Monthly sales fell below 10,000 units. Wei Jianjun asked Haval H6 to learn marketing, which was really the wrong prescription.

Do you still remember the legendary car Haval H6?

Before the rise of new energy models such as BYD Song, this car was the undisputed king in the domestic compact SUV market, and had been the monthly SUV sales champion for 89 consecutive months.

But by April 2024, the monthly sales of Haval H6 were 8,309 units, the first time in many years that monthly sales fell below 10,000 units, and the cumulative sales from January to April were only 55,000 units.

Such a report card made Wei Jianjun, the head of Great Wall Motors, furious. At a recent internal meeting, Wei Jianjun once again criticized the marketing work of Haval H6, accusing the marketing team of having no user thinking at all.

The criticism quickly became a hot topic, and Great Wall Motor's Chief Growth Officer Li Ruifeng made a public statement, claiming that he would reflect on the matter.

It is normal for the boss to speak and the employees to express their opinions. The reason why this kind of thing can become a hot topic may be because Great Wall Motors is relatively large in size and has been quite high-profile in recent days, so it has attracted attention.

But the question now is, is the plummeting sales of Haval H6 really due to "not understanding marketing"? Or from another perspective, did Haval H6 become a hit car because of marketing? I believe that users who know the development history of Haval H6 will feel that Wei Jianjun has criticized the wrong person this time.

It can be said that the Haval H6 was notorious for being a copycat of the CR-V. Even the name Haval was criticized for deliberately using the name "Harvard University". The reason why this car became a hit was its excellent product performance and relatively reasonable price.

It is common sense that if a company does not start out by marketing, it will not suffer a decline in sales due to marketing mistakes. Great Wall is not Xiaomi. It is a large traditional manufacturer that relies on products rather than marketing capabilities to gain a foothold in the market.

There are generally two reasons why a hot-selling car model suddenly suffers a sales collapse. One is that large-scale quality problems have occurred, and the other is that consumer demand has changed, causing the product's attractiveness to decline sharply.

The first reason is a real example, which is the Baojun 510 of that year. Before BYD's explosion, it was the only model that snatched the monthly sales champion throne from Haval H6, but due to frequent quality problems, this car soon disappeared.

The second reason is also a reference sample, that is Nokia in those days. When the smartphone boom emerged, Nokia failed to keep up with the pace, and consumers no longer liked feature phones. It took Nokia less than three years to go from being the global sales champion to being acquired by Microsoft.

The situation of Haval H6 belongs to the second type. In fact, it did not have any major quality problems, and its product performance was also advantageous compared with fuel vehicles of the same price. However, after the rise of new energy, consumers' attention shifted to models such as BYD Song PLUS, and a generation of legendary cars fell.

In fact, the Haval H6 is not the only fuel-powered compact SUV that has fallen along with it. The Roewe RX5, the absolute mainstay of the Roewe brand, and the Trumpchi GS4, which is said to have saved the brand, are currently unpopular. The sales of Honda CR-V, Nissan Qashqai, and Toyota RAV4 are also far less than before. The decline of the Haval H6 is not due to war, but because of the huge changes in the market, and consumers prefer new energy vehicles of the same level.

From this perspective, Wei Jianjun obviously criticized the wrong person, or in other words, he missed the point. In layman's terms, he had a stomachache but applied eye drops. Li Ruifeng and other executives of Great Wall Motors did not dare to confront their boss, so they expressed their determination, or simply flattered him publicly.

But the problem is, Wei Jianjun has been a leader in the automotive industry for decades, he should know what the Haval H6 is all about, why is he now inexplicably attributing the problem to "lack of marketing"?

In Wei Jianjun's recent criticism of Haval H6, there is an interesting sentence: I am changing, but I cannot be the only one changing. Wei Jianjun's so-called "change" probably refers to his frequent appearances on the Internet, live broadcasts, and the exchange of cars with Lei Jun, becoming an Internet celebrity at the age of over 60. Perhaps seeing that Xiaomi Motors has achieved good results under huge traffic, Wei Jianjun also wants to follow suit and make Great Wall Motors stand at the center of traffic.

But this change is a desperate attempt to find a cure. Or, in other words, Wei Jianjun has been poisoned by Lei Jun. Cars are the largest and most expensive consumer product for most Chinese consumers besides houses. How many consumers would buy a car from a car company just because the CEO of the company has become an Internet celebrity and has a live broadcast?

This is a very simple truth. Car companies do need traffic, but the car industry is not the entertainment industry, and the heads of car companies are not traffic stars. No matter how much traffic there is, it can only play a supporting role and cannot replace the vehicle itself. Wei Jianjun wanted to solve the problem of Haval H6 from the perspective of traffic, which is like learning to walk by imitating others.

In April 2024, Great Wall Motor's sales of new energy vehicles were only 20,000 units, less than half of Geely, and most of them were contributed by the Tank brand. Wei and Ora were both lackluster. This situation of a complete retreat obviously cannot be explained by "inability to market".

Faced with the continuous decline in sales, Wei Jianjun felt a little confused and was eager to find a solution, but considering "marketing" as the core competitiveness must be a major strategic mistake. Consumers are very smart now. No matter how many live broadcasts Wei Jianjun does, it is better to increase the range of his new energy models by 100km. This is a very simple truth.

In fact, Wei Jianjun and Great Wall should not only not spend a lot of energy and resources on marketing, but also actively keep a distance from excessive hype and focus on the product itself. When the product performance is improved, consumers will naturally buy it; if the technology does not improve and the product performance cannot meet the demand, no matter how many live broadcasts are done, it will be useless.

In addition, Great Wall Motors should also strengthen its internal governance. After Wei Jianjun's criticism, Li Ruifeng, the chief growth officer of Great Wall Motors, publicly admitted his mistakes and praised Wei Jianjun for "getting involved" and "leading by example". He was previously the CEO of Wei Brand, but Wei Brand was in a mess under his leadership. In addition, Li Ruifeng, as a senior executive of Great Wall Motors, publicly ridiculed Yu Chengdong's nickname "Big Mouth" on social media, which greatly damaged the reputation of Great Wall Motors. These are typical internal problems.

Without solving these problems, Great Wall Motors is likely to continue to decline. In the automobile market, no company has ever become popular simply by marketing, and Great Wall is no exception.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.