China can build cars – but now it’s building brands
Just in case you missed it or you’re still a disbeliever, SIZE REALLY DOES MATTER. I can say this with some degree of confidence because life experience tells me so and because I just did a speedy tour through Hong Kong, Bangkok and Dubai, and the proof that XXL beats petite is everywhere you look. Drive from Causeway Bay to Wan Chai, gaze up from the motorway as you cross the Thai capital or do your very best to look away at Dubai Airport and you’ll be confronted by billboards, LED screens and whole sides of office towers selling vehicle models that you’ve likely never heard of from brands you’re only becoming vaguely familiar with. Make no mistake: out-of-home advertising works like no other – especially when the billboards are longer and taller than a Boeing 777. After 72 hours in three Asian mega-hubs, I’m starting to change my long-held belief that China can build products but not brands.
BYD is not going to win any typography or art-direction awards for its communications around new launches but once you see enough animating screens backed by logos on actual vehicles in the traffic of Sukhumvit, you can see the problem for those sitting in Wolfsburg, Torino and Nagoya. As recently as five years ago, Thailand’s out-of-home ad landscape was filled with special-edition campaigns for the new Toyota Hilux, Hyundai family van or entry-level BMW. As of Friday evening in Bangkok, I couldn’t see one ad for a non-Chinese brand. The Germans have all but vanished from the ad landscape and from the streets. Yes, there are some fancy Thai ladies driving G-Wagons and execs being shuttled around in S-Classes and Alphards – but it’s the dwindling number of Japanese and South Korean vehicles that is most surprising.
For sure, deep discounts at dealerships are part of this story but not the entirety. Zeekr, GWM and Chery make some good looking cars, even if many models are glowing examples of China’s disregard for the concept of intellectual property. While waiting for the shuttle at Dubai Airport, I was introduced to the Omoda and Jaecoo brands and their latest SUV and crossover offers. From pillars along moving sidewalks to screens outside bathrooms and concourse-long posters, Omoda was everywhere I looked and by the time I was about to get on the train to connect me to gate B30 and my flight to Lisbon, I was becoming a convert. Who wants a Toyota Land Cruiser when Jaecoo offers this? “Explore outdoors with your pet. Best in class, pet-friendly material & easy to clean.” Never mind the catchy copy, there’s also Ludmila in the driver’s seat wearing an impossibly tight ivory polo neck with her little pooch, Sergei, perched on her lap. Both of them are looking towards the heavens. Are they plane spotting? Are they waiting for the next Emirates flight to land from Moscow? Or is that a Ukrainian drone in the distance?
As media buying goes, the Omoda and Jaecoo crowd (no idea if this is a Land Rover/Range Rover type of brand mix) knows their audience in the UAE – the group next to me from Kazan was snapping pictures, chattering away and looking on with a blend of approval and puzzlement. Were they pondering the same question that I was? Is this the final boarding call for the German, Japanese, South Korean and Italian automakers? Or were they possibly wondering if Ludmila’s ivory polo was also made from pet-friendly material and easy to clean? Then again, they might well have been considering whether a panoramic sunroof is a good or bad idea for monitoring those pesky incoming armed drones.
