Sinovation Ventures CEO Kai-fu Lee once forwarded a case on Weibo: "There is a book called "How?to?change?your?wife?in?30?days". Within a week, Two million copies were sold until the author discovered that the title was spelled incorrectly and the correct one should be: "How?to?change?your?life?in?30?days". After the correction, only 3 copies were sold. ".
In fact, in Chinese culture, naming is a great science. A movie, a book title, a company, a person's name...? Having a good name is crucial for initial communication, and it is also a good sign.
For example, companies in Guangdong and Hong Kong like to use words such as "Long", "Chang", "Sheng" and "Yuan" when naming their names; for example, when choosing license plates, people still naturally want to avoid them. Open the number "4".
In the past two years, with the sudden rise of new energy vehicles, a large number of new car companies have sprung up, including Ideal, WM, Yangtze, Xpeng, Weilai, Singularity, and AIWAYS. , Zhengdao, Yundu, Faraday Future and many other names have entered the public eye, but not many have truly survived and survived well.
Interestingly, Xpeng Motors has been in trouble recently because of its name.
Some netizens think that the name "Xpeng Motors" is too "rustic". After all, the middle-class people who can spend 300,000 yuan to buy a car are more or less concerned about face and have a relatively high cultural level. This car name always feels like it's not that high-end.
A few days ago, there was an article on Zhihu called "Why do we think that many foreign brands are named after their founders, but we find it difficult to accept that Chinese brands are named after their founders?" "The post sparked widespread discussion. He pointed out that many foreign companies are named after the founder’s surname, such as Ford, Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, etc. Many of them are familiar brands, but Chinese local brands named after the founder’s name feel very “unfashionable”, indirect or Completely ignore branded products.
In response, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, said: "I feel that this question is specifically designed for Xpeng Motors."
He Xiaopeng first explained the origin of the name "Xpeng Motors", that is, the original name of "Xpeng Motors" 6 years ago was "Orange Auto". As a fruit, oranges have certain positive meanings, can bring them closer to users, and are in line with the temperament of Internet technology companies. Apple and Xiaomi are very typical examples.
When they prepared the information to register a trademark, they found that many good names had already been taken, leaving only the name "Xpeng Motors" still there. At that time, co-founder Xia Heng also asked whether it could be called "Xpeng Motors".
In his opinion, he had concerns about naming the company "Xpeng Motors" at that time. As an investor, the most taboo thing is to invest your own money and people, but I finally convinced myself and my family.
He Xiaopeng further said that there are many brands in the automobile industry named after their founders, such as Toyota, Honda, Ford, Daimler, Peugeot Citro?n, etc., which are all familiar automobile brands now, but he believes that product strength It is the level of brand that determines the ultimate strength of a brand, rather than just relying on a symbol or name.
He said that whether it is "Xpeng Motors" or "XPENG"?, as long as the product's technological intelligence and manufacturing quality and craftsmanship are good enough, the Xpeng Motors brand will eventually make consumers Know to believe and acknowledge.
Xpeng Motors’ official Weibo subsequently responded to this incident. Officials stated that the strength of the product is the ultimate factor that determines the level of the brand, rather than simply depending on a symbol or a name.
From the perspective of the actual terminal market, Xpeng Motors has also performed well recently. In the past November, Xpeng Motors’ total monthly delivery volume reached 4,224 units, a year-on-year increase of 342%, setting a new high. .
So far, Xpeng Motors’ cumulative deliveries this year have reached 21,341 units, a year-on-year increase of 87%. Among them, Xpeng P7 has delivered a total of 11,371 units in less than half a year, becoming the fastest single model to deliver more than 10,000 units among the three new car-making forces.
In the capital market, Xpeng Motors also swept away its earlier decline.
Since November, Xpeng Motors’ stock price has continued to rise, with a cumulative increase of more than 260%. Although it experienced a sharp drop at the end of the month, overall it was much better than before, and the increase far exceeded that of Weilai and Ideal, both new car-making forces.
People are famous for their right and wrong, and cars are famous as well. Some people think that the brand name of Xpeng Motors is too rustic, simply because it is a very common Chinese name and not one of those foreign brands that came across the ocean. This is how He Xiaopeng responded to this incident.
Now it seems that while Xpeng Motors is going smoothly, it has encountered doubts about the name of the car being "too vulgar", which made people hesitate for a while. At first glance, it seems that it really has some flavor. However, upon closer inspection, "Wang Shouyi", "Laoganma", "Wang Mazi", and "Vacheron Constantin" do not seem to be holding back the company. The ultimate factor is the strength of the product.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.