If I were a business professor, I would advise my students to pay close attention to what is going on right now in the car industry. You see, something is taking place in the automotive business—something that no one would have dared to predict as recently as five years ago. I’m talking about the proliferation of Chinese brands. What used to be the butt of joke in the motoring community are now starting to be taken seriously.
For me, the clear indication that Filipino car owners are now ready to accept Chinese brands was the arrival of Geely (and MG, if we can all agree that this marque is legitimately Chinese). The introduction of Geely in late 2019—just before the pandemic, mind you—served as a watershed moment for the industry. With Geely’s success proving to be no fluke, those who were laughing then have surely turned solemn now.
That, I think, encouraged the gold rush that we are witnessing at the moment. Left and right, brands are streaming from China, as though car-selling is about to go out of fashion tomorrow. As I mentioned in a previous column, this weekend’s Manila International Auto Show (April 13-16) will be inundated by Chinese brands.
Now, let me make something clear here: Not every Chinese brand entering our market will enjoy the kind of success that Geely has had. Only those that will carefully replicate what Geely Philippines has done stand a chance in a brand-conscious market that is still enamored with Toyota’s proven quality and reliability. Let’s not discuss after-sales service anymore. That’s a given. That is nonnegotiable whether the brand is Chinese or Korean or Japanese or American or European.
To my mind, a new Chinese brand must be mindful of three things: (1) what the market wants; (2) communicating with the market; and (3) affordability of the products.
Last night, Luxuriant Automotive Group formally launched two Chinese brands in its stable: GWM and Haval. Do I think the company has what it takes to address the three aforementioned goals? Let’s see.
A foreign brand attempting to do business in any market has to know the territory. It reminds me of what Joshua did before conquering parts of the promised land. Before advancing, he sent two spies to survey the land. He was aware that they had to know the enemy. Attacking a domain without any clue about it is like entering a ring blindfolded. Luxuriant, it seems, has a competent “spy” in its marketing director, Tonette Lee. True, Lee had spent many years away from the car industry, but she had previously worked for Nissan and Ford. In a way, having her on their team is like Geely having Froilan Dytianquin as sales and marketing general manager.
So they had somebody to tell them what vehicles are popular in the Philippines. Hence, they introduced a compact crossover SUV (Haval H6), a subcompact crossover (Haval Jolion), and a pickup truck (GWM Cannon).
Second, Lee understands the importance of marketing. It is sad seeing new brands joining the fray without even taking into consideration the costs of introducing themselves to the market. In a cutthroat trade like the car industry, being top of mind among consumers is essential. Why do you think the likes of Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Suzuki spend on advertising? It is stupid to assume that a new car will fly off the showroom floor by itself. I don’t care if it’s the prettiest vehicle in its segment, but people need to know that it exists.
Luxuriant seems willing to invest in this department. Of course, it will sound biased coming from me because my livelihood depends on advertising, but this is an incontrovertible truth.
Third, there is the pricing. And I will end this piece by sharing the asking fees for Luxuriant’s products. Only you can tell me if the distributor got this part correctly.
Haval H6 HEV
• Supreme – P1,883,000
• Max – P1,788,000
Haval Jolion
• HEV DHT Supreme – P1,588,000
• DCT Supreme – P1,248,000
• DCT Max – P1,128,000
• DCT Plus – P998,000
GWM Cannon
• SLux 4×4 – P1,498,000
• SLux 4×2 – P1,358,000
• Lux 4×4 – P1,318,000
• Lux 4×2 – P1,198,000
• Pilot 4×4 – P1,118,000
• Pilot 4×2 – P998,000
Will these vehicles strike gold in our market? I suggest you test-drive them first. Whether you will like them is entirely up to you.
* * *
FILL YOUR TANK: “Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.” (Joshua 2:1)