In China's luxury car market, no one has been such a fierce attack like Cadillac! After recording a strong growth of more than 50% in China in 2016, the first 10 months of this year, Cadillac once again pulled up an alarming 60% In 2010. 10 months to complete the 140,000 sales gains, so that Cadillac became the second-tier domestic luxury car market undisputed leader.
If nothing else happened, Cadillac will finish its best record of 170,000 in China this year and become the fourth largest domestic luxury brand in luxury car industry next to German-based ABB Group (Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW) Reached, China successfully replaced the United States as the world's largest single market in the past two years, Cadillac sales in the United States remained at about 170,000.
John's 'Three Axes'
Recently, Cadillac once again sounded the 'assault' in the Chinese market, generously named Beijing Wukesong Sports Center, and a replacement product - the new model Cadillac XTS launching ceremony 'move to' Beijing. Replacement XTS start selling price lower than 300,000 yuan, style design style followed the latest trend of Cadillac, to further enrich the configuration while maintaining the original set of powertrain, the result of this is the overall new car price lower than the previous generation of at least 50,000 yuan from Official pricing, originally positioned higher than the ATS-L's XTS, even a wide range of price overlap.
These offensive marketing moves were unthinkable in the past, but all seemingly impossible ideas are now changing to capture more sales in the Chinese market and make a bigger dream of globalizing the Cadillac brand Became the reality of Cadillac, and behind the attack was the "General Staff," John De Niechen, who joined Cadillac Global President three years ago.
Three years ago John switched from Cadillac to Infiniti Global President, thus opening the curtain on the global dream of revival of the 115-year-old American luxury car brand.
If compared to his' Infiniti 'Routines' at Infiniti, John's play on Cadillac can also be summarized with' Three Axes' - to re-invent the new car naming system (behind the product plan adjustments), move the brand headquarters to a new place, And then release a long-term strategy that will guide the brand's development over the next 5-10 years. Renaming, moving and new strategies are John's tried-and-true 'Three Axes.'
Under John's intense 'intervention,' Cadillac opened up a new journey of brand rejuvenation and remodeling, re-planning and naming the product matrix, moving the styling and marketing team at the brand headquarters from New York to Detroit, and releasing one Enough to make Cadillac in the next 5-10 years are rapidly growing globalization strategy.
Landing to China, Cadillac's most intuitive performance is the sales growth as a "hitchhiking" general hurricane .In 2014, the Cadillac brand in the global market sales of 263,697 cars, based on 250,739 in 2013, an increase of 5.2%. In China, Cadillac achieved sales of 73,500 units in 2014, up 47.0% from 50,005 units in 2013.
Rough estimate, Cadillac sales growth has reached 50% for three consecutive years up and down, for the urgent need to sell base plate international brand Cadillac, this is indeed a remarkable achievement, but the other side of the coin is that Cadillac therefore The industry has inevitably left a 'price-for-money' image, which is not a good thing for pre-purchase luxury car Cadillac users and brand reputation.
Cadillac's 'new play'
However, Cadillac began to implement a more subtle approach, that is, the strategic transformation of leveraging the full product updates, Cadillac is restructured relative to the German-based ABB Army value advantage, because Cadillac abandoned other second-tier luxury brands to follow suit ABB layout products 'catch fight' strategy, but out of the plight of the brand competition, re-development of different levels according to customer demand for products.
To sum up, Cadillac's 'new play' is that the body size and technical equipment to provide much higher than its aimed at the same level of competing ABB's features and experience, but also on the price to do more than the 'imaginary enemy' Low, so as to highlight the comprehensive customer value of Cadillac products through the strategy of "Reducing Dimensionality." This strategy is not a simple one: "I have a larger body than you, but the configuration is higher than yours but the selling price is cheaper than yours." of.
XT5 and CT6, which have achieved great success in the Chinese market at present, are the new generation products launched in China under the new naming system. However, the recently listed XTS is not considered as a new pawn under the brand new play. Pricing strategy and sales forecast, just announced the completion of the 'replacement' Cadillac XTS, is still likely to become the next 2-3 years, Cadillac sales of another pillar model.
From the terminal sales results and user feedback, Cadillac's 'new play' a chance, especially for most young Chinese users, most of them looking at their parents in the ABB luxury Corps options, Into a daredevil more than a half-step siege "siege" predicament, so I hope I own the luxury car in the selection of standards and value judgments, and more to highlight their own 'new era.'
John dominated Cadillac's 'new play' in China, targeting a group of younger users and the consumer psychology they demanded to differentiate themselves with their fathers.
'In China, we need to expand our customer base aggressively and rapidly to support the expansion of dealer network with strong sales volume, driving the brand's rapid growth with new product launches and a growing customer base.' 'Last week John accepted Auto headlines APP interview said that in the future, Cadillac in China first need is to continue to shape the brand and enhance public awareness of the brand, the second is to drive strong sales growth in this market.
Brand is '0' sales is '1'
To the outside world criticizes Cadillac for the existence of a "price change" or a rapid increase in sales through price cuts, John expounded his views on the Chinese media including the automobile headline APP.
"The Cadillac brand is currently not a market leader in China, so the price-leadership of the entire luxury car segment in China is not Cadillac." The price discount on the market is dominated by three market leaders We're still a follower now. '
In his view, the pricing power for this segment is not Cadillac, but rather the top three in Germany, so even a Cadillac-launched price offensive is not an offensive but is forced to 'follow'. "So, we 'S goal is to support Cadillac' s rapid growth in the Chinese market with first - class products, strong brand appeal and competitive pricing.
This is obviously the competitive environment Cadillac encountered in the United States home is obviously very different.John told the automotive headline APP, at home in the United States, Cadillac century-old brand with a history of accumulation and a strong user base, so even if the overall market slowdown Under the environment, healthy operation and high-quality growth are still maintained. One of the key indicators is to compare the discounts of new cars on competing products.
'At present, Cadillac vehicles in the United States the average transaction price of vehicles reached 55,000 US dollars, second only to Mercedes-Benz's second highest average transaction price.' 'John admitted that the Cadillac brand in China and the United States these two stages of the development of the market itself The differences make companies have different considerations when formulating their strategy. "In the United States, Cadillac has built a first-rate brand and a broad customer base, as well as a very sophisticated dealer network, so we need to focus on improving the quality of our business '
To put it plainly, the Cadillac combat in the United States at home is based on the original market base and brand reputation, based on the attack from foreign brands, and in the more competitive Chinese market, Cadillac is to lower the attitude to more powerful Competitors launch an attack John is well aware that in this challenging yet over-all-pervasive market, without rapid volume growth, no brand reputation or word of mouth can be formed.
The strategy of globalization that John set for Cadillac is clear and firm, and his "new play" is flexible and pragmatic. Of course, facts show that John understands the luxury car market in China and the younger user base here. Otherwise, It's hard to explain why Cadillac has achieved sales growth of around 50% in China over the past three years since its inauguration as global president.
Huge "feedback" from the Chinese market has convinced John that Cadillac's "new play" is working now, and thanks to strong growth in the Chinese market, Cadillac's brand-name dream of 'going out of the U.S.' is speeding up. Looking ahead, we expect Cadillac to reach 350,000 units worldwide this year and, in 2017, will record the second-highest annual sales record for the Cadillac brand in 115 years. "