Affected by the epidemic, the high-profile launch conference of Xiaomi 10, the first 5G flagship mobile phone of Xiaomi's 10th anniversary, was changed from offline to online, which was also the first launch conference of Xiaomi's pure online live broadcast. However, compared with this, the price of Xiaomi 10 series is more controversial: Xiaomi 10 series starts at 3,999 yuan, and Xiaomi10 Pro starts at 4,999 yuan.
From 20 10 to 2020, after the rapid development of 10, Xiaomi has become a head mobile phone enterprise with hundreds of millions of users and annual revenue of 200 billion. But this is the first time that Xiaomi flagship machine has been priced over 3,000 yuan, which is unimaginable even compared with "OV".
Get rid of the "cost-effective trap" and formally enter the high-end market. Such a huge revolutionary change undoubtedly indicates that Xiaomi will officially enter a new stage of development in ten years.
It must be said that the growth history of Xiaomi brand has many similarities with the growth trajectory of independent automobile brands.
Various high-end attempts
Xiaomi's high-end road is not smooth sailing. Xiaomi MIX 2065 438+06 went on the market, focusing on the price of 3000+. However, sales from MIX 1 to MIX3 have been sluggish. It can be said that Xiaomi MIX series has not been recognized by high-end users.
On the other hand, independent brands have long adopted different forms of high-end attempts, and also exposed some problems. For example, Qoros was short-lived due to untimely birth and lack of follow-up research and development, while Jingbao D80 and Haval H8 could not face mainstream joint venture vehicles with the same price due to mismatch between product strength and market positioning.
However, independent brands have not stopped, but have been more frustrated and embarked on a more diversified road.
In the past hundred years of business history, we found that most brands will incubate a high-end brand when they hit the high-end market. In the automotive field, such as Volkswagen Audi, Toyota Lexus and General Cadillac; FMCG field, such as Telunsu of Mengniu and Jin Dian of Yili; In the field of home appliances, casarte of Haier and Colmo of the United States.
The same is true for independent automobile brands. WEY brand takes building "China luxury brand" as its vision, trying to bring consumers a luxury SUV that has no sense of distance and affordability. Relying on Volvo's endorsement to create excellent product strength, Linke deeply implants the young and fashionable labels in the brand into consumers' minds with more new marketing methods in leading industries.
Not only that, Chery also launched a high-end Starway, and SAIC-GM-Wuling also launched a brand-new Baojun brand, striving to gain more market share while fighting for the brand.
The advantage of choosing to launch independent brands is that it can effectively cut high-end brands and old brands, avoid the confusion of users' cognition when impacting high-end markets, and avoid the damage of poor sales of high-end products to the original brands.
In contrast, it will be a more stable road to launch high-end products to lead the brand up and help the brand to be high-end. As early as 20 14, a new round of high-end road for independent brands has begun. From Haval H9, Chuanqi GA6 to Geely Borui, independent brands have launched high-end models to enter the high-end passenger car market.
Later, Chuanqi and Roewe also launched high-end models such as Chuanqi GS8 and Roewe RX8 respectively. Through positive research and development, they constantly launch joint venture products, changing the impression of their own brands in the hearts of consumers.
Similar to Xiaomi's highly acclaimed MIUI system, independent brands can be said to have achieved "overtaking in corners" for joint venture brands in the intelligent interconnection system of car and locomotive.
Through in-depth cooperation with local Internet systems, such as SAIC and Ali's zebra system, Iflytek, Tencent car networking, car version of Gaode/Baidu map, etc. Coupled with the car voice assistant with higher recognition rate and intelligence, it can be said that it is not an exaggeration to hang a joint venture on the experience level.
In addition, grasping the future trend and vigorously developing new energy vehicles have become a new direction for independent brands to seek high-end. In addition to traditional car companies launching their own new energy brands (such as Geely's geometric cars and Aion series of GAC New Energy), new forces for car-making have also sprung up.
According to the traffic insurance data, in 2065,438+09, the sales volume of new car-making forces in China increased by 65,438+065,438+06.8% year-on-year, with a cumulative sales volume of 65,700 vehicles. Among them, Weilai, which has attracted much attention, ranks first among the new forces in car making with the sales volume of 20,752 vehicles in 2065,438+09.
Various high-end attempts have indeed brought more possibilities to independent brands. According to the data of the Association, the average price of independent brands in China has increased rapidly in the past three years, from 76,000 yuan in 2065,438+07 to 80,000 yuan in 2065,438+08, and then to 87,000 yuan in September 2065,438+09, an increase of 9%.
Going up is not done overnight.
But it is undeniable that the threshold of high-end market is much higher than we thought. Whether it is to improve the hard power of products or to break the inherent cognition of consumers, it is doomed to be a protracted war. For LinkedIn or WEY, Xingtu and Xinbaojun, Weilai, the market will inevitably leave them with a "narrow and difficult" track, which has a long way to go.
In the past 20 19, as an unprecedented winter in the domestic automobile market, even two independent high-end brands, Lake and WEY, which were highly anticipated by the industry, felt pressure.
Take Kling, which was founded just three years ago, as an example. Compared with the impressive sales of120,000 in 20 19, the cumulative sales of 20 128066 increased by 6.4% year-on-year, and the pace slowed down a lot. Ke Ling 0 1, Lingke 02 and Ke Ling 03 were listed one after another, which did not form the "superposition" effect of sales as scheduled. The sales of main models were sluggish, more because of the power of Ke Ling 03.
In April last year, influenced by China's VAT reduction policy, the manufacturing VAT rate dropped sharply from 16% to 13%. The brand that has never reduced its price since its birth, and the terminal price is only 3000-4000 yuan, has ushered in the only official price reduction, except for the brand 02? The official selling price of all products except the 2.0TD high-performance version is lowered by up to 4,000 yuan.
As early as 20 16, at the beginning of the stunning appearance of Lectra Berlin, An Conghui, president of Geely Holding, said, "Lectra will account for 30%-40% of Geely's goal of 2 million vehicles in 2020." However, under the general trend of the decline of China automobile industry, the difficulties and pressures faced by Lectra are much greater than expected.
Even so, the difficulty of upgrading China's independent brands can be imagined.
On the other hand, in the face of the cold winter of the automobile market that lasted for a whole year, joint venture brands generally adopt price means to maintain their market position under heavy pressure. As early as last March, North and South Volkswagen also set off a wave of price reduction of mainstream joint venture brands on the grounds of the reduction of value-added tax. For independent high-end brands that have inserted the price spear into the hinterland of joint venture brands, their living space will inevitably be further compressed.
In fact, up to now, the high-end road of independent brands has never been successful. Whether it is WEY, Link or Starway, in the current downturn of the auto market, we can only explore the way forward step by step with "trial and error".
In this regard, Professor Tsinghua University and Chen Quanshi, director of Tsinghua University Automobile Research Institute, have relatively calm views. "SUV dividends have really made independent brands taste the sweetness, but independent brands must first know whether they have the ability to support the brand and cannot blindly get together and take the high-end route. Foreign brands represented by Toyota started from ordinary models and achieved the high-end of their respective brands through decades of technical accumulation and breakthrough. "
Prior to this, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, also pointed out that "the high-end of independent brands must first be recognized by the market. For high-end, the simple understanding is that high-end technology or high-end quality is like castles in the air. If independent brands want to enter the high end, they must break through optimization in many aspects. "
In addition, Cui Dongshu said that the "recovery" of the auto market is the beginning of the outbreak, and car companies should be prepared to "slim down and keep fit" and reduce operating costs.
At present, the overall technical level of independent brands has been greatly improved, and first-line independent brands have gradually achieved breakthroughs in core technologies such as engines. However, brand promotion cannot be achieved overnight. On the basis of mature technology, independent brands still need to pay attention to the polishing of products and the accumulation of user reputation, and prepare for a long-term high-end war.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.