On May 4, 2018, the 2018 (fifteenth) Beijing International Automobile Exhibition was held at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing, and the exhibition was a complete success. The Beijing International Auto Show, which is held every two years, is well-deservedly called a gluttonous feast for car lovers, with various debut models, concept cars, and new energy wheels. While everyone is enjoying this car feast, we, as the vertical media of RV, are faced with an embarrassing scene. As an important branch of the automotive system-RV, there are only a few units in the exhibition.
At the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show, RV manufacturers such as SAIC MAXUS, CEIBS, AM, Karen Benway (Fujian Benz booth), Mercedes-Benz, and Foton participated in the exhibition. At the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, only SAIC MAXUS, JMC, and Al Mori et al. Although manufacturers involved in RVs such as CEIBS and Yasheng participated in the exhibition, they only brought commercial vehicles and did not exhibit RVs.
within reason
Compared with nearly 200 RV companies in China, this proportion of exhibitors is really pitifully small. When the reporter interviewed Mr. Peng Wei, the sales director of Yasheng RV, he got the following answer: “Currently, the marketing and publicity expenses of RV are limited, and most of the manufacturers actually do targeted advertising in the industry media and industry exhibitions. In the The effect of an auto show that focuses on passenger cars is not particularly obvious.” The reporter was dumbfounded by such an answer, but it is reasonable to think back.
The first purpose of automobile participation in the exhibition must be vehicle sales, but automobiles, as a just-needed item in people’s lives, are not in a hurry to sign orders on the spot. What the exhibition needs to do is to improve brand awareness and reputation, and leave a good impression on people. However, the real sales work often continues to be diverted to 4S stores through a large number of advertising bombardments, and the whole process is perfect and smooth, and it is done in one go.
The RV is not only a non-rigid item, but also a niche product compared to cars. Sales rely more on long-term maintenance users and impulsive consumption users, and these two types of customers will appear more in RV exhibitions. Although the caravans in the auto show attract a lot of attention, the conversion rate is not high. More importantly, the booth fee in the auto show is several times that of the RV show, which does not include the booth construction cost. Calculated in this way, such market expenses are too heavy for a caravan company that sells only a few hundred units a year.
unexpected
On the other hand, professional RV exhibitions are in an explosive state. According to incomplete statistics, there were more than 40 RV exhibitions in the first half of 2018 alone. What is even more surprising is that almost every exhibition has good sales, and the sales of RVs from January to May have doubled compared with last year. For the RV industry, which has been developing steadily, it can be said to be unexpected.
RV manufacturers gave up large-scale auto exhibitions and chose professional RV exhibitions, which also indicated that RV manufacturers have become more pragmatic in their marketing choices. The bigger the exhibition, the better. Although the Beijing International Auto Show has excellent exhibitors and visitors, it is not suitable for RV companies that require high professionalism from the audience.
Taking sales as the core is a common behavior in the early stage of industry development. When an enterprise develops to a certain stage, product promotion is destined to be greater than blind sales. The exhibition is not a simple store, it is the best opportunity to show a brand to consumers from products to corporate culture. Consumers choose to buy your product because of their confidence in the product. This kind of confidence is not only built on the price and appearance of the vehicle, but also on all aspects of the brand. The exhibition road of the RV industry is still far away.
