Ren Yong: Leading half way under the double inflection point in the auto market

On August 6, Dongfeng Nissan laid the groundbreaking ceremony for the three centers of modeling center, engineering technology center and corporate university in Huadu. After 11 years of joint venture, Dongfeng Nissan finally said to the outside world: “This is a measure to absorb the results of the joint venture, integrate the global resources of the automotive industry, and enhance the competitiveness of the entire value chain system, especially in the front-end R&D and talent pool of the value chain. “

As the deputy general manager in charge of Dongfeng Nissan, Ren Yong began thinking about three years ago to enter the new joint venture era, the joint venture should take what path. The establishment of the three major centers is a concrete implementation measure for Ren Yong to enhance the entire value chain and establish an ideal thinking for an independent company.

When Volkswagen and Hyundai are still thinking about how to deepen their localization, Dongfeng Nissan has already entered a deepwater area where it plans to develop front-end R&D joint ventures. Especially after the joint-venture brand Qichen sold, this idea was supported by the Nissan headquarters.

The realistic background is that in the past, Dongfeng Nissan was driven by marketing, and the establishment of management systems was centered around rapid decision-making and rapid implementation. It continued to strengthen the headquarters' ability to manage terminals and build a fast channel for feedback of terminal market information to the decision-making level. It is Dongfeng Nissan's 2012 executive forum held in Qingyuan, and Ren Yong put forward the theoretical basis of "leading half step".

This set of theories runs through the tactics of Dongfeng Nissan over the past few years: When other car companies fight the first and second tier markets, Dongfeng Nissan entered the third-tier and fourth-tier markets and later fell to the fifth and sixth-tier cities; many joint-venture car companies are still contending When rushing to introduce products, Dongfeng Nissan planned the competitiveness of the system from R&D to the supply chain; when it entered the mid-size vehicle market on a large scale, Dongfeng Nissan advanced one step ahead and launched Kai Chen R30 into the A00 market.

Reasonable consumption is not out of date, emotional consumption has come again

The semi-annual report released two weeks ago shows that Dongfeng Nissan sold 477,082 units in January-June, a simultaneous increase of 19.2%, accounting for 37.9% of the Japanese top three, of which the sales volume of Xuanye exceeded 140,000, an increase of up to 29.3% year-on-year. Nissan's fastest growing model. Kai Chen, an independent brand that was not favored by the market for a while, sold 57,866 units in half a year, an increase of 32.5% year-on-year.

Joint Venture Brands In the past decade, the product has been downgraded to a small car. Qichen’s sales figures have made Ren Yong’s confidence stronger – as long as the products are in demand, A00-class vehicles still have market opportunities. "It is not difficult for young people in developed countries in Europe and America to own a scooter. China will follow this trajectory, and we think it will come soon."

What market does this customer snatch? Ren Yong's explanation is that after 1980s and 1990s, the new generation of consumer groups has a distinct personality orientation, and the subdivision at the level is more prominent. The boundaries between mainstream and non-mainstream are blurred. This means that consumer demand has unimaginable diversification, and product positioning should also converge.

The Arctic Ocean has collected more than 20 years of sparkling soda. After re-listing last year, the carbonated beverage market shrank. With the rise of functional beverages, it was completely out of stock, proving the diversity and return of consumption.

Therefore, on July 18th, when Qichen R30 was listed, Dongfeng Nissan tapped the market potential from the university campus and cultivated students or newly graduated young people into the main consumer groups of mini vehicles. This positioning is completely separated in the past, positioning the consumer groups in third-tier cities or even small towns.

In the first half of this year, among the new owners of Dongfeng Nissan, young people after the 80s accounted for 36%. The ten most concentrated cities after the 80s are Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, Chongqing, Suzhou and Beijing.

Dongfeng Nissan’s survey data on the age groups of consumer groups of individual models showed that the most elderly owners are hackers. Previously known as the old-fashioned Sylphy, actually gaining recognition from the young consumer groups, young consumers like what appearance, interior and power collocation, it is worth rethinking.

After 80 and 90, the consumer groups are more inclined to emotional consumption. They are not guided by product performance data. Focusing on products is often an emotional factor. Value advantage is often reflected in perception. This is also the reason why the New Generation Conference popular "dead loyalty" on the Internet. They are willing to pay more. Their demand for personalization is often greater than their sensitivity to price.

Protect one line and two lines, grab three or four lines, and punch five or six lines.

In addition to subdividing the age groups of consumer groups, Dongfeng Nissan’s “Leading Half Step” plan also includes strategic segmentation of consumer areas. In the first half of this year, Dongfeng Nissan launched the marketing concept of “Hundred City Thousand Counties,” which directly contributed 97.6% of Dongfeng Nissan’s increase in the first half of the year. The sales volume of seven cities increased by more than 50%, including Linyi and Cangzhou in the third and fourth tier cities; and the positive growth rate of 24 first and second tier cities was guaranteed.

Concentrating on the advantage of the local forces to fight the local cofferdam warfare, to a large extent promoted the recovery of sales of major models such as Tianfu and ensured the profits of the company. Among them, Sylphy grew by 29.3%, Chi Chun increased by 512.3%, and Tianchi increased by 33.6%.

In the second and fourth tier cities, the three- and four-tier cities and small towns, and the five or six-wire county towns, can meet Ren Yong’s basic expectations, relying on the support of a set of marketing strategies.

Ease Car Rental is the marketing method introduced by Dongfeng Nissan when the Japanese car suffered a cold winter in the auto market due to political factors last year. Try to buy a converted tenant before the car. As of June 30, a total of 179 service outlets were distributed in 82 cities across the country, and the number of service vehicles had exceeded 6,700. The result was obvious in half a year, and 32,000 people chose the easy car rental service. The program that is compatible with Easy Car Rental is the financial car purchase business. Among the 63,000 car owners who purchased Dongfeng Nissan in the first half of the year, nearly 90% chose Dongfeng Nissan’s financial car purchase policy.

These supporting measures not only promoted sales, but also increased the dealer's after-sales business income. Of the 5.3 million car owners in the country, 2.49 million chose to visit the 4S store for maintenance in the first half of the year. The rate of return to the factory was close to 45%, and the industry average was only 30%. Through the survey on “Dealer Satisfaction” in 2014, it was found that the four regional marketing departments, IT service support department, dealer support department, financial management department, and horizontal business unit are the five departments that reflect the best channels.

What is the next Chinese car market fight?

The Chinese auto market has experienced two stages of selling fire and price war as long as there are good models. What will be the next? Dongfeng Nissan has raised all non-market factors, based on the internal competitiveness of the company.

Ren Yong has two strategies to deal with: One is to create Dongfeng Nissan’s independent corporate ideals and autonomy, and the ability to upgrade independent systems is differentiated from joint venture-introduced thinking; the second is to create Qichen brand and start a dual-brand strategy. This is Dongfeng. Nissan’s internal competitiveness in long-term goals.

“The products of Dongfeng Nissan were formerly Nissan’s international platform, but it was someone else’s. We must have our own platform and even use our own platform to feed back the international market.” Ren Yong’s goal was initially achieved this year, the Beijing Auto Show. The new bluebird is a model from China that will be promoted to the international market.

In order to promote research and development capabilities, Ren Yong even asked some Nissan R&D personnel whether he could transform the identity of Nissan as a resident of Dongfeng and would like to dig up Nissan's R&D personnel. Although both of these identities serve Dongfeng Nissan’s R&D center, Ren Yong’s thinking is how to retain Nissan’s personnel after he is appointed.

The Kai Chen brand with only three years of product introduction has won support from Dongfeng Nissan's deployment of superior resources. In July this year, it had already accumulated 200,000 units of sales. At present Kai Chen has three products. In September this year, pure morning wind will be introduced.

The introduction of Morrowind to Dongfeng Nissan has at least three levels: First, Nissan is currently the only mass-produced pure electric vehicle and some of its technologies have entered Dongfeng Nissan; Second, Kai Chen's brand has been upgraded and it is more confident in the future; Third, it has snatched government support. New energy vehicle market opportunities.