A former senior executive of Honor has joined Changan and assumed the position of CEO of Deepal.

Not long ago, there were rumors that Zhao Ming, a former senior executive of Honor, had cross - bordered to join Zhijie, but this was quickly denied.

Recently, there are new rumors that a former senior executive of Honor has joined Changan Automobile. This time, it's not Zhao Ming, but Jiang Hairong, who left Honor almost at the same time as him.

On September 5th, according to Phoenix Tech, Jiang Hairong, the former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Honor in China, has recently joined Changan Automobile and assumed the position of CEO of its subsidiary Shenlan Automobile.

As for Deng Chenghao, the former CEO of Shenlan Automobile, he has been promoted to the chairman of Shenlan Automobile.

Dropping the phone at the press conference and interacting with UP owners

From Huawei to Honor, Jiang Hairong is a seasoned veteran.

He joined Huawei in 2005, starting as a senior engineer in the terminal mobile phone product department and gradually rising to the core management level of the Honor brand.

Since 2014, he has led the construction of Honor's product marketing system, serving as the head of the product marketing department, the head of the overseas marketing department, and concurrently the head of the Western European terminal Honor MKT department. He promoted Honor to surpass Samsung and become the No. 1 brand in the Russian market and enter the top 5 in markets such as France and Italy.

After Honor became independent from Huawei in 2021, he served as the CMO in China, being fully responsible for brand strategy, product promotion, and market operation.

What impressed everyone the most was Jiang Hairong's marketing strategy at the Honor X50 press conference in 2023.

This phone is the 10th - anniversary model of Honor's X series, and its main selling point is drop - resistance.

On - site, he dropped 10 Honor X50 phones from a height of 1.5 meters one by one. After the clear crashing sounds, the screens and corners of all the phones were intact, and the touch functions were normal.

This unique promotion method really worked.

The day after the press conference, the Honor X50 broke the pre - sale sales record on all online platforms in the 0 - 2000 yuan price range in 2023. As of May 2024, its domestic sales exceeded 10 million units, making it the first Android single product to achieve this feat that year.

Normally, Jiang Hairong is also often active on various social platforms.

He usually likes to be active on major social platforms. Once, Xu Yun, a B - station UP owner who travels around the world, rode 360 kilometers around Qinghai Lake in four days with an Honor Magic 5 phone.

This UP owner tested the battery life, shooting, and mobile phone signal in a sandy environment, and the video quickly became popular, ranking 11th on B - station's overall hot list.

Jiang Hairong left a message under the video, using a lottery to drive interaction and attracting many fans.

In January this year, Jiang Hairong and Zhao Ming left their positions almost at the same time, ending their nearly 20 - year careers at Huawei - Honor.

Now, he has cross - bordered to become the CEO of Shenlan Automobile, and there may be new initiatives in brand marketing in the future.

Having good products but failing to tell good stories

As a new - energy brand under Changan Automobile, Shenlan Automobile started to lay out in the technical field early on. It not only has the Shenlan super - extended - range technology but also jointly developed an intelligent driving system with Huawei.

Currently, Shenlan Automobile has a total of 6 models on sale, with prices ranging from 150,000 to 350,000 yuan, including SL03, L07, S07, G318, S05, and S09, precisely targeting the young consumer group.

In terms of sales, data from Zhongqi Shuyan shows that the cumulative sales of this brand this year reached 198,640 units, a year - on - year increase of 64.6%. Shenlan Automobile previously announced a sales target of 500,000 units in 2025, and currently, only 39% of the target has been achieved.

Behind this, marketing issues are an important reason.

Deng Chenghao once said, "The entire Shenlan team, a team of over a thousand people, 85% are R & D personnel, and the brand and marketing system didn't start to be systematically built until 2022, resulting in us sometimes 'having good products but failing to tell stories'."

For example, Shenlan Automobile is equipped with the Qiankun Intelligent Driving System developed in cooperation with Huawei. The ADS4.0 of this system can build a dynamic road network map in real - time through on - vehicle sensors, support the map - less urban NCA technology, and get rid of the dependence on high - precision maps.

However, this advantage has not been translated into market competitiveness. The promotion still stays at the parameter level such as "the first to be equipped with Huawei's intelligent driving system under 200,000 yuan" and fails to convey value through concrete examples like competitors such as "can be driven all over the country", making it difficult for users to intuitively perceive the value.

In addition, in May this year, Shenlan Automobile's official apologized publicly twice within just ten days:

Once, Shenlan Automobile forced 480,000 old car owners to receive the "Exclusive Purchase Voucher for S09" advertisement through the in - vehicle system, which triggered strong dissatisfaction among users.

Another time, Deng Chenghao said at the company's third - anniversary event that employees who bought specific models could get a two - month vacation by leaving the company and then return to their positions. This statement was questioned by public opinion as a marketing gimmick of "selling cars + laying off employees".

During his tenure at Honor, Jiang Hairong accumulated rich marketing experience, especially being good at brand positioning and conveying product advantages in a more intuitive way, which is exactly what Shenlan Automobile currently needs.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Technology Daily Push" (ID: apptoday), author: Huang Wanyi, published by 36Kr with authorization.