AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/20 Report--

This morning, the # BMW mini# topic rushed to the top of Weibo, sparking heated debate in the industry.

The thing is, at the 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show, a puzzling scene took place at the BMW mini booth because the BMW mini booth could receive free ice cream, but when Chinese visitors were about to go up to pick it up, they were told by the staff that it was "over", and then the Chinese little sister left the scene somewhat frustrated. However, it is incredible that a foreign friend went to pick it up a few seconds later, and the staff kindly and enthusiastically took out the ice cream from the incubator on the side and introduced in detail how to eat the ice cream. seeing that the foreign friend's approach to ice cream was a little clumsy, the staff even taught it by hand, with a bright smile and very kind eyes. It is completely different from the previous attitude towards the Chinese little sister.

The scene happened to be recorded by the audience, and the audience was very impolite and went directly to ask if he could get the ice cream, but the staff once again said that the ice cream had been distributed, so the viewer proposed to open the incubator to check. If there was no ice cream in it, he would leave immediately, while the staff rejected this request for reasons such as "download APP" and "daily limit". Then suddenly a male employee took the incubator directly away.

The completely different reception methods of the relevant staff on the BMW mini booth have been accused of "differential treatment" and "worshiping foreigners and fawning on foreigners", which has triggered heated discussions and heated discussions.

However, in addition to anger, there is a question worth deliberating: which side of the staff is the little sister who gives out ice cream? Some bloggers speculated that the two sisters may be the staff of an ice cream brand, which reached a cooperation agreement with the BMW brand to promote each other. So, through the LOGO on the incubator, some bloggers found out that the relevant ice cream brand is "Luneurs".

Data show that Luneurs is a French handmade ice cream bread brand, five years since it opened its first store in 2018, from along the street to modern shopping malls, and then to Disney town, has more than 10 stores, covering the whole of Shanghai. It is understood that MINI China released two messages on April 17 and 18 respectively saying that there would be Luneurs limited ice cream delivery at the MINI booth of the Shanghai Auto Show, but the above two Weibo messages could not be found so far.

MINI China apologized to the staff at the BMW mini booth for refusing to hand out ice cream to Chinese visitors at the Shanghai Auto Show: the "Shanghai Auto Show Live Gift-Sweet Pet" launched by MINI was intended to give sweetness to the children who visited the show. Everyone was unhappy because of our poor internal management and staff dereliction of duty. We sincerely apologize for this! We review ourselves and improve management, strengthen internal training, and strive to provide every friend with good service and experience. Once again, I sincerely apologize to all of you!

But, obviously, MINI China's apology has not been recognized!

After this incident was exposed, the flow of people at the BMW mini booth was so large that they all went to ask for ice cream, but they couldn't get it!

MINI, originally a British carmaker, has a history of 63 years since it was acquired by BMW Group in 1994. According to data released by BMW Group, the MINI brand sold 292900 vehicles worldwide in 2022, of which 28700 were delivered in China, accounting for only 3.63% of the total sales in China.

It is worth mentioning that the night before the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, BMW held a large-scale brand night to imagine the future. At this press conference, BMW posted golden sentences such as "the trend of China today will lead the direction of tomorrow's world", "China is the future", "BMW is in China", "if you can excel in China, you can excel in the world", and "BMW's confidence and commitment to China will never waver", in order to emphasize the importance of the Chinese market. Chipze, chairman of BMW Group, said: "the trend of China will lead the world." China is BMW's largest single market. BMW participates in and supports the development of China's automobile industry and is committed to becoming a fellow traveler in China's journey to modernization. "

It turns out that the importance of China to BMW is indeed self-evident. In 2022, BMW Group delivered a total of 2.3996 million new cars worldwide, down 4.8% from the same period last year, of which 792000 were delivered in China, down 6.4% from the same period last year, accounting for 33.0% of the total global sales.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat