Mercedes-Benz limited three internal factors to catch up with BMW Audi or hopeless

In the first few months of this year, Mercedes-Benz followed the trend of seemingly “fearless” and turned upside down, growing rapidly, fluctuating more than 50% of its year-on-year growth rate. However, as China's auto market entered deeper adjustments and competition became more intense, Mercedes-Benz eventually failed to hold due to problems such as channel confusion. Sales volume growth has been surpassed by BMW and Audi. The channel integration during the middle of the year has also been irritating. To ask, what happened to Mercedes-Benz?

According to the German sales data released in recent months in China, the top three giants of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi at the top of the Chinese luxury car market are in different situations. Since entering the month of July, BMW's growth has been no longer impressive, but it can still maintain a growth rate of around 35%. Audi's growth rate has increased since the previous few months after improving the ills of insufficient production capacity. In July, it sold 27,455 vehicles in the Chinese market, achieving a year-on-year increase of 35%. Specifically, the fastest-moving Mercedes has been the fastest. After the name of “fastest growth” was taken away by BMW in June, Mercedes-Benz’s growth in the Chinese market was even more negative in July. In August, the increase was only 3.2%. Moreover, Mercedes-Benz cars that have always relied on imported cars in China have also experienced a 1% decline in sales of imported cars. Imports of 61,753 vehicles did not increase year-on-year, and imports of luxury car sales championship titles were imported in the first half of the year. The BMW, which had a 50% year-on-year increase, took away. Mercedes-Benz could only be second, and Audi ranked third with a year-on-year increase of 53% to 28,166.

The official explanation given by Mercedes-Benz is that the decline in sales was mainly attributed to the replacement of high-volume C-class vehicles. According to its forecast, the overall sales volume will rebound after the launch of the new C-Class in the third quarter. But, is this the truth? The prevailing view in the industry is that Mercedes-Benz's chaotic sales channels in China and the localization rate that it has been unable to mention, as well as the layout defects in the second and third-tier markets, are the three main factors that cause its sales to decline.

In fact, the chaotic sales channels of Mercedes-Benz in China have always been criticized by the industry. At present, Mercedes-Benz’s three major sales players in the Chinese market are Beijing Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz China, and Lixingxing. However, the relationship between the three is always tangled up.

As a distributor group, Lixingxing’s special status (taking 49% of the shares in Mercedes-Benz China) has resulted in huge differences in the treatment of distributors in different camps. In addition, Mercedes-Benz, which is mainly responsible for the sales of imported Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and Beijing-based Mercedes-Benz, which is responsible for selling domestic Mercedes-Benz vehicles, have continued to play games for their own interests. This has led to the separate sales of imported cars and domestic cars, and even mutual trusses. Xiang: In 2008 on the eve of the domestic E-class Mercedes-Benz off the assembly line, Mercedes-Benz China's dealers sharply reduced the sale of imported Mercedes-Benz E-class vehicles, not only squeezing the domestic E-Class Mercedes-Benz market, but also make its pricing into a passive, directly leading to domestic E-class Having to follow the price cut of as much as 100,000 yuan, so that the interests of Beijing's Mercedes-Benz serious damage, a two-headed "non-mainstream" sales model has become the Mercedes Achilles heel.

Of course, the relevant decision makers of companies have realized the necessity of channel integration, but they still face many problems in the implementation level. In July 2011, a spooky spy film focused on the integration of Mercedes-Benz sales rights in China. Continuously staged, Anonymous SMS promoted undercurrents, from questioning integration to questioning the ability of individual leaders, channel integration encountered tremendous intangible resistance. Xu Heyi, president of Beiqi, publicly stated that some people are obstructing the integration, but he also stipulated that Mercedes-Benz's channel integration must be resolved before the end of the year. It can be seen that the chaos in the sales channels has severely restricted the further development of Mercedes-Benz in China.

On the other hand, the layout of Mercedes-Benz's product capacity in China is also an important reason for the decline in sales volume. Mercedes-Benz has always regarded imported cars as its main pillar of performance in China. The strategy adopted is too conservative. Mercedes-Benz's capacity building in China lags far behind two German counterparts, blindly indulging in the huge profits of imported Mercedes-Benz, domestic models sold only 35% of the overall, while BMW and Audi's figures are more than 50% and 85% respectively. . In terms of product area layout, Mercedes-Benz's plans have also restrained its own development to a certain extent. Compared with BMW, which has a 20% share in third-tier cities, Mercedes-Benz's proportion is less than 5%, which exceeds 40% of sales. The stores are concentrated in the first-tier cities, and BMW has focused 70% of its efforts on the second and third-tier markets where the potential is surprising.

China is in the process of gradual upgrading of consumption. The demand for high-end luxury cars is an objective reality. The competition in the future luxury cars will inevitably intensify. Mercedes-Benz in China not only has to compete with Audi and BMW for market share, but must also be ready to meet other needs. The preparation of European, American, Japanese and luxury car brands is challenging. Therefore, only by solving the existing problems as quickly as possible can we continue to lead the Chinese luxury car market.