The cruel but beautiful thing is that we all live in an information cocoon.
The cruel point is that we don't want to be deprived of our right to know and the right to receive information freely, but to some extent, we are indeed deprived in the information cocoon;
The beautiful point is that we are all a person with normal cognition, and people with normal cognition will inevitably fall into the cognitive trap.
In the context of car purchases, one of the intuitive manifestations of the impact of information cocoons on consumers is that we will only choose from the brands and products we know.
What is the current state of a brand's development, and whether a product meets the definition of "good car", many times we form our own opinions from indirect experience.
As a result, many times we will have a "misunderstanding" about some brands or products. For example, ** is full of arguments that BBA is about to be pushed to the edge of the market by new forces, but the fact is that BBA accounts for more than 70% of China's luxury car market (excluding Tesla) in 2023.
For another example, we misunderstood that FAW Hongqi's qualifications were mediocre and stood tall purely by "bloodline". Here today it is necessary to correct several misunderstandings about the Hongqi brand.
A little more understanding is one more choice.
Misunderstanding 1: There is no such "car".
Nowadays, under the impetus of new forces in the industry, the trend of "weekly sales" and the "fashion" of orders have emerged. A month is too long, only a week; Realistic conditions cannot effectively accurately account for daily sales, so replace it with an overnight order "explosion".
Speaking of which, we will find that there are fewer and fewer brands that dare to look directly at the monthly and annual sales of gold.
Sales, with the help of qualifiers, have become a tool for some brands to build momentum in the world.
Of course, marketing never necessarily means hype. It's just that one thing that is often overlooked by us is that those brands that don't often make a deal about sales for marketing don't necessarily have this "car".
Hongqi is one of these brands.
Compared with the "stealth" in the new ** marketing, on the sales list of "real knives and real guns", some star products of the Hongqi brand can always be on the list.
For example, the monthly sales of the all-new Hongqi H5 exceeded 14,800 units in January this year, ranking first among Chinese brand B-class luxury fuel cars. Only the two qualifications of "joint venture" and "non-luxury" have been eliminated, which shows the weight of the new Hongqi H's monthly sales performance in May.
The B-segment is a well-known joint venture "base camp", and it is extremely difficult to conquer independent products. After the strong development of new energy vehicles, the inherent pattern of this market segment seems to have loosened, such as the BYD Seal DM-i in one fell swoop, surpassing the once evergreen Ford Mondeo.
However, there is some loosening of this pattern, but not much.
Taking the more complete December 2023 B-segment car market monthly sales ranking as an example, the Seal DM-i ranks 13th among the top 15. In addition to seals, only two of the top 15 are independent products, and both of them are from the Hongqi brand.
First, it is the Hongqi H5, which sells 14,674 units per month, and its sales even exceed that of the Audi A4L; The other is the Hongqi E-QM5 with new energy status, with a monthly sales of 10,600 units, ranking ahead of Seal and Cadillac CT5.
In today's chaotic market, all brands are in great need of a star item with stable and strong sales, and the Hongqi brand not only has it, but also has two.
Sales are far more objective than marketing rhetoric. The sales volume proves that the Hongqi brand is not a low sense of existence and has no such "car".
Misunderstanding 2: Not wanting to forge ahead
Perhaps considering the profound historical heritage of the Hongqi brand, many people may mistakenly think that relying on the thickness of history and the strength of FAW, the Hongqi brand does not need to do its best to gain a foothold and run in the torrent of development like some "self-made" independent brands in the market.
No, no.
Although it was officially established as early as 1958, it was not until 2018 that FAW officially released the "New Red Flag" strategy. It can be understood that 2018 is the starting point of the official transformation of the Hongqi brand from the "national red flag" to the "national red flag and the red flag of consumers".
After 2018, the Hongqi brand has made efforts from three aspects: products, technology, and overseas markets.
In terms of products, in 2019, the brand's first luxury B-class SUV, Hongqi HS5, was launched, which won a monthly sales of 11,200 units in January this year, ranking first among Chinese brand B-class luxury fuel SUVs. In 2020, Hongqi H9 was launched, and its high-end attributes and flagship positioning helped the Hongqi brand further strengthen its positioning as a high-end Chinese style.
In the past few years, while continuously iterating on classic products and enriching the vitality of products, the Hongqi brand has also actively deployed new energy vehicles.
At the product level, Hongqi E-QM9 and Hongqi E-HS9 will be launched, and another B-class pure electric luxury sedan codenamed E001 will also be launched this year; At the technical level, at last year's Shanghai Auto Show, the Hongqi brand expressed its determination to "all in" new energy, and at the same time released three sub-brands of Hongqi Golden Sunflower, Hongqi New Energy and Hongqi Energy-saving Vehicle, and released the HMP Hongqi hybrid technology platform, HME Hongqi electric platform and HIS Hongqi intelligent platform.
Not fighting an unprepared battle, and the soldiers and horses going first before moving grain and grass is the wisdom of the Chinese and the wisdom of the red flag.
It is worth surprising that China's Hongqi brand is going global.
Some time ago, in the "2023 Forbes China Global 30&30 Selection", FAW Hongqi won the title of "Leading Brand". In the first 10 months of last year, the brand's export volume increased by 133 year-on-year2%。
Whether it is from the perspective of studying technology, improving product layout, or from the point of view of going to sea, Hongqi is not only doing what the high-profile brands are boasting and doing, but also doing it quite well.
How can this be "not enterprising"?
Misunderstanding 3: The brand power is average
Before analyzing the brand power of the Hongqi brand, it is necessary to understand what is "brand power"?
In terms of book bags, brand power "refers to the degree to which consumers' perceptions of a brand influence their purchasing decisions."
To put it bluntly, when consumers have a detailed understanding of the configuration and functions of a certain product, how much favorability they have when they only know which brand it comes from. This is what we usually call "close your eyes and make no mistakes".
When we mention the Hongqi brand, even if we don't understand the details of the product, we can also know its profound historical heritage, the identity of China's leading monument, and the attributes of diplomatic business cards. The reality is so contradictory, we misunderstand it because of the experience of the Hongqi brand, and on the other hand, we trust it because of the experience of the Hongqi brand.
That's right, what Hongqi brand can give consumers is not impulse and enthusiasm, but trust and stable happiness.
The luxury "Three Musketeers" BBA, which is still strong in brand power, are all supported by historical heritage and accumulated experience, and use technology to give products a leading experience, which in turn confirms the high-end luxury positioning and completes the positive incentive effect of brand power on consumers.
After some comparison, we can find that the Hongqi brand is one of the few independent players in the industry that has these conditions and has the brand power as a high-end luxury brand.
Different from BBA, when the era of intelligent new energy vehicles arrived, BBA gradually deflated in the Chinese market because of the early "lack of progress"; The Hongqi brand, which has always been looking forward and looking forward, has never been unenterprising, so in the new era, the brand power will be further strengthened.
*From the Internet, invaded and deleted).