Lotus still couldn't stand it anymore and began to move the knife from the **.
On January 19, the day after the launch of Lotus' second all-new all-electric model, the Emeya, the original starting price was 82Lotus' first pure electric SUV, the Eletre, which costs 80,000 yuan, has launched an entry-level model with a starting price of 100,000 yuan lower than before.
In fact, the brand new emeya its 66The starting price of 80,000 yuan is also tens of thousands lower than the retail price of 100,000 US dollars (about 700,000 yuan +) mentioned by Lotus in the previous investment analysis report.
Obviously, the 75-year-old ultra-luxury brand, since stepping into China's hot new smart car track for more than a year, Lotus has not delivered a satisfactory opening in the Chinese market.
The data doesn't lie, even though Lotus has not yet announced its full-year sales results, but from the first 11 months of 2023, it can be seen that the entire brand has 2,974 units, which means that the annual sales are basically around 3,000 units.
Among them, the annual retail sales data of the core model ELETRE is 2,929 units, whether it is the sales of a single model or Lotus's target for 2023, it is not far from the previous performance of 5,000 units in the Chinese market expected by Lotus to investors, among which the highly anticipated performance of Eletre is the main reason, which also overshadows the flag of "2023 decisive year" shouted by Lotus at the 75th anniversary celebration in the second quarter of 2023.
There is no doubt that the defeat of Lotus's first battle in the first battle of China, the most critical core market for Lotus, which has the fastest development of electrification and intelligence, and is the most mature market in the world and has the largest user base, has seriously deviated from the expectations given to Lotus China by the board of directors, and cast a shadow on the road to Lotus's global brand revival.
As the helmsman of Lotus China, Mao Jingbo is to blame.
Or rather, this marketing big man in the car circle has not made any marketing actions to make consumers shine this year, but because of the test drive as a new car, the owner was not informed to reduce the allocation, and the event required men to verify the capital, etc., which further lowered the brand image of Lotus and reduced the favorability of this ultra-luxury brand that was once as famous as Porsche in the hearts of consumers.
All the facts point to one result: the marketing "Iron Lady" is hard to live up to, and Mao Jingbo can't control Lotus.
A good hand, don't break it
If Lotus is seen as a child, then its fate is ill-fated, and it has been sold back and forth for decades, from Toyota to GM, and then from Proton to Geely.
Li Shufu has always had a sports car dream, and winning Lotus is to revive this very well-known sports car brand on the track in the hands of the Chinese, which is a proof of the ability of Chinese cars and Chinese car people.
Since 2018, Li Shufu's partner, Geely technology expert Feng Qingfeng, has been at the helm of Lotus as CEO, and has led the launch of the brand revival plan called "Vision80", announcing the transformation to electrification and intelligence to revitalize the brand.
Indeed, whether it is in the aerodynamics, lightweight, or chassis ability of the car, Lotus can be called the "old mage" of the automotive industry, and it is no wonder that it can frequently crush Porsche and Ferrari in the F1 field. Just standing in the era of electrified vehicles, Lotus needs a new way of thinking to meet the challenges of future cars.
If Porsche is used as a benchmark for Lotus, Lotus is clearly at the forefront of Porsche's electrification strategy in terms of speed and effectiveness. Whether it is the independently developed EPA edge evolution architecture, or the 800V high-voltage system, whether it is a more intelligent cockpit design, or intelligent driving with the blessing of LiDAR, it is not an exaggeration to say that Lotus has opened a new era of supercars.
While Porsche only had one Taycan for the electrification market, Lotus was the package. From the Evija, a 10-million-yuan performance sports car that was unveiled in 2019 and delivered in 2023, to the launch of EMIRA, the last swan song of the era of fuel vehicles to be delivered in 2022, from the launch of the pure electric supercar SUV Eletre delivered in 2023 in 2022, to the Emeya, which has been launched and will be delivered in 2024, and the follow-up Type 134 and Type 135, the goal is to be in 2028. Shaping Lotus into a global leader in all-electric luxury cars.
It can be seen that as the first stage of the revival of Lotus, Feng Qingfeng, as the global CEO, led Lotus to complete the preliminary layout from the technology, product and system levels, and these actions and plans laid the foundation of the Lotus brand revival plan.
On November 15, 2022, Mao Jingbo, former executive vice president of Mercedes-Benz Sales Company and president of Lincoln China, officially joined Lotus as a founding partner as the president of Lotus China. Joining on the eve of eletre's listing, it can be seen that Li Shufu and Feng Qingfeng both have high hopes for Mao Jingbo.
If Feng Qingfeng has built the framework and system of the Lotus revival plan, then as the head of Lotus China, Mao Jingbo has taken over the baton from Feng Qingfeng and will start the second half of the "vision80" strategy from the level of brand building and marketing.
According to Li Shufu's idea, the Lotus brand and technology are not a problem, the core lies in the mental positioning marketing, after Mao Jingbo came to Lotus, the core work is to clarify the value and definition of the Lotus brand, and create a brand imprint with the iconic brand marketing language. And this matter is actually for one purpose: how to make a brand with 75 years of history and championship heritage gain new vitality in China.
However, after a year's assessment period and more than 2,000 vehicles, Mao Jingbo does not seem to have fulfilled Lotus's expectations for her. In 2023, both the pure electric and ultra-luxury car markets will maintain a good growth rate, even if you compare the same price and the same level of products, the Porsche Taycan launched five years ago will sell about 4,000 units in China throughout the year. Even Gaohe Automobile, which has been rumored to be bankrupt, sold more than 8,000 vehicles throughout the year.
It seems that a good card was handed over to Mao Jingbo, but it was broken.
Honey manipulation, puzzling
In addition to the sales figures mentioned at the beginning of the article, which were in line with the board's expectations, Mao Jingbo's approach was also quite controversial at the marketing level.
One is two well-known negative events in the circle in 2023, and the other is a blind date event with a capital verification of 50 million at the Lotus Center, which was stopped by car owners and netizens as vulgar and objectified women. The other is that Lotus officials have reduced the allocation three times successively, and did not take the initiative to inform the car owners, which eventually led to hundreds of car owners jointly defending their rights.
In addition, Lotus concealed the news that the test drive would be delivered as a new car, which also caused a stir in the industry. After the incident fermented, Lotus issued a statement blaming the incident on management negligence and personnel negligence. In the end, the two sides also reached a settlement, but as a former top luxury supercar brand, such a sales problem will undoubtedly chill many consumers who believe in Lotus.
Of course, these turmoil can be big or small. Looking smaller, this is understandable as individual differences and blind spots. But in the big picture, it's a problem with the entire sales and marketing system. As an ultra-luxury brand, every move should be made with caution, and the feathers that Lotus has built up over the past 75 years deserve to be cherished.
If the marketing turmoil represents the instability of the system, then there is a deviation in the core playing style, which makes people more worried about the brand.
It is said that the automobile circle in 2023 is very difficult, and even the core façade advertising space outside the Shanghai Auto Show exhibition hall is much less. Every car company is tightening its belts to get by, using its marketing funds and expenses to the best of its ability to facilitate final orders and deals.
But in April, Lotus took the 75th anniversary as an opportunity to spend a large budget of 100 million yuan to hold a party at the Shanghai International Circuit, and huge advertisements were hung at the core of the auto show. Many ordinary office workers and blue-collar workers have brushed up on Lotus Yellow and Lotus electric cars, but what about brand recognition? What about conversion?
The first step is to take the wrong path, and the advertisements are no different from ordinary advertisements, and they are easily drowned. "Many people in the industry believe that Lotus's operation is really incomprehensible, and it does not focus on the attributes of ultra-luxury brands, and the core points that Lotus should disseminate, and even makes people compare new forces with Lotus's products, which is a failure of brand value definition.
More people in the industry who are familiar with the advertising field said that the advertisements cast by Lotus have completely lowered the grade, and they are a little sick and rushed to the doctor. "Luxury pays attention to the cultural connotation of the brand, and it is necessary to convey the personality and connotation value of luxury goods to the luxury consumer audience with the help of classic artistic expression. The person believes that Lotus's style of play is too rough and simple.
Some people say that Mao Jingbo's marketing has come down and spent almost all the money that should be spent. Compared with Mao Jingbo's high-profile to Lotus, it is worth paying more attention to whether Lotus has the ability to continue to build popularity, reputation and effectiveness.
Insiders of Lotus marketing public relations also said that in 2023, Lotus will spend a lot of money on marketing and placement, all of which are large, and the final effect does not seem to be ideal.
The core and root cause of these problems point directly to Mao Jingbo, the helm is not in control, why is it far away?
Not only that, after taking over as CEO of Lotus China, Mao Jingbo brought a lot of her old department, placed them in important positions, and purged many personnel from the original Geely system in various ways, causing a series of personnel turmoil.
As the saying goes, once a son of heaven is a courtier, some personnel changes can be understood, but Mao Jingbo, as a professional manager, actually squeezed out of the Lotus system of Ye Qin, a Geely old man who is still hanging the legal person of Shanghai Lotus Sales Company.
Not adapting to the water and soil, or is it difficult to live up to the reputation?
When Mao Jingbo was in Lincoln, he led Lincoln to achieve a bumper harvest in sales and reputation in the Chinese market, and transformed Lincoln from a marginal luxury brand to a second-tier luxury brand on an equal footing with Cadillac and Lexus. And in 2021, Lincoln's total sales volume was 9With 160,000 units, sales in China surpassed that of the U.S. domestic market for the first time.
Including before, Mao Jingbo also held important positions in Mercedes-Benz and Ruder Finn's public relations, and perhaps Lotus also took a fancy to Mao Jingbo's ability in brand operation and marketing experience.
But this year, Mao Jingbo seems to have not found another Lincoln way suitable for Lotus. Perhaps, the Lincoln Way that Mao Jingbo is familiar with, that is, how to complete the localization transformation of brands, products, and services, cannot be applied to Lotus. Spending a lot of money to bring in Mao Jingbo, at least for now, has not brought substantial changes to Lotus.
Some people in the industry said that what Lotus needs is branding, but Mercedes-Benz and Lincoln are not branding in China, after all, these two brands have long been known.
So some people doubt that Mao Jingbo's ability can really bring new changes to the Lotus brand. But in terms of ability, all kinds of searches seem to have arranged various characters for her.
Flipping through Mao Jingbo's encyclopedia, there are several core words: entrepreneur, with more than 20 years of management experience in the luxury automotive industry. In addition, the description of Mao Jingbo in personal profiles, punchlines, and related honors is very detailed, and compared with the encyclopedias of other executives in the automotive industry, it is not difficult to see that there are special people who have maintained them.
Mao Jingbo piloted Lotus ......"Understand Mao Jingbo's marketing ......"Mao Jingbo's first anniversary ......Dream maker Mao Jingbo ......"The man who broke the wind, Mao Jingbo......"If you search for Mao Jingbo on the Internet, there will definitely be a lot of articles for Mao Jingbo***. In fact, it's pretty much the same thing she did at Lincoln: to cheer for herself.
Special emphasis was placed on adding Mao Jingbo to the title of the article. "There are quite a few insiders who say that both Lincoln and Lotus have received similar communication requests. In fact, most of the truly pragmatic executives in the automotive industry will not make such a request, and many manufacturers also emphasize not to appear in the title of the leader's name when communicating with **.
What's more worth mentioning is that at the end of last year, there was also a manuscript for Mao Jingbo to drink in Lotus, which means that Lotus has a name for Mao Jingbo, and needs to give her the right position and treatment, and give her more support.
Therefore, as the president of a car company, more publicity and core are brands, products or leaders? And the biggest question is, this year, Mao Jingbo's achievements are worthy of so many positive voices?
According to the Lotus board of directors' plan for investors, Lotus will complete 1The sales target is 80,000 units. From more than 2,000 units in 2023 to 1With the rapid growth of 80,000 vehicles, unless there is a miracle, there is not much time left for Mao Jingbo.