留学生dissertation：无人驾驶汽车市场营销计划

1.1 Marketing Plan市场营销计划

百度拥有顶级的高精度地图系统，这是发展无人驾驶技术的关键，因此，这一优越的基础条件为我们发展无人驾驶汽车提供了极大的便利。除市场进入壁垒高、潜在利润巨大外，市场竞争对手寥寥无几，显示出良好的市场前景。
Baidu has the top high precision map system, which is the key to develop the driverless technology, therefore, this excellent basic conditions provide a great convenience for us to develop the driverless vehicles. Except the market entry barriers are high and the potential profits are huge, there are only a few number of competitors in the market, thus the driverless vehicles market shows a good market prospect.

1.2 Product产品

目前，我公司已经研发出一款由百度和金龙客车共同研发的纯电动无人驾驶汽车阿波罗。根据SAE标准，这款产品属于无人驾驶汽车的L4级，这意味着高度自动化的阿波罗无需人工控制即可自动执行各种基本驾驶操作。在工厂、景区等相对稳定的封闭环境中，阿波罗可以代替司机完成无聊的穿梭工作，从而降低成本，提高运输效率。无人驾驶控制系统能够数字化描述道路信息，准确、高效地控制道路使用方式，减少高速公路占用空间，为乘客提供更舒适、安全、便捷的出行环境。
为了增加我们产品线的深度，我们将重点开发两款新型无人驾驶公交车：Beta和Omega。它以阿波罗号为基础，解决不同速度需求和载客量的问题。在保证产品高质量的前提下，我们将继续使用RTM新型复合材料来减少车辆的磨损，并增加车载激光雷达、超声波雷达等传感器的数量，以提高无人驾驶车辆的道路监控和驾驶环境判断。而且，贝塔和欧米茄将结合5G趋势进行改进，与阿波罗相比，它们将具有更优越、更快速的实时数据传输速度，大大提高无人驾驶公交车的道路控制和信息交换效率。贝塔的最高时速将超过每小时70至100公里，欧米茄的满载率将达到40人，达到中型客车的标准。三种公交车的灵活组合，可以帮助景区根据客流的实际变化进行调整，提高运营效率。#p#分页标题#e#

At present, our company has created a kind of pure electric driverless vehicle called  Apollo that developed by Baidu and Jinlong Bus. According to SAE standards, this product belongs to the L4 class of the driverless vehicle, which means that the highly automated Apollo can automatically perform a variety of basic driving operations without human control. In the relatively stable closed environment such as factories and scenic areas, Apollo can replace the driver to complete the boring shuttle work, thus reducing the cost and improving the transportation efficiency. The driverless control system can digitally describe road information, accurately and efficiently control the way of how to use roads and reducing the occupied space of highways, providing passengers with a more comfortable, safe and convenient travel environment.

In order to increase the depth of our product line, we will focus on the development of two new driverless buses: Beta and Omega. It is based on the Apollon and solve the problem of different speed needs and the passenger capacity. Ensuring the high product quality, we will continue use the RTM new composite materials to reduce the wear of vehicles, and increase the number of sensors such as on-board lidar and ultrasonic radar to improve the road monitoring and driving environment judgment of driverless vehicles. Moreover, Beta and Omega will combine the 5G trend to improve, when compared with Apollo, they will have the superior and faster data transmission speed in real time, and greatly improve the efficiency of road control and information exchange for driverless buses. The top speed of Beta will exceed 70 to 100 kilometers per hour, and Omega's full load will reach the 40-person meeting the standards of a medium bus. The flexibility combination of three types of buses can help scenic areas make adjustments on actual changes in passenger flow to improving its operational efficiency.
 

图为无人驾驶汽车

1.3 Price价格

Affected by the cost of technology research and development and the on-board equipment, the cost of production driverless buses is far more than ordinary passenger cars, which brings certain pressure on the capital chain and requires cost recovery as soon as possible. Hence, we are suitable to adopt the market-skimming pricing for the purpose of recovering profits.#p#分页标题#e#

On the other hand, as of December 2018, the Yutong, Golden Dragon and CRRC have participated in launch driverless buses in the Chinese market. However, there are not many enterprises that have invested in quantitative production driverless buses in the same way as Jinlong, thus the pressure from competitors in the driverless vehicles market is not great and raising prices properly does not affect our competition in the market. Simultaneously, iiMedia Research's forecast of total global driverless vehicles global unmanned car market share in 2021 will rise from $4 billion in 2016 to $7.03 billion. (Ivan 2017) This also means that the market has strong enough consumption capacity to adapt a higher product pricing strategy.

Beta and Omega are mainly placed in scenic areas that own a strong economic capabilities,and support financial leasing, allowed loan purchase and other purchase methods. Based on the market price of Apollon 1 million RMB, we will price Beta at around 1.5 million, and Omega will sell for more than 2.8 million. Furthermore, we will provide a quantity discount for three kind of buses, and add extra sales discount if necessary.

1.4 Place

The driverless vehicles require a unique matching repair and after-sales system, so the traditional single 4S retail store sales channel is difficult to meet the shopping needs of all consumers. To solve after-sales service problems, Tesla abandoned the efficient distribution mode that is common in the market and chose to adopt the high-risk direct sale mode, which requires consumers to make scheduled payments on the official website first, and then the manufacturer arranges production according to the needs of users. This model ensure that all consumers can receive a high-quality sales service, at the same time, the on-demand production model avoids the inventory backlog, saving the cost of the dealers and increasing profits. However, its wait period of production is too long that caused a serious return phenomenon.

Currently, the direct sale model that manufacturers of driverless buses become sales terminal has become an inevitable trend. In order to avoid the problem of production and inventory, we reference and inspiration from Tesla's distribution model, adopt combination the traditional marketing model and direct marketing mode, comply with the new-retail sales trend, and adopt the online and offline omni-channel sales. Hence, we will negotiate with 1000 4S stores and 50 scenic spots to coverage core sale promotion points in the market. Secondly, we will provide online direct sales channels to meet the product customization needs.

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图为无人驾驶汽车在景区中行驶
 

1.5 Promotion

At present, consumers in the market do not have a deep understanding of the driverless buses, while Baidu as the world's largest Chinese search engine has a good brand effect, hence, we will use its own media influence to putting advertisement to enhance market influence. Secondly, we will make cooperate with various popular variety shows to attract the attention of consumers and use the star effect to increase relevant discussion in the market. Thirdly, Apollo will be put on the spot in scenic spots such as Disney or Happy Valley, which have wide influence in East China and North China. Through the product display and concept promotion to strength our driverless vehicle’s influence and establish a good brand reputation.

In addition, we will maintain public relations through the establishment of websites, properly open production line visits to meet the curiosity of science and technology enthusiasts, and actively participate in relevant social public welfare activities to create a high-quality brand image.