6On the weekend of 19th, the opening of Wuhan Jiangchen Tian Street, the largest and highest-positioned "city-level Chaoshang Cultural and Social Cultural Center" in Central China, and the first TOD urban complex in Wuhan, attracted countless citizens to "clock in". Interestingly, many parents who came to see the "HELLO KITTY Modern Era China First Exhibition" were "planted grass" by the Lantu space at the entrance. Many children surrounded the Lantu FREE (parameter Shu picture) (priced 313,600 – 333,600 yuan) that was listed at the same time that day and refused to leave for a long time.
The free space on the second floor is even more lively: not only does it gather a large number of customers and fans, but it also holds a unique "dialogue": Lu Fang, CEO of Lantu Automobile, Lantu Automobile CBO Lei Xin and other company executives incarnate as "product expert team MATE" to personally answer various "tricky" questions raised by booking users. The four limited-time rights announced on the spot for "Dading users" (exclusive luxury package, 3-year 0-interest car purchase, lifetime free charging and 3-year value preservation redemption) also aroused the enthusiasm of many prospective car owners, and the scene was very active.
Automotive News Agency understands that such communication will be just the beginning. With the opening of 7 Lantu spaces in 6 cities at the same time on June 16, Lantu has opened 14 directly-operated stores in 10 cities across the country. It is expected that by the end of this year, more than 50 direct sales channels will be established across the country, covering 20 core cities. At this time, Lantu Auto executives will also rush to these cities to listen to the voices of local users and make friends with users.
Such a down-to-earth scene, I believe that everyone will only see it in the "territory" of new car-making forces such as Tesla and NIO in the past; and Lantu FREE has made many "old drivers" in the media circle shine in terms of appearance, workmanship, and driving quality. You know, when DONGFENG MOTOR CORPORATION (hereinafter referred to as "Dongfeng Company") ‘s high-end electric brand Yoyah (referred to as "Lantu") was established on July 17, 2020, it was also complained that it was "old-fashioned" and "too traditional", and many people had doubts about whether Dongfeng Company, the "first to eat crabs" among central enterprises, "can successfully transform?" "Can it make high-end electric vehicles?"
Everyone must ask, why did the Landscape change so much in just one year?
1.
Product Power Transformation: LetLandmap is worth itusertrust
After arriving at Wuhan Tianhe Airport, when they saw that the pick-up vehicle was Lantu FREE, "Automotive News Agency" and others were quite surprised, they put forward various questions and requirements to the driver like a barrage: "This workmanship is very good, far beyond my expectations, which factory did it?" "What is the speed? 120 (km/h)? The filter shock is good, and the chassis is very solid." "If you turn on the’sports mode ‘, the triple screen will come down, right? Come on, come and experience it quickly!"
In fact, Lantu FREE, which is positioned as a "performance-level intelligent electric SUV", has already started a 40,000-kilometer long test across 13 cities in 9 provinces and opened in-depth test drives to citizens in 12 cities across the country. Of course, it dares to be so bold to let the "picky" media experience rest assured. While creating an intelligent experience that fits the user, Lantu FREE also focuses on performance, comfort and luxury. Lantu FREE provides two power solutions of extended-range electric and pure electric, with 5 driving modes, equipped with the world’s first one-piece lifting triple screen, front and rear multi-link independent suspension, air suspension and other high-end configurations. The NEDC comprehensive battery life can reach up to 860 kilometers, and the 100-kilometer acceleration is 4.5 seconds. It is the selling points such as power performance, driving comfort, and extreme control that have made many consumers choose this "new benchmark of domestic products" in smart electric vehicles.
"Automobile News Agency" learned that as of now, the "TOP5 cities" that have booked Lantu FREE are Wuhan, Shanghai, Chengdu, Beijing and Guangzhou. The first batch of users accounted for 72% of male users, 28% of female users, and 85.9% of household users. The 30-40 age group has become the "main force". In terms of models, 81.1% of users chose the extended range version without battery life anxiety, and 69% of users chose to upgrade the "exclusive luxury package" (including air suspension and panoramic canopy, etc.).
Of course, the current biggest strength of Landmap FREE still comes from Dongfeng’s strong endorsement.
Admittedly, as a player of the "national team" and a member of the "millionaire club" of one of the top three Chinese automobile groups, Dongfeng’s "voice" and popularity in the field of new energy vehicles are not as good as that of new car manufacturers and some first-mover independent brands, but what is less known is that Dongfeng is not a "new player" in the electric vehicle industry.
As early as 2001, Dongfeng established China’s first enterprise specializing in the R & D and industrialization of electric vehicles – Dongfeng Electric Vehicle Joint Stock Company (reorganized as Zhixin Technology Joint Stock Company in September 2019, referred to as "Zhixin Technology"), which has achieved many technological breakthroughs and accumulation in the core three power and other fields. In 2016, Dongfeng began to lay out the entire value chain of the three power systems, and has accumulated rich experience in production and manufacturing by supporting Dongfeng’s own brands, Dongfeng Nissan, and Dongfeng Honda within the group, and supplying Zotye, Geely, and BAIC Foton externally.
The predecessor of Landmap, the H Division, has not "built cars behind closed doors" since it was secretly established in 2018. In addition to the "technical backing" created by Zhixin Technology System and Dongfeng Corporation’s Prospective Technology Research Institute, it has also reached in-depth cooperation with top supply chain systems including Huawei, Bosch, Tianhe, and Tencent in a short period of time, building a business value community. This means that when Dongfeng Corporation officially disclosed Landmap last year, this seemingly young high-end electric vehicle brand had already fully integrated the rich experience of mature car companies and the flexible innovation mechanism of new car companies. This is different from the "play" of many traditional car companies, but coincides with the new car companies.
"We rarely say that Lantu is a car company, but a user-based enterprise. The most fundamental thing is that we want to serve users, understand their needs, and operate their needs," said Lu Fang, CEO of Lantu Automobile. "All business logic of Lantu is designed around users. Traditional car companies are more about meeting the functions of products, but now what Lantu does is to meet the needs of users, which is very different in business architecture and business logic." Because of this, as China’s "new car-making strength", Lantu Automobile naturally has its own unique feature – from the perspective of users, so that more fuel owners can accept and adapt to smart electric vehicles at a lower learning cost.
At present, the biggest advantage of smart electric vehicles to attract most fuel owners is "intelligence". In this regard, Landmap does not blindly raise the level of intelligence, but fully considers the user’s high-frequency usage scenarios, and provides the most suitable driving habits, the most commonly used, and the most convenient intelligent driving assistance functions to the owner. For example, for high-frequency scenarios such as urban congestion, high-speed cruise, and night driving, Landmap FREE provides 20 intelligent driving auxiliary features such as ACC full-speed domain adaptive cruise, LKA lane keeping assistance, and AEB automatic braking, and is equipped with the NVS night vision system that is rarely equipped with models.
During the experience of "Automotive News Agency", I noticed that during the driving process of Lantu FREE, the camera in the car will always pay attention to the driver. Once it is found that its line of sight deviates from the driving direction for a certain period of time, the VOYAH Attention Awakening Mode will activate the voice and prompt tone to remind the driver to find a rest stop for rest. Of course, the driver can also respond "I’m fine" and "I’m not tired" to disarm the warning. Although this function still has room for optimization, it is not difficult to see Lantu’s Internet thinking from it.
In response to users’ complex parking "pain points", Landmap FREE fully considers various parking scenarios, not only supports common vertical and lateral parking spaces, but also can cope with complex scenarios such as 45 ° and 60 ° oblique train spaces, ramp parking spaces, etc. It is currently the only model that supports oblique train head parking, realizing the most fully automatic parking scenarios currently covered.
"As a data-driven, technology-driven, user-driven company, what Lantu needs to do is to drive the development of the automotive industry with the most advanced technology. In this era of fierce competition, if you are not fast enough and advanced enough, you are likely to be eliminated." But at the same time, Lu Fang also stressed that Lantu and users need to create a symbiotic relationship of mutual growth, not a simple business relationship, so "we must not toss users, then we can only toss ourselves. Although a technology may not be 100% safe, we must strive to achieve 99.9% or even higher security, otherwise how can consumers feel at ease? Maybe colleagues always say that I am not very traditional, but when it comes to security, I am really traditional."
It is worth mentioning that in terms of autonomous driving technology, which has attracted much attention recently, Lu Fang promises to open data to users in the future (under the premise of ensuring the privacy of car owners), and to conduct product co-creation: "But we can’t treat users as our experimenters, which is unfair to users. We have plans for future autonomous driving technology, but on the one hand, it depends on laws and regulations, and on the other hand, it also depends on the real needs of users. If some driving technology can reduce your driving burden, I think it may be necessary, but let you completely increase the burden on your heart. When I’m driving, you always remind me that I don’t think it’s a good experience. So we still have to start from the perspective of experience."
"At present, we are in an era when domestic products are just right, and Chinese brands are experiencing the rise of brands. We hope to provide users with products and services that are’value for money, price is credible, buy without regret, use without worry, empower life, and harvest friendship ‘.’" For Lantu FREE, Lu Fang’s confidence is not without reason: as the official mass production of Lantu FREE on June 30 is approaching, the Lantu automotive team is working with partners to carry out a series of measures such as exquisite Quality Standard matching, special characteristics full guarantee risk investigation and confirmation, mass production supervision, and key supplier partners’ in-factory promotion activities to ensure high-quality delivery of parts during mass production. Whether Lantu can "become famous in one battle" can be described as this move.
2.
Transforming service capabilities: turning every user into a partner
"The development of China’s auto industry is inseparable from the growth of consumers. Now consumers, especially new energy owners, have a lot of thinking and research on cars, technologies, and future travel lifestyles. Their expectations are not only high-quality products and advanced technologies, but also hope that car companies will eventually bring a new lifestyle to them." Lei Xin, CBO of Lantu Automobile, pointed out in an interview with Automotive News Agency that Lantu’s goal of reaching users through "direct sales mode + APP" is being realized. While it can meet user requests faster, some "die-hard fans" have participated in the development process of new models and put forward many useful suggestions.
In fact, in the eyes of many media, thanks to the strong endorsement of Dongfeng Company, the product strength is not the shortcoming of Lantu, a young brand – after all, the Lantu FREE of extended range and pure electric "dual support" is born to solve the anxiety of users. It is also very targeted in the dimensions of intelligence, performance and comfort, and the whole series comes standard with many luxury equipment, which is comparable to a number of competitors. But in shaping brand perception and building a good reputation among seed users, Lantu does have a lot of homework to do.
To this end, like many new car-making forces, Landmap has built a marketing system and after-sales services system based on the direct sales model. Focusing on the core of "user-centered", Landmap has built APP and Mini Program online, established flagship stores, Landmap space, delivery service center, and full-function user center offline. Four different forms of stores, and built a product expert team MATE listens to users’ voices in direct-operated stores across the country. Later, Landmap will also meet user requests through continuous OTA.
Careful netizens will notice that the "C position" on the first floor of many popular shopping malls is no longer the "exclusive" of luxury or fast-moving consumer goods stores. Tesla, NIO, Ideal, Xiaopeng and many other smart electric vehicle brands have followed, together with Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and other 3C products, becoming the new "image responsibility" in the market. However, Lantu is still the first to create a high-end new energy brand among traditional car companies and adopt a direct sales model.
In terms of location selection of direct-operated stores, Lei Xin revealed that on the basis of full insight into consumer needs, Lantu follows the three elements of "being closer to the user’s home life circle, closer to the user’s entertainment business circle, and closer to the user’s work circle": "Affected by urban development, now 4S stores are slowly turning to the suburbs, making it inconvenient for users to see and buy cars. Opening urban spaces in high-end supermarkets can be close to the user’s living radius and life circle, and there is no need to go to the suburbs. For example, Shanghai Moon Bay Lantu Space is in a community, at the user’s doorstep. We can bring users the most convenient and favorite brand experience and communication method in a way that is more convenient for users to contact."
"Users can conveniently learn about information and products online, and quickly experience offline, so that users can communicate with us as partners, relatively easily. Everyone sits and drinks coffee, and is tired and rests to read books. In a sense, visiting direct-operated stores can become a way of life, rather than simply completing a purchase as before. Compared with traditional 4S stores, this is actually a fundamental change." Lei Xin also stressed that under the new retail model, the information and services related to products (vehicles and car services, etc.) must be direct, transparent, unified and of high quality. " For example, after users place an order with one click on the official Lantu Auto APP, they can see the whole process information of the vehicle from order generation, matching, manufacturing, logistics, and delivery. They can track it at any time and control it freely. "
Different from the traditional one-time buying and selling relationship, what Lantu Auto hopes for is long-term interaction, which is to cultivate "seed users" and cultivate the core user circle. "Seed users" are the first ripples that Lantu provokes in the market. They follow from Lantu’s first product and become strong advocates, and then the ripples of the second and third circles come. As Lantu Auto adheres to "user orientation" and "co-construction and sharing", actively responds to user concerns, and actively builds a platform for customer engagement of Lantu affairs, private domain traffic is increasing, and user identity is also forming.
It is worth mentioning that Lantu’s direct sales model also has a great "ambition" that is, like the founder of the 3C direct sales model – Apple Store, "it reflects the employee-centered corporate culture, attaches great importance to employee benefits and satisfaction, and then cultivates every employee into a’evangelist ‘of the brand."
"All customers who come to the store will feel our humility (Modest), positivity (Active), teamwork (Teamworking) and vitality (Energetic). We look forward to becoming partners on each other’s life path with customers, and jointly create a beautiful taste life with true zero anxiety." The head of Lantu Space Shanghai Ruihong Tiandi Moon Bay Store previously introduced to Auto News Agency: MATE culture is not only to reshape the relationship between employees, but also to become like-minded partners. More importantly, it can bring high-quality warm services to users, so that the brand value and product value of Lantu can be truly reflected through user operation. " Our entire team is building the Landmap MATE partner culture, which is to establish a relationship like classmates, family, and friends. When we are together, we don’t just come to do a job, it is best if you are the sales champion. I hope that everyone can make friends here, like family, discuss things together, learn together, make progress together, help each other, and realize value together. "
Write at the end
"The concept of user enterprise is easy to be accepted by everyone, but it is still very difficult to really achieve it." Unexpectedly, Lei Xin also put forward this request before the end of the interview: "I don’t have enough time to communicate today, but I still hope that everyone can give any opinions and suggestions on the product and experience link." For the future scale of the company and the market share of the product, Lantu neither talked about the vision nor "painted a big cake" (the only small goal is also very frank, that is, after the delivery of Lantu FREE, the sales volume will exceed 10,000 units quickly), but as a year ago, as far as possible to collect the most authentic views of prospective owners, potential customers and the media (even welcome "complain").
In the opinion of Automotive News Agency, it is this professional, honest and pragmatic attitude that subtly changes everyone’s opinion of Lantu – making more and more people in the industry start to look forward to it, and making more and more consumers willing to try Lantu FREE to see how much surprise it can bring.
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