Regional Marketing Power Retreat Test Car Prices

When the marketing environment faced by the company changes, the marketing management model is also bound to change accordingly.

This year, Dongfeng Nissan made drastic changes to the marketing system and established four regional marketing divisions to meet the needs of the new situation. Regional marketing has once again become a hot topic in the industry.

Automotive marketing experts told Hansong’s “First Financial Daily” reporter that with the continuous enlargement of business scale and the downward movement of market growth points, more and more companies have begun to choose regional marketing, and the connotation of regional marketing is also Constantly enriched.

Constantly deepening
With the enlargement of the scale of the company and the increasing development of the market, the number of dealers is increasing and the quality is uneven. It is obviously difficult to meet the actual needs of different regions and the needs of distributors. Crack this marketing management bottlenecks.

Until now, with the development of the automotive market in China, regional marketing has experienced three stages of development. With the start of the marketing changes of Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen in 2005, the concept of regional marketing in the automotive industry officially emerged. The focus of attention at that time was regional differences. Because there were relatively few companies on the scale at that time, the first and second line were the main force of market growth, and the demand for regional marketing by enterprises was not so urgent. Only a few companies such as Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen were doing this.

From 2009 onwards, with the gradual saturation of the first-line market such as Beidaguang and the beginning of the second and third-line markets, the main force of market growth shifted from the front line to the second and third line. In order to seize the opportunities for the growth of the second and third tier markets, more and more companies have begun to pay attention to and carry out regional marketing. Regional marketing has gradually become the mainstream of car enterprise marketing management.

This year, as the scale of the company becomes larger and larger, the market growth point gradually moves downwards, and car companies also continue to deepen regional marketing management. Represented by Dongfeng Nissan, the headquarters function accelerated its decentralization into the region, and led the regional leading regional marketing, deepening the development of third- and fourth-tier markets.

Judging from the approximate development history, the concept of regional marketing is continuously developing in depth, focusing on taking into account regional differences and focusing on expanding the third and fourth tier markets.

"Scout" and "Transmission"

The so-called regional marketing does not have a unified concept in the automotive industry. Most companies' practice is to divide the country into several regions based on factors such as market share and brand preference. The company moved the decision-making power of the market that had completely belonged to the headquarters to the major regions before, and responded to the actual situation of the region and responded to it. The target was to deeply cultivate the local market and strengthen dealer management.

Under the so-called regional marketing concept of unified industry, different companies have different titles, such as Dongfeng Nissan's regional business division, Shanghai Volkswagen's distribution center, and Guangqi Honda's business center. Although their respective titles are different, they are all regional marketing.

According to the different degrees of decentralization in regional marketing, there are two different metaphors for the regional marketing agency industry: "scout" and "transmission."

For regional marketing, Ren Yong, deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan, metaphorically stated that in the past, the headquarters issued offensive instructions from the rear, and in the future, the scouts in front of them locked in the target and guided the rear to focus on firepower. That is, the regional business unit is likened to a scout.

There are also companies that compare regional business units to gearboxes. The headquarters is an engine. The regional market is a wheel. The role of the regional business unit is to smoothly export the power of the headquarters to the regional market.

"Scout" is a relatively thorough regional marketing. The decentralization of authority at the headquarters is relatively large, with decision-making in front and headquarters becoming the logistics center.

Such as FAW-Volkswagen's marketing reform in 2006, is the market, sales, dealer management, channel construction and other powers forwarded to various regions, the region became the main body of the market. The regional marketing division established by Dongfeng Nissan this year assumes the decision-making power within its jurisdiction and reports directly to the headquarters.

"Transmission" still belongs to progressive regional marketing, and the decentralization of power has not been put in place. In the process of the cross-process between the management of headquarters functional departments and regional management, it will gradually advance to regional management and transfer power to the region little by little.

Such as Shanghai Volkswagen’s regional marketing distribution center, the Volkswagen brand is divided into 10 distribution centers across the country, and the Skoda brand is divided into 6 distribution centers. The Shanghai GM Chevrolet divided the country into 10 regions.

Regional marketing is still at the stage of exploration. A car company official said that regional marketing is not a panacea. After the implementation of regional marketing, according to the different market share and brand preferences of the region, different regions have correspondingly different tendencies. For example, for the German and US Departments, it will focus on developing the South China market, while the Japanese system will be the East China Strategy and the Western Development.

For regional marketing, the most troublesome business at present is the issue of how headquarters and regional powers are distributed. Decentralization is not enough, then the hands and feet of the region are constrained, regional marketing may be in the form of decentralization; decentralization of power, the headquarters do nothing, you may face the market out of control. In other words, the headquarters must not let go without delegating power.