This year, many car brands, dealers, and car e-commerce companies have turned to the front line, launching new services such as VR car viewing and live car sales.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Company Zero Distance” (ID: zqrbgsljl)< /a>, author Gong Mengze.
The most lively place in 2020One or may be the live broadcast rooms of major platforms. With the outbreak of online sales, goods have also shifted from “small items” to “big items”. When some daily necessities can’t satisfy the fans’ growing enthusiasm for buying, “big guys” have finally appeared, such as cars.
Affected by factors such as the epidemic, this year’s auto market has a bleak start. According to data released by the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference a few days ago, after passenger car sales in January fell 21.5% year-on-year, retail sales in the first half of February fell 92% year-on-year. In response to the industry’s dilemma, a reporter from the Securities Daily noted that many auto brands, dealers, and auto e-commerce companies have moved to the front this year to launch new services such as VR car viewing and live car sales.
Among these, the new car building forces can be regarded as the first wave of force. As early as early February this year, 12 NIO centers across the country started live-streaming car sales. At that time, Weilai will broadcast live broadcasts on different topics at multiple times throughout the day.
Xiaopeng Motors then rushed to live on the horse. From February 10th to 29th this year, the cloud car watching will be broadcasted on different themes every Tuesday and Wednesday; in addition, Weimar also joined the ranks of Douyin live broadcast. After that, traditional car companies have gradually made efforts, including FAW Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan, SAIC Volkswagen, Distributors of many brands such as Jetta have opened live broadcast rooms during the epidemic as needed.
It is worth mentioning that in order to attract more people to watch the live broadcast, the live broadcaster will also invite brand experts, well-known auto media, auto KOLs, etc. as live broadcast guests. And this combination of “professional anchor + sales consultant” allows consumers to better and in-depth understand the car they want to buy.
However, as a large-value consumer product, the live broadcast effect of the car is far less than other categories of goods. Recently, super internet celebrity Li Jiaqi brought tens of millions of traffic and took over the Cadillac business. It is said that the cost of this 9-minute appearance reached 3 million yuan In addition to promoting the upcoming CT4, it also encourages fans to spend 1999 yuan a month to rent a car. The result is that in addition to earning enough attention for Cadillac, the actual conversion under tens of millions of traffic is almost zero.
People can’t help asking, whether these live car sales can really “bring goods” to help car companies convert into sales revenue, or just “brush face” to increase exposure and communication? In this regard, people in the automotive industry have expressed their opinions on the new automotive marketing in the post-epidemic era at this year’s China Automotive Innovation Summit hosted by the 21st Century Business Herald.
The epidemic is accelerating to catalyze the live broadcast of cars with goods
In fact, online sales will become the mainstream of automobile sales in the future, and digital transformation has become the key layout direction of major auto companies, especially the practical reasons why electric vehicles have after-sales profit margins and cannot cover the construction costs of 4S stores. However, selling cars live is not necessarily the best online sales model.
For this, FAW-Volkswagen Sales Co., Ltd. Executive Deputy General Manager Ma Zhenshan said that under the epidemic, due to the closure of offline stores or the sparse flow of people, customer acquisition is the biggest pain point of each brand, and online live broadcast is A means of gathering customers, so companies have to be a “chameleon” to feel Zhiwai various environments, Temperature, adapt to the market, adapt to the environment, adapt to competition.
Undoubtedly, the prominent advantage of live sales compared to offline sales is that it is more efficient to accumulate customers. Perhaps those who watch live broadcasts are not the target consumer groups, but live broadcasts have a huge advantage in reaching users. In addition, compared to offline auto shows, group buying and other activities, the cost performance is also superior, and the advertising effect may be better than that of some traditional channels.
In order to adapt to the market, car companies not only need to embrace the online live broadcast, but also need to reach the users of the new generation of consumer groups in the Z era. Live broadcast is only a younger carrier for reaching users. How to effectively Getting out of the circle and breaking the game really needs the support of content and services.
Zhang Qiang, deputy general manager of FAW-Volkswagen Audi Sales Division, also expressed his views. He believes that the original intention and core behind marketing actions are users. Audi chose Wang Yibo with its own traffic as the youngest brand ambassador this year; at the same time, it released China’s first virtual female car owner at the Guangzhou Auto Show-Miss Bai Yuekui from the National Comics Alliance. These are people who are more interested in Generation Z. In addition to cooperating with the National Comic Alliance and entering the National Comic Circle, Audi also entered the e-sports circle , Through a series of scenes focusing on the new generation of users to achieve circle marketing and strengthen the dialogue with the Z generation users.
Limitations and Dilemmas of Live Car Live
It is undeniable that live car sales can improve the efficiency of car viewing, and in a short period of intensive information release, consumers can quickly and comprehensively understand their intended models. But as cars are expensive bulk consumer goods, will the audience really place an order for tens of millions of dollars just by relying on your online tongue?
Song Jun, general manager of Geely brand sales company, is neutral on this. On the one hand, he said that from a vertical perspective, there are more live broadcasts and video attempts on e-commerce platforms and a lot of interactions around consumers; horizontally , The automotive products achieved further expansion, and reached cooperation with multiple brands such as home appliances and fast-moving consumer goods.
“In this process, the user experience is also more specific and diversified. However, as to whether to bring goods quickly, cars and daily consumer goods are very different, so in the future, more attention should be paid to consumers themselves. “Song Jun said.
In Changan Ford National Sales Service Organization President Yang Song The biggest dilemma of car live broadcast is that it is difficult to generate revenue in the short term. This is also the biggest problem in the process of online live broadcast, that is, dealers are difficult to stick to. Because dealers look at short-term results, live broadcast or sales do not Direct returns, so they need to think of some other ways to make them persevere in doing it.
In fact, from the general situation this year, it has indeed verified the huge dilemma of car live broadcast. Although the live broadcast rooms of automobile brands, from executives, Internet celebrity KOLs to sales staff, are anchors, all major platforms are involved, and there are live broadcasts every day, and the vehicles are not the same. But even such a scene of enthusiasm cannot conceal the most sad and deadly problem: the bleak conversion rate. This stems from an indispensable link in the car sales scene-the offline experience of the car.
According to the 2019 China Auto Sales Satisfaction Study (SSI) data, the percentage of customers churn before entering the store has been rising in recent years, which shows that many potential customers have given up buying before visiting the dealership. In this regard, automotive analyst Lin Shi said that online live broadcasting can strengthen remote communication between dealers and users. Remote communication is an excellent opportunity to understand customer needs and is also an effective means to create opportunities for offline transactions. It is necessary to build a conversion bridge between online and offline with dealers, and use the traffic of online live broadcast to achieve the effect of offline conversion. Live car sales should be included in the long-term marketing plan, and it will take longer to explore and more. Mature and traceable sales model.