AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/12 Report--

BAIC finally replaced its long-complained product, LOGO. At the launch of BAIC's own product Zhida X3, the Saab brand, which used to be the high-end representative of BAIC, was suspended, which was directly named after the Zhida X3 and stopped using the letter "BEIJING". Since then, BAIC has had three forms of its own brand, including the "Beijing" Chinese logo, the "BEIJING" letter logo and the original Saab's "senova".

Wu Zhoutao, vice president of BAIC, said that the brand "Saab" is about to withdraw from the auto market, and BAIC will gradually return to the Beijing brand. In addition, the LOGO on BAIC Zhida X3 is only a transitional logo, and BAIC's own brand may use a "Phoenix logo" LOGO in the future.

The reason for BAIC to give up Saab is very simple. When BAIC started on its own, Saab was the main high-end brand, but it did not establish a high-end brand image in the market, but became a negative asset of the brand. BAIC's logic is that it will be easier to build a brand from the white paper stage, but it has not given up on Saab, which has been operating for many years. Last year, BAIC thought of transferring Saab to BAIC's new energy use, but the latter refused.

Saab is hidden in the snow, but it is not the first brand to be hidden. In the last five years, Xiali should be the most representative. Xiali was once a national car in China, but due to mistakes in management system and courage strategy, Xiali could only develop small cars, and then became a low-end car because of the solidification of the brand. After 2012, Xiali's sales plummeted.

In March 2018, Xiali announced that it would stop production. Subsequently, Tianjin FAW focused on the new brand Junpai. Tianjin FAW once wanted to revive Xiali, but because it has been fixed in a cheap, low-end brand, Xiali has almost no chance to make a comeback. And Tianjin FAW's hope of reversing the future can only be pinned on Junpai.

Compared with Xiali and Saanbao's "snow hide", China FAW's red flag and Pentium have chosen to change the label. In 2010, China FAW unified the logo as an eagle mark, but from the market reaction after the change, the effect is somewhat counterproductive. Due to long-term accumulation, in the minds of consumers, Eagle has long been formed to represent commercial vehicles and medium-and low-grade cars.

What is consistent with FAW in brand strategy is Dongfeng Motor. The three independent brands of Dongfeng will change their car labels collectively, and in the future, Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng Liuqi and Zhengzhou Nissan will uniformly use the round double Feiyan brand logo, which was regarded as another step towards the independent strategic goal of Dongfeng Group at that time. At present, there are many brands such as Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng scenery, Dongfeng style, Dongfeng demeanor and so on that use Shuangfei Yan logo in the passenger car plate.

When the fourth renaissance strategy was released, Red Flag also announced its new brand LOGO, which replaced the Golden Sunflower logo, which has been used for more than 50 years. The LOGO change is closely related to the brand's strategy of trying to rejuvenate and fashion, under which Red Flag sold 8000 new cars in June 2019, up 167 per cent from the same period last year. From January to June, Red Flag sold a total of 33200 new cars, which can be said to have counterattacked.

The change of FAW has obviously stimulated Dongfeng Motor, which is also planning changes to its brand LOGO. Learn from FAW's practice, Dongfeng independent brand is likely to adopt a new logo, which will first be implemented in Fengshen. In addition, Dongfeng is currently planning a new high-end brand, the project called "H Division", focusing on new energy, which will most likely be separated from the existing brand area in the future.

In fact, in the past two years, it is not uncommon for companies to change targets in their own brands. Among them, Chery launched a new LOGO in 2013, but it is not much different from the original logo. Geely returned to a brand in 2014, using atomic brand Dihao's LOGO as the first-tier parent brand, ending the era of multiple brands.

For independent brands, there are two direct purposes: one is to abandon the negative equity of the brand, and the other is to establish a new brand image. And this is actually two processes that complement each other. But the monk can not change the temple, no matter how to change, the name of the enterprise can not be changed, which creates two new dilemmas: in the continuous brand renewal, there is no brand accumulation, lack of stable inheritance. The consequence of this is that most Chinese independent brands are eager for quick success and quick profit-oriented, in the face of brand negative equity, directly cut off, which in turn deepens the mistrust of consumers.

In the automobile history of the world, many brands will encounter setbacks in their development, or even face the crisis of bankruptcy, but few brands will choose to change their predicament by starting a new stove, and the most is to "knock down and rebuild". Admittedly, it is much easier to build than to rebuild, but rebuilding may gain more than just short-term sales growth. Some analysts said that the problem with independent brands is that companies have a fluke mentality and hope to get the market in the short term, rather than building a long-term independent industry with the idea of a brand.

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