How does a brand win users’ hearts? Audi "8 Family" Flagship Models give an answer

According to a survey on global luxury cars published in Fortune magazine, the global luxury car market experienced a steady and rapid growth in 2020; at the same time, benefiting from the simultaneous growth of supply and demand, the domestic luxury car market maintained an amazing resilience. In addition, data provided by the China Passenger Car Association shows that, China’s luxury car sales in 2019 accounted for 31% of the total global sales; even in the context of the global epidemic, China's luxury car market still achieved a positive growth in sales from negative in April 2020, with monthly sales exceeding 200,000 vehicles; and the sales and market scale are still expanding, making China a key market for the formation of the global luxury car brands’ pattern.

In this context, FAW-Volkswagen Audi, as a brand with deep historical accumulation in the luxury car market, maintained its leading momentum. Up to now, FAW-Volkswagen Audi has set its annual sales record with 726,288 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%, making it one of the few luxury brands that achieved contrarian growth this year. In January of this year, FAW-Volkswagen Audi completed the overall sales of 62,188 vehicles, an increase of 6.5% year-on-year, exceeding the 5% in 2019. Digging deep into the market performance of FAW-Volkswagen Audi behind this dazzling figure, we can see that users have a strong and continuous sense of identity with the FAW-Volkswagen Audi brand.

In 2020, FAW-Volkswagen Audi announced a global brand renewal. How to inspire the rejuvenation of the brand with a future-oriented attitude is a key issue for FAW-Volkswagen Audi for a period of time in the future. In fact, in the same year, FAW-Volkswagen Audi had already begun a comprehensive renewal of the brand experience with visual system, user image, marketing methods, and experience platform as the main content, opening up a rejuvenated dialogue interface with user groups.

Authoritative experts in the automobile industry have put forward three insights on the concept of brand rejuvenation of automobiles: 1. The brand should think proactively instead of reacting to the market conditions passively; 2. The brand should try new communication channels and methods; 3. The brand should understand the concept of “rejuvenation”correctly . That is, not simply communicating with young people, but attracting young people through communication. It can be seen that FAW-Volkswagen Audi is practicing the above three insights in its own way.

Unlike other Audi models that quickly“gain popularity” among young users, the Audi “8 family” flagship models, known for their high-end distinguished design as a business car, have a unique understanding and evolutionary approach in injecting rejuvenated genes into the Audi brand, which is more worth exploring.

Under the general direction of brand rejuvenation in the new era, "modern sophistication", as the core value of Audi's "8 family" flagship models, also continues to influence the value orientation of the targeted user groups.

As a member of Audi's "8 family" , Audi A8L high-end business flagship model, in the latest generation iteration process, in addition to retaining the body lengthening that Chinese users love, also adds a sense of sport, fashion and technology to the appearance and configuration of the vehicle to convey a sense of value , that is, to stay enterprising and achieve self-breakthrough while being responsible for the future, hence giving Audi flagship models a value connection that evolves together with users in the era. 

Another member of Audi's "8 family" is Audi Q8 with a price up to one million yuan, expressing the Audi brand's understanding of the flagship SUV under the guidance of its core values: the Quattro all-wheel-drive system is the only pure mechanical central differential among its peers; the combination of on-road and off-road functions, giving it powerful performance in all road conditions; the aesthetic design of "sportback" curve guarantees comfort in the rear seating, creates the most spacious and comfortable rear seat space in its segment;the unique fusion of sports and off-road creates a “new luxury” flagship SUV, conveying to the target users a sense of passionate life beliefs beyond the material level.

Audi R8, as a luxury super-car of the Audi "8 family", inherits the design of Audi family. With Audi's unique Ultra Lightweight-ASF body frame structure and 202kg extremely lightweight body, it leads the evolution of engineering technology and the direction of luxury car body frame design; it is equipped with the only mid-mounted V10 engine in its class and the Audi's Quattro four-wheel drive system, making it sprint to 100 kilometers per hour in 3.2 seconds and reach its top speed of 330km/h. All these make the Audi R8 under the aura of "Le Mans Legend" even more superior as a flagship car.

In the context of brand rejuvenation, three flagship models with different styles are coming together in the name of the "8 family" flagship car, continuing to exude the unique appeal of Audi flagship cars to users. As many domestic auto brands are entering the new track of the industry, domestic luxury auto brands have also entered an era of structural change amid the discussion on the brand's forward posture and the disty debate on the best or worst of times. For FAW-Volkswagen Audi, this is not only a challenge, but also a verification opportunity for the brand to " bear the weight of its crown".

More than 30 years of joint venture history has allowed FAW-Volkswagen Audi to gain a huge user base of 6.6 million in China, establish a more diverse, emotional and inclusive brand image, and also obtain a solid brand loyalty. All these constitute the confidence and motivation for FAW-Volkswagen Audi to deal with future competition and open up a new era. FAW-Volkswagen Audi, with its temperament and quality as a leader in high-end cars, has transformed the development path of brand rejuvenation into capturing user insights and establishing an efficient communication link with users, which has worked.