ALL eyes are on China’s car market, not only because of a dramatic cool-down this year that will probably halve sales from 2013 to 7 percent.

Seasoned industry players know that a downward turn can lead to a market reset, and foreign carmakers are gearing up to double down on the world’s largest car market, where even a slight increase means a huge slice of the cake.

Jaguar: pitching Britishness

“Stellar years of growth in China are becoming a bit of history for everybody, but normalized growth is still quite significant,” said Bob Grace, president of Jaguar Land Rover China. “In 2015, we will still see double-digit growth for our company. Overall market growth will likely be in the range of 7 to 10 percent, while the increase in the luxury market may be a little bigger.”

In the first 10 months of this year, Jaguar and Land Rover brands sold a combined 92,265 units in China, rising 35 percent from a year earlier and outperforming a global sales increase of 10.9 percent.

Leading its sales spurts in China is, once again, the automaker’s sports utility vehicle portfolio, which resonates with consumer demand for versatile mobility. The SUV segment in China, which posted more than 30 percent growth in the past 11 months, is one of the few reasons carmakers still have something to cheer about in a general market downturn.

The risk that SUVs could be overdone in China, where all carmakers are out in full force to exploit the same segment, doesn’t seem to worry Grace too much.

As audit, tax and advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed out in its latest forecasts, most first-generation car owners are beginning to talk about buying their second car. And SUVs, along with multi-purpose vehicles, are among their top choices,

As levels of disposable income rise, so will the demand for products that can meet business and family needs. That is the trend underpinning SUVs the world over. China, as a relatively young car market, is still catching up in that space, Grace added.

The localization of SUVs may accelerate that trend. Range Rover Evoque, a small SUV, became the first car locally produced by Jaguar Land Rover in China. It will come to the market early next year. Another Land Rover SUV, whose particulars haven’t yet been officially disclosed, will quickly follow suit.

By 2016, the company will have three China-made cars. And one of them will be for Jaguar, an upcoming brand that produces cars like the F-type coupe, which is critically acclaimed but not yet impressive, volume-wise. With the launch of its XE sports sedan, which is due to hit the market next year, Jaguar aims to expand its target consumer base by bringing down its price threshold.

The marketing of XE, which takes pride in being the first car in the segment to use an aluminum-intensive monocoque, seems a conscious way to balance out previous Jaguar campaigns that pushed the brand’s Britishness more than its technological qualities.

Fronting Jaguar’s marketing campaign this year is newly appointed brand ambassador, David Beckham, the soccer celebrity who enjoys cult status in China.

“I don’t think we exploit the Britishness is enough,” said Grace, defending the company’s marketing strategy, under which Jaguar Land Rover will become a key sponsor for a British government-sponsored brand event to be held in March.

The general perception is that Britishness equates to quality and premium, Grace said.

For those looking for a discerning differentiation from German brands that dominate China’s luxury car sales, a certain quirkiness associated with things British may be something to appreciate.

Cadillac: American luxury

Another strong competition for German automakers next year could be the “American luxury” concept, if it takes off in China.

Cadillac, with an ambitious plan to recapture the premium pinnacle, is using China as its springboard.

Earlier this month, the company announced that nine new models would be introduced to China in the next five years, with more than 95 percent of its product lineup to be localized by 2018.

In the first 11 months of 2014, brand sales in China jumped 50.7 percent from a year earlier to 64,359 units. Though that growth made China Cadillac’s second-largest market after the United States, it is still far from securing Cadillac a spot in the first-tier league of China’s luxury market.

The company said it believes the key to taking its game to the next level is further expansion of its product portfolio.

It will go beyond current offers — like compacts, midsize sedans and midsize and large SUVs — to venture into segments where it is currently absent, such as small sedans and crossover vehicles. A full-fledged range that will double from six to 12 eventually could help Cadillac reach out to a much larger audience.

The question is how Cadillac will market the concept of “American luxury” in China.

Consulting firm McKinsey once pointed in a report that “while some American premium carmakers have established a distinctive brand personality around the concepts of excitement and individualism, they may have defined themselves too narrowly.”

Cadillac’s striking diamond-cut design, for example, is reminiscent of the rugged character of the US rather than the luxury refinement sought by many Chinese car buyers.

Aspiring young buyers, who are expected to account for about 80 percent of luxury car shoppers by the end of this decade, are where Cadillac wants to make its mark, according to Johan de Nysschen, president of Cadillac.

This target group is less about the age and more about mindset, he said, though China’s luxury car buyers, mostly aged between 28 and 35 years, are indeed 10 years younger than their American peers.

These consumers tend to be willing to embrace new ideas and achieve more.

A recent consumer study by Hurun Research Institute provided a detailed profile of luxury car owners in China. A typical Cadillac owner is portrayed as “white-collar, mature and successful.”

Maybe the concept of “American luxury” piggybacks well on the current focus of “the Chinese Dream.” Dreams are one luxury all people can afford, and at the center of the “American way” is the “American Dream.”

Ford: covering all segments

One living proof of America’s can-do spirit, though still a minority player, is Ford.

Having missed the golden age of China’s car market because it picked the wrong model to start its local production, the company has managed to play some serious catch-up and is now entering the list of the top five sellers. After making its name in China with its best-seller Focus, it now wants to further diversify.

With the unveiling of three new cars last month, the company is about to wrap up its 2011 “1515” strategy of introducing 15 cars by 2015. Its aim is to catapult sales into the top three.

That means outselling Hyundai and Nissan, and challenging Volkswagen and General Motors. The goal seemed pretty far-fetched back in 2011, when Ford had only the Mondeo, Focus, Fiesta and S-Max for China.

Now its portfolio covers most of the mainstream segments, and that is expected to expand with the upcoming Escort, Taurus and Edge models, ending its absence in the compact, flagship sedan and mid-size crossover market.

“They will be driving Chang’an Ford’s sales significantly,” said Luo Minggang, executive vice president of Chang’an Ford, the joint venture of Ford and Chinese partner Chang’an. “Next year, our sales will outpace the industry’s average, growing more than 30 percent.”

In the past 11 months of this year, Ford’s joint venture with Chang’an achieved a year-on-year sales increase of 20 percent, to 729,711 units. That, together with 245,066 units sold by Ford’s commercial vehicle joint venture with JMC, already led the American carmaker to surpass the one million unit sales milestone in China before the year ends.

Market analysts credit the company’s strategy of keeping its China product releases at the same pace as overseas, for Chinese consumers love the latest technologies and gadgetry in their cars.

A case in point is the introduction of the latest EcoBoost engine series, now a big selling point for a wide range of Ford cars, including the upcoming Escort and Edge. With the combination of direct fuel injection, turbocharging and variable valve timing, an EcoBoost engine can improve fuel economy by up to 20 percent over a larger engine of equivalent power. High fuel consumption used to be a big drag on Ford’s sales in China, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of China Passenger Car Association.

“But to narrow the gap with top-ranking rivals, Ford needs to further enrich its product portfolio,” said Ye Sheng, auto research director at market research firm Ipsos. “Having one product for each segment is far from enough when Volkswagen and General Motors are so good at churning out car model variants and running multi-brands. The point is to make sure there is always a car for your customer, regardless of his budget or model preference.”

As the Escort family sedan slides into the slot between Fiesta and Focus, there is still a gap between the seven-seater Edge and the mid-size Kuga SUV. Taurus, which will replace Mondeo as Ford’s top-ranging sedan, could be a harder sell than expected.

“I think that car is more about lifting the brand’s image than about actually driving up the sales,” Ye added. “Having made its name in China by selling small and cost-effective cars, Ford now wants to move into the higher end of the market, and that’s always much more difficult than the other way around.”