The official poster of Roewe hints that there will be big changes to the logo. No matter what the result is, it marks that SAIC Roewe will start a new process
An interesting phenomenon in the automotive industry in 2019 is that the global The top two car companies Volkswagen and Toyota updated their brand logos four months apart. The last time the two companies changed their logos was 7 years ago and 30 years ago respectively.
Domestically, two of the TOP3 Chinese brands, Geely and Changan, have also updated their brand logos. Others who have made the same move include Beijing, Beijing Hyundai, Baojun, Cheetah, Nezha, etc.
Logo is a highly concentrated brand symbol of a company and a symbol for consumers to identify the brand. Any minor changes to the logo must be carefully considered by the company.
The most obvious reason for companies to update their logos is that times have changed, aesthetics have changed, and the logo must keep pace with the times and keep up with the trend. The deeper reason is that the brand's philosophy and strategy, including mission, vision, values, industry development trends, corporate development models, etc., have changed.
The car logos updated in 2019 have an amazing unified trend: from complexity to simplicity, from three-dimensional three-dimensional visual effects to two-dimensional plane effects, the patterns are flatter, and the colors are more single. The purpose of these changes is to make it easier to be accepted by the mobile Internet.
When the entire world and almost all industries are being changed by the mobile Internet, the automobile industry is facing a more complex and severe impact - electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing. Big changes are coming at the same time, shaping cars into a new species. The "Four Automotive Modernizations" proposed by Automotive Business Review in 2015 summarize this complex trend.
The two giants Volkswagen and Toyota changed their logos at the same time in 2019, which probably means that they have anchored their future direction and determined new strategies in the fog of the four modernization changes. The new logo is the most distinctive symbol of the company's transformation. symbol. Domestic leading companies agree.
“The era of traditional automakers is over.” These were the exact words of Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess at an internal meeting on January 16, 2020. The "traditional car manufacturers" here certainly do not include Volkswagen. In Diess's vision, Volkswagen has already embarked on a new development track with the new logo. The latest car manufacturer to join the label-changing movement is BMW. On March 3, BMW released the i4 concept car and unveiled a new logo. The same simplicity, the same flatness.
The story surrounding the logo is far from over. Every four years, on February 29, SAIC Roewe released a short video on its official social media with the theme of "Good things come in pairs", with the topic "Roewe is going to make big moves." A day later, two posters revealing clues were released again, triggering countless speculations.
The focus of the video and poster is that the door knockers of the two wooden doors are different in shape. One door knocker has the outline of the Roewe Lion logo, and the other door knocker is round.
People on social media have made all kinds of speculations, and Auto Business Review, as an automobile industry media, has also joined this big game. Our judgment is that the key information revealed by the door knocker points very clearly to the car logo. This big move must be about the logo. However, based on the current situation of Roewe, there will be two options: change the logo or launch a new logo to form a double car logo.
The former is what many car companies are doing now. Following the trend of the times, the latter seems to be more suitable for Roewe itself. Which one is more likely?
Roewe changes its brand?
Will Roewe change or optimize the brand logo? Compared with the companies mentioned above, most logo changes are because the brand has reached a new stage of development and needs a new image to match it. Especially for independent brands, label change has become an important part of brand improvement.
SAIC Roewe has fully met these conditions in terms of technical reserves, product pedigree, and sales performance in recent years. In the industry transformation period of the four modernizations of the automobile, Roewe has been in the leading camp in terms of technology accumulation and product implementation in new energy, Internet, intelligence and other aspects. While rapidly improving efficiency, it has become one of the few Chinese brands that can prove its resistance to joint ventures. The brand upgrade has been to the critical period.
In terms of technical reserves, Roewe, backed by SAIC, has become one of the few domestic brands with technical reserves and commercialized products in pure electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cells, and has become a leader in new energy technology. who.
At the same time, SAIC Roewe is also the pioneer of Internet cars, taking the lead in launching Internet cars in the industry. Since then, it has led the automotive industry development route of Internet cars - intelligent connected cars - smart cockpits.
In terms of product pedigree, SAIC Roewe has formed a complete product matrix from sedans to SUVs, from A-class to B+ class, from fuel, plug-in to pure electric, and is the only one with a price range covering 60,000- 300,000 yuan Chinese brand.
In terms of market performance, since the successful launch of the Internet car Roewe RX5 in 2016, SAIC Roewe's sales have been rising. It currently has more than 700,000 Internet car users, and SAIC Group's cumulative Internet car sales have exceeded 1 million. SAIC has become the car company with the highest sales volume and largest share of Internet-connected cars in the world.
Looking at the competition pattern of China's automobile market in recent years, it has developed from the previous three camps of luxury brands, joint venture brands, and independent brands to the interpenetrating Warring States Period. In order to expand their market share, luxury brands continue to lower their products and prices, and even invade the market below 200,000 yuan.
As a whole, joint venture brands are breaking through at both ends, with strong joint venture brands leveraging luxury brands upwards, and weak joint venture brands seizing the independent brand market downwards. This has resulted in serious polarization among joint venture brands. The competitiveness of Korean, French and individual Japanese joint venture brands has dropped sharply compared to their peak. Sales have been surpassed by more and more mainstream independent brands, and they have even withdrawn from the Chinese market.
Under the pressure of joint venture brands to explore downwards, independent brands have also shown two levels of differentiation. Some have gradually become marginal, while others have seen sales and prices rise in both directions. The price ceiling is constantly being broken through, and Roewe belongs to the latter.
Roewe was positioned as a mid-to-high-end independent brand when it was born in 2006. After 14 years of exploration and a good reputation accumulated in new energy and network connectivity, whether to further enhance the brand next is a matter of course. SAIC Passenger Cars is facing a multiple-choice question, and whether to change the brand is the epitome of this strategic choice.
Two logos for one brand? There is no doubt that the SAIC Roewe brand is improving, but in addition to changing the logo, there is another option for its external performance: the original logo will continue to be used, and a new logo will be launched at the same time, forming a dual-standard combination.
Using new sub-brands to achieve brand promotion is a common method used by general automobile manufacturers. In recent years, Geely's Lynk & Co and Great Wall's WEY have achieved gratifying breakthroughs. The advantage of this approach is that the parent brand is used to consolidate the mid-to-low-end market, and the new brand is used to attack the mid-to-high-end market. Each has its own division of labor. The disadvantage is that the official default is the mid-to-low-end attributes of the parent brand, and it will be difficult to break through in the future. Is it possible for SAIC Roewe to create a new way of playing, where the same brand uses two logos on different product series to achieve a similar effect to the sub-brand? This is what interests Automotive Business Reviewers the most about Roewe’s “Good things come in pairs” poster.
The advantage of this is that using different logos solves the identity problem of high-end car owners and prevents the parent brand from being downmarketed. It is very suitable for a mid-to-high-end brand like Roewe.
More importantly, SAIC Roewe already has the technical foundation, product foundation and user base to do this, and that is Roewe MARVEL?
When MARVEL? .
Looking back two years later, Roewe’s approach has played a very good role in asking questions, allowing the Roewe brand to accumulate a lot of operating experience in high-end models, and strengthened its determination to take a higher-end and more intelligent route. At the same time, it can be seen from the approach taken when launching Roewe MARVEL?
What can be compared are other leading companies with independent brands. In recent years, Geely has launched Lynk & Co in the high-end sub-brand field and Geometry in the high-end new energy field to respond to competition with a brand matrix.
Similarly, Great Wall launched WEY in the high-end sub-brand field and Euler in the new energy field. It also shared the pressure of Haval with a multi-brand structure.
SAIC Roewe has always dominated the world with one Roewe brand. No matter high-end models or new energy models, they are all unified under the Lion Brand.
Even in terms of styling design, Roewe does not adopt the clear distinction between the styling of electric vehicles and the styling of fuel vehicles, which has become a common practice in the industry, but adheres to the unified Roewe family elements.
In view of this, the small words "New technology, new design, new model" in the lower right corner of the "Good things come in pairs" poster are more likely to trigger people's imagination: if a dual-standard strategy is adopted, the previous "One Roewe" Will the styling concept also change accordingly? Will Roewe provide consumers with one more styling style choice?
Conjectures are conjectures after all. Whether Roewe changes its logo or adds a new car logo is quite reasonable, and other possibilities in brand strategy cannot be ruled out. Or perhaps the poster campaign itself is a test to see which outside world's expectations for the Roewe brand are more inclined.
The only thing that is certain is that in 2020, the Roewe brand will usher in its biggest change 14 years after its founding.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.