At a time when the automotive industry is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, the dynamic evolution of brand, experience and design has become a key factor in determining whether automotive companies can achieve longevity. This paper discusses the differentiated practice paths of the four major automobile brands of Toyota Crown, NIO, Li Auto and Tesla in the “brand-experience-design” link.
“Drive a BMW, take a Mercedes-Benz” is a widely popular car advertising slogan in China, a few simple words, vividly and truly reflect the Chinese experience and cognition of the two long-established fuel vehicle brands of “Mercedes-Benz” and “BMW”.
How can an automobile brand go through the cycle, endure the times, and achieve sustained growth? I believe that adhering to and practicing the concept of “brand-experience-design” is the core law that ignites the growth engine of the brand. Its essence lies in examining and practicing from the perspective of market and commercialization, with a dynamic and continuous iterative perspective.
Especially today, the automotive industry is experiencing major changes unseen in a century, the wave of technology is surging, and the new energy camp and the fuel camp in the market are constantly fighting. In fact, the essence of everyone’s fight is the level of control and practice of this concept. This article analyzes the dynamic nature of the concept of “brand-experience-design” with the help of several typical car brand cases, and talks about how it can truly empower the sustainable growth of automobile brands.
01 The epitome of the brand under the wave of the times
I selected a number of widely recognized automobile brands, sorted out their brand development history, and focused on analyzing their differentiation paths in the practice of “brand-experience-design” link, so as to establish a reference benchmark for subsequent analysis.
Toyota Crown – the glory and myth of the flagship for 70 years
As a long-term owner of two generations of Toyota Crown (12th and 13th generations), in our most easily moved youth, the Toyota Crown coincided with two highlight moments at the right time, which have long precipitated into a deep emotional imprint. I believe that this emotional resonance is a common memory symbol for many friends born in the 70s, 80s and even 90s.
Development status
Born in 1955, the Toyota Crown is one of Toyota’s oldest passenger models, carrying the complete epitome of the Japanese automobile industry’s transition from catching up to leading and then facing transformation challenges. Seventy years of development have experienced a total of sixteen generations of models.
Once brilliant (first generation-12th generation highlight period)
Japan’s post-war economic recovery, the people’s demand for high-quality cars has become stronger, and Crown quickly became a luxury benchmark in the Japanese and even Asian markets with its precise positioning of “national luxury car”, luxury comfort experience in line with the needs of the times, and exquisite craftsmanship in the early days.
B-end product manager’s ability model and learning improvement
The first challenge faced by B-end product managers is how to correctly analyze and diagnose business problems. This is also the most difficult part, product design knowledge is basically not helpful for this part of the work, if you want to do a good job in business analysis and diagnosis, you must have a solid …
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The 8th generation Crown (S130, Crown 133) is the real “crown” in the minds of Chinese, and the brand imprint of the crown in the hearts of Chinese people is cast by the eighth generation; The 12th generation Crown (S180, “Zero Crown”) is the first generation of domestic Crown, which successfully provides a “user experience” that matches the new positioning through a youthful brand renewal, through dynamic and modern design language, advanced and excellent product strength. The localization strategy makes its price and configuration form a competitive advantage with the entry-level products of the German giants BBA. The 12th generation Crown could sell more than 10,000 yuan per month in the 05-08 era, and its success was due to the perfect combination of precise adjustment of brand positioning, comprehensive upgrading of product strength and localization strategy.
Later dilemma (13th-15th generation)
The design style of the 13th generation Crown (S200) has returned to conservative, failing to stimulate market enthusiasm and initially revealing the uncertainty of brand positioning; The 14th generation Crown (S210, “ReBORN”) has gone to the other extreme. The intention of “radical rejuvenation” is presented through a relatively extreme and controversial design language, but it is a stark departure from the core genes accumulated by the ‘Crown’ brand for a long time. The 15th generation Crown (S220) transformed into a “driver’s car”, further deviating from the core genes. Looking at the later predicament, I think there are several reasons:
- Brand positioning wavering:oscillating between conservative and radical, resulting in fragmented internal brand positioning, products showing “genetic turbidity”, and ambiguous pricing strategies; It lacks the sports passion and market sharpness of “34C”, and it is difficult to reach the luxury comfort and brand premium height of “56E”.
- Core technology iteration is disconnected from luxury experience perception:When BBA redefines the benchmark of “modern luxury” with efficient powertrain (such as 2.0T), rapidly iterative intelligent systems, and a high-tech cockpit atmosphere, Crown has stopped in the creation of powertrain, car machine intelligence, and cockpit luxury texture, and its product strength cannot match its high-end positioning at all, and the generation gap with BBA’s technology and experience continues to expand.
- Luxury brand value encounters strategic squeeze:There is significant overlap in brand positioning and internal resource consumption within the Toyota Group. When Lexus, a luxury brand with a purer positioning and an independent operating system, continues to strengthen its high-end image, Crown can neither compete with BBA head-on in terms of brand height, but also faces Lexus’ “dimensionality reduction suppression” within the group. The double pressure has led to the continuous dilution of Crown’s accumulated luxury brand equity.
Reinventing Thinking (16th Generation-Present)
“Crown” lays out the global diversified market with a family-based product matrix, trying to reshape brand recognition. However, there are still significant uncertainties about the market acceptance and the prospect of brand value reconstruction in this strategic leap from classic cars to multiple forms.
NIO-Exploration of User Enterprises and Challenges of Business Reality
NIO is one of the representatives of China’s new forces in car manufacturing, and has firmly taken the high-end intelligent electric route from the beginning of its establishment, with the core concept of “user enterprise”.
Early success
From the early days of its establishment to the period of rapid development, NIO has shown forward-looking strategic vision and strong execution around the core link of “brand-experience-design”:
- Precise Brand Positioning:Anchor the “high-end intelligent electric lifestyle” and focus on high-net-worth individuals and new middle-class elites.
- Closed loop of user experience throughout the journey:From pre-sales, sales, after-sales, and community operations, every touchpoint in the car use process has set experience goals that exceed user expectations, achieving ultimate care, full pleasure, and respect for belonging.
- Design strategy and product strength to support the experience goal:In terms of design and quality, exterior and interior design, material and craftsmanship create a high-end brand quality feeling; In addition, NIO Power, NIO Service, NIO House, intelligent cockpit and assisted driving, three-electric system and vehicle performance effectively fulfill the brand promise and experience setting.
Current dilemma
In the dimension of time, any “brilliance” is difficult to be eternal. It’s not that you’re not good enough, but that times change – technology iteration, trend change, opponent evolution, and user transformation. From the perspective of “brand-experience-design”, the main dilemma faced by NIO:
- There are shortcomings in the support of high-end products:The “smart” label has faded, and NIO has failed to maintain an absolute lead in the actual experience of high-end intelligent driving, intelligent iteration speed, scene engine coverage, etc., and has even been overtaken by competing products; In terms of core three-electric technology, compared with Tesla or BYD, there is no technical or cost moat. The lack of hard power of the product maintains a high premium, and the user’s value perception and selling price are broken.
- Design innovation kinetic energy exhaustion:Although the design language of the exterior and interior has a family inheritance and a certain aesthetic level, while continuing the genes, its design innovation and trend-leading are conservative, and its overall visual design fails to effectively convey the brand value imprint of high-end avant-garde in the face of the subversive design of competing products to reconstruct the visual benchmark.
- Consumer decision-making is becoming more rational:The early market paid for emotional premiums (services/communities), and as the market matured, users’ awareness of fresh products became more and more mature. When users replace brand filters with parametric lists (intelligent driving capabilities/three-electric technology/quality stability/price-to-value ratio/residual value rate), NIO’s hard power shortcomings are exposed, and users’ value perception of its brand will also drop significantly.
Li Auto – Focus on the pragmatism of home users and the hidden worries of growth bottlenecks
Li Auto takes “mobile family space” as the strategic fulcrum, accurately anchors the needs of family users, and reshapes the category cognition of “daddy car” through product definition. In 2023, Li Auto will become the first new energy vehicle company to achieve profitability.
The market is hot
The continued success of Li Auto (ONE to L series) is a strategic and accurate realization of its core link of “brand-experience-design”:
- Clear and more focused brand positioning:Anchoring the “mobile family space” and directly hitting the travel pain points of China’s multi-population families, compared with NIO’s “lifestyle”, it has more practical value, covers a wider customer base, and has significant demand rigidity.
- Experience goal: All family scenes are met:no anxiety in travel mileage (underlying guarantee of range extension technology); space functionalism (spacious, comfortable, and functional “home” space experience); interaction without induction (voice/gesture control); Care explicit (“daddy-style” detailed care experience. ）
- Design strategy: precise dimensionality reduction strike:The atmosphere is stable and not aggressive, with a spacious, refined, warm and easy-to-clean interior; The extended-range power system balances fuel efficiency and endurance anxiety, and has a low technical threshold, controllable cost and high user acceptance (compared to the “battery swap” scheme); Large space, comfortable configuration of stacking, intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving assistance, and efficient research and development and iteration actively respond to the needs of “family travel”.
- Reinventing the pricing formula with value:In the medium and large SUV market monopolized by BBA (X5/GLE starting price of 700,000+), the ideal series can benchmark luxury brands with product strength, but the price is one-half, and the value perception in the hearts of users has been greatly improved.
Future challenges
Just like the “dilemma” that NIO has fallen into after its rapid development, Ideal is also facing the continuous changes in the market environment and competitive landscape. The early extended range dividend period is facing collapse:
- The fading dividend of extended range technology and the pressure of pure electric transformation:Ideal success is deeply bound to range extension technology. Under the triple impact of the popularization of charging infrastructure (2025 target of 7.8 million piles), battery technology breakthroughs (Kirin battery 1000km endurance), and maturity of battery swap solutions (Ningde 3-minute battery swap), the demand window for extended range has narrowed sharply. The first pure electric model, MEGA, was cold due to design disputes, exposing the dependence on external procurement of three-electric technology (CATL/United Electronics), the lag of the supercharging network, and the unanchored pure electric mind (user cognition is still trapped in “range extension experts”), and it is a challenge to replicate the success of the range extension model.
- Slowing down in the growth of the household market and the encirclement and suppression of competing products:The penetration rate of the “daddy car” market segment is approaching the inflection point of 28% growth, and the incremental space has shrunk significantly; Competing products have launched “mirror-level” products (SUV products of 7-character, 8-character and 9-character generations of various brands).
- Technological differentiation advantage ablation:Ideal has a certain accumulation and reputation in the field of intelligent cockpit and assisted driving, but in the field of intelligence, there is an intergenerational difference compared with Huawei, Xpeng, etc.; In terms of core three electric technologies, it also relies on the supply system, and the overall product leadership and differentiation are no longer prominent.
Tesla – a global leader in technological disruption
Tesla (founded in 2003) has become a global leader in electric mobility through disruptive technological innovation and business model restructuring with the mission of “accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy”. The essence of its continuous leadership is to build a systematic moat that is difficult to replicate:
Vision-based brand positioning:
With the global energy revolution as the core, it has created brand labels of “cool”, “future” and “innovation”, which deeply attracts global consumers.
Disruptive experience paradigm:
- Performance Disruption:Tesla’s first model S focuses on high performance and ultimate handling.
- Interactive Revolution:The pioneer of the 17-inch central smart screen.
- Smart driving first:The FSD system relies on 6 billion miles of real road test data to maintain generational leadership.
- Energy efficiency:Solid cruising range, accurate electronic control system, wide coverage, fast speed, and unified energy replenishment experience.
- Product Design Philosophy:The exterior and interior design pursue a “minimalist” and “futuristic” visual and interactive style, creating a strong sense of “science and technology” and “sense of space”; the full-stack self-development of the core technology of the three electrics; Million-level fleets feed back algorithm evolution in real time.
- Cost Control Capabilities:Through super die-casting (Giga Press cost reduction by 40%) and vertical integration with mining-electric vehicles, it establishes a marginal cost dominance comparable to Toyota and controls pricing power in the fierce competition.
These four brands represent the true interpretation of the integrated concept of “brand-experience-design” in the automotive industry at different stages of development and market positioning. The glory they were proud of, the pains they experienced, and even the challenges they are facing are all important samples to gain insight into the dynamic evolution of the “brand-experience-design” link.
02 “Brand-Experience-Design” concept: the engine that drives the growth of automobile brands
Brand: The evolution from static positioning to dynamic “meaning ecology”
A strong brand must start with a clear, unique and attractive positioning that answers the fundamental question of “who am I, who do I serve, and how am I different”.
For example, in the early days of Toyota Crown, it took “Japanese luxury benchmark” or “national luxury car” as its core cognition, and Li Auto reached the minds of users with “mobile home, happy home”, all of which established a clear and powerful brand anchor.
However, looking at the problem from a “dynamic perspective”, the brand is not an immutable “business card”. The value of a brand needs to be constantly reinterpreted and enriched: it must adapt to the evolution of the market environment, consumer mindset and technological trends, and achieve meaning upgrades while maintaining its true color.
In the face of brand aging and intensified competition among the top three Germans, the 12th generation Toyota Crown has undergone a textbook brand strategy adjustment, although it is called “Zero Crown” (expressing the determination to completely innovate) within Toyota, but its new positioning as “modern luxury car for young elites” does not deviate from the brand accumulation of “Japanese luxury”, but injects new cultural tension and sense of the times into the original value. This evolution is not a simple slogan update, but a leap from “brand business card” to “meaning ecology” – the brand is no longer just a static identification system, but a dynamic cultural system that carries identity, creates resonance, leads trends, and becomes a bridge connecting users and the spirit of the times.
NIO entered the track with a “high-end intelligent electric lifestyle”, and quickly established cognitive barriers with the ultimate experience and brand narrative in the early stage. However, when the industry entered the deep waters, competition intensified and profitability pressure hit, and the “high-end” label on which NIO relied began to face practical challenges: the brand meaning gradually departed from users’ daily judgment of value, and the practical path of the original positioning became blurred.
At this time, what NIO needs to do is not to give up its original brand positioning, but to expand the high-end “meaning ecology”. Return to the essence of business, examine the real value exchange with users, and think deeply about how to improve the “quality-price ratio” and “universality” of the brand while adhering to the high-end spiritual core.
Looking back at the crown, the 14th generation Crown proposed “ReBORN”, and the 15th generation Crown turned to the driver’s car, intending to achieve rejuvenation and intelligent transformation. Although there is no problem with the direction, its strategy pushes the Crown brand to the other extreme: replacing the calm and luxurious image with an aggressive sports style, and finally conflicting with the brand genes accumulated for more than 60 years, resulting in ambiguous positioning and cognitive confusion.
Experience: From service bonus points to value co-creation throughout the life cycle
Excellent user experience is the true fulfillment of brand positioning and the fundamental reason for users’ continuous choice.
By focusing on the “family car” scenario, Li Auto identified the key pain points of target users – such as mileage anxiety, space demand and intelligent interactive experience, and quickly won market reputation with comprehensive solutions that exceeded the industry average. NIO has also established strong user stickiness and brand identity in the early days with the ultimate service experience, setting a benchmark for the experience of new forces.
In the future, the user experience in the automotive field must emphasize the “value co-creation” with target users, especially the new power brands have realized the shortcomings of the “triangular supply and marketing relationship”, and it is necessary to reshape the relationship between brands and users and establish user-centered full life cycle contacts. Brands should allow users to participate in product definition, functional iteration, and even brand culture construction to form a deeper emotional connection and value identity. User participation in experience co-creation is also a major feature of software-defined cars, which will make the car “more and more new”, subverting the negative situation of traditional cars in the past “iteration of a few years and a facelift in a few years”.
Design and product strength: the fundamental support that drives the closed loop of business
Excellent design is not only an aesthetic expression, but also can cleverly integrate abstract brand values and user experience goals into every detail of the product and every process of the service. Tesla’s minimalist design is not only an aesthetic style, but also a multiple embodiment of engineering efficiency, cost control, and future sense of technology; The ideal “home style” design (spacious, exquisite, simple and easy to care for) is also in line with the brand proposition of “mobile home, happy home”, and is an integrated presentation of space experience and brand mood. This is a concrete interpretation of the core values of their own brand.
Looking further down, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and the final landing point of the design must rely on the real technical ability and product realization path. Together, they constitute the “product power” of the brand and are the foundation of the closed loop of business.
NIO performs well at the design level, with high aesthetic completion and excellent luxury creation, creating a strong first impression. However, there is no absolute “moat” in the core three electric technologies and intelligent hard core strength. The former belongs to the shallow product strength, is a “bright brand”, competing products will not take long to catch up or even surpass, at this time the premium ability of design and experience will be lost, and the high-end positioning is “self-hi”; The latter’s core value of technology and capability barriers does not mean that there is one, and its lack will make many high-end experiences become “futures”, such as NIO’s endurance breakthrough and high-end intelligent driving have not been able to meet experience expectations so far.
Finding a dynamic balance between product power and cost-effectiveness has become a key capability for brands to navigate through the cycle.
To improve product strength, of course, self-research investment and technology procurement are required, but this does not mean that the cost structure can be ignored. The range extension technology chosen by Li Auto in advance is a balance point found between product strength and cost-effectiveness in a specific market environment, and then jumps to pure electric mode when battery technology and energy replenishment solutions have long-term development.
03 “Brand-Experience-Design” concept: the engine that drives the growth of automobile brands
Strategic review and dynamic positioning
Regularly review the adaptability of brand positioning to the times:Brands need to regularly assess whether their core positioning remains in line with the current market environment, consumer demand, and technology trends. The lesson of the decline of the Toyota Crown is that it failed to respond to the wave of globalization and intelligence in a timely manner, stayed in the outdated brand narrative for a long time, and finally missed the opportunity for transformation, which can be described as a profound wake-up call.
Finding a balance between inheritance and innovation:For brands with historical heritage, it is necessary to inherit the core brand genes while having the courage to inject new connotations of the times and achieve brand renewal; For new power brands, it is necessary to gradually build a stable and trustworthy brand image while maintaining innovation vitality.
Clear business logic support:Any adjustment of brand positioning, if it is separated from sustainable business logic, will eventually become an empty narrative. NIO’s positioning of “high-end intelligent electric lifestyle”, if it is not supported by a sustainable profit path, the long-term value of the brand will be questioned.
Experience iteration and innovation with user value as the core
Continuous insight and dynamic understanding of user needs:Brands should establish a keen user insight system, “value co-creation” with users, and explore users’ pain points and potential needs in different scenarios; And dynamically look at the changes and extensions of needs.
Pursue the ultimate in core experience points:The core experience point is the starting point that constitutes the user experience MOT, which is in line with the peak-end law. Brands need to identify the core experience points that are most valuable to target users, dig them out and build them, rather than without any trade-offs or costs, and measure the production ratio from a “business” perspective. Li Auto’s focus on solving mileage anxiety and space comfort and intelligence is a good example.
Embrace technological innovation to empower experience upgrades:Maintain a keen sense of smell for new technologies, actively embrace trendy technologies such as AI, big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, 3D, and virtual vision, and think about more intelligent and technologically flirtatious technology application solutions to empower user experience.
Design and product strength building with business success oriented
Design serves brand strategy and business goals:The design should serve the strengthening of brand positioning, the improvement of user experience, as well as the optimization of cost control and production efficiency. Tesla’s minimalist design not only presents a sense of the future, but also is highly compatible with engineering modularity and cost control, which is the perfect integration of brand philosophy, user value and manufacturing system, which can be called an industry paradigm.
Create a differentiated and competitive product series:For different market segments and user groups, launch products with clear positioning and unique experience selling points to avoid homogeneous competition and internal encroachment. In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to the “quality-price ratio” of products to ensure comprehensive competitiveness.
Build core technical barriers:This is the foundation of the brand, the moat against price wars and rapid imitation. Although most car companies have integrated their supply chains, butMaster key technical capabilitiesof enterprises have a stronger strategic initiative. Huawei and Tesla’s intelligent assisted driving, BYD + Tesla + Toyota’s super vertical integration capabilities, BYD’s three-electric technology, Tesla’s self-developed chips and software definition, ideal full-stack self-developed multi-modal cognitive large model, Toyota hybrid’s high energy efficiency, BMW’s development and chassis tuning, etc.
Efficient R&D and iteration system:The intelligent automotive industry is gradually shifting to a “software-driven industrial form”, so enterprises need to have something similar to the InternetAgile iteration mechanism。 This means that the feedback of the R&D process and organizational capabilities to the market and users can be agile enough to quickly seize opportunities and quickly adapt to changes in market and demand.
To sum up
The 70-year honor and disgrace of Toyota Crown, NIO’s idealistic pursuit, the pragmatic focus of ideals, and Tesla’s concept and technology subversion all interpret the dynamic evolution essence of the “brand-experience-design” link with a unique practical trajectory.
They are also reminding the entire automotive industry:
Adhering to the right concept is the starting point of everything, and more importantly, how to practice it creatively and sustainably in a changing market and business environment.
Brand positioning needs to keep pace with the times and have a clear business logic to support the brand’s value proposition. User experience requires a balance between the pursuit of extreme and the focus on cost-effectiveness, the pursuit of iterative innovation. Design and product strength must become the underlying support to build core competitiveness.
For any car company committed to building a brand excellence, it is crucial to maintain awe of the market, insight and understanding of users, sensitivity to technology, and a return to the essence of business. On top of this, we can easily control the systematic thinking of “brand-experience-design”, and finally become the core driving force for enterprises to go through the cycle and achieve everlasting foundation.
