Mid-size SUV Product Strategy Design Project
Fundamental research, expert interviews, workshop facilitation, report writing
Background
In the era of new energy and intelligent networking, the attributes and value of cars are redefined. The Chinese market has shifted from the original incremental market to the stock market. Consumers are more mature and have higher excitement points. At the same time, their perception of domestic brands has greatly changed, which has brought new challenges to domestic brands and created opportunities for catching up.
Dongfeng Fengshen, which is in the middle of domestic brands, is stepping up its new energy vehicle product strategy. They have insight into a market segment as a potential blue ocean and launched a strategic design project for a pure electric product three years later, hoping to drive the brand upward through product innovation and gain a foothold in the 150,000 price market.
Facing this potential new market, the model benchmarking strategy used in the past is no longer applicable. The Fengshen team urgently needs to break through tradition, find new ideas and new methods, and carry out product planning.
Dongfeng gave this car the code name S59.
S59 Concept Car
Planning
The whole project took about 22 weeks in total, the timeline is shown as below:
Consensus
In the consensus stage, the team conducted fundamental research, interviews with stakeholders, and expert interviews, and integrated macro-environment (political, social, economic, technological), competitive selling points, design trends, and other dimensions. Discussions and consensus were held in the USP workshop, and finally the basic positioning of S59 was established:
- Mainly targeting users with two or three children.
- Need to fully meet the basic needs of users for safety and comfort, and provide higher-dimensional value;
- Need to consider in-car interaction, or differentiated identity satisfaction, or provide users with deeper ways and mechanisms for participation.
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Discover&Define
Onsite interview:In-home interviews & user logs to fully understand user lifestyles and values, invited user to show their car and scene demonstration to understand the pain points mentioned by users.
Design&Develop
Conducted concept innovation workshop. Under the guidance of mentors, Dongfeng colleagues from different disciplines such as customer planning, R&D, styling, and branding, defined product value propositions based on opportunity points and co-created product concepts.All the product concepts were visualized with story boards and instruction after the workshop.
Outcome
The project submitted a product strategy based on user scenarios and needs, including top-level value propositions to specific product concepts.
S59 is HERE！
After 3 years, in June 2024, S59 was officially launched, named eπ008. Its main selling points include long wheelbase, spacious third row seats, and mother-child friendly. It also realized some functions mentioned in the product concept, such as multifunctional movable armrest box, zero gravity seat (resting mode), and seat layout adjustment according to the scene.