Production | sohu auto · auto cafe

Author: Li Dehui

  After three years of confinement, the chinese automotive market has also undergone a "transformation", and the shanghai auto show is bustling with excitement. In addition to the congested popular vehicle company booths, many supplier companies also have crowded booths. At this year's auto show, the attention of suppliers reached a new high in history, with booths built adjacent to vehicle companies. Not only was the popularity good, but some founders were also surrounded in the middle to learn about or discuss some technical and product details. However, this is only a scenario where professionals such as media day are more involved. A staff member from a supplier company revealed to sohu automobile that on public open days, the booth was rarely visited, and consumers flocked to the entire vehicle booth. In this contrast, we have learned from our communication with supplier companies that there are still differences within the company regarding how to expand the brand of the supplier company, even for companies with technological content. However, the experience of industry leader intel tells us that brands are not just labels for the strong, but also weapons to resist competition and market volatility risks. Brand building may save the enterprise from crisis.

01 Every era has an 'X Inside'

  In the 1990s, intel spent $500 million to lead the largest brand promotion event in silicon valley history, placing stickers for "intel inside" on products of computer co brands. A market research result in 2000 showed that intel became the second most well-known brand in consumers' minds, with coca cola being the first.

  Relying on its strong marketing capabilities, intel's "smashing action" carried out through its service capabilities defeated its two formidable rivals, ziloger and motorola, and then relied on the "intel inside" marketing campaign launched to occupy users' minds and strengthen its monopoly position.

  Entering the era of intelligence, qualcomm has taken over intel's position in the mobile phone industry; in the automotive industry, with the development of autonomous driving, nvidia is expected to become the "intel" in this field. In the 2022 computing power competition, nvidia became the biggest winner in brand building, relying on large computing power chips.

  In the automotive industry, among Chinese companies, Huawei and Horizon have done relatively well in this area.

  There is no partner such as Jihu, Celis, and Avita who does not consider Huawei's technology and brand endorsement as selling points. Among them, Avita also uses CHN as the abbreviation for Changan, Huawei, and Ningde Times, empowering the Avita brand with Huawei.

  Horizon founder Yu Kai has repeatedly elaborated on this logic in public forums, aiming to turn Horizon into an Intel in the field of autonomous driving, even in the era of robotics, and dominate the ecosystem.

02 Supplier requires reverse endorsement from vehicle manufacturer

  Compared to brands such as intel, qualcomm, and nvidia, the results of huawei and horizon are not ideal.

  For huawei, the strong brand position established in communication and smartphones has not been effectively transferred in the automotive field. Consumers acknowledge their technical strength and influence, but they have not converted them into orders; on the contrary, the mentality of being too eager to open up the automotive market has made it appear too strong in cooperation, completely overturning the dominant and subordinate position in the whole zero cooperation relationship. Yu chengdong of huawei also complained in different ways on different occasions about the lack of awesome of the car partners, which led to the inability to release its technology and brand strength.

  For the horizon, entering the public's view and being accepted by more vehicle companies comes from the benchmark image established through cooperation with ideal automobile. However, the advantageous position of horizon does not come from its emphasis on computational efficiency, but from the "nanny like" service that ideal car founder li xiang referred to, as well as the demonstration effect brought by the best-selling ideal car. Of course, the contribution of product strategy cannot be ignored, which is the assistance of software algorithms and the lowest possible development threshold.
  It can be said that horizon pursues the effect of "intel inside", but the objective reality is that the ideal car endorses horizon in the opposite direction.
  In the field of intelligence, the case of horizon is not an exception.
  In the public's view, lidar companies such as hesai technology and tudatong are mostly understood because of ideal automobile and nio automobile. The technical interpretation of their 128 line lidar products at128 and 1550nm falcon series is mostly completed by vehicle companies. Therefore, in the minds of consumers, these technology companies have a relatively low sense of existence, or are only focused on products without a brand.
In fact, this is also understandable, because vehicle companies are unwilling to let suppliers take the lead.
For example, chen hong, chairman of saic group, stated in his "soul theory" that there is a master-slave relationship between the entire vehicle enterprise and its suppliers; chu ruisong, vice president of baidu group and general manager of the intelligent automobile business unit, stated that baidu is willing to respect the position of vehicle companies as value chain leaders.
Staff from companies such as iflytek, yikatong, and shangtang technology have also told sohu motors that vehicle companies hope to create a strong atmosphere and do not want suppliers to have a strong sense of presence. Therefore, most companies have chosen to actively cooperate with vehicle companies and remain silent.
However, don't vehicle companies really need a strong component brand to cooperate with product dissemination? Obviously not. So, why is there not enough emphasis on brand building in the field of intelligence? Because it hasn't been hurt yet.
The reason for promoting intel's brand building is that ibm requires intel to license chip patents to another chip company for the purpose of stable production. This leads to the possibility of intel being marginalized or abandoned.
  As technology gradually matures, this situation may also occur in hesai technology, tudatong, xinchi, heizhima intelligent, and other enterprises.

03 Supplier brand is passively defined

  In addition, if companies do not actively define their brands, they may be passively defined by vehicle companies or consumers.
At the beginning of the year, ideal automobile released more than l7/8/9 products, with the entry-level l7 air version and l8 air version equipped with power batteries from honeycomb energy and xinwangda, respectively. Other mid to high-end versions and the entire l9 series were provided by ningde times.
After the release of the information, there are two specific feedback for power battery consumers: Firstly, not using ningde era batteries is a reduction; secondly, the lower priced l7 air uses the power battery of honeycomb energy, which means that the technology of honeycomb energy is not as advanced as xinwanda.
Although ideal automobile did not explain the reason for its product planning, these two issues gradually settled into inherent impressions and spread in the market amidst consumer discussions.
The staff of honeycomb energy stated that they are also troubled by this issue.
Therefore, this also reminds enterprises that are struggling to run, if they do not have the ability to monopolize technology, they need to prepare themselves with an additional strategy to cope with market fluctuations or risks. There is no partner who doesn't want a strong teammate, just doesn't want them to break the rules and steal the limelight.