September came with a bang for Guangzhou Auto.
In just one month, three big moves were made in a row.
The first move was a major personnel adjustment: GAC put the Auto Research Institute, GAC Passenger Vehicles, and GAC New Energy all under the umbrella of the Vehicle Business Unit, with Zhang Yuesai as the head of the Vehicle Business Unit.
For this adjustment, the official statement is: on the one hand, in order to improve the GAC independent brand in the product, quality, marketing, purchasing and other areas of horizontal coordination and unified decision-making ability, in the operating level of the full realization of the cross-field integration of operations and management; on the other hand, to promote the unity of the responsibilities and rights of the mobilization of the independent brand management team of the subjective initiative.
The meaning is clear, the adjustment is to research, production and marketing integration, from the efficiency reform to force themselves to walk in front of the market.
The second move is to disclose that the 2.0 ATK has made a major breakthrough with a thermal efficiency of 42.10 percent. 42.10 percent thermal efficiency what concept? refreshed the current Chinese brand engine publicly certified the highest thermal efficiency, higher than the Changan Blue Whale power of 40%, but also higher than the Toyota Dynamic Force 2.5L engine of 41%, second only to Mazda's SKYACTIV-X 2.0L engine of 43%.
At the Beijing Auto Show, GAC also named the new powertrain platform "Vantage Wave".
The third move is to release a new marketing strategy: the "Golden Triangle Strategy".
Sounds a bit abstract, but Chuanqi used a phrase to explain the attitude, strategy and who the rivals are -- in the value dimension to deal with the downward competition of joint venture brands.
The core of the three big moves can be harmonized to one point: to be good and fast, both in terms of selling cars and in terms of research and development. The path to being good and fast is digitalization.
The moves are many and big, and what's revealed behind them is actually Transa's growing desire to survive.
1
had to accelerate
After the automobile market has completely become a stock market, auto production and sales in 2018 and 2019 have been declining year-on-year for two consecutive years, and in 2020, a coronary is more A coronavirus in 2020 is a direct press of the "pause button" of the automobile market. All car brands are not good, including GAC Chuanqi.
Data show that GAC Chuanqi 2019 sales of 385,000 units, a year-on-year decline of 28.14%. This summer, Chuanqi's rebound also came a little late. While most auto brands gradually recovered their energy as early as May and June, Chuanqi didn't see its first year-on-year increase in monthly sales after the Chinese New Year until July, with sales of 28,293 units, up 6.4 percent year-on-year.
The results don't look too good either. In GAC's mid-year report, the company's own brand + group parts business in the second quarter, a net loss of 970 million yuan, excluding non-operating gains to a loss of 1.08 billion yuan, compared with the first quarter of 1.0 billion yuan loss basically unchanged.
While looking at the other players, Changan with the launch of the "Blue Whale Power" is regaining its glory moments, led by the CS75 series of a number of SUVs have stood one after another 10,000 units of sales hall; Great Wall is in a slump in the launch of a number of heavyweight new products, the capital market in the K line inside the is given absolute! The capital market has been absolutely bullish on the K-line.
The law of two-eight tells us that in any group of things, the most important only accounts for a small portion of them, about 20 percent, and the remaining 80 percent, although the majority, is secondary. The automotive market is no different. If in previous years Chuanqi was able to follow the general trend of being among the top 20 percent of Chinese brands, today's Chuanqi can be said to be gradually moving away from that 20 percent. Except, of course, for the new energy segment.
The second-generation GS4's word-of-mouth and product strength may ensure it secures a place in the future top five SUV race, but that's not where Chuanqi's sights are set. You know, although the GS4 is often unable to catch up with the dominant Haval H6, but at least it is the "second"; the GS8 is the first time Chuanqi broke the price ceiling of the joint-venture car manufacturing, and even once sold more than 10,000 monthly sales. Chuanqi can not be anxious? It is very anxious.
One Chuanqi insider told us this, "In fact, about whether to do multi-generational, whether to make the product more fine-tuned, we often have a discussion, and the discussion is very intense."
But, perhaps because it got too much of the "good student" vibe from GAC Honda and GAC Toyota, Chuanqi ultimately insisted on sustainable management and steady growth as its development principles. Unlike the fashionable approach of most car companies today, the GS4 has opted for vertical replacement.
This approach obviously doesn't work if you're looking for "fast". But on the other hand, it is surprising that the performance of Chuanqi's high-priced models continues to shine: in August, sales of Chuanqi's three "8" flagship models amounted to 5,105 units, an increase of 95% year-on-year; sales of the MPV Twin reached 7,121 units, an increase of 61.3% year-on-year. It can be said that Chuanqi is one of the few independent brands that can compete with joint ventures in terms of brand power.
So, with the "Golden Triangle Strategy" as a new starting point, "striving for a higher-end market" has become a new value and car-making logic for Chuanqi.2
Three-way benefit
"Toward the higher end of the market" is a gesture.
But this "higher-end" isn't about selling at a higher price, the idea is to benefit consumers, dealers and the brand, and that's the proper path.
"In fact, in 2018 we put forward the 'Golden Triangle of Marketing', but with the development of the times, the Golden Triangle at the marketing level will not work, and must be upgraded to the value level. The purpose of our golden triangle is to create value - how to create value for customers, dealers, and how to make manufacturers more capable, which rises to a new level." Feng Xingya, general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group, told the media that there is a development process for the "Golden Triangle Strategy".
So how do you add value to customers? The answer is to add value in the three dimensions of "product + technology + service".
The value-added products, as the name suggests, make every car worth buying, worth using and worth preserving. This point can take the new flagship M8 (former GM8), which was launched at the auto show, as an example. On the basis of the high quality of its flagship model, Chuanqi has realized "value-added without price increase". Through four major upgrades in the areas of appearance, cabin, safety and intelligent technology, it adds more than 20,000 yuan in value for consumers.
Technology value-added, as Feng Xingya said: "We must win consumers through technology and value. Our price-performance leadership strategy is also reflected by upgrades in technology such as performance and intelligence."
Backed by a globally laid-out R&D system, Chuanqi empowers its products with three major technologies: the new GAC Global Platform Modular Architecture GPMA, ADiGO Smart Driving and Connected Ecosystem, and Power Technology.
The value-added service, as early as 2010, GAC Chuanqi adhered to the "customer first", officially launched the "plus service" brand, and continue to promote service innovation. "After the release of the Golden Triangle Strategy, Chuanqi has focused on upgrading the "Plus Points Service" service brand. The brand is based on digitalization as the core, relying on artificial intelligence tools to create a digital marketing service system with special features.
In 2019, Chuanqi launched the "enjoy what you want to enjoy the service car", investing more than 8,000 vehicles, intended to solve the pain point of customers in the repair and maintenance of the car is not available. To date, Tranquility has provided more than 2.1 million trips to customers with this service.
The three value-added items are summed up in one sentence, which probably means that the value that the user receives is always higher than the cost that the user pays.
In the level of "dealer gain", Zhang Yuesai, director of GAC Group's independent brand management committee and general manager of GAC Passenger Vehicles, said: "This year is not easy for many dealers. We have to consider for the dealers, not only the question of how many cars to sell, but also for the dealers to create more and better ways of profitability, so that the dealers will not lose with GAC."
So how? GAC Passenger Vehicle Co., Ltd. deputy general manager and general manager of GAC Miguel Miguel Auto Sales Co. Li Yong added: "Not only short-term gains, at the same time, we have to consider them in the face of market fluctuations, how to sustain, healthy, cohesive development down the road,not just to achieve sales, but also to enhance the ability to service, finance, insurance and other horizontal business aspects of the ability to and the ability to provide travel services. "
In other words, it is "teaching to fish, not teaching to fish".
As for empowerment for manufacturers, in fact, when the customer puts forward the demand, his needs are also at the same time feedback to the sales store and manufacturers, this rapid communication mode for manufacturers, in fact, is a kind of empowerment. Li Yong also said, "Enhancing our ability to serve customers is empowerment."
3
Thoroughly digitized
Nowadays, the U.S., South Korea, France, and some of the bottleneck of the independent brands, are actively adjusting, or to strengthen the two fundamentals of the product and the channel, or more reverence for the The market and customers - seem to be doing the right thing.
But big business has its troubles, and much of the structure was built years ago, making it difficult to support the current business in a changing market environment. This also allows for the possibility of bias in reform. So how can we trust this program from Transocean, and what makes it different?
Feng Xingya is unapologetic about this, saying, "It's easy to say, but hard to do."
For example, how to create a "digital Migrant". In fact, whether it is to add value for consumers, for dealers, or for the empowerment of Miguel Miguel, the means through which is "digital".
Feng Xingya said there were a number of transformation difficulties they faced. "First, our usual way of working, thinking about the idea of the problem and the requirements of digitalization is inconsistent, so many things do not match; second, at the level of organizational change, if all the problems are expressed in digital, this in the entire workflow and organizational methods will occur a lot of adjustment; third, the choice of path. We are all talking about digitalization, but digitalization from research, production and marketing, human and financial resources, where to start, where to start, the tiger eats the sky, from where the mouth? "
But it's here that Chuanqi's digital transformation begins to show the difference - "thorough" has become its key word.
In response to the first level of thinking, Feng Xingya said they now divide the whole system into two:
1, the reality of what to do.
2, how to do it online, that is, how to reflect in virtual reality. After that, the planning is harmonized.
In response to the second question of organizational structure, Feng Xingya said that they have set up the information data headquarters in the group.2018, they have positioned the transformation of Dasheng Technology to become a software company: previously, they did the Internet and e-commerce, but now they are shifting from e-commerce to software.
"It took us more than a year from the organizational adjustment to smoothing out the actual workflow." Feng Xingya said.
For the third path, Feng Xingya said that after more than a year of practice, they have summarized the "four and two platforms".
The "two platforms" are the big data platform and the data operation platform. "Four" is from the product, supply chain, production control, all around the four goals into. "We made GAC GDA to create a digital gas pedal."
"The reason why I dare to report to you now is because after more than a year of practice, we have some insights, the direction is clearer, and the idea is more unified." Feng Xingya frank.
It is possible to see that if the reform of many car companies is to paint on a canvas many times, then the rhythm of Chuanqi is more like a careful stroke by stroke outline.
The confidence is there.
Feng Xingya says their strengths are now clear. "First of all, the goals and entry points for all of us have been very clear; secondly, Chuanqi's actual net investment in research and development is more than 5 billion dollars a year, and these are the foundations for the development of the independent brand; and then, we are attracting talent from around the globe in an eclectic way, and we have incentives to retain them."
This time, GAC Chuanqi entered the digital reform. This time, how far can the digital reform help it go? Is the implementation truly thorough? Whether the action will not be deformed?
These answers, not only GAC wants to know.