The crown sword points to Audi for a year, but Toyota’s positioning remains in doubt
Our reporter, He Fang, reports from Beijing
On December 11, for more than a month, with the help of a high-end social magazine and a well-known portal website in China, ten elite figures selected from 100 successful entrepreneurs were defined as "Crown Elegance" in the form of a charity dinner.
The birth of "Crown Yashi" is the first time FAW Toyota Crown has played a "humanistic card" in marketing. This is also FAW Toyota’s largest brand marketing activity since the new crown was listed for one year.
In fact, at the beginning of the launch of the new crown, both in terms of product and marketing, the target was the extended version of the Audi A6. At that time, Hideaki Matsugi, general manager of FAW Toyota, bluntly stated that the goal of the new crown was to "strive to surpass Audi". This "Yashi" selection activity, which is directed at the target audience, cannot help but be linked to Audi "Yingjie".
Dedicated to promoting the philosophy and lifestyle that Audi represents, "Audi Hero" was established in February 2005 and is composed of outstanding representatives and mainstream elites from the fields of art, culture, business and sports, and currently covers hundreds of social elites from all walks of life.
In the high-end luxury car market, it is rare to promote brands that focus on "humanities brands". Celebrity endorsement of high-end luxury models is currently only used by Mercedes-Benz. In any case, brand promotion that makes full use of the celebrity effect depends on persistence. Not only that, the white-hot competition of high-end luxury cars in China has been pushed to the highest level of brand competition by the three major German brands. From an emotional point of view, "China Identity" will be a test for Crown, whether it is facing Mercedes-Benz’s "Dream Car" or "BMW’s Joy".
In fact, in terms of Chinese identity, Crown has no lack of history in China. It began to enter China in the 1970s and became popular. The earliest group of luxury car owners in China still retain their recognition of Crown’s brand value. However, due to historical reasons, Crown withdrew from the Chinese market for about 10 years. It was during this time that German luxury cars rose rapidly and occupied a large market share in China.
Rejuvenation has become a new trend in luxury car consumption in China, and Crown is no exception. "According to our survey of Crown owners who have been listed for more than a year, we found that this generation of Crown owners is younger, basically around 35 years old," Gao Fang said.
The next step, in the process of winning the recognition of the crown in China, how to accumulate the brand of the crown in China decades ago and cause some resonance among the new owners of the crown may be a breakthrough point for the promotion of the crown brand. It is understood that the current sales of the crown model are basically stable at 4,000 units per month.
In fact, due to the weakness of its own brand and the "ceiling" with Toyota’s internal Lexus, the new crown did not occupy a dominant position in the competition with Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.
After the launch of the new crown, sales were in an unstable state. According to data, the car reached more than 6,000 units in January this year, but it gradually declined from June this year, and even occasionally fell below 4,000 units. FAW Toyota’s series of marketing actions are also to control the downward trend of the crown.
"Crown has been pointing competitors at the Audi A6L, and Toyota believes that the biggest problem with the old crown compared with Audi is that it is not big enough, and after the new crown is lengthened, all problems can be solved, but in fact it is not." A Toyota dealer believes that "Crown’s biggest competitor at present is Teana."
As a new replacement model, the launch of the new crown a year ago was highly anticipated by FAW Toyota and all its dealers.
"In fact, many of the Crown’s configurations are highly technical, but a common problem is that these configurations are not available at acceptable price points, such as more than 300,000 of the Crown’s main models," said the dealer. "At present, the profit for the Crown in the Beijing market reaches 40,000 yuan."
Under Toyota, the Lexus brand itself competes with Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. Under the "ceiling" of Lexus, the risk of the crown competing offside is very high.
An industry insider who has long studied high-end luxury cars told reporters that the foundation of all marketing success is first and foremost product positioning. Crown may open up another market segment and use Buick Boulevard, Chrysler 300C, Teana and other models as competitors. He suggested that in the face of Lexus’s "ceiling" and the weakness of the brand with the three major European luxury cars, the Crown brand should choose to return, focus on cost performance, and increase the configuration under the same price.
In a way, Crown even has to learn from Teana. "Nissan is taking a completely pragmatic line, while Toyota is the opposite, because Toyota has always believed that its brand value is high and it can provide better service. Teana also targeted Audi when it first went on sale, but later adjusted its positioning, and now its monthly sales are stable at around 10,000 units," Toyota dealers finally said.
