Steve Cairns swirled his wine in Arthur's living room and spoke with lazy certainty: "Even if the Audi A6 wins the official-car slot, it only nudges brand awareness." He ticked off the air with two fingers. "And the A6 still trails our C-Class. Prestige isn't built overnight." Arthur nodded along, pleased with the self-assurance. "Exactly. Audi's just generating noise. When the sticker goes on, buyers will compare prices. If they dare price it next to us, they're finished."
The head of Greater China for one of the German marques hesitated. "What worries me is if Audi flips the table instead of 'playing by the rules.' Heifeng never does what the script expects." The room went quiet at that name. A beat later came the conclusion everyone arrived at separately: move first.
That afternoon, the three German luxury brands—Benz, BMW, and their ally—released synchronized statements. For fifteen days, they would "give back to consumers" with sweeping price cuts, topping out at a savings of ¥120,000 (~$16,700), before snapping back to original MSRPs the moment the window closed. The effect online was immediate and electric. Message boards lit up, timelines boiled over, and showroom phones rang off the hook.
The comments had the breathless rhythm of a feeding frenzy:
• "No way—first-ever joint promo from these three?"
• "If that applies to the Benz S320, it puts it around ¥400,000 (~$55,500)!"
• "They're targeting Audi."
• "Targets, schmargets—I'm buying whichever is cheaper."
• "I was waiting for A6 pricing, but at this number, I'm grabbing the S320."
• "BMW 5-Series for me."
• "I'm still holding for the A6."
By dinnertime, crowds were eyeing Audi and funneling it into the Benz and BMW 4S stores. The optics said it all: in raw public recognition, Audi still couldn't match the pair's legacy glamour. The move was shrewd, almost theatrical—vacuum Audi's potential customers before Heifeng could even say a price.
Heifeng saw the announcements within minutes. "Clever devils," he snorted. The timing was a surgeon's cut: just ahead of the A6 reveal, when expectations were inflated but numbers were still secret, the Germans turned on the discount tap and siphoned demand. A headline figure "up to ¥120,000 off" on an A-segment car looked like a taunt drawn in neon.
Heifeng's mouth quirked. "Good tactic. But you think you can block Audi with a two-week sticker sale?" His confidence felt like steel under velvet. Once the A6 price went public, he believed, those "savings" would look less like a windfall and more like camouflage. And the folks who rushed to place deposits now? Many would wake up with buyer's remorse when Audi's number landed.
While pricing chess played out, he kept one eye on the nightly News Broadcast, waiting for that symbolic shot: the national leader stepping into an Audi A8. Day after day, the program rolled by with handshakes and dais shots, no convoy, no motorcade clip, no A8. A week passed in that taut quiet. Then noon arrived—the curtain rose on Audi's launch.
Invitations had blanketed the auto press from Beijing to Shenzhen. Reviewers, columnists, and streamers filled the venue, joined by a wedge of rival-brand "observers" who wore neutral lanyards like paper masks. Ten thousand diehard Audi fans came on their dime, a sea of banners and phone flashes. Heifeng instructed staff to look after them—water, rest areas, and a little surprise for everyone who made the trip. "Take care of our people," he said, "and send each supporter home with a scale model. They showed up for us; we show up for them."
One o'clock. House lights dipped. Zhao Jianhua opened as emcee, warming the room with a brisk tour of new hardware and "black-tech" tricks—chassis tuning, NVH isolation, driver-assist stack, cabin acoustics. He was the fuse; Heifeng was the fire. When the screen flared and the music thumped, the crowd rose on a ripple of noise as he walked to center stage, smiling easily and gazing steadily.
"Welcome to Audi's new-product launch," he began, voice carrying cleanly. "I'm grateful to our friends in the media for coming—and even more surprised and delighted to see so many fans who traveled from every corner of the country to cheer for Audi." He gestured toward the upper tiers. "To thank you, we've prepared a small gift. Find the staff after the event and pick it up."
The press relaxed—every brand handed out trinkets at launch: a tote, a power bank, maybe wireless buds if the sponsor was generous. Then Heifeng shifted gears so abruptly that the room nearly skidded.
"As a luxury marque of Daxia, we won't be stingy like some 'friendly' peers," he said lightly. "You've all been to those conferences: they give you a keychain, don't even offer a sip of water, and call it a day." Laughter bubbled up. He let it crest. "Initially, we planned a live raffle—phones, laptops, the usual shiny toys. But then I asked myself: on a car launch day, why give you anything but a car?"
He paused just long enough to let meaning saturate the silence. "So either we don't give anything… or give a car."
"Audi."
The word landed like a bass drop. The hall held its breath for half a heartbeat, and then the dam burst.
"Good!"
"Giving away a car? Awesome!"
"President Heifeng is too generous!"
"Boss Heifeng, take my knee!"
No brand had ever raffled off a car live at its unveiling. The drama rewired the mood instantly: the chatter about rivals' discount carnival evaporated, replaced by an almost giddy sense that this was the room where things happened. The giveaway wasn't just a spectacle; it was a message. You don't counter a short-term markdown with a short-term markdown. You redefine the stage so the other side's move looks small.
Under the roar, Heifeng's calculus stayed sober. The three-brand promotion would move metal—of course it would. There are always buyers who equate "deal" with "destiny." But momentum is more than a week's foot traffic. Audi's play, laid piece by piece, ran deeper:
• Price where it matters, not where it flatters. If the A6 landed with honest value—powertrain, materials, warranty, financing that didn't hide fees—the sticker would read as respect, not a dare.
• Mindshare before market share. Ten thousand fans shouting your name on a livestream is a currency bigger than ¥ or \$. When a buyer believes in a brand, he'll wait out a two-week gimmick.
• Symbol over signal noise. One clip of national leadership stepping into an Audi A8 would anchor the A-line's authority better than a thousand promo banners. The absence of that clip irked him, but he trusted the alignment process more than the rumor mill.
He let the cheers ebb, then smiled again, eyes twinkling—as if to say: if you think the raffle is the headline, wait until you hear the price. He didn't need to look at the rival "observers" to know they were texting furiously, turning numbers over, trying to guess whether he'd anchor below the Benz C-Class and BMW 5-Series targets or flank them with features and after-sales. Either way, the narrative had flipped: the news wasn't a fifteen-day sale somewhere else; it was the car that might make those "savings" feel like overpaying in disguise.
Backstage, staff finalized the raffle mechanism, legalized the fine print, and set up a crate with the model car gifts. Out front, the fans' excitement rolled like surf. Some would not win the car, many would not buy this month, but all of them would carry the story home: Audi didn't blink. It raised the stakes.
And when the price came—when the figure finally flashed—it would have to do more than undercut. It would have to feel inevitable. That, more than anything, was the game Heifeng was playing.