China Car Times

This blog has been posted by Martin Hayes, Chairman of  Automotive PR. 这篇文章是APR的Martin Hayes先生编译的

The global financial meltdown which is impacting on car markets everywhere presents a potential opportunity for Chinese auto makers. As never before car owners worldwide are going to be focusing on value for money – both in new car pricing and in ongoing running costs. In both areas, Chinese models have an opportunity to score well and conquer new markets and owners for themselves.

Yet, unless things change very fast, Chinese makers’ ability to capitalise on this opportunity will be severely constrained by a single factor: lack of brand awareness. Western consumers are brand loyalists – they want to know and understand the connotations of the car brand they choose.

This is something well understood by the most successful car brands – BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota and the rest. They guard their brand values fiercely and invest heavily in sustaining their brands across all markets with powerful, consistent and high-impact communications programmes.

In China, where ironically the importance of brands seems to be well understood on the High Street, with global names such as Prada, Gucci, Armani and many, many more battling it out for supremacy - auto makers have not yet grasped this issue. Leaving aside the JV operations (where of course linking up to a globally-renowned brand is a key added-value for domestic makers), few if any indigenous makers understand and have given due weight to this aspect of their marketing plans.

A single exception might be BYD which has both an understandable and pronounceable (in the West) brand name – ‘BYD – Build Your Dreams’ – and sizeable foreign exposure for it. However, BYD – where it is recognised – is a name for a battery not a car which may help with the company’s aspiration to produce EV and hybrid models but will be of little assistance for conventional vehicles.

But names like Geely, Chery, Brilliance, FAW, Lifan, Great Wall and many others are simply unknown and – where they are beginning to gain some visibility – not understood. When it comes to vehicles, ‘Made in China’ - generically speaking – means dubious quality, questionable safety and lack of design originality (ie: ‘it’s a copy’). It may also mean ‘cheap’ but that’s a very double-edged sword when the car owner is concerned.

‘You are what you drive’ is an old adage in the West but it has some basis in reality. Who wants to be seen driving a poor quality, unsafe copycat model, even if its as cheap as chips?

Those negative brand attributes are the ones which – all too often – Chinese makers have right now for their products. Attributes they don’t – in many cases - deserve but which they have because they are not fighting their corner and building brand values based on the strengths and attractiveness of their products and businesses. Because ‘brand image’ is not just about the vehicle, its about the whole ethos of the company and its philosophy.

The world knows that BMW, for instance, stands for cars which deliver high performance and are technologically advanced. Its an image the company has striven to achieve over decades of solid investment and product planning. Doubters queried if the little 1 Series might be stretching the brand too far but – unlike Audi with its clever but flawed A2 model – they seem to have carried the day.

Chinese makers need to wake up quickly to the challenges of developing distinctive worldwide brands which are clearly differentiated from the competition both at home and overseas. Those negative brand attributes which vehicles designed and made in China unfortunately have as a given can – and must - be offset.

The Chinese brands which are going to succeed in foreign markets are the ones which will stand apart – the ones which will demonstrate the power of their investment programmes, the excellence of their R&D facilities and the quality of both their production and their people. It’s a process which is slow to implement, takes real investment yet cannot be avoided.

So if a brand crisis in Chinese auto making is to be avoided – with almost as serious consequences for them as the financial debacle is having for the international banking community – urgent action is needed now. Building the brand is just as important as designing and building the car!