2020 marks the decisive year for Buick "Brand Upgrading"

On the evening of July 29, the new members of SAIC-GM's Buick Envision family, Envision S and Envision S Avenir, were officially launched. Except for the Avenir model with four-wheel drive system, other models are two-wheel drive versions, priced from 219,900 yuan to 279,900 yuan. For the three major joint venture brands of SAIC-GM-Cadillac, Buick, and Chevrolet, the Buick brand has already accounted for half of the sales of the GM family (joint venture brand), and the Buick brand achieved a year-on-year growth of 7.8% in the second quarter of this year. The launch of Envision S lineup this time undoubtedly provides strong support for the further improvement of Buick's brand competitiveness.

2020 has passed halfway. In the next more challenging second half of the year, what plans will SAIC-GM Buick have in brand marketing, product promotion, and word of mouth? On July 30, Gu Yebin, head of the marketing department of SAIC-GM Buick, accepted a video interview from IIA and gave his answers to the questions that consumers care about.

How was the Buick brand's sales in July?

Gu Yebin, Head of Marketing Department of SAIC-GM Buick

Buick had a positive year-on-year growth in April, May, and June. Since July is not over yet, there is currently no accurate sales data available. But judging from the current data collection, July sales will definitely exceed 70,000 units, and there will still be a positive growth of more than 20% year-on-year, and the Buick brand will continue to maintain a year-on-year growth trend.

Enclave's sales growth momentum has been slower because of the epidemic, but it is slowly recovering. It is Buick's flagship SUV and will definitely perform better.

The Enclave, a mid-to-large SUV, is both a new product and Buick's flagship SUV, but this year's overall sales have been low. Does this have something to do with the overlapping positioning of the Cadillac XT6?

The three major joint venture brands of SAIC-GM, namely Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac, have different market segments and target users. The three major brands have their own clear positioning. Enclave is the flagship product of the Buick SUV family, and Enclave also has an Avenir version. According to market sales, the Enclave Avenir version accounts for a relatively high proportion, occupying 20% of the market.

Since Enclave has only been on the market for a short time, at the end of last year, its popularity was very high. However, this year, affected by objective factors such as the epidemic, the sales of new products in the initial stage of promotion were relatively low. At present, SAIC-GM Buick brand is doing supporting promotion work for Enclave, in order to promote its sales rebound. By June, Enclave's sales had reached nearly 3,000 units. This shows that its overall design, product strength, and core technology are still very competitive among products of the same level. As the flagship SUV, Buick will continue to improve Enclave.

Buick's new and competing hot-selling models are very competitive, but in the used car market, its shortcomings will be more obvious. In the future, in this field, how does the Buick brand plan?

The residual value of used cars is a systemic problem. Envision is a mature product in the Buick SUV camp, and there are now millions of car owners. 2020 is the year for Buick's "Brand Upgrading". Through continuous product launches, iterative technology updates, and innovative marketing of "online + offline", the brand quickly returned to a normal level in the late stage of the epidemic, and achieved an increase. Half-year retail sales grew year-on-year.

Buick Envision

Buick Envision S Avenir

In the field of new energy, Buick's products cover PHEV, BEV, and HEV. After Envision S went on the market, both were medium-sized SUVs with Envision S, to continuously improve the competitiveness of their products. Both the new car and the used car market will establish Buick's reasonable positioning.

Summary:

Looking back at the first half of this year, the Buick brand has sold 326,485 new cars. The continuous year-on-year growth in the second quarter resulted in a significant rebound in overall brand sales. 2020 is not only a new year for Buick brand products, but also a year for Buick "Brand Upgrading". The launch of a variety of blockbuster products has enriched the brand's product layout, and the two high-end brands Avenir and GS are set against each other. Enhance brand image is essential.