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Chinese electric car startup Nio aspires to be the Tesla of China. To achieve that, its founder and CEO William Li wants his customers to feel like they're part of an exclusive club.
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To begin with, Nio offers its customers the Nio app. In addition to providing practical assistance to Nio drivers, such as dispatching a mobile charging station to revive a dead battery, the app also connects customers to an entire social network of other Nio owners.Li has also built a handful of private social clubs called Nio Houses. Located in large Chinese cities, Nio Houses feature a car showroom on the first floor and a private clubhouse on the second floor, which is only open to Nio car owners. Nio Houses offer numerous perks, including courses on topics like flower arranging and espresso making, and private rooms where Nio owners can hold business meetings.
The age-old advertising strategy of "Keeping up with the Wangs."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Monday February 25 2019, @09:13PM
This is nothing particularly new.
You fly first class, you get access to special airport lounges in some cases. Not to mention, well, you're flying first class.
The US is as prone to special perks for special jerks as anywhere else; no one here thinks they're getting into Mar-A-Lago, do they? Getting invited to float away on Octopus, Paul Allen's yacht? To fly on John Travolta's private 707?
No, people watch from afar, while they imagine that someday, somehow, they'll become rich. Which they almost certainly will not. But they'll go to their graves shrieking about "entitlements", so there is some satisfaction in their lives.
And that's just the way the rich and their political minions want it.
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I have neither the time or the crayons to explain.