Car home: Winning the "Black Swan" with Digitalization

[? A billion euro guide? ]? This epidemic is also the trigger point for the automobile industry to fully embrace digital change.

By Zeng Zeng Le

Editor zhangyan

"How about we do a live broadcast together on Valentine's Day?" Four days before Valentine's Day, Shao Haifeng, co-president of car home, sent a WeChat to a person in charge of SAIC passenger cars. The two sides hit it off.

After 24 hours, the live broadcast was completed.

On Valentine's Day, Yu Jingmin, deputy general manager of passenger car company, became the anchor of "Fat Head Fish", and this "segment hand who delayed building a car" was really on fire. "Happy Valentine's Day", "Buy it at 666", "Want to buy a MG 6" and "Roewe take a ride", with a total of 500,000 online interactive live broadcasts of SAIC Valentine's Day, ignited this online marketing. This is an in-depth cooperation between car home and the OEM in a special period, and it is also the first time that car executives sell cars live in China.

In 17 years after SARS, another black swan flew over China, which bound China's economy.

At this moment, China's automobile industry has been greatly affected, with production blocked, resumption of work delayed and consumer demand slowed down one after another. At this moment, how to help the automobile industry quickly respond to the crisis? How can users get rich and varied information? How to ensure the safety of employees?

Street at night /pexels

65438+ 10 on 23rd of October, 29th of twelfth lunar month, at 10 on the morning of the news of the closure of Wuhan, car home Chairman and CEO Lu Min, co-president Shao Haifeng and other leading groups began to discuss countermeasures and schemes. Throughout the Spring Festival, the management and relevant front-line staff had almost no rest, and the adjustment plan was quickly determined. Car home hopes to serve the OEM, dealers and users in an all-round way and show the greatest sincerity and goodwill. In Shao Haifeng's words, "every word, every punctuation, every picture's color matching and graphic proportion have been discussed."

If there were car companies and dealers who were hesitant and worried about online marketing before, this sudden epidemic forced them to embrace change quickly. Digital transformation has become a task that enterprises must complete quickly. In this process, car home became the most important "partner".

0 1? Solve the "car enterprise demand list"

"What help do you want from car home?" During the Spring Festival, Liu Yue, Vice President of car home, and his team 1 interviewed the executives of 25 car companies. Faced with the uncertainty brought by the epidemic, auto executives are anxious. Soon, a "car enterprise demand list" was handed over to Shao Haifeng.

A car company in a key epidemic prevention area even put forward a very specific demand for Shao Haifeng-I hope that the car house can open some data for them in the background. "At this time, they can't go to the office, and they urgently need to track consumers' attention, clues, competing products and other information about their models, and they need car home's assistance." Shao Haifeng said.

Watchmaker/Yiou Automobile Analyst? Zeng le

In view of the difficulties of the main engine factory, Lu Min put forward the concept of "foresight, foresight, first", and car home immediately launched a series of digital online services, with the direction of "understanding the general trend, understanding the fundamentals, and making great plans".

The live online broadcast with car companies and dealers is only a part of car home's digital online service. Through the big data system, car home analyzes the changes in user behavior during the epidemic and deeply understands the needs of consumers; Taking the "Car Cloud" product as an example, it provides three services for car companies: intelligent early warning, intelligent diagnosis and intelligent suggestion. In addition, car home has set up an intelligent exhibition hall and an online virtual shop, which provide four functions: online car viewing, car selection, car booking and car purchase.

Under the epidemic situation, the biggest challenge for car companies is that the decision-making cycle of consumers has become longer.

Because all transactions cannot be completed online, consumers will definitely go to offline stores to confirm before buying bulk consumer goods such as cars. This prolongs the time from intention to transaction and adds more uncertainty.

"For car home, as an online platform, we mainly help OEMs and distributors turn this uncertainty into certainty." Shao Haifeng said. In this process, the most important thing is to "lock the order"-lock the consumption clues.

"The most important thing about lock orders is to use the form of' live broadcast+e-commerce'." Shao Haifeng said, "By launching a lock-up war, on the one hand, it can raise the attention of car companies, on the other hand, it can also allow users to leave clues and place orders online, thus helping OEMs and dealers to carry out business activities normally after returning to work."

During the epidemic, in order to let netizens know the latest auto market information and terminal car purchase, car home deeply integrated the resources inside and outside the station, made full use of the advantages of car home content and dealers' channels, and broadcast live every day 10-22, 7 days a week, bringing users auto market information and high-quality content.

Subsequently, during this period, the number of visits by car home increased by 25% and the number of stays increased by 35%.

"Auto company executives have seen this trend-online, mobile and digital will play an increasingly important role in promoting auto marketing in the future." Shao Haifeng said.

This epidemic may be the trigger point for car companies to fully embrace change.

02? Care about dealers

On February 10, car home launched a series of measures for dealers on the day when many dealers had not resumed work.

In view of the epidemic key areas including Hubei Province, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province and Huzhou City, car home launched four major support measures, including the reduction of the membership fees of car home Cheshanghui cooperative dealers in February, the extension of the assessment-free period, the provision of IM products for Cheshanghui intelligent technology customers for one month, the right to use the intelligent exhibition hall for luxury and standard customers for one month, and the provision of one-on-one intelligent exhibition hall operation training and data improvement suggestions for technology customers; For other urban areas in the country, the assessment cycle is exempt from inspection.

At the same time, in order to help dealers on the platform resist the risk of epidemic, car home and Ping An of China have customized the "E-Road Ping An Insurance Plan" for nearly one million employees of dealers, providing three major care guarantees including novel coronavirus guarantee, aviation accident insurance guarantee and public transportation accident insurance guarantee, with a total insurance coverage of 900 billion yuan.

In the initial scheme discussion, car home mainly discussed it from the business perspective, and designed the fee reduction for dealers, lightened the assessment and provided some free training. But after the first edition of the discussion, Lu Min, chairman and CEO of car home, said, "These are not enough." Then, he asked, "Dealers are our partners. Why can't we show more empathy and love to dealers like employees? "

"Dealers are not only our business partners, but also our business partners. We want a win-win situation. In difficult times, it should be done under cost control. " Lu Min made a speech.

Subsequently, the "E Road Ping An Insurance Plan" was born.

1100,000 population, insured amount is 900 billion, and the insurance cost in car home is about1100,000 yuan. However, Shao Haifeng said: "The cost is still controllable, and Ping An Group is doing related security services."

"At this stage, it is very important for dealers to maintain operational stability. Therefore, car home considers dealers and employees and hopes to provide a guarantee for these partners through the most pragmatic method and provide more confidence for employees to return to work. " Wu Tao, Vice President of car home and General Manager of Dealer Division, said. ?

A parked car/fender

The epidemic has curbed consumption, and dealers have become the first chain to be affected.

According to the survey data of china automobile dealers association Channel Branch, dealers reported that the Spring Festival holiday was affected by the epidemic, and less than 30% of the stores had sporadic car demand. At the same time, the delay of manufacturers and distributors in returning to work has also become a big test.

During the Spring Festival, due to the delay in returning to work, the efficiency of dealer clue follow-up decreased. Statistics show that the average clue follow-up time has increased from 2 hours to 4 hours, and the clue follow-up rate is less than 50%.

Car home is also using digital means to help dealers tide over the difficulties.

"At present, the biggest pressure faced by dealers is financial pressure, and the other is to enhance the customer stickiness of online marketing. Therefore, the most important thing for us now is to help dealers store customers, "Wu Tao said. "Now everyone has only potential customers. For the means of marketing, dissemination, promotion and transformation of potential customers, online means have become just needed, and we are making great efforts to make these products. "

Car home creates a real-life exhibition hall+virtual exhibition hall through VR and 3D technology to display personalized images, so that users can shop and choose cars without leaving home; Realize a variety of realistic interactions through 3D car viewing to create an immersive experience; Through a variety of interactive gameplay, it affects users' car purchase decisions and promotes intentional customers to retain capital.

Car home 3D car viewing/webpage screenshot

In addition, car home helps to realize online two-way real-time communication between users and distributors. Through the online customer service function, sales consultants can communicate with users in need online for the first time, grasp the needs and recommend sales policies to guide the transformation.

In terms of drainage, car home helps merchants get more online trading orders through the top traffic portal of two major e-commerce companies on the mobile homepage; By creating exclusive shops for merchants, live broadcasts, small videos, and buying cars at one price, we can attract users to place orders and promote commodity trading.

"Many leads are not used, resulting in a large number of customers losing," Wu Tao said. "This result also forced dealers to change their marketing model and explore new channels and tools to acquire and store customers. The number of dealers who actively consult digital tools such as online exhibition halls, 3D interactive car watching, and multi-scene real-time communication has increased significantly. "

03? Digital empowerment industry

The word "digitalization" is not new to car home. Is the key word of car home Intelligent 3.0 era.

After Ping An Group took office, car home has moved from the media era of 1.0 to the platform era of 2.0 with data technology as the core. Now, it has entered another stage.

In car home's "4+ 1 strategy", "4" is the four business sectors of automobile media, automobile e-commerce, automobile finance and automobile life, and "1" is data+technology. Lu Min believes that for car home, the undeveloped data is a gold mine to be developed. After that, car home will enter the intelligent era of 3.0, relying on AI, big data and cloud to form a new closed-loop ecology.

If car home in the era of 1.0 is a vertical media company, it provides decision-making reference for users to see cars, buy cars and use cars through content and channels. Then, car home, entering the 3.0 era, hopes to empower the whole industry.

For the realization of digital transformation, car home has a clear solution.

The first is the digital precipitation brought by "data+technology". Analyze user behavior through big data, realize the overall supervision of enterprises and improve operational efficiency; Based on AI technology, intelligent tools for the whole sales process are created, and scientific evaluation of management decisions is realized through man-machine cooperation. Based on this, car home builds a digital platform to open up the internal and external data of dealers, thus forming a complete closed loop.

"It can be said that we have transformed from an Internet media company to a data and technology-driven car marketing service company and car beauty company." Shao Haifeng said that an intuitive change is that in the past, car home may be limited to the marketing department of the OEM sales company, but now it has expanded to the R&D level; In the sales company, car home has expanded from the marketing department to after-sales, used cars and other businesses. "We have been serving the entire automobile industry chain horizontally. From the service content, we have expanded from the previous advertising and content services to data, finance and technology services. "

From a vertical media, to "4+ 1 strategy", and then to the transformation of 3.0 intelligent era, car home has created a series of intelligent products in the digital field, such as intelligent online sales, user portraits, photo recognition of cars, online auto shows and so on.

Take intelligent online sales as an example. "Intelligent online sales is actually car home assisting the OEM to build a DMS (Dealer Management System) on the cloud. We are actually exporting technology in this part. " Shao Haifeng said, "To some extent, car home is actually helping OEMs to develop in the direction of digital operation."

In Shao Haifeng's view, car home is more like an important platform to promote the digital transformation of the whole industry.

In the future, car home will build a three-dimensional service matrix for dealers in the core areas of sales, after-sales and customer service such as software, platform, infrastructure and data by opening up "big data +AI technology" to help car dealers realize digital transformation with full-scene digital services.

Serving C-end customers and empowering B-end customers is the key to car home's "4+ 1 Strategy".

Car home App/ Yiou Original

"After the whole industry has experienced this epidemic, OEMs and distributors will pay more and more attention to online marketing. This is a good thing for car home. " Wu Tao said, "For online products, we will do it unswervingly. In the future, online stores will be our focus. I think we really have to work hard to sell cars online. "

Car home tried to seize the opportunity of the digital wave by helping car companies to fight the "epidemic" and launching various online services. This also helps the industry to resist the black swan.

04? Waiting for "Xiaoyangchun"

If the epidemic is a crisis, it is undoubtedly an urgent self-help action for car companies and dealers to choose to sell cars online.

In 2020, the cold winter in the auto market is not far away. According to the statistical data of key enterprise groups, China Automobile Association predicts that the automobile production and sales in June 2020 will be 1.783 million and 1.946 and 5438+0 million respectively, down by 33.5% and 27.0% from the previous month, down by 24.6% and 1.8% year-on-year. In the cold winter and the spread of epidemic, digitalization has become a new battlefield for many enterprises.

Watchmaker/Yiou Automobile Analyst? Zeng le

Under the digital wave, this war "epidemic" is also full of more possibilities. For enterprises, "doing refined online operations may be a good thing for some dealers. The competitive landscape has changed, and some unsuitable people may leave early. For the remaining dealers, if the management can be refined to the extreme, cost saving and remote marketing can be realized, it may benefit from it. " Wu Tao said.

From a macro point of view, the emergence of this epidemic will make the marketing means of the whole industry further move towards digital management, which is undoubtedly a new opportunity. At the same time, dealers are also facing the challenge of accelerating the reshuffle of the industry. Wu Tao thinks, "In this case, who can do network marketing better may be accumulation. No one has the ability to do offline things now. "

On the other hand, under the "epidemic" of war, a new round of price war may be hidden. In Shao Haifeng's view, after the epidemic has eased, there will be a "small spring in the auto market".

But at the same time, a new round of price war may also break out. When the market demand is released again, car companies and dealers who are in urgent need of funds will "fight" to attract customers.

"The price war will be a vicious circle. You may have won this Xiaoyangchun, but you lost the last eight months. " Shao Haifeng does not agree with this strategy. He believes that in 20 19, car companies have already paid for the failure of the previous strategy. "In the early stage, if the OEM did not strengthen the product label and provide in-depth services to users, users' perception of products was always vague. Shao Haifeng said, "Users will pay more attention to the preferential strength in future transactions. "

Car home is optimistic about the future direction of the automobile market. Shao Haifeng said: "The impact of the epidemic is mainly concentrated in the first half of the year. I think that on the whole, this is only a small turning point and will not change the situation for one year. "

When the black swan flew by, car home quickly adjusted. At the same time, I also hope to empower the whole industry with my own strength. A sudden epidemic gave birth to the awakening of autobots. After 2020, the story of digitalization of the automobile industry will also open a new chapter.

Editor: zhangyan

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.