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2021 is the year when the phenomenon of the new car-making forces completely out of the circle. From the Tesla brake failure incident to the Weilai assisted driving system controversy, in the negative news about new energy vehicle companies, there are car company fans who have made similar behaviors such as star fans' control and evaluation, washing the floor, etc., which makes the outside world ashamed.
But 2021 is a very special year. In June, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a two-month "Qinglang· In the special action of 'chaos rectification' in the rice circle, the behavior of mutual tearing and insults between celebrity fans, pulling and stepping on the battle, and accusations and comments have been severely cracked down. At a time when many rice circle chaos is strictly controlled, there are many voices questioning whether the rice circle of car companies should also be rectified.
Among the new car-making forces, Tesla and Weilai's rice circle is the most mature and successful. What is less known is that Ideal Car and Xiaopeng Car have also worked the rice circle.
The new car-making forces are obsessed with rice circles, which is actually a trendy move under multiple factors. However, the circle of consumer groups has also spawned a series of problems and potential concerns. Just as many traffic stars are eaten by fan behavior, new car-making forces should also beware of being eaten by the fan economy.
In fact, among the owners of new car brands, there are many rationalists who reject the behavior of the rice circle. There is also a certain fan group, behind the seemingly crazy behavior, there is a rational consideration of interest replacement. There are also fan groups that maintain a neutral and critical attitude towards the brand, always advising the brand, the most famous such as Weilai's mysterious fan group "Wei Xuefen" (Weilai's Schrödinger fans), which not only neutralizes the outside world's impression of the car company's rice circle to a certain extent, but also allows the brand to discover its own problems at any time.
But critical fan behavior is actually a phenomenon in the star fan group, and the results are often not very good. For example, Yang Mi fans once boycotted Yang Mi's company and asked Yang Mi to refuse to participate in the self-made drama, but in the end, Yang Mi and the company refused to respond, and Yang Mi's popularity fell. There are also Zhao Liying fans who boycotted Zhao Liying and Wang Yibo's second partnership, which eventually triggered a large-scale mutual tearing incident between the two fans. As a result, Zhao Liying's official fan support will be banned, and Zhao Liying herself will be damaged.
In these cases, fans firmly believe that their actions are well-intentioned, but in the end they still bring greater negative harm to the star himself. It can be seen that the extreme behavior in the fan group, even for the purpose of considering the idol, may cause harm to the idol. This means that even if the critics are differentiated in the rice circle of car companies, the self-purification ability of the rice circle itself and the positive significance of the car companies are still doubtful. The car companies themselves have to face up to the hidden worries after the rice circle.
01 Why do car companies cook circles?
The new car-making forces are not so much about rice circles as they are more concerned about user experience. The most obvious is the market reason, new energy vehicles as a new product, in the market entry, the need for rapid measures to open up the market. The rice circle is undoubtedly an excellent means to open up the market and create momentum. Just like fans in the entertainment industry will love beans to passers-by Amway, as long as the fan base of car companies is fanatical and radical enough, it will also help the brand to "go out of the circle".
According to the official data released by WEILAI, in 2021, WEILAI users recommended 25 cars per capita, and the most recommended cars were 95, and its combat effectiveness was equivalent to gold medal sales. Li Bin also revealed in an interview that the orders generated by the recommendation of weilai's old car owners accounted for more than 60% of Weilai's total sales.
In addition, as a new thing of new energy vehicles, in recent years, vehicle accidents, assisted driving problems, price reduction controversies have occurred frequently, with the circle of fans as a backing, the car companies involved can also get enough support in the public opinion controversy.
The behavior of fans at the primary level includes controlling comments, washing the floor, etc., and fans with greater appeal even try to take on the work of corporate public relations and strive to guide public opinion. For example, AFTER the ES8 car accident fatality, THE OWNERS of NIO issued a "Joint Statement on the Cognition of NP/NOP Systems by NIO Owners". Although the statement is controversial, it has played a certain role in "stabilizing the military's heart" internally.
The second reason is that new car-making forces such as Wei Xiaoli have Internet genes themselves, so they are also destined to be different from traditional car companies in terms of business models. When traditional car companies and consumers are most closely related, only during the purchase period. Once the vehicle is sold, the relationship between the enterprise and the consumer is no longer close, and consumers will only visit the 4S store again when the vehicle is repaired, and the company will also set its sights on the next batch of consumers.
The essence is that the new car-making forces of Internet companies will use long-term thinking to the fullest. It is undeniable that the domestic new car manufacturing forces have been more or less affected by Tesla in the business model. In 2015, Tesla's official online accessories store launched iPhone phone cases, scarves, surfboards and other non-auto parts products, which also made the domestic new car manufacturers Mao Sai suddenly open and follow suit.
Nowadays, the official APP of Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng are equipped with mall pages, food, clothing, household goods, outdoor products, electronic products and other categories are involved, and there is a great posture of contracting car owners' food, clothing, housing and transportation.
From left to right, the shopping mall pages in weilai, Xiaopeng and ideal APP are listed
The development of e-commerce business can undoubtedly help car companies win the second growth curve. In addition, car company fans themselves highly identify with the culture of car companies, resulting in fans following the trend even if the price of goods is more expensive. On the other hand, at present, the e-commerce business of car companies is frequently specified at too high prices, and there is a suspicion of cutting leeks. For example, a tissue box on the shelves of the ideal mall is priced at 99 yuan and the membership price is 88 yuan, while netizens found that the same tissue box is only priced at 58 yuan on Tmall.
The last reason for car companies to create a rice circle is technical reasons, Weilai mainly attacks the "three electricity" technology, ideally focuses on range extender hybrid technology, and Xiaopeng focuses on intelligent technology. In general, the level difference between new energy vehicle companies is not huge, which leads to abnormal competition between car companies, and when the technology does not have much room for internal volume, it is destined to be involved in new dimensions such as offline services. Through the use of the Haidilao-style service spirit, Wei Xiaoli has established a strong connection with consumers, and fans have been transformed into brand fans in addition to being moved.
As for why consumers are willing to become fans of car companies, in addition to the factors of "touching" and "identification", there are also some interest considerations. Initially, new energy vehicle riders existed as a niche group, and consumers had a sense of superiority, and then evolved from maintaining their own superiority to maintaining the reputation of car companies.
In addition, the second-hand market price is also an important factor driving car fans to spontaneously maintain car companies. Some new energy car owners told "new entropy": "At present, in the second-hand market, the price of electric vehicles is significantly lower than that of oil vehicles, in addition to the inflated price and loss factors, the low recognition is also an important reason." If you are a new energy vehicle owner, in order to be able to sell a good price in the second-hand market in the future, you will also spontaneously maintain the reputation of the tram on the Internet. ”
02 The means by which car companies eat circles
The means by which car companies circle the consumption group, on the one hand, lies in the online and offline mobilization of consumers by the founders of car companies, and on the other hand, the implementation of diversified community operations and marketing actions by car companies.
Li Bin of Weilai, Li Xiang of Ideal Car and He Xiaopeng of Xiaopeng Motors have all intentionally shaped their own KOL identities in the automotive technology industry. Li Bin and Li Xiang are the founders of EasyCar and Autohome respectively, and it is precisely because of the background of the automobile platform that Weilai and Ideal can take the lead and successfully transform some car enthusiasts into seed users of the brand.
He Xiaopeng is a technical background, although there is no deep foundation in the first two, but the background of the original Ali executives is not low, not to mention that Xia Heng, co-founder of Xiaopeng Motors, has an automotive engineering background.
Like Musk's main output position with Twitter, Channels such as Weibo, official communities, and car clubs have become an excellent position for Wei Xiaoli's founders to export KOL views.
At present, Li Xiang's Weibo fans are 1.97 million, the number of Weibo posts is as high as 11,000, the daily blog frequency is very high, and it is famous for "dare to say", and has contributed to topic events many times.
In mid-January, Li Xiang forwarded a Weibo message about Wen Wei, CEO of Tuanche, announcing the construction of the car, and wrote his entrepreneurial experience more than an hour later to corroborate the connotation that Wen Wei was a "liar" and "refreshed the bottom line of entrepreneurs". Later, Wen Wei did not want to show weakness, and countered that Li wanted to "forget his vision and judgment." This frontal tearing, full of gunpowder, but also further consolidated Li Xiang's dare to say that the persona, attracted fans to echo at the same time, but also incidentally output the ideal car with the "rhythm control" car spirit.
Li wanted to be Wen Wei, the founder of Tuanche.com
He Xiaopeng has 1 million Weibo followers and a relatively low frequency of blog posts, but he is the only one of the three who has a Zhihu certified account.
Since January this year, He Xiaopeng has answered two questions led by Zhihu officials in a row, one answer outputs the view that "smart cars are the new track of the next automobile era", and the other answer outputs the "exploration" spirit of Xiaopeng's team. In January, He Xiaopeng also raised a question about technology and self-confidence in Zhihu, and the high praise respondent under this topic turned out to be the official Zhihu account of Xiaopeng Automobile. The combination of the founder and the brand's official account has made a slightly contrived marketing for Xiaopeng Automobile on the knowledge of more middle-class users.
Li Bin's Weibo followers are only 500,000, and the frequency of blog posts is very low, and he only posts one in a few months. But in the official APP of Weilai, Li Bin's number of fans is as high as 108,000, which does not seem like much compared to the number of Weibo fans, but they are all "living fans". In contrast, Li Xiang only has 16,000 fans in the Ideal Car APP, while He Xiaopeng has not established a personal authentication account in the Xiaopeng Auto APP.
In fact, Li Bin is notoriously keen on "running out", and before 2021, Li Bin will visit car owners every weekend to absorb opinions. Moreover, the NIO Day held every year is also an excellent way for Li Bin to convey NIO's actions, achievements and concepts to the outside world.
In general, Li Bin has the most heroic complex, Li Xiang has the hottest temper, and He Xiaopeng is the most unusual.
But it is worth noting that unlike Tesla's users, most of whom are Musk's fans, Wei Xiaoli's fans themselves are fans of car companies, and the founder has a certain status in the hearts of fans, but it is not equivalent to the feelings for car companies. The establishment of fans' feelings for car companies comes more from the official operation actions.
The best fan economy is Weilai, online operations, official offline activities, fan assistance activities, car club activities and other aspects of the characteristics, the most innovative service is NIO House, which is the offline space where Weilai continues to establish contact with fans, which can provide consumers with various forms of offline entertainment. In addition, WEILAI also makes full use of Haidilao-style intimate services. For example, at the beginning of the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, NIO searched for medical masks for car owners around the world, which was unanimously recognized and praised by car owners.
Ideal and Xiaopeng's rice circle operation methodology is generally in line with Wei, but at the same time, it has also made its own characteristics.
Ideal focuses on online operations, in June 2021, the media exposed the ideal control and evaluation incident, in a group chat called "Ideal ONE National Riders Association Core Members", the group friends have "reported the control and evaluation work" to a group member named "He Rui - Ideal Car". It can be seen from the chat records that pacifying the emotions of the defenders, disintegrating the rights protection group, and taking the rhythm are the main tasks of the people in the group. In the end, the ideal official denied the official identity of the group, but some car owners told the media that the group was established by the ideal official to contact the heads of local car clubs.
In the ideal ONE forum and ideal APP of the auto home, anyone who raises the ideal shortcomings and problems will trigger the cynicism of other car owners. The vast majority of car owners have the same unconditional maintenance of the ideal, which is the same as the control and evaluation behavior of the rice circle.
Xiaopeng Automobile's online and offline operation and marketing are slightly weaker, but the advertising delivery is relatively good. Unlike Weilai and the ideal core users who are mostly middle-aged men and dad groups, Xiaopeng has set his sights on young people, sponsoring rap variety shows, doing double 11 live broadcasts, asking Venus, Zhu Yidan and other big V endorsements and other actions, which not only reached the young consumer group, but also made a difference with friends.
It is worth mentioning that in order to attract the attention of female consumers, Wei Xiaoli and all three have opened official accounts in Xiaohongshu. Among them, Xiaopeng's data performance is better, and the lottery activities of the official account are very frequent.
Xiaopeng Automobile Xiaohongshu official account lottery activities are very frequent
With the joint efforts of the founder and the official operation, new energy vehicle consumers have established extraordinary feelings for car companies, and are willing to play the list, control and evaluate, oppose black, and respond to assistance for car companies. However, these rice circle behaviors will also be transformed into negative events in special periods. For example, the "charter bungee bungee" incident of Weilai car owners during the epidemic period, some car owners carrying private goods, and issuing a joint statement on the issue of assisted driving on behalf of all car owners have been accused by the outside world of being the result of excessive rice circle.
03 Hidden worries under the circle of rice
The drawbacks brought by the user's meal circle to the car companies have begun to appear, the most obvious point is that after the too many circles, it leads to the rejection of the new car forces by the onlookers. In terms of knowledge, it is similar to "Why do Weilai car owners seem to have been brainwashed?" "Problems abound. Such an external impression also deters people who want to start new energy vehicles.
Regarding the "extreme behavior and brainwashing" of Weilai fans, there are three most famous evidences, one is that the owner pays millions of dollars to advertise for Weilai, the second is that the owner helps Weilai to pull a new one, comparable to the gold medal sales, and the third is that the owner of the car takes the child to pick up Li Bin, or travels thousands of miles to come just to see Li Bin. Similar incidents have occasionally occurred in Xiaopeng and Ideal.
The president of the Xiaopeng Car Friends Association puts an elevator advertisement for the Xiaopeng Automobile Organization
Owners of new energy vehicles do not agree with the negative labels that the outside world has put on them. Li Jun, the owner of Weilai, said: "I think the media has demonized the tram fan base. Weilai's target group is the middle class, and weilai's car owners have mostly been ABB (Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW) owners, who have chosen and recommended Weilai after rational thinking. The biggest advantage of Weilai is that it gives the owner an experience that exceeds expectations, such as the comprehensive after-sales service. Based on this unexpected experience, car owners are willing to recommend Weilai to friends and family. Moreover, Li Bin and other executives will take the initiative to come to the user group and eat and participate in activities with everyone. Acts such as pick-up are only reciprocal payments. ”
As for the exaggerated rescue behavior, Li Jun believes: "Many of the rescue activities are the casual actions of car owners, such as some of the users of Weilai are advertising company owners, when Weilai needs support, he will use the empty advertising space in his hand to advertise to Weilai, which has no loss for him, but the return is very large, such as the sense of community honor, the sense of circle identity, and the establishment of potential cooperative relations with Weilai." There are also high-end clubs such as golf clubs, wine tasting clubs, and camping clubs within the NIO Club. Within the club, riders can also reach cross-industry cooperation and benefit each other. However, car owners will not talk about these hidden interests to the outside world, so they mistakenly believe that tram fans are particularly extreme, and they pay for advertising or something. ”
But in the eyes of the outside world, the fanatical love of car company fans sometimes does make the outside world ashamed. For example, the recently out-of-the-loop divine comedy "Powerful Country Has Weilai" is a song created by a middle-aged female owner of Weilai for Weilai. This is not the first time that Weilai has gone out of the circle with "cultural and entertainment works", at the NIO Day in 2019, the choir composed of Weilai car owners performed the divine comedy "Self-cultivation of Electric Vehicle Owners".
The "Weilai" created and sung by the owner of Weilai was called the Divine Comedy by netizens
The owners of the new car forces refuse to be labeled, the onlookers resist the new car because they are afraid of being labeled, and the car company seems to have led to a two-way misunderstanding inside and outside the circle.
The excellent market performance of BYD's tram business has put a big question mark on the necessity of new energy vehicle companies. According to data from the Prospective Industry Research Institute, in 2020, IND occupied 13.4% of the market share in China's new energy automobile industry market, and the market sales volume was the first. Tesla accounted for 10.06%, ranking second, and the new energy vehicles of traditional enterprises such as SAIC and GAC also far exceeded the market share of new car manufacturers such as Wei Xiaoli. In this way, the Wei Xiaoli who are obsessed with the rice circle seem to be tossing and turning a lonely.
Li Jun believes that "although Tesla does not do the user community, but the sales are far ahead, the reason is that its technology is industry-leading, and even open source for peers, which is its greatness." This also shows that products are always the first competitiveness, and doing community and operation is just the icing on the cake. In addition, BYD's target consumers are different from the new car manufacturers, BYD's trams are for the mass market, the price is low, so the sales volume is higher. But the disadvantage is that BYD itself is difficult to make high-end products, unless it launches a high-end sub-brand. ”
If the technical strength and market share of Wei Xiaoli continue to rise, do they still have the need to continue to eat circles?
In this regard, different views have emerged in the industry. Li Jun believes that even if the user scale of the new car-making force continues to expand, the rice circle will continue. Taking WEILAI as an example, it did not ignore the emotions and needs of old users because of the addition of new users. Old users often enjoy greater discounts than new users, so old users will not be lost. As for whether enterprises will face difficulties in adjusting and reducing service standards after the expansion of user scale, Li Jun believes that enterprises will adopt reasonable suggestions, and there is often no conflict between these suggestions.
But zhang Teng, a car enthusiast, told "New Entropy": "I think that whether it is the inner volume of the service or the operation of the rice circle, it is the forced behavior of new energy vehicles in the niche period." Consumer services like NIO are too costly to operate. And these costs, in fact, are evenly spread to the user's head, so the price of the new car force is inflated, and the second-hand market recognition is low. Therefore, when new energy vehicles are gradually popularized, the new car-making forces are destined to return to the normal play track, reduce product prices and operating costs, and the car company rice circle will naturally die. ”
Since its inception, this group of fans has been synonymous with extreme behavior, and examples of fans going to the other extreme because of love and hate abound. In December 1980, legendary beatles lead singer John Lennon was shot and killed by premeditated fans. In 2021, the former top stream Zhang Zhehan was completely banned because the fans took off the powder and stepped back, which triggered a domino-style exposure bottom and a collapse of human design.
The fan economy is a double-edged sword, and the deliberately cultivated fanatical fan base, although it will bring great momentum and wealth to the stars themselves, also hangs a sword over the stars' heads, threatening their lives at all times. The new car-making forces that are playing with the fan economy should also be careful that the tragedy of the entertainment industry is repeated on them.
(Li Jun and Zhang Teng are pseudonyms in the text)