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November 21, 2013

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Home » Business » Autotalk Special

Infiniti builds route to success with human touch

By Lu Nengneng | November 21, 2013, Thursday | Print Edition

For Infiniti, competing as a relative latecomer in China’s luxury car market is not an unfavorable situation but a perfect chance to put its character on full display.

Geared up to break the stranglehold of the big-three German players which currently take up to 80 percent of the premium market, the brand known for its challenger spirit aims to achieve 100,000 units of annual sales by 2018 following its production localization next year, which means a more than sixfold sales spurt based on the figure of last year.

Surely, price competitiveness alone is not enough to put Infiniti in the same class with its big rivals as the golden era of China’s premium car market is gone along with the magic of cost reductions for creating high-volume local models. That’s why under the steering of its new China head Dr Daniel Kirchert since May, Infiniti is not following others’ proven success routes, but blazing one of its own.

Back in August, Kirchert vowed to make Infiniti “the most emotional luxury car brand” in China, as an opposite to the rational and cool image bolstered up by the Germans. “Currently, the mainstream premium car brands emphasize on functions, technologies, precision, which make them feel very mechanic and cold while Infiniti offers emotional characteristics and personal care besides technologies and functions. We want to convey this brand with a human touch.”

Under the theme of “giving yourselves and your loved ones more time and space,” the hot-selling 7-seat luxury SUV Infiniti JX provided a wish-making platform for China’s most important festival about family reunion, the Mid-Autumn, and the company generated a viral video for it earlier this year.

Now it stars as an exclusive automotive sponsor in the most watched TV reality show, “Where are we going, dad,” which explores the father-child relationship and highlights family affections. Jimmy Lin, a famous singer, car racer and celebrity dad in the show, is now recording a special song “Love of Devotion” or “Zhi Ai” for Infiniti JX.

“First we let people feel the way we feel, and then embrace what we brand and sell. That is the principle that we have always been following when exploring the market,” said Liu Xu, marketing and public relation director of Infiniti China.

What he said brings to mind a Chinese idiom “Hou Ji Bo Fa,” which means strength accumulated over a long time can be unleashed gradually in the long run.

It may take Infiniti quite some time to develop consumers’ emotional attachment to the brand. But once it succeeds, it will have a strong customer base that cannot be easily swayed by deep price cuts of other brands.

According to a report released by consulting firm McKinsey & Co earlier this year, as expensive cars are increasingly becoming part of a way of life that buyers want to share with their families, friends and business partners, emotional factors, such as “premium personality,” or “brand DNA,” may play as deal sealers in more and more cases.

A car often reflects its owner’s set of values. An Infiniti driver is most likely to be a young minded premium customer, who is tech-savvy, design-minded, and likes to try something new.

And these people are the most potential buyers to keep the market growing. By 2020, they will account for 80 percent of premium car buyers in China, Kirchert said. 

The profile of a young minded premium customer can be summed up with 4Cs: the “character” which makes them follow their heart rather than the mass when making purchase decisions; the “cutting-edge” experience they would to try; the pursuit of “consonance” on their life journey which makes them see extra values in a product; and the “connection” on social media via mobile devices that keeps them posted about new things and gives them a global perspective.

Second-tier premium car brands have achieved significant sales increases in China this year with premium car buyers becoming younger, said Kirchert.

 

Autotalk Special


 

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