Prices are down, sales are down, the brand is down, this corner of the bleak is the current skoda brand true picture of the market.

One weekend in June, Skoda held a promotional event at The Xinzhuang Zhongsheng Shopping mall in Xinzhuang, showcases its Komic and Suopai models. Linked to the SAIC Motor Car Festival a month earlier, the poster read "Last day of the May 5 Car Festival", much like a "blood sale" at a cheap clothing store on the pedestrian mall in college Town.

However, in the quarter of an hour that I observed, the visitor flow was not optimistic. Subway malls, on weekends, there's no shortage of people here, but the crowds, they shop, they shop, but they don't seem to care that there's a car brand that's offering discounts.

There have been stops by Nextev, Geely, Guangfeng and other brands in this fixed rental car exhibition area. Compared with skoda, which has been neglected by no one, they have at least attracted pedestrians to stop and discuss or take out their mobile phones to take photos. Because it was so quiet, the staff in the exhibition area were bored, either checking their cell phones, chatting with each other, or even falling asleep. In their words, this activity is just a formal task, with a sense of presence based on the waste heat of the car buying festival, not KPI.

Prices are down, sales are down, the brand is down, this corner of the bleak is the current skoda brand true picture of the market.

According to the data, Skoda's sales in China in 2019 were 282,000 units, down 17.3% from the same period last year. In early 2019, SSA-VOLKSWAGEN Skoda set a target of selling 500,000 cars annually. In the first half of this year, due to the impact of the epidemic and other factors, Skoda's sales fell by 38.5% to just 77,400 vehicles, after the price cuts for the whole range began in April.

With the brilliance brought by Octavia, the current decline is unacceptable for Skoda, which has been in China for 15 years with "German quality". From the initial high opening into the Chinese market to the present low presence, then, what is the reason that led Skoda to such a situation?

The awkwardness of brand positioning

Skoda is the third Volkswagen group brand to begin production in China.

In 2006, a year after the Shanghai Volkswagen agreement, the century-old brand began production in China. In the following years, Skoda introduced Mingrui, Jingrui, Haorui and Xinrui successively, and these brands were listed one after another, which indicates that Skoda entered China smoothly at that time.

In the following decade, Skoda was reluctant to become the green leaf of Volkswagen with the excellent performance of Octavia and other models. In 2016, Skoda changed the logo on the tail of all its models from "Shanghai Volkswagen" to "SAIC-Skoda". It seems that skoda wants to get rid of the influence of Volkswagen and operate as an independent brand. The banner "Everyone who knows Volkswagen will buy Skoda" was hung in front of the 4S shop, showing Skoda's determination and courage to step out of the shadow of the Volkswagen brand.

At the time, Skoda had the backing to do so. At that time, The development momentum of Octadia was flourishing, and the total sales volume of Skoda in China had exceeded 2 million. In addition, The brand of Skoda has a long history, and there is no lack of historical background. It was natural for Octadia to seek new development in The Chinese auto market with the image of an independent brand.

However, after reaching the achievement of 2 million, Skoda gradually encountered bottlenecks and bumps along the way, and the market performance also deteriorated. Until January this year, the sales volume of Skoda in that month was less than 10,000, with a year-on-year decline of more than 70%. The "cliff-like" slide caught the public's attention, and something was done about it: in April it slashed prices across the board. At that time, all models of Skoda's nine major car series reduced their official sales prices, and their official guidance prices were reduced by 77,900 to 247,900 yuan, with a maximum reduction of 15%.

Despite such a big discount, the discount covers the whole series, but from the sales volume of less than 80,000 in the first half of the year, the price reduction of the whole series has not solved the problem. On the other hand, the combination of product convergence and a decline in brand value after discounted prices is something Skoda does not want to see, or even want to talk about.

Since joining Volkswagen family 30 years ago and becoming a brand under the group, Skoda has been relying on Volkswagen Group, but its brand influence has been lukewarm. This superficial brand influence failed to retain the core audience for Skoda, and the problem it brought was the instability of product sales. In other words, the Skoda brand lacks selling points and personality.

Product end, skoda speed and Volkswagen passat, skoda ke Kodiak and popular way L, skoda Octavia and Volkswagen lavida, skoda, crystal sharp and Volkswagen POLO this car in addition to the difference between the logo, 3 big engine transmission and chassis are all the same, even part of the model can also have a global platform and a lot of advanced technology, but in terms of market feedback, and has great differences.

As a result, Skoda became the consensus of the market less than Volkswagen. In the stereotype, Skoda is just a low-end and close to a niche brand. Although it is unfair to Skoda to some extent, it is true. The root of the problem is that skoda's brand positioning is the weakness of its development.

"The sharp decline of Skoda's sales is due to its own problems, such as its brand positioning, insufficient product strength due to outdated vehicle configurations, as well as the changing external market environment." There are industry analysts said. Among the external factors, there is no doubt that Jetta appears. Yes, after Volkswagen's own son Jetta came out, the price dropped and the market recognition was high, which made skoda's market narrow and even the name of "German goalkeeper" could not be kept.

But as industry analysts point out, its own product problems were also a big reason for skoda's share collapse.

From the distribution of products from the beginning of the curse

There is no doubt that Octavia's strong performance has taken Skoda to a new level, with the model once accounting for half of the company's sales.

A decade after the model was born, the second generation of Octavia was launched in China and manufactured and sold by Shanghai Volkswagen. Then (in 2007), China joint venture brand a-class car jetta, santana is perhaps the most prosperous and excelle models, and Octavia, unlike these models, it has more space of tail hatchback cars, more comfortable chassis performance, lower prices, and so on, these advantages make it quickly circle powder of many consumers, the highest monthly sales more than 30000 vehicles. There is no doubt that the Octadia is a star car in contrast to the tepid performance of the other Skoda models.

But starting with the third-generation Octavia (the 2017 model), Skoda started its own devilry.

In order to make a profit on a single vehicle, the third-generation OCR successively abolished the multi-link independent rear suspension, and eliminated the options of 2.0T and 1.8T power. OCR can't compete with other competitors of the same level in terms of configuration: front and rear side airbags, head airbags, LED daily lights, ESP and other safety configurations without standard configuration. In addition, many owners of the car to reflect the bad sound insulation materials sent out serious odor mingrui suffered "poison interior" torture. Unfortunately, the after-sales service of Skoda could not solve the problems of users in time, so the mentality of bullying customers could not help but make consumers feel cold.

Now, Octavia can only rely on dealers' substantial terminal discounts and still feel relieved. Skoda's attempt to achieve more profits by reducing costs has failed. As a result of this situation, Not only Skoda needs to reflect on whether its development strategy is wrong, but also Volkswagen Group needs to reflect on its practice of taking Skoda as the experimental product of market reaction.

Subtracting also appears in the Cordiac and Octavia travel editions. Compared with the original overseas model, the price of the domestic Version of the Cordiac is really not the same level with its configuration. No Sportline kit, no adaptive headlights, rear turn signal reduced to halogen lamps, part of interior plastic lining, flocking material changed to hard plastic, soundproof cotton reduced, rear side air bag, air curtain reduced, DCC dynamic chassis, panoramic image, abrupt descent, wireless charging, rear table and so on all disappeared.

Skoda is depleting the mass base it has built up in the past ten years. This is absolutely a mistake.

"No make no die, why you try". When the market did not understand Skoda's confusing behavior, Jetta brand became independent. With the independence of Jetta brand, Volkswagen seems to intend to let Skoda enter the market. By reducing product positioning and price, Skoda and Volkswagen will compete in a misplacement, and at the same time suppress their own brands. However, the current mainstream independent brands have already passed the stage of being uncompetitive, and Skoda has no advantage.

Speaking about Skoda before Volkswagen China released its half-year results, Volkswagen Group (China) CEO Feng Sihan said, "Skoda has taken a series of measures, and we remain cautiously optimistic about the market outlook of Skoda in the second half of the year." But what could a set of measures be? Is nothing more than a new car and cost reduction, is a dead cycle. Ultimately, a "Renaissance" without starting with products will not solve the brand dilemma.

In order to cope with the increasingly diversified demands of Chinese automobile market, Skoda, which has been in China for more than 10 years, has stepped into the deep water of brand reform. Skoda reflects the plight of many edge brands in joint ventures. Although they have not been delisted, their brand development is in trouble. It is a pity that they are tasteless and abandoned.

On July 21, a Danxia orange coronoke rolled off the production line at SAIC-Volkswagen's Ningbo factory, the third millionth car for SAIC-Skoda. Three days later, at the Chengdu International Auto Show, SAIC-SKoda presented the koronke's keys to A chengdu-based Mr. Liu, the 3 millionth owner in The Chinese market.

From the signing of saic Volkswagen in 2005 to the achievement of 3 million cars today, this is definitely a milestone and an achievement worth celebrating for Skoda brand. However, how to go forward in the Chinese market in the future is a problem that Skoda cannot get around. Meanwhile, Skoda's time is running out.