torture of my relatives and elders: why not buy Huawei? At this time, even if I compare the product strength and function point analysis for an hour, I finally get confused eyes.
Or neglect to pay attention to product development, or be influenced by the media, public relations and public opinion. In short, this deep-rooted brand impression also affects the car purchase decision.
The theory that Japanese cars are thin and unsafe, domestic cars have a high failure rate, and German cars are kind and rigorous is still very popular in the third, fourth and fifth tier cities. When many dealers publicize, it is also a variety of wonderful tricks and words. The brand rejuvenation and high-end strategy formulated by the senior decision-makers of automobile enterprises has long been spoiled in the prisoner's dilemma of "I don't know the night during the day".
For most consumers, the decision to buy a car is often based on their subjective feelings about a car, especially the brand, appearance and space, which has become the main consideration for urban consumers when buying a car. Terminal consumption preference, in the survey report of urban elites, has only become a number. Such a cycle will bring the China automobile market into an illusory place, and no one can hear the real voice.
Not only that, as a commodity, consumers tend to be more cautious when buying a car. It will be three to five years before they buy a car and want to change it. "A car with many cars can't be wrong" and "I'll buy it if I buy it" are the choices made by many consumers after blind comparison.
This is closely related to China's traditional consumption concept and regional cultural characteristics, but it also leads to more and more sales of some models, while less sales of some models, but the fact is that the latter is superior to the former in product strength.
The author also found a phenomenon in my hometown, that is, some models that have no "presence" on the Internet have surprisingly high sales in the local area.
Take Buick Angkewei and Hyundai ix35 as examples. From the perspective of professional evaluation, these two cars have been on the market for many years, which are not only old-fashioned in design, but also mediocre in product quality, but also have ridiculously high "popularity" in the local streets.
The reason is still due to the pervasive publicity and marketing of its dealers in the local area for many years. Over the years, it has accumulated considerable reputation and popularity, and with a large terminal discount, it has established a significant competitive advantage in competing products at the same level. Many consumers aim at the word-of-mouth of dealers and use the "big discount" to place orders quickly and in one go.
On the contrary, because there are many dealers of the same brand in first-and second-tier cities, it is difficult for a dealer to have such influence, and consumers are more likely to focus on the comparison of the products themselves when buying new cars.
As for the "marginal" brand represented by Peugeot Citroen, in first-and second-tier cities, it may be able to attract a wave of niche consumers by personality and feelings. However, in the fourth and fifth tier towns, its dealers are really "empty", and the empty 4S shop exhibition hall is particularly dark because it is unwilling to turn on the lights. The only remaining sales on duty do not seem to have the motivation to rush the performance.
At the moment of mobile internet, in those counties and towns far away from the bustling cities, people's simplest brand awareness of cars is still deeply rooted and still flourishing. It is not a live broadcast with goods, it is not a flow of words, and it is not something that online e-commerce can change.
As the most special commodity, the automobile has finally become a paradox in the era of mobile Internet, because in the wider land of China, the elites of senior office buildings in the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will only understand it first.
Of course, although we have summarized some laws, on the whole, the market of the fourth-and fifth-tier cities is still a highly complex and diversified market.
With the rise of automobile content production in the form of short videos and official WeChat accounts in the past two years, it has promoted the change of consumers' concept of car purchase in cities and towns in the fourth and fifth tier to some extent. On the one hand, some flashy brands are waving flags in vain, and on the other hand, brands that do channels and distribution networks in a down-to-earth manner are gradually gaining wider market recognition in one city, one place and one town.
More importantly, despite the temporary setbacks, the automobile market in China's fourth-and fifth-tier cities and towns still has great development potential, which is pregnant with the vigorous power to subvert the pattern. As for who can further open and grasp this market in the future, he is most likely to have the last laugh.
Standing by the window of the office building, our vision is limited after all. The road is long and the world is big. Close your eyes, maybe we can see a wider world in China.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.