By: Wang Yunpeng
From 2019’s Baojun, Toyota, Volkswagen to 2020’s BMW, Nissan, Rolls-Royce, and to 2021’s BYD, Kia, General Motors, Geely Holding Group, and Peugeot, logo redesign has become a trend in the automotive industry in recent years, and this trend is continuing.
Recently, Dongfeng Fengshen, a brand under Dongfeng Motor Group, announced that it will hold a brand launch event in June, announcing new product plans and a brand new logo.
It is reported that the new logo of Dongfeng Fengshen will be named “Jin Shi Biao”. From the pictures currently circulating, the all-new Jin Shi Biao uses a shield-shaped design, with a poised male lion in the center, implying “confidence and fearlessness, moving forward courageously”, and visually conveying more strength and power than the current logo of Dongfeng Fengshen.
Regarding the new logo, Dongfeng Fengshen stated that Jin Shi represents momentum and changing the logo will promote the brand’s further development and continued breakthroughs.
In fact, this is not the first time the new logo of Dongfeng Fengshen has “appeared”. In November 2020, at the “New Fengshen Brand Night”, Dongfeng Fengshen had already announced the Jin Shi Biao which implies “confidence and fearlessness, moving forward courageously” and released the first model of the Jin Shi Biao – Fengshen T5 EVO. “In the future, Fengshen will become a younger, more vibrant passenger car brand, embracing this new era and young consumers with more personality.” Tang Jing, general manager of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co., Ltd., said at the brand night.
Public information shows that in addition to the Fengshen T5 EVO, Dongfeng Fengshen’s SUV and MPV models such as Lingzhi PLUS, Lingzhi M5, Fengshen T5, and Fengshen SX6 logos will also be replaced with Jin Shi Biao, and relevant models have completed new car filings with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
In the industry’s view, changing to the Jin Shi Biao also means that Dongfeng Fengshen is accelerating the process of brand rejuvenation and high-end positioning.
In response to the “Eastern Wind Rises” strategy?
On April 17, before the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, Dongfeng Motor Group announced the “Eastern Wind Rises” strategic plan, proposing that its independent brands will strengthen differentiated deployment and embark on a journey of brand upgrading.
Meanwhile, in this strategic plan, Dongfeng Motors Group has also established three “One Million” plans for its own brand, which means that by 2025, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle, and Dongfeng New Energy Vehicle will achieve sales of one million each, and the scale of Dongfeng’s own brand passenger vehicles should enter the top three in the industry.
Industry experts generally believe that this goal may not pose too much pressure on Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle, but it could be a considerable challenge for Dongfeng’s own brand passenger vehicles. Specifically, according to Dongfeng Motors Group’s plan, in order to achieve the above goals, by 2025, Dongfeng Fengshen brand sales need to reach 300,000, the A-segment car brand Voyah needs to reach 150,000, and the cumulative sales of the B-segment car brands such as Fengxing, Fengguang, and Qichen also need to reach 550,000.
However, the reality is quite cruel. Statistics show that in 2020, Dongfeng Fengshen sold about 70,000 units in total, Dongfeng Fengguang about 110,000 units, Dongfeng Fengxing about 80,000 units, and Dongfeng Qichen about 80,000 units, a total of about 340,000 units. The gap between this performance and the target is self-evident.
Facing the contradiction between reality and goals, Dongfeng Fengxing, as a member of Dongfeng’s own passenger car sector, naturally needs to make some changes, one of which is to change its logo.
Although Dongfeng Fengxing has stated that the change to the “Jinshi” logo is in response to the “Oriental Wind Rising” strategy’s differentiated deployment, the industry believes that this may not be entirely the case.
Public data shows that 2009 to 2016 was the high point of Dongfeng Fengxing. During these seven years, Dongfeng Fengxing’s production and sales increased from 50,000 to 260,000 with a compound growth rate of over 30%, and its sales ranking among domestic own-brand cars even rose to eighth place at one point. This was also referred to as the “Fengxing Speed” by the industry.
However, with the transformation and upgrading of the domestic auto market, the practice of relying on low-end models to seize the market began to “fail”. After 2016, Dongfeng Fengxing’s sales began to decline year by year.
According to statistics, in 2017, when the auto market increased by 4% over the previous year, Dongfeng Fengxing’s overall sales volume fell by 12% year-on-year, selling 230,000 units. In 2018, sales volume fell by another 44% to 128,000 units. In 2019, cumulative sales were 116,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 9.3%, completing 83% of the annual target of 140,000 units. In 2020, Dongfeng Fengxing only sold about 80,000 units.In the face of increasingly ugly sales performance, Chen Weiquan, Chief of the Market Research Department of Dongfeng Liuqi Motor Sales Company, revealed that Dongfeng Fengshen’s annual sales target for 2021 is to keep it at 160,000 units and challenge 190,000 units. However, from January to April this year, Dongfeng Fengshen accumulated a total sales volume of 41,700 units, only 26% of the annual sales target, and it remains to be seen whether the sales target can be achieved.
Therefore, some industry insiders believe that even without the “Eastern Wind Rising” strategic plan, Dongfeng Fengshen has come to a time when changes need to be made.
Just Changing The Logo Is Not Enough
Whether it is to respond to the “Eastern Wind Rising” strategic plan or to reverse the sales slump, just changing the logo to a rampant lion is not enough for Dongfeng Fengshen.
According to Dongfeng Fengshen’s official website, the brand currently has a total of 14 models on sale, covering submarkets such as sedans, SUVs, MPVs, and new energy vehicles. From the perspective of quantity, Dongfeng Fengshen’s product lineup is quite strong, but from the perspective of sales, it is a different story.
Data shows that except for a few models such as Lingzhi and Fengshen T5 EVO, almost all other models under Dongfeng Fengshen are already marginalized. Even the popular model Fengshen T5 EVO only sold 3,912 units in April. This is far from the monthly average sales of around 30,000 units for mainstream domestic SUVs such as Haval H6 and Changan CS75PLUS.
With weak sales of its models, Dongfeng Fengshen’s overall performance naturally cannot be good. Data released by Dongfeng Motor Group shows that the wholesale volume of Dongfeng Fengshen was 79,000 units from January to April 2021, and the sales volume was 41,700 units. In other words, the inventory index of Dongfeng Fengshen dealers was as high as 47.2%.
Why did Dongfeng Fengshen, who once created “Fengshen Speed,” fall to such a situation? In the industry’s view, a single product matrix and lack of core competitiveness are important reasons for its continuous decline.
In 2014, Dongfeng Fengshen started the second transformation from MPV to SUV and sedans. Unfortunately, Fengshen still failed to demonstrate core attractiveness. Its SUV products are superficial modifications and have not established a good reputation in terms of mechanical matching and quality stability. Therefore, automotive analyst Tan Jingtang said that after enjoying the first wave of dividends, it is not surprising that Dongfeng Fengshen’s sales have started to decline.Except for the shortcoming in the core technology, the product quality of Dongfeng Fengshen is not recognized by consumers. Taking the Fengshen T5 EVO as an example, on May 28th, China Automotive Technology Research Center (C-NCAP) released the test results of the 40% offset frontal crash test for the Fengshen T5 EVO 1.5T DCT Diamond Edition. The result showed that the A-pillar of the vehicle was bent in the “40% offset frontal crash” test.
In response, some consumers said, “The A-pillar was bent in the C-NCAP’s 40% offset frontal collision test. What would happen in the 25% small overlap offset collision test held by the China Insurance Research Institute?”
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that a Dongfeng Fengshen vehicle has “rolled over” in C-NCAP crash tests. In the fourth batch of collision model lists released by C-NCAP in 2018, the Dongfeng Fengshen T5 1.5T CVT 230T Intelligent Enjoyment Edition ranked last in the crash test and received only a “two-star” rating.
Overall, in the current domestic automobile market, in order for Dongfeng Fengshen to achieve upward mobility in product and brand, it not only needs a new logo, but also requires the support of a new overall strategy and all-round advancement in product, marketing, channels, and other aspects.
As to whether Dongfeng Fengshen will provide an answer to these issues at the brand launch event in June, it is still unknown.
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.