Transfer from: Huaibei News Network
On May 15th, 2023, Haval’s "Xiaolong" was officially listed, which was praised by the industry. Its high popularity, although it has long been commonplace for Harvard, has been more than three years since the launch of the last explosive product-"Big Dog".
In the following three years, due to the "mask problem", the automobile market environment changed, which brought opportunities and challenges to many OEMs. For Harvard, which once dominated the home SUV market, it brought more challenges.
"Xiaolong" has seen the growth point of sales for the Harvard brand, just like "a long drought meets sweet rain"; rightGenerally speaking, it is regarded as a powerful medicine to reverse the current decline.
In the view of "Great Wall People", the significance of Xiaolong is particularly important.
How important is Xiaolong? Is it a strategic vehicle that continues to write the brilliant brand of Haval, or is it a passer-by in the process of brand development? In response to these questions, the author recently communicated with Qiao Xinyu, Executive Deputy General Manager of Harvard Brand Marketing.
Interviewee:Qiao Xinyu, Executive Deputy General Manager of Haval Brand Marketing of Great Wall Motor
Interviewer:Netcom Huo Hongwei
Interview time:2023.05.24
Interview location:Beijing Yizhuang
In the domestic passenger car market, SUV products have enjoyed a 45% share for many years, and the sales of compact and intermediate SUVs account for half of the overall SUV market. It can be said that whoever can dominate this market segment will have the absolute right to speak in the new car market.
Haval H6, which has been the top seller in the same market for 9 years in a row, has created the dominant position in this market segment, and Haval has become synonymous with and guarantee for hot-selling SUVs.
In the second half of 2020, another explosion of Haval was born, and "Big Dog" became another divine car after H6. The tough appearance and a certain degree of cross-country ability make the big dog fill the gaps and shortcomings in Haval’s "H series", thus forming a pattern of "H6 and the big dog" fighting the world with two guns. It is this strategy that has made the highlight moment of Harvard brand.
However, the success of Xiao He also played havoc.When the "H Series" and "Dog Series" were promoted at a high speed, the shortcomings of Haval’s product line were exposed, that is, excessive dependence on the fuel technology route. In the post-epidemic era, competing products were given an opportunity, ending Haval H6′ s record of dominating the list for 100 consecutive months.
In this regard, Qiao Xinyu said, "The Harvard brand has two key tasks this year, one is the transformation of new energy; The other is the universalization of core technologies. "
There are two products listed this time, Xiaolong and Xiaolong MAX, and the price covers the range of 130,000-170,000 yuan. Among them, Xiaolong MAX, which is the first product of Haval to adopt Hi4 electric four-wheel drive technology, is equipped with a coffee intelligent driving system and a coffee OS intelligent cockpit, presenting an all-round new feeling for drivers and passengers from the indoor environment, driving safety to driving experience.
This is of course due to the technical advantages provided by the new energy platform, and it is also a state that traditional fuel vehicles can’t reach.
"It is no exaggeration to say that it is now’ to lift the power of the group and help Xiaolong’." Qiao Xinyu introduced to the author.
This seems to have some feelings when Wei WEY brand was founded, but it is not the same. For Wei WEY, at that time, only the brand itself was rushing forward, but now the Xiaolong series is working hard from top to bottom.
Hi4 is only launched now, and there is a certain time interval with competing products. Is it because the Great Wall has no new energy technology reserve?
Of course not. It’s just that the strategy adopted before is to hold high and fight high, which is quite a bit "high and low", but it ignores that arming its own product base is the key point to win the current battle. Due to the delay in making up his mind on the new energy strategy, Harvard suffered a bitter fruit.
"And now is to putGood technology+good price+good quality control, decentralized to Harvard’s main sales and hot-selling products, really benefiting more consumers. "Qiao Xinyu said very frankly, and I believe this is also the consensus of Harvard and even Great Wall Company.
In addition, the Great Wall is famous for its involution, which can be confirmed by looking at the previous product lineup. Only in the Haval system, there are more than 10 compact SUV products. Such a fine division can not provide accurate solutions for users’ diversified car needs, but more is to test consumers’ professionalism in product cognition. This is of course not the original intention of formulating strategies, but it is indeed a good intention to do bad things.
In fact, this situation has also occurred in other business lines of Great Wall Motor, not only in the Haval system.
For the planning of Harvard products later, Qiao Xinyu gave an accurate reply.Do subtraction”。
Haval will insist on walking on two legs, one of which is the fuel product line, mainly focusing on the "H series+big dog series" with H6 as the main part; The other is the "Dragon Series" new energy product line with Xiaolong as the main force. Fuel vehicles mainly focus on the range of 90,000-130,000 yuan, while the new energy product line will cover the range of 130,000-200,000 yuan. At the same time, in order to avoid fighting within the product, we should also make a clear distinction in product style and tonality, and promote it in the same price range and market segment with the combination of "urban SUV+ hard off-road", which really benefits consumers with different car needs.
In terms of product planning, there will be three fuel vehicles worth looking forward to this year, one is the new H5 and the other is the new H9. In addition, the H6, which has been redesigned in the middle period, will be launched in the third quarter of this year, and the new car has been greatly adjusted and upgraded in appearance, interior and power.
For Haval, H6 has the experience and advantages of being a champion, so this model will continue. As for the naming rules, Qiao Xinyu also gave a clear answer that H series products will not be renamed easily in the future. "The product sequence is inherited. Some of the new names once seemed to win traffic in the short term, but in fact they lost their brand value, which was not worth the candle. "
Qiao Xinyu said that Harvard has been combing and adjusting the product line of oil trucks so far this year. In the future, each market segment will be controlled in two models, and the two models should have very obvious category differences.
At the level of new energy products, a hard-core off-road product will be released in the follow-up of the "Dragon Series" model. The whole vehicle has a tough shape, which is obviously different from the Xiaolong series. However, Hi4, coffee intelligence and intelligent driving are the standard of Harvard’s new energy products in the future, which is worth looking forward to.
Will consumers in the future see both oil vehicles and new energy vehicles in a Haval 4S shop?
The answer is no.
Qiao Xinyu’s explanation is that Harvard should be built separately.Network, mainly "4S+2S", mainly sells "Dragon Series" models. "It is a proven truth that a store does not sell two products (fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles are not mixed). The location of the new energy store will be controlled at a linear distance of about 5 kilometers from the traditional oil car store. This is also to avoid internal consumption. "
"Will you consider the city exhibition hall?" I asked.
"At least not this year. We have calculated an account. Take Shangchao Store as an example. The initial investment of a store is at least 10 million yuan. Assuming that the gross profit of a dealer’s car is 10,000 yuan, then this store needs to sell 1,000 cars a year, and it is almost impossible to sell more than 80 cars every month. " Qiao Xinyu said, "The market situation is very severe this year. It is better to do product research and development with this money, and it will be more practical to give back to consumers."
It is estimated that by the end of this month, the number of distributors of Haval New Energy Network will exceed 200. At the same time, this year, the Haval brand will also expand its previous sales blank market.
Qiao Xinyu said that this year’s "new energy vehicles going to the countryside policy" is an opportunity for some car companies, especially products in the range of 100,000-200,000 yuan. Consumers in this part of the region are more "buy-and-buy" users, and the further down the market, the more users buy-and-buy. For Harvard new energy products represented by "Xiaolong", it provides opportunities for the brand to take off again.
Another point, Qiao Xinyu knows very well, is the professional ability of automobile terminal sales. They are brand spokespersons who face consumers directly, and their performance is a key factor in users’ final purchase decision. After all, the "arms race" between brands makes the product strength at a relatively high level, and the final competition is the professionalism of communication with consumers.
In the second half of this year, Haval will focus on the professional ability and operational ability of terminal distributors. Start the "decisive terminal" project, and conduct an all-round "big contest" on the improvement of sales process, the assessment of process indicators, and the practice of sales speech.
Qiao Xinyu said that in this era, the living environment of dealers has changed. In the past, it was "the best way to make money is to lie down, and it is too tired to bend over to make money, but not to stand up to make money"; Now the competition is intensifying, which is a great challenge for the first-line dealers. If you can’t do well in one brand before, you can choose to try your luck in other brands, maybe it’s ok. But now is the era of product hard-core competition, and consumers who enter the store know technology and products everywhere. Therefore, salespeople who are fighting in the front line are required to improve their competitiveness in order to keep up with the rhythm of the times.
Write at the end:
When the author asked whether the current order of Xiaolong series met the manufacturer’s expectations, Qiao Xinyu replied: "At present, there are many opponents, and consumers are also waiting to see. The four-wheel drive performance, two-wheel drive energy consumption and natural safety of four-wheel drive brought by Hi4 will help consumers tend to Xiaolong series in repeated comparisons. "
Haval’s previous glory was based on no rivals, but now it has entered the field of new energy and become rivals everywhere. After equal rights in technology, what the market finally presents is "fighting for products, fighting for prices and fighting for services".
Thanks to the Hi4 technology of the Great Wall, Xiaolong series products will bring the performance of "four-wheel drive performance and two-wheel drive fuel consumption", which also breaks the pain point of vehicles that have been plaguing four-wheel drive models.
Can Xiaolong lead Harvard to take off again? It depends not only on the strength of one’s own internal strength, but also on the overall environment of the market. At least for now, we see that it is on the runway and ready to take off.