Economic Observer reporter Pu Zhenyu"I don't think you can just look at sales. If you look at the sales rankings, for example, some products that rank particularly high but have a particularly low average selling price will also face some bottlenecks in the future. In 2022, in the face of the first question of "how to view the sales ranking", Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, once gave such an answer.
In a word, Zhiji Automobile has become a brand that Liu Tao said "simply looking at sales". With the launch of Zhiji LS6, which has dropped sharply a few months ago, Zhiji, which has been in the industry for three years, has finally achieved a certain sales growth. According to official data, in 2023, the cumulative sales of Zhiji Automobile will be 3820,000 units, a year-on-year growth rate of 665%, but it is still not complete in April 2023The sales target is 50,000 units.
In terms of quarters, in the first three quarters of 2023, Zhiji Auto's sales performance has been tepid, and its cumulative sales volume is less than the monthly sales of leading new car brands. Since the fourth quarter, the sales of Zhiji Automobile have begun to climb, with sales in October, November and December reaching 4,018 units, 8,703 units, and 1040,000 units, and the cumulative sales in the fourth quarter exceeded more than 60% of the annual sales.
Zhiji Auto's sales increased significantly in the fourth quarter, relying on the brand's third model, the Zhiji LS6. Taking December 2023 as an example, the Zhiji LS6 sold 9,878 units, accounting for more than 94% of the sales, while the sales of the Zhiji L7 and Zhiji LS7 models accounted for only about 6%.
At present, Zhiji L7 and Zhiji LS7 both focus on the market range of 300,000-400,000 yuan, while the starting price of Zhiji LS6 is only 22990,000 yuan, and the price of the top version is also less than 300,000 yuan. Zhiji, who exchanges sales for sales, can hardly be called a high-end car brand in the true sense.
From 400,000 to 200,000
In the last three months of 2023, Zhiji LS6 helped Zhiji Auto's sales out of the slump, but Zhiji Auto is also getting farther and farther away from its original intention of grabbing "meat" from the mouth of BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi).
In the Chinese auto market, around 400,000 yuan is the world of Audi A6L, Mercedes-Benz E-class, and BMW 5 Series (hereinafter referred to as "56E"). In March 2022, Liu Tao said, "More than 60,000 Chinese spend more than 400,000 yuan a month to consume the German troika." First of all, I think it's very frustrating for these users to make such a purchase decision."
As the brand's first model, the Zhiji L7 entered the 400,000-level luxury car market after its launch in April 2022. In June 2022, deliveries of the Zhiji L7 began, and the annual sales volume finally reached 5,000 units. For a new brand, this is not too bad, but it has not made waves in the medium and large sedan market.
In February 2023, Zhiji Auto launched the Zhiji LS7, a mid-to-large SUV, and played the "price reduction card" in disguise. In the auto market, the price of SUV models of the same brand, platform and level is usually higher than that of sedan models, but Zhiji Auto has gone the opposite way, and the overall ** range of Zhiji LS7 is lower than that of Zhiji L7.
However, the Zhiji LS7 has not changed the situation of Zhiji Automobile. From January to September 2023, Zhiji Automobile's sales volume was only about 150,000 units, with an average monthly sales of less than 2,000 units. For reference, the sales volume of Geely Zeekrypton and Dongfeng Lantu in the same period was 790,000 units, 270,000 units.
In the case that the sales of Zhiji L7 and LS7 are not optimistic, Zhiji LS6 staged a "big dive", from 400,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan. When announcing its sales volume in December 2023, Zhiji Auto deliberately described the Zhiji LS6 as "the No. 1 Chinese brand in monthly sales of all categories of pure electric vehicles with a price of more than 200,000 yuan".
The ultra-low starting price of the Zhiji LS6 has disrupted the overall layout of SAIC's own brands. After the launch of the Zhiji LS6, Zhiji Automobile almost completely covered the 200,000-300,000 yuan** range of Feifan Auto, another new electric brand under SAIC Group, and the internal friction pressure of "competing with the same door" increased sharply. At present, the starting price of Feifan auto products has dropped to less than 200,000 yuan.
Zhiji Automobile is gradually moving away from the original "high-end dream". Zhan Junhao, founder of Fujian Great Aim Brand Positioning Consulting and public relations partner of Fuzhou Gongsun Ce, told the Economic Observer that brand positioning should be carried out from the perspective of users, forming a differentiated distinction from peer brands in the minds of users, rather than the so-called high-end positioning from within the enterprise. Consumers do not accept this positioning, and eventually it becomes the self-congratulatory behavior of the enterprise.
Marketing "rollover" incidents continue
Although Zhiji Auto was incubated by a traditional car company, its marketing style is very different from other traditional brands under SAIC. Since the establishment of Zhiji Automobile, Liu Tao, as a co-CEO, has been active in social networking and many offline occasions, much busier than CEO Jiang Jun. Liu Tao's words and deeds have frequently attracted attention and even questions, and he has gradually become an "Internet celebrity" in the automobile circle similar to the founders of new car-making forces such as Li Xiang and Li Bin.
In November 2022, in response to a Tesla car accident in Chaozhou, Liu Tao posted on Weibo, fiercely "bombarding" Tesla. In the same month, a car blogger uploaded a ** that Zhiji Auto used to show vehicle performance in the "Zhiji Auto - New World Intelligent Origin Press Conference". In **, Liu Tao drove the Zhiji L7 on the open road, and was suspected of speeding, compaction line and other illegal acts. In the end, the incident ended hastily with Liu Tao taking the initiative to cooperate with the traffic police investigation and publicly apologizing.
A marketing expert who did not want to be named told the Economic Observer that private company bosses like Li Xiang and Li Bin naturally have the "halo" of entrepreneur identity that has made waves in the world. Managers of state-owned enterprises with limited authority may be an effective way to do more outrageous behavior if they want to gain the same amount of voice in the field, but this will also bring more risks to the corporate image.
In addition, in the new era of defining automotive products by scenarios, Zhiji Auto also tried to innovate the use scenarios of automobiles in marketing, but it also encountered "overturning".
In the beginning of winter 2023, Zhiji Auto launched a live broadcast event. In order to show the rear seat experience of Zhiji LS6, Liu Tao wrapped dumplings in the car and specially posted ** on Weibo. But then, voices questioning the safety and necessity of this marketing tactic kept coming. In the end, Liu Tao deleted the relevant **.
Recently, Zhiji Auto released a promotional image of eating hot pot in the car. In the picture, a female model sits on the back seat with chopsticks in hand, and a hot pot is placed in front of her. Many netizens expressed puzzlement about this marketing method, believing that it has nothing to do with the real-world application of vehicles.
Brand identity is becoming more and more blurred
Traditional car brands usually don't target a limited range of users due to their rich product lines. However, at the model level, traditional car brands generally have more accurate user positioning. Unlike traditional car companies, new car manufacturers with fewer products usually target a target user group for the entire brand. For example, as the "sales champion" of the current new car manufacturer, Li Auto has always chosen to build products around family users.
In Zhan Junhao's view, for consumers, "control" can only be used as a highlight of car purchases, and if the brand power is insufficient, it is not enough for consumers to take the brand as their first choice. When consumers choose high-end brands, in addition to basic functions, they pay more attention to the embodiment of "highlighting value". For example, the consumer group of BBA does not just look at the configuration.
However, when the Zhiji LS7 was launched, Zhiji Auto faced a new problem. Compared with sedans, SUVs naturally have disadvantages in terms of handling. In the luxury SUV market, the models that focus on handling are usually relatively niche, and the sales volume does not account for a high proportion of the brand.
In this case, the publicity focus of Zhiji LS7 has quietly shifted from control to "black technology" - the first officially mass-produced "YAT cruise half-width steering wheel" in China, the original "liftable giant smart scene screen", and the world's first "zero-gravity floating seat". In the official news of the official launch of the Zhiji LS7, the words "control" and "driving control" did not appear once.
As the "hero" who helped Zhiji Automobile get out of the trough of sales, Zhiji LS6 is a crazy "pile-up" model, and the future smart cabin", "quasi-900V super performance platform" and "international design" have become the main publicity points.
Whether it is Zhiji LS7 or Zhiji LS6, it is difficult for the outside world to see where the locked user groups are from these two bodies. On the corporate introduction page of the official website, Zhiji Auto positions itself as "an implementer of mobility transformation in the intelligent era" and a "new user-oriented automotive science and technology company".
Even the two labels of intelligent and user-oriented companies, which are regarded as the background color of the brand by Zhiji Automobile, have frequent problems. In December 2023, a joint open letter from the owners of the Zhiji LS7 circulated on the Internet attracted attention. In the letter, 674 car owners said that they expected Zhiji Auto to pay attention to product problems and solve them, but in the past year, they have been very dissatisfied with the continuous vehicle problems, perfunctory customer service, and poor after-sales service.
In January this year, many Zhiji car owners reported on the Internet that they had encountered a failure of the car system, and their vehicles had problems such as the dashboard not displaying driving information, and the double jump lights of the turn signal did not sound. Subsequently, Zhiji Auto responded by admitting that there was a problem with the car and repaired it. According to the terminal monitoring of the Gaogong Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, before the car machine failure, some car owners have complained about the problems of the car machine system, including poor voice interaction, too little software, and no OTA update.