Heavy pressure, weak self-brand is very "injured"

China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released the latest automobile production and sales data in China. In the first half of this year, the production and sales of passenger cars reached 7,049,900 units and 7,111,300 units, an increase of 5.36% and 5.75% year-on-year; however, the number of self-owned brand passenger cars decreased by 0.82% year-on-year, and a total of 1.526 million units were sold. The market share was even lower than the same period last year. 2.96 percentage points. The sales of the top four Chongqing Changan, Chery, BYD and Geely were 320,300 units, 312,300 units, 232,400 units and 215.5 thousand units respectively. After its golden years of development, the self-owned brand passenger cars have gradually slowed down the pace of rapid development and have gradually become weak.

The factors contributing to this year's own brand dilemma may not be attributed only to the withdrawal of incentive policies from the automobile and the impact on the economic environment. Each car brand has its own "main battlefield." However, in the past two years, with the increase in the competitive pressure of the auto market, luxury brand products have begun to drop into mid-size cars, and joint venture brands have gradually tightened their strategies for the compact car market. Many joint venture car prices have dropped to 70,000. Within the yuan, this has caused considerable pressure on independent brands. Therefore, in the current compact car market of 100,000 yuan or less, the competition between self-owned brands and joint venture brands has become increasingly fierce. "Value-for-money" is no longer a proprietary brand, and some joint venture brands have even hit the entry-level sedan market. This makes the low-end car to start their own brands feel then? In the auto market in Kunming, relevant managers of Chery, Haima, BYD, and Huatai have expressed concern about the current situation of independent brands.

The market has suffered from multiple squeezes. "The current auto market in Kunming, Chery, BYD, Changan cars and other independent brands are not as good as they were in the previous year, and this year has clearly felt that sales pressure is greater than ever. The current situation is mainly caused by The pressure of the upstream market, that is to say, joint venture brands are constantly introducing lower-end models to compete with independent brands, and as independent brands, they do not have the ability to compete with joint-venture brands in the mid-market, resulting in the existence of existing brands. The situation is constantly shrinking." The manager of Yunnan Sen Tongyu told reporters in this way. He said, first of all, this year's auto market has a direct impact on the sales of self-owned brands due to the lukewarm and rising prices. The cancellation of many incentive policies by the state at the end of last year has also had a significant impact on the sales of self-owned brands and some joint venture brands. Secondly, the joint venture brand product line has continued to expand downwards, and the constant low-end positioning has also caused a significant impact on the development of self-owned brands. Now, independent brands can be said to be in a dilemma, on the one hand to keep the low-end market that is constantly being squeezed, and on the other, to increase the value of the brand to a higher level, which means that it has to cooperate with many joint venture brands. Competition is very difficult.

Li Weiyuan, market manager of Boao Kunming, jokingly said: “I am afraid that the market responsible for self-owned brands is the most difficult job for many positions in the auto market this year. Due to the narrowing of the sales market of independent brands, many times sales need to be planned through various activities. This year, I have obviously felt that the hippocampus activity has exceeded any period of time before.” He said that nowadays, Jiajia within 100,000 yuan must compete with the joint venture brands, not to mention the higher-end market. It is still impracticable for independent brands to take the high-end route because the upstream market is more competitive.

In any case, the current domestic low-end auto market is still the main brand. The intention and performance of self-owned brands entering the compact car market is also becoming more and more obvious, and in order to stop the spread of independent brands in the compact car market, joint-venture car companies are also making efforts to reduce the price of compact cars. A few years ago, the joint venture brand was still very competitive in the compact car market. The sales of the old Sail, Fit, and Vios were all quite good, but later the new Fit, Yaris, and Ruiou pricing strategies were slightly higher, or due to the weakening of the manufacturers, compact The replacement of car products was not timely, which also caused a slight weakening of the competitiveness, and the self-owned brand quickly developed and expanded and seized a lot of markets. With the new Sail, new Polo, Rena, K2 and other models listed one after another, the joint venture brands have also rushed back the momentum of the compact car market, and even extended the product line to the low-end car market. Self-owned brands are stuck in a joint venture brand and their days are not easy.

The overall shrinkage of data is even more "injured."

Compared with European and American brands, local brands are even more "injured" in this round of decline. According to the data, in the first half of the year, the self-owned brand of passenger cars sold a total of 3,156,100 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 0.82%, accounting for 44.39% of the total sales of passenger cars, and the occupancy rate decreased by 2.96 percentage points from the same period, and decreased by 1.21 over the previous year. percentage point. The joint venture car accounted for 55.61% of the total passenger car sales. Dong Yang, executive vice president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, pointed out that the Chinese auto market has entered a new structural adjustment period for the market, and the current market decline is a decline in the structural market.

Including Chery, BYD, Brilliance, and Changan, the sales of own-brand auto makers have declined to varying degrees. Geely sold 215,500 vehicles in the first half of the year, but only 5% year-on-year growth. In general, the self-owned brands show a complete shrinkage. Its changes were in stark contrast to joint ventures and luxury car brands. In the first half of the year, the cumulative sales of the luxury car market was 197,000 units, which represented a year-on-year increase of 12.9%. The year-on-year increase of BMW and Mercedes reached 60.8% and 52.3% respectively.

The main reasons for the sluggish sales of self-owned brands in the first half of this year were changes in the market environment and cancellation of preferential policies. In 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology joined several ministries and commissions in launching a revitalization plan for cars, which promoted preferential policies for small-displacement vehicles, benefited collectively-owned auto makers, especially mini-vehicles, and achieved significant growth in 2009 and 2010. . After the cancellation of the preferential policies this year, the enthusiasm of consumers to purchase their own brand cars has also decreased. In addition, when the market environment changes, independent brands whose brand strength and product strength are relatively weak are inevitably affected even more.

Xu Changming, director of the Resource Development Department of the State Information Center, believes that the current advantages of independent brands, especially their original scale and cost advantages, are declining. Due to the rapid development of China’s auto market, the scale of autos invested and produced by major transnational corporations in China has rapidly increased, and foreign brands have gained scale advantages, making the cost of foreign brands drop significantly. At the same time, although our country's own brand has a cost advantage due to scale expansion, it is not enough advantage compared to foreign brands because it is a single vehicle model. In addition, the increase in the overall cost of social and economic development has also led to an increase in the cost of labor for self-owned brand companies in terms of labor and raw materials, which has led to a decline in the traditional advantages of self-owned brands. On the one hand, the cost of joint-venture brands continues to decline, while the cost of self-owned brands continues to rise.

Expert marketing should take a differentiated and refined road. In view of the current downturn in the auto market for self-owned brands, Car Yinchuan, the deputy secretary-general of the Yunnan Automobile Association, believes that sales of auto brands have not reached a very poor level. On the contrary, he feels that the current situation This situation is still relatively normal. The argument for the impact of joint venture brands on self-owned brands is mainly due to the overlapping of product positioning and segmentation markets. Currently, the development trend of joint venture brands is to continuously explore the product line, squeeze and compress the compact and entry-level automotive market with its own advantages.

Car Yinchuan said: "At present, the development of self-owned brands faces these two problems. The low-end market is constantly being squeezed by joint venture brands, and there is a trend of market shrinkage. If independent brands enter the high-end automobile market eagerly, it will inevitably take greater risks. Then again At the same price of self-owned and joint-venture brand models, the advantage of self-owned brands is still cost-effective.How to lay out in the second half of this year is a top priority for automakers and manufacturers of their own brands.First, independent brands should continue to be in the secondary and tertiary markets in Yunnan. The national four-to-five automobile market improves the product layout. In the next few years, these sub-markets will be the most promising market for the development of the Chinese auto market. Secondly, continuous refinement and refinement of products will be an important means for independent brands to retain customers and enhance brand image. Third, self-owned brands still need to distance themselves from joint-venture brands in terms of product cost performance."