Changan Auto unveils new brand strategy

Relevant party of Changan Auto disclosed the other day that the company will officially announce a new brand strategy system by the end of this month. It is reported that the new system will partition the company's business brands and current two categories of product brands clearly.

Earlier this year, Xu Liuping, Board Chairman of Changan Auto declared that this year is a "Brand, Quality and Moving" year for Changan Auto. The new brand strategy system is formed after many years deposition, and is a strategic planning which can meet the challenges of future market and future development faced by Changan Auto.

Before the Beijing auto show in April this year, three R&D bases of Changan Auto, Beijing automobile research institute, Harbin automobile research institute and Jiangxi automobile research institute, were officially constituted ; Since May, Changan Auto has come into cooperative agreements with relative parties in Heilongjiang, Jingdezhen, Nanjing, Hefei and Beijing, laying a foundation for the extension of Changan Auto; In addition, Changan also entered into a Letter of Intent with French PSA Peugeot Citroen to set up an auto joint venture... Absolutely, Changan can be regarded as one of the most active players in the automobile industry recently. Actually, there is only one purpose behind all these big moves - to make Changan Auto bigger and stronger and ascend itself to the world-class automotive companies. From the "New Responsibilities, New Starting Point and New Blueprint" last year to the "Green Changan, Scientific Changan and Responsible Changan" this year, Changan Auto has been fully prepared in the aspects of R&D distribution, product structural adjustment, corporate culture building and production bases expansion. The releasing of Changan new brand strategy system is out of the consideration of the core planning, as well as a matter of course.

For Changan and other self-owned brands that thirst for getting stronger, there is a rare opportunity now. China has the world's largest automotive market, consumers' enthusiasm in both first-tier cities and second and third-tier cities is releasing rapidly with the consumer demand booming in quantity and variety, thus providing the auto enterprises a valued room to develop. However, the opportunity is companied by the increased competitive pressures. Besides those self-owned brands, joint venture brands are also an integrable part of China's auto market. They were formerly operating their businesses in their own price ranges and market segments respectively with little common ground, but now there appears an obvious trend that self-owned brands is moving upwards while joint venture brands moving downwards, thus the competition between the two sides is fierce increasingly.

After years of accumulation, self-owned brand autos have made great progress in product quality, diversity and service level. Comparatively, their weak brand competitiveness becomes a short board of growth. Brand is invisible and impalpable, but it's often a key factor that influences consumers' decision to purchase and that determines the productive value added and enterprises' profits. Therefore, the brand issue has been a ceiling that all self-owned brand auto companies should deal with and breakthrough. As far as Changan Auto, which has regarded the purpose of ascending itself to the world-class auto enterprises as a must, it is essential at this time to unveil its new brand strategy system, improve its brand architecture and make full efforts to enhance its brand influence.

To build a brand and endue the brand with values, the key point is products and services. As to Changan Auto, the strategic moves for improving product quality and lifting service level have started very early. The product quality and technical content can only be raised by independent innovation. In June this year, Changan Auto officially set up its eighth worldwide R&D center ?C the UK R&D Center, and the U.S. R&D Center will also be set up shortly. That implies Changan Auto has spread out a global R&D map of "five countries plus nine places being focused to different extents". Along with the formation of this global R&D structure, Changan Auto also implemented a talent strategy. Seven experts, who are elected as members of the state's Thousand Talents Program, have formed and led research teams in the vital areas of hybrid power, safety, vibration and noise for Changan. It is the use of "hardware" of R&D centers and the input of "software" of the talent pool that provide Changan power to guarantee the quality of products and the promotion of technical level in the future. In terms of services, Changan is working hard to establish sound systems in service management, technical support and spare parts guarantee management.