Author: Qiu Kaijun
From 2 yuan masks to cloud rails worth billions, with hundreds of products, there is one brand: BYD.
Some products are directly facing consumers, some are supplying industry customers, and some are facing governments, which is also one brand: BYD.
Only in terms of passenger cars, there are dozens of on-sale models ranging from F3 priced over 40,000 RMB to Tang EV priced over 300,000 RMB, all under one brand: BYD.
With such wide business coverage, price range, and target customers, how to do branding?
As for the BYD Automotive Brand, there is already planning, but it needs to be “pushed step by step and cannot be ruled out for adjustments.” For BYD Group, “we need to make BYD Group more understood by the public.” Li Yunfei recently said to the Electric Vehicle Observer, “We not only need to tell the story of BYD Automotive well, but also tell the story of BYD well.”
Easier said than done. BYD established the Brand and Public Relations Department earlier this year, and Li Yunfei serves as the General Manager. In addition to leading the work of BYD Automotive Brand, he actually undertakes Group Brand business as well. How does he plan to do it?
BYD People Tell BYD Story
“We have been in the company for so many years, we know ourselves the best, we know which aspects we are good at and which aspects have problems, and how to tell the story of BYD brand well.” Li Yunfei said.
Li Yunfei is a typical BYD person: he joined BYD right after he graduated from university and has been with the company for nearly 17 years. In addition, his resume includes both brand public relations and sales marketing, both domestic and international, and he has worked on both automotive brand public relations and group brand public relations.
Li Yunfei’s Resume
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Graduate from Tongji University, majoring in marketing, and EMBA from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
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Joined BYD in July 2004, responsible for channel development, market planning, and major customer sales, and other related work.
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From 2013, served as the Vice President of BYD Automotive Sales Company, responsible for public relations and brand department work, and also acted as spokesperson for BYD.
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Appointed as the Vice President of Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd. Sales in January 2015.
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In August 2016, served as the Deputy General Manager of BYD Group Brand and Public Relations Department.
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In November 2017, served as the Vice President of BYD Automotive Sales Co., Ltd.
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At the end of 2019, established the Brand Management Center and served as the Head of the Brand Management Center.
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In February 2021, served as the General Manager of the Brand and Public Relations Department.
His familiarity with BYD allowed him to come up with a brand thinking framework, the “Three Confidences,” just one month after the establishment of the BYD Brand Management Center in 2019.
The Three Confidences refers to confidence in technology, quality, and China.The confidence in technology refers to BYD’s technological strength. “Technology innovation is the DNA of both BYD’s cars and its group.” BYD is a tech company. “Last year’s blade battery, DM-i hybrid, IGBT, E platform, and other excellent results are all around the confidence in technology.”
As for confidence in quality, Li Yunfei believes that all Chinese car brands face the same problem. There may be a mistaken prejudice against the quality of Chinese car brands in the early market, but in fact, the quality of Chinese brands’ products has greatly improved. China’s brands have done a good job in all five dimensions involved in car production before delivery to consumers: whole vehicle development, styling design, core components, the manufacturing process of the complete vehicle, and industry workers. China’s brands even surpass foreign brands in some aspects. In terms of whole vehicle engineering development, Chinese brands are leading in the electric vehicle field, and they have caught up with fuel vehicle technology. Therefore, the entire vehicle development capability of Chinese car brands is much better than before.
For example, in terms of design, Li Yunfei said, “Now Gelly, Great Wall, and BYD all have top design teams in the world.”
By taking core parts as an example, “In terms of new energy core components, China is leading instead. Mercedes-Benz and Toyota are both looking to buy BYD’s E platform, battery, motor, and electric control, core components for which we are leading.”
In the manufacturing process of the complete vehicle, the Chinese car market has developed the fastest in recent years. Most of the world’s newly-built advanced factories in the past 5-8 years have been in China, and the level of the manufacturing process is also higher.
Therefore, it is necessary to convey confidence in quality to consumers, and to let the public more truly understand Chinese car brands’ high-quality production capabilities through various means. Li Yunfei also revealed that he would deepen communication with other Chinese car brands. “There are some unique advantages for each brand, and everyone should speak well of them individually. But there are also common problems for Chinese brands, and everyone should study them together and solve them together.”
The final one is confidence in China. “We are a Chinese brand, and our car models are named Qin, Tang, Song, Yuan, and Han. Our logo and buttons are in Chinese. We cannot be more Chinese. Therefore, we must tell the story of Chinese brands well.”
“We will continue to promote confidence in technology, confidence in quality, and confidence in China for at least three years,” Li Yunfei said. In addition to these three confidences, starting this year, BYD also wants to add 2, doing two more things. “One is brand rejuvenation, and the other is shaping car owners’ image.”# A NEW BEGINNING: Rebranding for BYD in 2021
As the young generation represents the future of consumer trends, our focus is to become a brand that captures the attention and loyalty of young people, especially those born after 1990 and 1995. This is an important consideration for us going forward.
Currently, BYD has made many branding attempts to appeal to young people through its E-series products. For example, the e2, released in September 2019, was marketed as the “Yes, young people should go electric” car, positioning itself as the first electric car specifically designed for young people with a stylish crossover design, the BYD DiLink smart car system, and a low operating cost of 5 cents per kilometer. These features have made the e2 popular among young people, ranking it among the top sales in the A0-class electric vehicle category.
As for the user image, BYD has attracted many celebrity car owners, including Cao Dewang, Yu Minhong, Yu Liang, Luke Nguyen, Zhao Pu, and Chen Ting. “In the media and in our stores, we constantly mention which celebrity is our car owner or which celebrity is becoming our car owner,” said Li Yunfei. “My plan is to spend 2-3 years to make everyone realize that becoming a BYD car owner is something to be proud of.”
2021 could be the year where BYD’s branding strategy is fully realized. On the one hand, BYD’s strong technological foundation and recent upgrades to design and quality ensure that their high-end products receive market recognition. On the other hand, the restructuring of BYD’s branding organization has been completed. “For me, the Brand Management Center was established at the end of 2019, and we only started planning and promoting the business last year. This year, the Brand and Public Relations Business Department was established. I believe that with the coordination of organization and resources, our branding efforts will be even better,” said Li Yunfei.
“Branding perception is multidimensional. It is not just about the product or the logo; it carries a lot of meanings,” said Li Yunfei. He plans to work on six dimensions of branding promotion. First is the brand impression, which is directly represented by the logo. “On January 1st of this year, we refreshed our logo, calling it A NEW BEGINNING, a new start. This logo carries our past and also has some optimizations,” said Li Yunfei.
The most significant change is that the BYD letters, especially “B” and “D,” in the BYD logo no longer have a vertical line on the left side, and the letter “Y” that already tilts upwards has been added, resulting in an even more open design. According to the official explanation, this signifies BYD’s willingness to embrace a more open approach to connect with users and partners to explore new forms of smart car products and services and build a new value car brand.
This new logo is only applied to the domestic passenger car market, while the group’s other businesses maintain the original logo. Nevertheless, the more open signal has been clearly conveyed.
Secondly, it is the product itself. “To-c business ultimately needs to connect with customers through products and provide excellent experiences. In the past few years, we have made visible changes to our products, from appearance, interior design, to smart technology, etc. I believe that BYD’s brand image has been improving in this aspect.”
The third dimension is improving the sales experience. “This used to be one of our shortcomings,” Li Yunfei said. He pointed out that consumers compare their experiences with different brand dealerships when buying a car, and every service detail leaves an impression on the brand. They need to be both enthusiastic and professional to ensure high-quality service.
Starting from the second half of 2020, BYD launched a “training camp” for dealers, focusing on improving the sales experience, “and I believe that there has been a significant change at the terminal.”
The fourth dimension is improving the after-sales service experience. “After customers buy a car from us, do they feel satisfied or dissatisfied with the experience? Do customers approve of our products and brand? Is service a plus or a minus for them?” Li Yunfei said, “To improve customer satisfaction with our existing users, we have made a series of arrangements and deployments that will gradually show results in the next year or two.”
The fifth dimension is shaping the user image. Li Yunfei believes that different products correspond to different consumer groups, which can easily lead to confusion in the public’s perception of a brand’s customer image. Some media outlets tend to generalize single incidents involving car owners into the image of an entire brand’s customers, which he finds unfair. Chinese car brands generally face this problem, and what BYD needs to do is to increase the planning and shaping of user images and promote positive images of BYD car owners to the public.
The last dimension is brand marketing, planning, and activities. “Consumers also compare the output of various manufacturers. Is it well-designed and classy, or is it tacky?” Li Yunfei believe that it is essential to pay attention to the style of brand marketing, advocate the brand’s values and spirit, and most importantly, surpass the customers’ expectations. “We hope to exceed expectations by 120% or even 150%.”The six dimensions of car brands are Li Yunfei’s ideas and also the focus of brand work. “I believe that if these six aspects are well done, with a clear direction, perseverance, and appropriate measures, there will be good results.”
With brand ideology and strategy, how can BYD manage its brands in such a wide range of products?
“In the same product category, brands are associated with prices, but BYD has only one brand for products ranging from over 40,000 yuan to over 300,000 yuan. So we have also tried to make some arrangements, such as our Dynasty series and e series products, and we are trying to gradually differentiate and optimize them.”
Currently, BYD’s e series focuses on products below 180,000 or 200,000 yuan, and Dynasty series products only range from 100,000 to 300,000 yuan.
“At present, the two series have some overlapping products, such as the e-network SUVs and Dynasty sedans, but we will gradually sort them out.” Li Yunfei said that the two product series sales networks and teams are also independent, although there is no separate brand, they are actually doing some kind of differentiation.
“Will we separate them into two brands?” “We have plans, but we should take it step by step and establish the brand gradually.” Li Yunfei said.
It is clear that BYD has already planned to launch high-end brands, focusing on products above 500,000 yuan. The visual image and other elements of the high-end brand will be released in the fourth quarter of this year, but the car models will not be launched until 2022.
In recent years, BYD has achieved effective upward development of its brand. In the same level of electric cars, BYD is one of the more expensive Chinese brands. Will BYD become more upscale in the future?
Li Yunfei said that in the economic segment, BYD will continue to exert its force. “For example, Volkswagen Group has high-end brands such as Porsche, as well as Volkswagen and Skoda. BYD’s brand layout needs to be established step by step, and new brands have plans, but adjustments are not ruled out during the development process.”
The former Roland Berger once said, “We have never encountered a case like BYD before, with so many industries involved and such a broad coverage.”If you visit the official website of BYD Group and take a look at their products and solutions, you will find that they have five major business segments. Despite this, the range of their business and products is actually quite extensive, particularly in the IT industry. Their IT industry includes products such as secondary rechargeable batteries, chargers, acoustic products, connectors, LCD display modules, plastic structural components, metal parts and components, hardware electronic products, mobile phone buttons, keyboards, flexible circuit boards, microelectronic products, LED products, optoelectronics, as well as mobile phone decoration, design, and assembly services.
“BYD’s system is very large, and the outside world may only know about BYD’s automobiles, so while we promote BYD’s automobiles, we also want BYD Group to be better understood by the public,” said Li Yunfei.
In summary, Li Yunfei believes that the “story” of BYD Group is:
Firstly, their industry involves more than just automobiles. “Don’t compare BYD’s market value and development prospects with those of other listed companies in certain sub-industries, because they are not in the same dimension. Also, don’t compare Mr. Wang, CEO of BYD, with those of other domestic auto industry CEOs, because they are not in the same dimension. Mr. Wang is a strategic thinker, and our future development expectations and layout of each business segment are all part of our strategic planning, with automobiles being only one of our business segments.”
Secondly, their business goes beyond China. “Our internationalization and global strategic deployment includes commercial vehicles that have already covered six continents, more than 50 countries and regions, and over 300 cities. In the future, we will gradually export passenger cars abroad.”
Thirdly, in China, BYD also needs to promote their DNA of technological innovation at the corporate level.
Li Yunfei explained that in addition to car displays and brand exhibitions, BYD’s national automotive experience centers introduce BYD Group too. “Cars are only a part of it. We use cars to attract people to learn more about our BYD brand.”
BYD has been established for 26 years and has always been known for its technical expertise, but has not been particularly concerned with branding. In particular, BYD’s chairman, Wang Chuanfu, emphasizes technology as the foundation. What is Wang’s attitude towards branding?
Li Yunfei said that it is time for BYD to focus on branding. “In the past, there were no high-end products, and the urgency and importance were not high. However, after the Tang and Han models and especially for the longer-term development, Mr. Wang’s emphasis on branding has continued to increase. In 2019, the Brand Management Center was established, and before the 2021 Spring Festival, the Brand and Public Relations Business Unit was also established. You can see the importance they attach to branding.”
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.