Mclntyre-《Elite's Talk》_腾讯汽车

Eight constructors' championships, twelve drivers' championships, 155 pole positions and 151 best lap times – these are the track records made by the legendary McLaren team. As the only supercar maker that has won all the championships of F1 Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, Canadian-American Challenge Cup, and 24 HEURES DU MANS, McLaren has won 182 races by far. In its prime time in 1998, McLaren won 15 races out of 16. It was also in that year when McLaren’s team principal Ron Dennis and chief designer Gordon Murray made joint decision to develop road supercar and became committed to supercar development for normal consumers. McLaren F1 was born after that as the fastest road car.

David Mclntyre defines McLaren as “a technology company” because he believes that the difference between it and its competitors is that while other car makers spare no efforts to reduce the cost and obtain technology through outsourcing, McLaren is making every effort to apply the key technology from F1 track to supercars. “The leading technology is from our successful experience and outstanding performance on track. For example, the Kinetic energy recovery system of P1 TM is an application of KERS and air resistance reduction system from F1 technology. McLaren is proud to have the capability and strength to develop the most advanced super car technology in the world.”

McLaren has four major regional markets. Asia Pacific region is one of them which accounts for one third of the global market share, while China makes up for one third of the Asia Pacific market. Although China is the third largest market for McLaren, it still holds great potential for growth of the brand which just entered into the Chinese market in September, 2013. “We already have 11 exhibition centers and there will be 5 more by the end of this year, so the total number will be 16. They will be located in cities such as Nanjing, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Shenyang and Qingdao.” In addition to setting up more exhibition centers, we will plan a series of brand communications and market promotions, and “offer more opportunities to our customers to know, to try or even test drive McLaren cars.” As the customers of McLaren is a small and accurate target group, digital marketing through social media platforms will be a very appropriate channel for communication and we are working out a marketing strategy that will fit McLaren best.

Technology, performance, authenticity are the three words David Mclntyre chose that can best represent McLaren. Their lasting focus on development and application of the most advanced technology and outstanding performance are all because of its authentic origin from F1 track. “It is possible that other car makers can be good at technology and performance, but they are not as authentic as McLaren, and they lack the long history of McLaren of track experience and its reputation in track.” As a company that make both F1 racing cars and road supercars, McLaren cars has exquisitely designed details that are not only for visual effect but also for the purposes of technology and function. “For example, spoiler at the bottom of the car can also act as air brake, so that driver can have more braking force at a very high speed. Another example is the air hole design of P1 TM at the head of the car. It can absorb more fresh air to cool down power system quickly. All of these designs are developed for authentic operational performance and better driving experience. ”[detail]

David Mclntyre took the office of the Regional Director of Asia Pacific McLaren Automotive Ltd. on Feb, 2015. He is responsible for the company’s operation and development in this area, which include Mainland China, Hong Kong China, Taiwan China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The 42-year-old director has a 19-year international luxury automotive management experience. In the latest 9 years, he has achieved great success in Asia Pacific region. He was the managing director of Jaguar Land Rover Korea. Under his leadership, Korean market was developing very well and grew to the fifth largest market globally. In 2010, David Mclntyre held a key position in Bentley Motors China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and helped the team to rank 1st in sales globally. Before that in 2005, he was the general manager of Bentley Motors Korea and had played a very important role in promoting the sales of Bentley. Moreover, David Mclntyre had worked for 4 years in Aston Martin, 6 years in Porsche, mostly involved in markets of Britain, Germany and Latin America countries.

Racing cars

The sport of racing cars has a history of more than 100 years. The earliest car race was held on public road. Many car racers died due to the dangerous environment, which led to the professional racing track. This sport comprises track racing and non-track racing. This is a highly-demanding sport for stamina, mentality and skills of a car racer.

The creator of the brand, Bruce McLaren, is an outstanding racer. Similarly, David Mclntyre who took the office of took the office of the Regional Director of Asia Pacific McLaren Automotive Ltd. on Feb, 2015, is also a crazy fan of the sport of car racing. He had a working experience of ten years in Asia Pacific region and has fallen in love with the life here. When McLaren made their offer, it makes every sense that the crazy car racing fan would accept it. There are a lot of directors who fancy sportscars, but David Mclntyre is much more obsessed with racing. He can speak on it with great familiarity and is very excited to talk about his racing cars and race stories. “Now I have two sports cars, one is Honda which I drove in China’s ASR Cup, the other is Toyota 86 which I drove in South Korea. I just bought a 6-speed kart, and driving it is like driving a F1 racing car because it is very fast and very powerful. ”

When you open his schedule book, you will find that his itinerary is all about racing cars. He enjoys his busy working schedule that may seem frustrating for anyone else: I met the racer, Tonio Liuzzi, at Shanghai F1 circuit and drove 6-speed kart with him on Tuesday; I watched 650S Asia Grand Touring at the Fuji speedway on Saturday and then shared the racing car culture and its influence on me with other 20 drivers in another speedway in Tokyo on Sunday. Today, I received an e-mail from a Japanese friend who invited me to attend an individually held speedway day event in a professional track.”

His life is always like this- busy, exciting, and filled with and defined by racing cars. You can hardly find the boundary line between his work and life, but this is exactly the way he loves. “My friends become McLaren driver and McLaren drivers become my friends. It is the love for this brand that brings us together. This is an amazing experience.” The shared interest and the common love for the brand provide David Mclntyre the opportunity to think from the consumers’ prospect when he is making strategies to satisfy their demands. “McLaren has a very small group of target consumers. We cannot spend a great deal of our budget in promoting, so all of our strategies and campaigns are very precise and accurate.”

Apart from car racing, David Mclntyre also enjoys sailing and flying, which are also extreme competitive and challenging sports. He holds kart racing activities to encourage his team members to experience the competitiveness. He likes to compare his team to a F1 team and believes that a successful F1 team does not only depend on the racer but also on experts of different areas and the coordination of the whole team. “This is quite similar to my work. What I do is to encourage my colleagues to be more enthusiastic about racing car culture and supercar culture. I should also put right person to right position so that they can become an expert in this area.” Now, David Mclntyre is full of ambition as the “racer” of the Asia Pacific Region team and leading his team towards its victory and glory.[detail]

Sailing

Sailing is a kind of water sport, which requires the sailors to steer the ship by using the pushing force given by the natural wind. It is a very popular spectator sport that combines competition, entertainment and adventure. Ship sailing exercises is beneficial to people’s physical health and will power.

1
Tencent Auto: What is the proportion of Chinese market in McLaren’s global market?
David Mclntyre: By far, China is the third largest single market for McLaren; Japan is the fifth. Asia Pacific Region makes up for one third of the global share. I think China has a large potential, because we only entered into China in Sep, 2013.
2
Tencent Auto: Can you use three words to define your impression of McLaren?
David Mclntyre: The first word would be technology, the second performance while the third authenticity. It is possible that other car makers can be good at technology and performance, but they are not as authentic as McLaren, and they lack the long history of McLaren and its reputation in track.
3
Tencent Auto: How are you going to tap the Chinese market?
David Mclntyre: We will set up more city exhibition centers. In addition, we will offer more test drive opportunities for our customers to try our sports car and experience their outstanding performance. We will plan a series of test drive activities which will include test drives on both city roads and professional tracks. As for the brand communication and market promotion, we understand that most McLaren drivers enjoy using social media. So we will focus on communication on social media platforms. Digital marketing will be a very appropriate channel for communication and we are working out a marketing strategy that will fit McLaren best.
4
Tencent Auto: You mentioned that there would be more city exhibition centers. Can you be more specific about the numbers?
David Mclntyre:We already have 11 exhibition centers and there will be 5 more by the end of this year, so the total number will be 16. They will be located in cities such as Nanjing, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Shenyang and Qingdao.

Technology

Fighter

Performance

Karts

Simplicity Racing Track

Authenticity

Maturity

Before the interview, I already knew that the regional director of Asia Pacific at McLaren Automotive Ltd. is a “racing car fan”. When we were shooting pictures of him during our interview, we began with very formal and serious ones with him wearing the suit. Then he showed us a box of his treasures-his trophies and helmet. When the photographer finished his first take, he still wanted something more and asked for different background. David blurted out, “I also brought my racing suit”. So we saw before the camera a more relaxed David, the racer David. When we were chatting, I wrote several words on my notebook – “crazy racer” and this was exactly my first impression on David, and a very deep one. You can always hear him talking about racing cars no matter he is speaking about the development and strategy of the brand, his experience in leading a team or his weekend. If you think “crazy” is an overstatement, then hear about his itinerary in one week, and you will agree with me. He is able to be at the Shanghai F1 circuit with his idol Tonio Liuzzi driving 6-speed karts on Tuesday, and be at the Fuji speedway watching 650S Aisa Grand Touring on Saturday and then share the racing car culture with other 20 drivers in another speedway in Tokyo. Although I planned to ask him how he allocated his time, I found out that the answer was so clear and said to him that the question needed not to be asked any more. He smiled happily, “That’s for sure. I also talk about car racing in my leisure time, so it’s very hard to separate my life from my work. But I enjoy this feeling, and it is great! ”