Jaguar Revs Up PR Drive for Chery JV 捷豹路虎为争取合资企业获批加大公关攻势
Six months after announcing their plans for a joint venture, fast-fading domestic car maker Chery and its high-end global peer Jaguar Land Rover are still anxiously awaiting approval for the tie-up from Chinese regulators who are taking their time making a decision. But the pair are hardly sitting idle as they wait for the verdict, and Jaguar in particular has launched a massive PR offensive to try to convince Beijing it is serious about China by showing its commitment to the market. That campaign has officially moved into the fast lane, with Jaguar officially launching a “Let’s Go China!” tour that will take its high-end cars and executives on a national trip to some of the nation’s biggest cities.
In all fairness, this campaign may not be just a PR move to sway Beijing regulators into approving the joint venture with Chery, which was announced back in March. (previous post) The luxury car segment is booming in China, which is likely to overtake the US to become the world’s biggest market in the next few years, and as a latecomer to the market Jaguar will need to quickly raise its profile if it wants to compete with more established players like BMW (Frankfurt: BMW) Volkswagen’s (Frankfurt: VOWG) Audi. Still, Jaguar needs all the help it can get to increase its chances of success, and approval of its joint venture with Chery would certainly give it a major boost by allowing it to manufacture its cars in China, making them more competitive by avoiding high import tariffs.
Let’s look more closely at the latest actual news, which comes in what looks suspiciously like an advertorial on the front page of today’s China Daily business section headlined “Jaguar Land Rover rolls out nationwide campaign.” The article spells out details of the “Let’s Go China” tour, and says the campaign draws on China’s Olympic spirit, in what again looks like the company’s effort to curry favor with Beijing.
Adding to my suspicion that this is a paid advertisement masquerading as a real article, the story doesn’t appear on the China Daily’s website where advertorial is usually excluded. I suspect that similar “stories” are appearing in Chinese language media across the country, in what’s likely to be a campaign that will cost Jaguar tens of millions of dollars.
This latest campaign actually dates back to early this month, when Jaguar took the unusual step of making the global debut for some of its new models at a relatively obscure auto show in the interior city of Chengdu. (previous post) I previously said that move looked like a subtle attempt to sway Beijing, since Chinese officials have been encouraging foreign companies to invest more in China’s less affluent interior regions for the last 5 or 6 years now.
This new tour looks like the latest leg of the PR campaign that began with the product launches early this month, and comes complete with photos featuring some of China’s Olympic champions smiling together with local officials at various stops on the tour. I applaud Jaguar for making this kind of effort with this campaign, which is undoubtedly being supported behind the scenes by Chery, whose previous plan for another joint venture with Japan’s Subaru was ultimately vetoed by Beijing.
When the 2 companies first announced their plan for the Jaguar joint venture, I predicted it stood a 75 percent chance of getting vetoed for a wide range of reasons. Given the relative lack of negative publicity and public resistance since then, combined with Jaguar and Chery’s own PR and lobbying campaigns, I would say that perhaps the chances of a veto have decreased a little since the original announcement. But I would still say the plan is more likely to get vetoed than approved, with the chances of a veto now at around 60 percent.
Bottom line: Jaguar’s recent PR blitz has helped improve the chances for approval of its joint venture with Chery, but the tie-up still stands a 60 percent chance of getting vetoed by Beijing.
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