When a car claims to be aimed at the intelligent sports population aged 25-50, I basically won't continue to pay attention. I know that this car doesn't belong to me

After a new car launch event, after listening to the product manager's 40 minute interpretation of user profiles, a senior automotive media professional with over 50 years of experience expressed this sentiment to me.

This sentence is thought-provoking.

Who does a car company define as selling a car to? The bridge that should have been built between the brand and consumers, but now many broad and vague positioning have instead built a high wall that isolates users. From 25 to 50 years old, covering an entire generation, it seems like they want to accommodate all potential buyers, but the ultimate result is that every type of consumer feels that this car has nothing to do with them.

Broad positioning, only precise persuasion to retreat

Attempting to please everyone by relying on a wide age range often ends up blocking out all users. The truth is simple, but many car companies still fall into the same trap.

Euler once broke through the market with the distinct label of "loving women more", with annual sales exceeding 135000 vehicles in 2021, and female car owners accounting for over 75%. From 'spoiling you as a princess' to' female travel best friend ', precise differentiated positioning quickly gained popularity. But after the heat faded, the growth became unsustainable: the annual sales volume in 2024 was only 63300 vehicles, a year-on-year drop of 41.69%; In the first quarter of 2025, sales plummeted again, with monthly sales falling below 2000 units in May. The brand finally announced a strategic transformation, no longer focusing on female exclusive labels.

The decline in sales is caused by a combination of multiple factors: the slowdown in product iteration pace, the discontinuation of production for Black Cat and White Cat, the loss of entry-level volume, the strong pressure from BYD Seagull and Dolphin in the 100000-150000 yuan range, and continuous channel adjustments. It cannot be denied that the positioning label of "exclusively for women" has brought dual effects.

On the one hand, the label actively abandons 70% of male potential customers, and many male consumers who favor Euler's exterior design choose to detour simply because of their inherent impression of being a "female car". On the other hand, brands are trapped in stereotypes: simply equating rounded shapes and cute names with all female needs. Not all female consumers prefer this style, and this rough categorization itself is a form of cognitive arrogance.

A female colleague in her thirties, who had a budget and aesthetic that matched Euler Cat and Smart Elf # 1, ultimately bought the low-key style BYD Yuan. The reason is very simple: "I don't want others to label me as a 'female driver' just based on my vehicle. I just want to be an ordinary driver

She doesn't dislike good-looking cars, but resists being defined and bound by a single label. The real problem with Euler is not targeting the female market, but equating a certain aesthetic preference with all the needs of the entire gender and embedding this logic into the foundation of the brand. In the early days, labels were a powerful tool to tear apart the market; When industry competition enters the red ocean and the product matrix cannot sustain positioning, labels become the ceiling that traps brands.

Starting from female aesthetics, Smart has embarked on a path of differentiation. At the beginning of the launch of Elf # 1, the high-end interior and ambient lighting directly targeted women's preferences, with female users accounting for as much as 70% at one point. Subsequently, Elf # 3 and BRABUS Performance Edition were successively launched, continuously attracting a large number of male users, and the gender ratio of car owners gradually became more balanced.

Smart Global CMO Zhang Mingxia once bluntly stated, "We did not deliberately create a car model for a single gender." Appearance and performance are only one aspect of the brand, and creativity and creativity are the core. The implicit message is clear: Consumers refuse to be simply defined by gender.

Tank 300 provides a highly contrasting sample. According to official data from the Great Wall, the proportion of female users of Tank 300 has reached 35%. More than one-third of the owners of a hardcore off-road vehicle that is generally considered to belong to men in the industry are women. A similar phenomenon has long been seen in the Mercedes Benz G-Class: this mechanical beast, born in the wilderness, has about two-thirds of its owners in the domestic market being women, and spends most of its time shuttling through urban overpasses.

Whether it's the Tank 300 or the Mercedes G-Class, what users purchase is never just off-road parameters such as approach angle and departure angle, but the identity expression carried by the vehicle: independence, confidence, and strength, which is a way of life attitude.

Numerous cases have confirmed that once a brand image is tied to a single gender and fixed aesthetic, it is equivalent to actively closing the door to most potential customers. Brands that want to target their customers with "precise audience tags" are easily trapped in a narrow track.

Why is traditional user profiling becoming ineffective?

In the past, car companies used to depict users based on four basic dimensions: gender, age, income, and occupation. But in the current market, more and more real-life cases are constantly breaking through this traditional model.

Porsche presents a highly contrasting landscape of domestic and foreign markets. Porsche Chairman Obomu publicly disclosed that the average age of Porsche car owners in the Chinese market is only 37 years old, with women accounting for 51% and an average annual household income of about 3 million yuan; In the German and American markets, female car owners account for less than 20%, with typical users being men around 50 years old. Purchasing a 911 is more about fulfilling the emotional dreams of youth.

The same car is a pleasurable toy for women in their thirties in China, and a carrier of emotions for middle-aged men in Europe and America, crossing the boundaries of age and gender.

J. According to the "2025 China New Energy Vehicle Product Charm Index Research" by D.Power, the proportion of female new energy vehicle buyers in the new energy market has increased by 5 percentage points, with a growth rate exceeding that of males. Women are becoming the core driving force of new energy consumption.

But the Tank 300, Mercedes Benz G, and Porsche 911 all illustrate a trend: women's car purchasing choices have long surpassed the limitations of "feminized models".

If the mismatch between domestic and foreign audiences in luxury car models is a problem faced by foreign brands, the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV brings new thinking. This micro electric vehicle was initially aimed at commuting and transporting children in third - and fourth tier cities, positioned as a replacement for low-speed electric vehicles. Nowadays, a large number of young white-collar workers in the first and second tier consider it as a leisure toy.

Research data shows that over 67% of car owners undergo exterior and functional modifications after purchasing a car. Consumers spend tens of thousands of yuan to buy a car and then invest the same amount of funds in renovation. A basic means of transportation, reshaped by users as a personalized canvas to showcase themselves.

The root cause of the failure of user profiling is not the error in selecting statistical dimensions, but rather the inability of the entire logical model to keep up with the consumption era.

In an era where the automobile market is in short supply, there are limited options for car models, and consumers rely on their status to choose cars: the working class chooses family commuting cars, while the middle class chooses mid size luxury sedans.

Nowadays, each segmented track is crowded with more than ten competing products, and the logic of buying a car has completely changed: people no longer make choices based on identity tags, but make decisions based on travel scenarios. The same person drives a small car for commuting on weekdays, drives an off-road vehicle for camping on weekends, and takes an MPV for business travel. The diverse, dynamic, and contextualized demographic profiles of users themselves, as well as static and one-on-one demographic profiles, naturally cannot accommodate complex real needs.

Tesla was the first to systematically respond to this industry challenge. The brand almost never promotes the age and gender distribution of car owners. On the surface, it appears to be a boundaryless positioning, but Tesla is not abandoning user screening. Instead, it shifts the focus of its image from demographic characteristics to spiritual identity.

Relying on single pedal mode to screen people who stick to the habit of driving fuel vehicles; Minimalist central control screen, screening users who are willing to accept the new interactive logic; Remove the intricate physical buttons from the interior and discourage consumers who believe that "luxury equals physical buttons". A series of product designs are not meant to please everyone, but to select people who are willing to accept new travel concepts.

Tesla owners range in age from 20 to 50, with a gender balance, but there is a consensus that cars are intelligent electronic products, not traditional mechanical products. Brands attract technology optimists who believe in the value of continuous technological iteration.

This positioning may seem broad, but it is actually incredibly precise: the screening criteria are no longer "who you are", but "how do you view travel and technology".

From population labels to value recognition

Mature brands do not use fixed images to frame consumers; But rather, it shapes a clear product personality and attracts people of the same frequency to actively pursue it.

Volvo is a textbook level example. According to the Hurun Research Institute's luxury car research white paper, 55% of Volvo car owners have a master's degree, ranking first among luxury brands; The proportion of professional users such as lawyers, teachers, and doctors is significantly higher than the industry average.

This is not accidental, but the result of long-term brand building. Volvo firmly adheres to the core values of safety, health, environmental protection, low-key, and a sense of responsibility. All consumers who agree with this concept spontaneously gather.

The common traits behind doctors, teachers, and public officials are rationality and rigor, emphasis on risk, and appreciation of intrinsic value rather than external boasting. The brand continues to strengthen its mental guidance, forming a positive cycle. Many university faculty and public institution users continue to repurchase Volvo, which is the user stickiness brought by value matching. Volvo does not rely on age or gender to limit its customer base, but instead establishes value thresholds - a set of screening criteria that is far more robust and precise than simple demographic labels.

Ideal cars have taken another path, anchoring the smallest social unit of "family". Starting from Ideal ONE, "Creating a Mobile Home" runs through brand communication. The user's portrait is clear: married families with more than one child aged 30-45, mostly engaged in the financial and Internet industries, with good educational background.

This type of user's car purchase belongs to the joint decision-making of the whole family, with priority given to space, comfort, and elderly and child riding experience over acceleration performance. The key to a clear ideal portrait lies not in population statistics, but in implementing the concept of family travel into product details: six seat layout, rear entertainment, air suspension, external discharge, and each configuration revolves around the family travel experience.

Link represents the third approach. A large number of the post-85 and post-90s generation constitute the majority of LinkedIn's 1.7 million users. The average age of car owners is 34.2 years old, covering Internet, manufacturing, medical care, education and other industries. The common characteristics of this group of consumers are rational consumption, dispelling the brand halo, carefully comparing parameters and calculating costs before purchasing a car, and rejecting premiums and marketing gimmicks.

The transparent hardware parameters, generous configuration level, and pragmatic pricing of Lynk&Co perfectly fit the consumption concept of this group of people.

Numerous cases reveal a unified pattern: if a brand's user profile is clear enough, there must be a distinct product personality behind it.

Of course, restructuring the portrait system does not mean completely abandoning population statistics. Mature car companies generally adopt a dual layer portrait strategy: relying on data such as age, income, and region on the surface to guide pricing and channel layout; Deeply relying on values and spiritual appeals, defining products, planning communication, and operating users. Volvo and Tesla also refer to population data, but will not let basic labels influence product development direction.

At the same time, brand building needs to balance a set of business paradoxes: the sharper the product edges, the stronger the core audience's sense of identification, but the potential market size is limited; The more moderate the positioning, the wider the coverage of the audience, and it is easy to fall into the "25-50 year old" style of vague propaganda, losing memory points.

The optimal solution is not either or, but rather a combination of core edges and edge compatibility: maintaining a clear core value proposition while considering the needs of the public at the functional level. Volvo adheres to the safety core and launches crossover SUVs at the same time; Ideal deeply cultivates the home market and simultaneously launches performance versions. Having a spiritual anchor while avoiding self imposed limitations.

Conclusion

Returning to the automotive media veteran at the beginning, he did not choose the model that covers 25 to 50 years old; The female consumer who did not want to be bound by labels also avoided products that were specifically designed for women. They are not isolated cases, but rather emerging consumer trends.

Women driving Tank 300, men choosing Smart, urban white-collar workers modifying Wuling MINI EV... These seemingly mismatched car buying choices are a signal from consumers to the industry: do not predefine what car is suitable for us to drive, the choice is in the hands of the users themselves.

The user profile of the automotive industry is undergoing an important transformation: from the "ID card" that records identity information to the "electrocardiogram" that captures spiritual appeals.

The ID card divides the boundaries of the crowd, cold and narrow, like a fence; Electrocardiogram captures value resonance, inclusive and broad, like a magnetic field.

Car companies don't have to force consumers into predetermined compartments. Create products with independent personalities that naturally attract people who identify with this trait. In the new era of consumption, users are no longer defined by brands, they are redefining the value of a car.