Can the revival of the Dragon break the embarrassment of the legal system? Peugeot and Citroen still need differentiated positioning.

Last weekend, in Wuhan, the city of heroes, Shenlong Automobile held a huge cultural festival, which was a major event in the industry. This week, comments and interpretations about where Shenlong automobile is going began to ferment and spread. Or passionate, or sensational, or sincere or perfunctory, everyone Call for the recovery of Shenlong Automobile. Among them, the attitude of PSA Group and Shenlong Company is particularly concerned.

after all, this cooperative relationship, which has lasted for more than 2 years, is much like an old couple who love and kill each other but have to go on (PSA is the second marriage if you count Guangzhou Peugeot). Here, I don't say "but". Born and raised in Wuhan, after this epidemic, I hope that every enterprise in Wuhan will flourish and that everyone in Wuhan can live and work in their own city. The change of the automobile market is a severe test of the joint venture and cooperation.

Everyone in Wuhan knows about the Dragon. When I was in middle school, a distant relative said that his son had gone to work in Shenlong Automobile Company. I still remember his proud and stable expression. At that time, many parents in Wuhan, if their children could work in such large units as WISCO and Shenlong, really felt that they would never worry about it. Later, WISCO was merged by Baosteel; Shenlong Automobile closed its factory and laid off 4, people-nothing will remain unchanged.

I started to get in touch with cars by chance after graduation in p>21. Once, in the elevator of a building in Dongfeng, I heard others ridicule "Dongfeng Honda is worthy of employees and shareholders; Shenlong, worthy of employees, sorry for shareholders; Dongfeng fengshen is ... ". My understanding at that time was that the benefits of Shenlong were very good and the employee benefits must be great. Looking back at the data, Shenlong Automobile sold 37, vehicles that year, a record high. What was this concept at that time? In 21, the production and sales of China automobile market reached 18 million, and the overall situation was excellent. Chevrolet, Buick, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan and other brands flourished. Ford sold 4, units that year, and Dongfeng Honda sold 26, units that year-Shenlong ranked 12th in the national sales. ?

37, yuan in p>21 is not the best time for Shenlong. Five years later, the sales volume of DPCA exceeded 7, units, reaching an all-time peak. Let's take this opportunity to recall the scene in 215: Volkswagen and GM launched the NO.1 fight in the China market, Beijing Hyundai and Shenlong were equal, and Japanese Shuangtian secretly exerted their strength. Changan Ford and Shenlong Automobile experienced the highlight moment almost simultaneously, and in 216, they approached the sales of one million units. ?

If you just talk about Shenlong Automobile, there are really too many things you can complain about: the differences between China and China, product positioning and pricing issues, high-level personnel changes, organizational adjustment, quality issues, manufacturer relations issues, and some anti-human designs of French cars that make people laugh and cry ... It can be said that Shenlong Automobile accounts for all the problems of joint venture car enterprises, and everything is PLUS and MAX. The latest "Yuan+"plan released by Shenlong Automobile, "Five Hearts Guarding Action", is basically a response to the above questions.

When it comes to the decline in sales, Changan Ford, Beijing Hyundai and General Buick after 215-216 all had their own stubbornness or sluggishness, but they didn't reach the point where Shenlong is now dying. So, looking back from this time, overseas brands experienced a watershed in 216, and the lost beauty was not exclusive to Shenlong.

did Peugeot miss the bonus period of SUV? You can't say that either. In fact, consumers' brand goodwill continued until the domestic version 38 went on the market (it was not the same as the overseas version 38, and then a series of chaos occurred in 48 and 58, with 1, words omitted here). However, in 28 and 28, they could not squeeze into the mainstream circle of SUV with joint venture brand of 2,-3,, which largely led to the decline of Peugeot sales.

why didn't the dragon work later? Many people think that the design of French cars does not conform to the habits and aesthetics of the China public, and then the pricing is too high and unrealistic, and the French management is too arrogant. These are all complaints after the sales volume collapsed. A person's thinking and personality can't be separated from the original family and growth experience, and the culture and operation concept of a group enterprise can't be separated from the national cultural background and the industrial changes of the country. Such problems have always existed, and Shenlong didn't start to save itself today, but the running-in process was too unsatisfactory and both sides had management problems. ?

Now that Shenlong wants to be resurrected, its core can't be separated from products and services, but I think what Peugeot and Citroen models can arouse everyone's interest in the current market? I'm afraid this is an unavoidable brand positioning problem, and it's not as simple as "increasing distribution without increasing price".

Shenlong Automobile mentioned that it has a customer base of 6 million, which is really a valuable asset. However, how did these 6 million people come? When and where did you buy which car? It's worth ruminating. It's not difficult for DPCA to make a comeback, or it's already been studied. If you want to refine the customer portrait, I'm afraid you need to find the private consumer groups who really agree with the chassis technology of the French law system and can find the unique charm of Peugeot/Citroen among the 6 million, so as to further refine the more distinctive brand positioning. In other words, the images of Peugeot and Citroen need to be more pure or even more extreme, instead of being covered by group labels such as Shenlong Automobile and PSA. Luxury brands have done a great job in this respect.

In my impression, when I was in Wuhan 1 years ago, the young couple got married, the boss rewarded senior employees, and parents sponsored their children to buy a car, and spent more than 1, yuan on a Shenlong car, which was basically a choice without entanglement. ? However, in the early years, people who bought cars out of the herd mentality were not loyal customers of the brand. These groups may have followed the crowd into the arms of the public and Japanese, and those customers who really experienced the powerful technology of the legal system and passed on word of mouth are the real wealth of the base. Does the future Shenlong automobile want to take back people who follow the crowd, or to attract a group of accurate users again?

So, let's leave a question here. Will Shenlong Automobile still insist on the publicity of legal system tonality in the subsequent promotion? Or spend time telling China consumers what is the essence of French cars and where is the technology of PSA? Then study who is the accurate customer group.

did the colleagues of "Miscellaneous Talk on Vehicle Industry" have a deep test drive a while ago? Tianyi PHEV, his experience is that the car is really easy to drive regardless of its appearance. In addition, he also said something that made me feel incredible: Peugeot Citroen's products don't pay much attention to life cycle. At present, car companies at home and abroad are accelerating product layout and controlling costs through the concept of platform architecture. Whether the previous price of Shenlong Automobile is too high is more or less related. ?

when interviewed by the media, the senior management of Shenlong frankly said, "In the past, we introduced what PSA had, but didn't really plan the products.". It suddenly occurred to me that in 211, I met a friend who was engaged in research and development in Dongfeng. I asked him, why didn't Shenlong do it because of its good benefits? At that time, he said that Shenlong didn't need people like him, mainly recruiting people in manufacturing technology.

At the communication meeting of DPCA after the Cultural Festival, Zhang Zutong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Group, deputy general manager and chairman of DPCA, said, "The brand is OK and the products are not bad. Why did you encounter this difficult situation today? It is necessary to find out the cause of this difficulty. I think that Shenlong needs to do what it should do. "

what is the right thing to do? There must be a commodity plan in it. He said: "Now PSA realizes that they (before) have spent a lot of money on maneuverability, and they also realize that China customers prefer big screen and intelligent networking ecology, and they spend less energy in this respect. They have realized that they should spend more energy in this respect. In the future, Shenlong will integrate these things on PSA systems." It is understood that in order to realize this change, the shareholders of Shenlong are strengthening the system between R&D and enhancing the development capability of Shenlong itself. This is obviously not an easy task-other families are trying their best to solve problems, and Shenlong needs to deal with emotions and rebuild confidence first.

At present, Japanese and Volkswagen are competing in the passenger car market, and have entered the PK of electrification stage. A number of new cars of Korean brands have been released intensively, and there is no shortage of technical reserves in the field of electrification. In addition, the recovery of Changan Ford is obvious to all, and its experience and play may be of more reference value to Shenlong: it has experienced the differences of ideas and product problems between the two sides of the joint venture, but now Ford's various behaviors have shown that it knows who it is and where it will go. For example, at the strategic level, it is determined to set up a R&D center in China, introduce Ford explorers, enjoy the intelligent network connection, and make Ford's sharp exploration. At the management level, it is necessary to build competitiveness with "kindness" as the core concept ... Don't underestimate the word kindness. The bread here contains Ford's reflection on the China market and psychological guidance to China consumers. The problem to be solved is also to improve the visible shortcomings and highlight the invisible values.

back to the dragon. "Increase the allocation without increasing the price, and apply the configuration that customers pay attention to and use at high frequency to the main sales level models", "Build and launch 14 new models in the next five years" and "Continue to promote the E-motor strategy. On the basis that all existing engines meet the national six B emission standards and achieve" three liters and one drop "(power increase, torque increase, control increase and fuel consumption decrease), MHEV light mixing and national seven R&D will be fully started. "

The above is the intention of Shenlong Automobile to" make products more China ",especially the electrification layout, which conforms to the general trend; Specific changes at the product level, including new C5, 48, 58 and C4L? You have to wait until next year to see it.

The direction is certainly good, and Shenlong will definitely get better. This year, there is already a good trend, and the worst is 219. After all, the foundation still exists. With financial support and greater dominance, Qi Xin will make a little effort in all aspects of research, production and marketing, and Shenlong will not fall. The key is what attitude the two brands will live in the future. Therefore, the management improvement of Shenlong Automobile and the brand remolding of Peugeot and Citroen in China market are actually two totally different topics.

In this Dragon Culture Festival, what we see more is the determination of last stand, a Shenlong automobile. As for how to distinguish the product positioning between Peugeot and Citroen and how to create a differentiated brand image, PSA needs to come forward more, figure it out with Shenlong and tell everyone together.

pay attention to the gossip about the car industry, and talk about cars, play cars and talk about cars together!

This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.