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A great drive

By Li Fangfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-21 13:42

"Although the pickup market was quite small in China - most big cities are limited for that market - we saw a great potential and big margin," says Wang. "We saw that it's the market in which we can make a profit in the shortest time and in which we could easily become the leader."

Pickup trucks were one of Great Wall's two major success stories. Since 1998, three years after it was launched as China's first pickup truck, Great Wall's vehicle has ranked first in market share, product range, export volume and sales successively for seven years.

Its SUV line was Great Wall's second step to success.

In 2002, its Safe SUV hit the market as the first economical Chinese SUV at the price range of about 80,000 yuan. A year later it became a best-seller for Great Wall in major cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Tainjin and Guangzhou. The Sing model SUV has enjoyed similar success.

"We were the first to provide an SUV for 80,000 yuan, a very competitive price," she recalls. "We cut the cost by optimizing management and improving efficiency during the production process."

In December 2003, Great Wall became the first privately owned auto company in China listed in the Hong Kong Stock Market.

"We win because we focus not only on the quality of our products, but also on the quality of our management," says Wang. "Although we enjoy a large sales volume, we pay more attention to the average profit than the quantity, because the ability to make a profit decides the future of an enterprise."

Last year, Great Wall acquired a net profit of more than 900 million yuan from 400,000 units of vehicles.

"The profit margin is fairly high in the industry," she says.

Wang's another strategy to her marketing success is "always be different. In my view, the difference is also a competitive edge. So at the very beginning, a company has to carefully make a decision on positioning itself in the market."

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