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Who and what can stop them?
I am not referring to swarms of People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
soldiers encircling Philippine cities from the countryside. Or, tons
upon tons of cheap plastic products from China spilling over from
the provincial tiendas and public market into the perfumed living
rooms of the moneyed and those pretending to be moneyed, the
dahlings of Maurice and Johnny.
The PLA is too busy overseeing
the peace in a country on a chart-busting growth, responding to
Mao’s prophetic Great Leap Forward. The plastic products wont
touch the lives of Maurice’s friends, not now, not in a long, long
time. Those pretending to be rich may go for faux leather, faux fur,
faux alligator, but not plastic.
Bus export offensive
I am referring to China ’s
juggernaut that has claimed for itself a substantial space on the
most visible place possible—our major roads and highways. This is
China’s bus export offensive into the country, which in a period
of less than five years has made inroads so impressive that experts
say it is all set to dominate the Philippine market in a decade or
less. Two conditions though for this to happen: its Japanese and
European competitors fail to carry out dramatic moves. And South
Korea does not do something to wipe out the “lemon tag” of the
few buses it has sold here.
China’s bus juggernaut is all
the more impressive because it came with no ad, no test-drives, no
media rounds, not a single PR item. The literature that comes with
the buses is even crude by First-World standards. Their sales and
marketing people are mostly engineers, rough on the edges, totally
ungifted with marketing savvy. The trade publications on transport
and motoring are not even aware of the silent conquest. But on our
roads and highways, you know every well that China’s buses have
gotten a double-digit share of the local market.
“We started five years ago with
zero share. The following year, we got five per cent of the market
and ten on the third year. We had 15 per cent on the fourth year and
we have a bigger share now.” This assessment came from the guy who
has sold the most number of China buses locally and this guy tends
to understate things.
Impressive aesthetics
Why do China buses sell?
First is what most Filipinos fall for—looks.
China buses have capitalized on impressive aesthetics, which is an
across-the-board consideration of all Filipino vehicle buyers,
whether transport operators or luxury vehicle purchasers. What drove
SUV buyers to buy the earlier Pajeros despite their niggardly
horsepower and the recent Fortuners despite their tough ride was the
same reason why the China buses are selling: they are physically
attractive and imposing.
They go by funny names—King
Long and Golden Dragon—but no one can make fun of the looks. (By
the way, King Long is the Chinese translation of Golden Dragon, and
this is perhaps the only story in marketing where same-name brands
are tough competitors.) The best and priciest Japanese and European
buses in the local market look staid beside the China buses. The
minimalist design which has been the rule in local body-building for
buses for decades has been radically altered by the China buses,
with their sharp lines and flashy look. And glossy paint.
P1-million-P2.5-million
cheaper
Second, the price factor.
Japanese and European buses are priced between P1 million to P2.5
million higher than the China buses. If a bus operator buys 10
units, at least P10 million is saved.
The Japanese and European buses
are more powerful with bigger engine displacement and pulling power.
But there is a speed limit at the expressways and it would be
near-crazy to go top-speed in the pot-holed and antiquated roads and
highways. A small edge in power does not really make a difference.
In the late 1980s, the last leg
of then-President Aquino’s bus modernization program, the China
buses that were exported to us were so crude that they seemed to be
running on coal, not gasoline, and they looked and rode like rolling
coffins. The buses were later sold to scrap dealers and the bus
industry said then that Chinese buses were destined to adorn a place
in the scrap heap of history.
After a decade, Chinese buses are
a flashy, imposing presence on our highways and the last laugh, if
the competitors don’t wake up, could be theirs.
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