Speaking of the "linkage" between Wanda Group and the automotive industry, the first thing that many people think of is not that China FAW and Wanda Group announced that they launched a strategic cooperation in October last year, but that in early 2022, it was reported in the media that Li Hongpeng, former vice president of commerce of Hyundai Motor Group (China), joined Wanda Automotive Technology Service Company at the end of December last year as a general manager. Looking back at the real estate industry in the past 10 years, many giant companies have long been involved in the automotive industry, which shows that in the real estate industry, Wanda is not the "first person to eat crabs", but for Wanda Group and the entire automotive industry, Wanda Group's "entry" also has extraordinary significance.
Han Han once said, "False alarm is the best word in the world, a hundred times better than being elated, colorful, and smooth sailing." If Wang Jianlin had seen this sentence before, perhaps he could understand the deep meaning of it better than the average person. As early as the end of 2019, Wanda Group, as a giant in the commercial real estate industry, has already achieved asset-light transformation one step ahead of others, for example, when Suning and Evergrande were still engaged in "golden dollar football", Wanda had already taken the lead in divesting from Dalian Yifang Football Club, so that it survived the cold winter before the arrival of the epidemic black swan that most people could not predict.
In the blink of an eye, the domestic real estate industry has undergone another round of reshuffle, and industry giants like Wanda Group have also begun to think about their own transformation paths. Therefore, when Wanda Group and China FAW came together, it also caused a lot of media speculation: Is it true that after Baoneng and Evergrande, Wanda also began to enter the car-making track?
In fact, from the lessons of Baoneng and Evergrande, Wang Jianlin is very clear that in the face of the current market pattern of the domestic automotive industry, what Wanda can do is really not as simple as imitating Baoneng and Evergrande. Unlike Baoneng and Evergrande, Wanda Group, which has developed Wanda Plaza and Wanda Cinemas across the country in the past 10 years, has long ceased to be a real estate developer like Baoneng and Evergrande, but is more like a commercial real estate company. In addition to Shenzhen, the home of China Resources Group, Wanda Plaza has successfully planted flags in popular areas of first-tier cities across the country, successfully occupying the traffic highlands in the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
For Wanda Group, the automotive industry can indeed find a second growth curve with faster growth for their business development. However, this curve is by no means the "car-making" that Baoneng and Evergrande have done, but the "car selling" that Wanda has combined with the current industry development trend. As an example of the cooperation between Wanda and FAW mentioned above, when Wanda and FAW successfully "form an alliance", Wanda will jointly establish an automobile service company with Hongqi and Hongqi partners, and use Wanda's commercial plaza and cultural tourism project to build a "new Hongqi supermarket experience store", and it is expected that by the first half of 2022, the first batch of new Hongqi supermarket experience stores will be built in provincial capital cities across the country.
For FAW Hongqi, its parent company, China FAW, can be described as an excellent stage to display its talents. For FAW Hongqi, which has successfully transformed into a high-end brand in the past three years, if it wants to enhance its market influence and even market share in the new era of intelligence and electrification, in addition to improving its own model product strength, it also needs to show no less courage than new car manufacturers at the level of brand building and marketing services. Nowadays, when "Wei Xiaoli" and many second-tier new forces are opening stores in major business circles, FAW Hongqi not only has the opportunity to open stores in Wanda Plaza, but Wang Jianlin himself also personally "brings goods" for FAW Hongqi, so that FAW Hongqi can also clear more obstacles at the marketing level.
Thanks to Li Hongpeng's joining at the end of 2021, Wanda's "road to selling cars" has also ushered in many benefits. Opening Li Hongpeng's own work history, it is not difficult for us to find that he himself is a well-known high-end sales talent in the industry. For example, while working at Benz in Beijing, he led the formation of an efficient, profitable and sustainable national distribution network. While at Ford China, he formed and led the new National Sales Service Organization. During his time in Hyundai China, he was mainly responsible for the strategic planning and market development of the Hyundai Motor Group brand in China.
It can be seen that Li Hongpeng's main mission of joining this time is to help Wanda sell cars instead of build cars. As a high-end talent who has been engaged in sales work in the automotive industry for many years, Li Hongpeng does have more awareness of the underlying logic of "selling cars" than most of his peers. Thanks to Li Hongpeng's experience advantages, Wanda Group can also enhance its influence and market advantages in the new retail era as a "new force for selling cars" after successfully realizing asset-light transformation. As a "new force selling cars", Wanda may also be able to take advantage of the rapid development of its own brands to give more local car companies more reasons to refuse the invitations of China Resources, Baolong and Joy City, and choose to enter Wanda Plaza to sell cars.
It is worth noting that in addition to publicly announcing that Wanda Group's vice president and above executives have switched to Hongqi cars as a means of transportation, Wang Jianlin has not set a small goal of "earning him 100 million" as in the past after entering the automotive industry, or directly wants Disney to be unable to make a profit within 20 years. It can be seen that at this moment, Wang Jianlin is also more cautious about this new project of Wanda Group than ever before. However, for many independent brands that want to rely on new retail to get out of the circle, if they can catch this ride initiated by Wanda Group, they may be able to get rid of the dilemma of inner volume as soon as possible, and once again make multinational brands realize that the current Chinese people have already deepened their recognition of their own brands.