Jaguar Land Rover cuts sales target, takes initiative to ＂transfuse＂ dealers

　　"After the policy adjustment, our short-term pressure has indeed eased a lot, but it is still not easy in the medium and long term," said Lao Xu frankly: "Although the development space of China’s luxury car market is still there, in fact, the golden period of not breaking the river has passed, and the next stage is the stage of everyone competing for territory." The above-mentioned analysts believe that in this stage, the brand identity and sense of belonging are very important.

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　　"It’s really 30 years of Hedong and 30 years of Hexi!" A Jaguar Land Rover brand dealer in East China, Lao Xu, lamented to the "First Financial Daily" reporter: "When the price was generally increased in the first two years, no one expected that Land Rover (Aurora) would actually reduce the price 100,000."

　　"A phenomenal brand", industry voices describe Jaguar Land Rover’s performance in the Chinese market in recent years. Under the favorable environment of the car market, it strives to rise to the fourth place in the domestic luxury car market within four years. In the process of initial market weakness, Jaguar Land Rover has taken the lead in slowing growth since the end of 2014. Sales in the first four months fell by more than 20% year-on-year. According to the FT Chinese website, Jaguar Land Rover’s sluggish performance in the Chinese market even dragged down the profit performance of its owner, India’s Tata Group, in the fourth quarter of 2014. The latter said that it will not pay dividends in 2015.

　　"Jaguar Land Rover’s performance is indeed worth reflecting on," an analyst who asked not to be named told China Business News. "From a macro perspective, although the luxury car market was generally cold in the first four months of 2015, when compared horizontally, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the first tier are still growing positively. Volvo in the second tier grew slightly by 0.1% in the first four months, while Infiniti and Cadillac recorded market growth rates of 32% and 85% respectively." In his opinion, although Jaguar Land Rover’s sales are related to the transition period between imports and domestic production and the exposure of the "3.15" incident, the root cause is that the irrational factors of the previous market have pushed up Jaguar Land Rover’s awareness of the demand in the Chinese market, making it focus on the layout of products in the overall market operation, while ignoring the deep cultivation of the brand.

　　Active decompression dealer

　　"Chinese consumers prefer large-space SUVs, and Land Rover is one of the few luxury brands that combines the two selling points of’luxury ‘and’off-road’. Therefore, until now, the Midwest and resource-intensive cities (such as Shanxi) have been the key sales areas for Land Rover." The analyst, who asked not to be named, believes that in the process of economic downturn, Jaguar Land Rover may be more affected.

　　It is also because of this that it was reported recently that several Jaguar Land Rover dealers are joining forces to negotiate with manufacturers, hoping that manufacturers will reduce their target assessment and so on. In this context, on May 26, the reporter learned from Jaguar Land Rover that it has officially updated the business policy of dealers in the second quarter of 2015. "Jaguar Land Rover’s management and dealers have conducted in-depth communication and reached a good consensus. We hope to achieve a win-win situation together." Jaguar Land Rover insiders told the "First Financial Daily" reporter.

　　It is understood that the adjusted business policy aims to improve the cash flow of dealers on the one hand. Specific measures include Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Jaguar Land Rover will provide one-month sales credit policy support for all accessories starting from July to September in the second quarter of fiscal 2015; increase the fuzzy rebate (similar to cash back) amount of Quarter 1 Jaguar and extend Jaguar’s interest discount program from the previous 30 to 60 days of interest-free support; in addition, the subsidy for the domestic Aurora model upgrade program will not only cover all retail vehicles, but also further increase the subsidy amount. On the other hand, in order to reduce the sales pressure on dealers, Jaguar Land Rover adjusted its sales target for April to June, and said that it will further adjust and communicate with the annual sales target in the future.

　　"After the policy adjustment, our short-term pressure has indeed eased a lot, but it is still not easy in the medium and long term," said Lao Xu frankly. "Although China’s luxury car market still has room for development, in fact, the previous golden period of water not breaking the river has passed, and the next stage is the stage of everyone competing for territory." The above-mentioned analysts believe that in this stage, the brand identity and sense of belonging are very important.

　　The brand plans to benchmark Bentley and Aston Martin

　　In his opinion, ABB has been deeply cultivated in China for many years, and the brand is much better than the luxury car brands in the second camp. Looking at the rookies in the second camp, Cadillac has the backing and endorsement of General Motors. After Volvo was acquired by Geely, the national brand label can be added to its points, and Infiniti’s emotional marketing has gradually penetrated into the hearts of the people. "Since the official operation of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in 2010, it feels that they have been busy with product operation in order to meet the strong demand of the market. The brand has not yet established a label that can directly reach people’s hearts. This may also be related to the development of these two brands. After being sold by Ford, Jaguar Land Rover needs to quickly achieve profitability in order to have longer-term development." The analyst believes.

　　Obviously, as the market performance improves, Jaguar Land Rover has begun to further sort out and build the brand. According to reporters, as early as 2014, Jaguar Land Rover established a special vehicle operation team. Yi Wenjun, director of Jaguar Land Rover’s special vehicle operation team, told reporters that the special vehicle operation team is relatively independent in production and research and development, and costs and profits will be calculated independently. Team members will work on the development of high-end luxury custom vehicles and exclusive high-performance Jaguar and Land Rover models. "In the future, we will focus on creating models with extreme luxury, off-road ability and sports performance." Yi Wenjun revealed, "In these three aspects, Jaguar Land Rover has its own brand, similar to Mercedes-Benz’s AMG and BMW’s M series." The purpose of establishing this team is also to further enhance our Jaguar Land Rover brand and bring consumers a more extreme experience and awareness from the above three aspects. "A relevant person from Jaguar Land Rover China said.

　　It is understood that Jaguar Land Rover has launched the SVR brand in the "sports" field and released its first model to transport the SVR. From the data point of view, although the SVR version is only 40 horsepower higher than the ordinary version, its 100-kilometer acceleration is further improved by 0.6 seconds compared with the ordinary version, only 4.7 seconds. "A small data can show the difference in performance." Yi Wenjun said proudly. It further revealed that the current internal model planning of this special vehicle operation team has been planned until 2020, and will "challenge" brands including ABB and Bentley and Aston Martin. " In terms of extreme luxury, our benchmark brands are Bentley and Martin, and in terms of performance, we want to match Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche; of course, in terms of off-road performance, Jaguar Land Rover will also open up new areas. "Yi Wenjun told reporters that to support this plan, Jaguar Land Rover will invest 100 million pounds a year in this team.

　　However, it remains to be seen whether these moves will help Jaguar Land Rover’s brand lift in the Chinese market. According to Yi Wenjun, the above-mentioned special vehicles are still in the early stage of marketization, and their main market is still concentrated overseas. In the Chinese market, consumers’ understanding of the connotation of high-performance cars and luxury brands still needs to be further cultivated and improved.