Zhang Xiaojun: Audi is not afraid to fight price war

On March 20th, the heartbeat of Shanghai, the first stop of the “City of China” urban cultural interactive experience project, was officially launched. This activity aims to integrate the regional culture with the brand culture, strengthen the interaction with the regional market, and through culture, arts, etc. Establish deep emotional communication with the regional public, so as to bring more passionate and tasteful brand experience to users.

As the first domestic brand culture experience activity tailored for a city by a car brand, the first stop of the “Xinhua China” series of activities is based on the in-depth exploration of cultural memory and the character of the times, with photography, sculpture, painting, and multimedia. This kind of artistic expression shows the unique urban temperament of Shanghai as a city of fashion. It shows Audi's profound understanding of the cultural differences between Chinese cities and regions and their precise handling.

At the event, Zhang Xiaojun, executive deputy general manager of FAW-VW Audi Sales Division, accepted an interview with Nanfang Daily. He said that the Audi brand is undergoing a transformation from the "most valuable" to the "most aggressive" luxury brand. In the future, Audi will continue to communicate with the user through heart and mind through emotional marketing across culture, art, sports, and corporate social responsibility.

In 2015, it became "the most attractive brand"

Reporter: Where is the purpose of organizing "Spiritual China"?

Zhang Xiaojun: “Smart China” is the first brand interactive experience activity initiated by a car brand and based on the theme of Chinese city culture. It includes a series of civic interaction activities and urban cultural theme activities, aiming at different regions in China. The excavation of urban cultural personality reveals the emotional fit between the Audi brand and these cities and regions, and actively promotes the “enterprising” spirit of the times that China has in common.

This is another new attempt by FAW-Volkswagen Audi in the field of emotional marketing. Why does Audi have a heart to China? Because Audi has grown up in China during these years, along with the development of Chinese society, the aggressive spirit of Audi brand, as a core value, is in fact very consistent with the mainstream values ​​of Chinese society, and is also very much in line with the diligence, progress and innovation of Chinese people. Spiritual pursuit.

Reporter: What is the significance of cooperation between Audi and the arts?

Zhang Xiaojun: China has become Audi's largest market in the world. In recent years, FAW-VW Audi has paid special attention to emotional marketing. Since 2009, we have proposed to complete the transition from “the most valuable” to “the most attractive”. Therefore, we have made many pioneering attempts in culture, arts, sports, and social responsibility. The hosting of these artistic activities has helped the Audi brand very much. Because Audi, as the world's strongest design brand, always regards art as a source of inspiration, and in-depth and extensive cooperation with the art field has brought a lot of inspiration to Audi's design team. Enriched Audi's product image.

Reporter: Is there a timetable for the transition from the most valuable to the most attractive?

Zhang Xiaojun: In the past two years, Audi has made some significant changes in brand promotion and before, paying more attention to emotional communication. Since the end of 2009, we have been thinking about how to build a more aggressive brand image. Our plan is to create the most attractive brand in China from 2010 to 2015, and become the most successful high-end car brand in the world.

This year, the luxury car market is still optimistic Reporter: How to evaluate the price war in the recent luxury car market?

Zhang Xiaojun: The competition in the high-end car market is very fierce recently, and the price war is inevitable. We do not want to participate in the price war itself. Therefore, we are very cautious in terms of pricing. Once we participate in the price war, there will be models being dragged. This method of killing chickens is an injury to old customers. However, for FAW-Volkswagen Audi, we are not afraid to fight the price war because the advantages of full value chain localization determine that we have unparalleled cost control capabilities of our competitors.

Reporter: Does this mean that the luxury car market is beginning to decline?

Zhang Xiaojun: I am cautiously optimistic about the development of China's premium car market. Last year, the overall growth of the passenger vehicle market in China slowed down, and the growth rate of the premium car market also decreased, but it was still higher than the overall level of the passenger vehicle market. The premium car market in China has a large customer base and a well-developed dealer network, so the Chinese premium car market will maintain a relatively stable growth trend in the next few years.