The soul becomes a body, and the world is asking whether naming "HUAWEI" can change one's life?

Perhaps in order to solve the problem of "withholding the bid" after purchasing a car, AITO Wenjie directly changed its name to HUAWEI Wenjie.

Recently, AITO Wenjie's multiple official publicity channels used the new slogan "HUAWEI Wenjie" for the first time when promoting content about brand models, confirming that the previous "AITO Wenjie" will be renamed "HUAWEI Wenjie" "HUAWEI asks the world" rumors. At the same time, this subtle change has also triggered speculation about whether Huawei wants to gain power in the AITO industry.

Huawei responded: "HUAWEI is an ecological car brand of Huawei and a new business model pioneered by Huawei. The two parties signed a business deepening cooperation agreement in February this year."

Sales responded: "The long-term in-depth cross-border cooperation relationship and cooperation model between the company and Huawei have not changed, and the two parties have further deepened joint business cooperation."

Industry insiders have different opinions on this. Same view. Previously, the Huawei model triggered a sensational "soul theory." This time AITO asked the industry to follow Huawei's surname. Does it have a deeper meaning? Will Huawei's promise not to build cars be broken? This is quite intriguing.

The halo disappears, can strengthening IP be effective?

In fact, this is not the first change in AITO’s propaganda rhetoric in recent times. Starting from February 10 this year, the logo in the upper right corner of the AITO Wenjie Automobile poster has changed to HUAWEI, and even carries Huawei’s signature “chrysanthemum logo”. Previously, the logo in the upper left corner of the poster read AITO.

In addition, suspected AITO brand group chat records have also been circulated on the Internet. The content shows that it has reached an agreement with the top management of Celis. In order to strengthen the uniqueness of the brand, from now on, the brand rhetoric will no longer use "Huawei's deep empowerment", but "Huawei's comprehensive leadership". For example, AITO is a smart electric vehicle brand fully dominated by Huawei.

Combined with the responses from Huawei and Cyrus this time, it is confirmed that this name change is a long-standing plan, but why is it at this time? Is this just a coincidence? You know, the brand that was called "AITO Wenjie" before the name change has already suffered two consecutive declines in sales entering 2023.

Looking at other new forces, sales in February experienced significant growth year-on-year and month-on-month. This is a report card handed over by AITO in the context of the industry's largest drop of up to 30,000 yuan. It followed the large forces to reduce prices, but sales fell sharply. Perhaps even Huawei could not have imagined that such an embarrassing situation would happen.

The name change may be a routine operation after Yu Chengdong takes over Huawei's automotive business, but it is most likely to strengthen Huawei's brand aura and a good wish to increase sales. I wonder if Huawei has ever thought about whether there is a problem at the product level?

Sales are not good, or the product is not strong enough?

The price reduction did not bring about sales, but instead they started thinking about changing the name. But changing your name may not necessarily change your destiny. The symbolic meaning is greater than the actual meaning.

Looking at sales in recent years, after continuously exceeding 10,000 units in August, September, and October last year, sales fell to 8,260 units in November. At the end of December, they sprinted back to 10,143 units. level. Entering January and February this year, sales were 4,475 and 3,505 respectively. Such a sales decline trend has actually been foreshadowed for a long time.

In the early days when AITO Wenjie M5 and M7 entered the market, the product strength of Hongmeng Smart Cockpit and the halo of Huawei’s brand did attract many consumers to pay attention and purchase. But as time goes by, consumers who buy AITO Wenjie for HUAWEI have almost digested it.

In the final analysis, although AITO Wenjie is a new brand, the product level is still developed based on the existing models of Cyrus, and it cannot escape the shadow of Dongfeng Xiaokang, a cheap brand. It is obviously a higher-positioned Wenjie M7 that emphasizes comfort and large space, but the wheelbase is shorter than that of the Wenjie M5. There are also certain problems in the product strategy.

So, even if Huawei is deeply empowered, in the eyes of many consumers it is just an OEM product and cannot support such a high price. As Weilai, Ideal, Xpeng, etc. have launched more intelligent products, Tesla and BYD have launched a new energy vehicle price war, and its product strength has also declined, becoming one of the problems hindering its sales growth. .

Playing tricks to make way for the new series?

If the AITO industry wants to develop better, the cooperation model between the two parties must undergo qualitative changes. At the brand level, it is necessary to increase the "China content", quickly de-salize, and reduce Dongfeng Xiaokang's presence. At the product level, it has shifted from "deep empowerment" to "comprehensive leadership." For example, Huawei is fully responsible for product development, design, experience quality, etc.

Although AITO changed its name relatively quickly, it still had to face the dilemma of difficult to eliminate the inherent brand impression. Looking at the automobile market in recent years, BYD launched the Look Up, Geely launched the Galaxy, and Changan launched a dark blue, reflecting the higher pattern of Chinese automobiles.

When the original brand cannot support higher product prices, launching new series or new sub-brands and further attacking is the choice of most car companies. It will launch higher-end technologies and higher-positioned models to build a reputation, and then innovate the product matrix and technology upgrade from top to bottom to enhance the competitiveness of brand products.

Take Weilai as an example. It will soon release a sub-brand "Alps" with a price range of 150,000-300,000 yuan in order to cover a wider consumer group. So, will HUAWEI ask the industry to have a similar layout? In Uncle Zhong's opinion, at least he won't look down.

Yu Chengdong once said: "If we make products below 200,000 yuan, we will lose money, so we can't do it. But we will work with other brands to expand the market together." Launched. A new series or product matrix may be an inevitable choice to prevent AITO's weakening sales from further hampering Huawei's car-making plans.

Is this a sign of taking over and building a car personally?

AITO Wenjie directly changed its name to HUAWEI Wenjie. People are more concerned about whether Huawei will go out to build cars in person? Judging from the current level of cooperation, Huawei is fully capable of independently developing and producing vehicles. But the main reasons why it has not stopped building cars in person are as follows:

First of all, Huawei Terminal BG CEO Yu Chengdong once said: "There is no need for Huawei to stop building cars. By establishing the Wenjie Ecological Automobile Alliance, we have chosen A few car companies have joined together to jointly develop, maximize the experience, differentiate products, and jointly seize the time window for changes in the automotive industry. ”

Secondly, it is Huawei’s strategic contraction. In 2022, Ren Zhengfei, the main founder and president of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., issued an internal letter stating: "With survival as the main agenda, edge businesses will shrink and close across the board, passing the chill to everyone." Huawei must shift from the pursuit of scale to the pursuit of success. Profit and cash flow are guaranteed to survive the crisis in the next three years.

Finally, in the current environment full of uncertainty, even leading camps such as "Wei Xiaoli" have not yet achieved profitability and self-development, let alone Huawei, which has become a monk halfway. In addition, Huawei has always been the target of U.S. sanctions. The U.S. government prohibits U.S. companies from supplying chips and other technologies to Huawei. If there are further sanctions on auto-related parts, it will be difficult for Huawei to stand up.

The "Huawei will not build complete vehicles" commitment document signed by Ren Zhengfei will expire in 2023. At least for now, this commitment still holds true. However, Huawei's participation in the AITO industry has almost dominated the entire life cycle of the model from product definition, research and development, quality control to terminal marketing and sales. The name has also been changed to HUAWEI Industry, which is different from ending up in person. How big of a difference is there?

The most important thing is, can Huawei ensure Huawei's industry-leading sales trend and form sufficient scale advantages?

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This article comes from Zhong Shujiadao, the author of Yichehao. The copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprinting. The content only represents the author's opinion and has nothing to do with Bitauto