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Mercedes Marketing Strategy
Introduction
Mercedes-Benz is perhaps the worlds best auto carmaker. The German machine, as it is
commonly referred to, is a leading luxury car that is trailed by the likes of BMW and Audi
among others. Daimler Benz is known to be the parent company of Mercedes and the name
Mercedes is the flag name of the classy automobiles. The first fully functional car is attributed to
Benz that was launched in 1886. The terms Mercedes was derived from a girl named Mercedes
after successfully leading a race in cars. It was due to the hard economic times and inflation rates
that those two rival companies, Daimler and Mercedes merged and formed a Mercedes-Benz. As
a result of this merger, the company produced various kinds of cars that are luxurious in nature.
The company now produces luxury cars, trucks, vans and buses and commands a large presence
in the market.
Market for its luxury cars
The international market for cars is by far too competitive with its developed markets
being too saturated to generate growth. The company not only faces competition from German
and or European rivals but also from Korean, Indian, Japanese, and Chinese carmakers. While
the car market was more stable than what we witness today, the explosion witnessed in the global
economic growth plus the wealth creation in the recent decades has made the industry to witness

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a rather a tremendous growth that has in part, prompted the attraction of new and increased
attention.
From an internal perspective, the company seems to have an impending competition
since companies aim to attain high margin segments such as low margin products that come as a
result of the high and mighty pressure the big companies. From an external point of view, there is
a remarkable slow growth rate that was witnessed past the 2008 economic crises and this is
highly likely to complicate the economic situation of these luxury carmakers. The advancements
in technology also seem to complicate and ease the production of these cars in equal measure. It
helps to reduce the technical differentiation of these machines as well as leaving the identity of
the brands and their value associations under some scrutiny.
SWOT Analysis
Given below is the SWOT Analysis of Mercedes-Benz Companys overall performance
and operating position in the global markets.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Strong brand value from long heritage and Cost structure: higher COGS per unit than
continuous quality
Financial position is robust
R&D spending is high, internal innovation
is visible and competitive
Diverse market presence motorsport,
luxury, utility
Opportunities
Increasing demand for luxury vehicles

competitors due to lack of globally

distributed sourcing
Defending brand makes price competition
difficult or impossible
Lack of partnerships due to internal
quality-centric focus
Threats
Many new competitors into luxury market:

from emerging markets

Jaguar, Porsche, Volvo, Lexus
Good position to exploit green movements Backlash against car ownership for

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and low-emissions transport
Good position to develop smart vehicles
for computer-aided driving

environmental reasons
Weak global growth and macroeconomic
factors

The SWOT reveals that while Mercedes market position is very healthy currently, the
market situation in automobiles, and luxury automobiles, is evolving fast. The firm has to adapt
to the new market conditions and buyer behaviors to retain its market hold and profitable
enterprise situation.
Marketing Mix
1. Product: The central aspect of the marketing mix for Mercedes. The quality and
reliability of Mercedes cars is their strongest value proposition, and the central idea of
the Mercedes brand. The company first and foremost sells product on its own as the
competitive advantage, as can be seen with their motto Das Beste Oder Nichts
translated as The Best or Nothing.
2. Promotion: The firm relies on multiple channels to promote its cars, including by
sponsoring sporting and art events, TV advertisements, online marketing, print
marketing, and digital marketing. The firms choice of mediums and presentation on
mediums has undergone changes as it adjusts its market positioning.
3. Place: One of Mercedes strengths and weaknesses in its current lineup is its focus on
internalizing production to control quality. This is a good guarantor of product, but
now that competitors like BMW have shown that high quality can be maintained by a
more distributed global supply chain, Mercedes also needs to evolve a response to
ensure price and regional competition (like tax breaks on domestic production) do not
cause challenges in the future.

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4. Pricing: Mercedes offers prices from $30,000 to $300,000 covering a wide variety of
models and options for its wealthy clientele. The pricing is in line with other luxury
carmakers across all categories, making Mercedes one of the few luxury carmakers to
operate in every segment from high-end compact cars to supercars and super-luxury
vehicles.
The use of graphics to reach customers in Mercedes
The Mercedes Company is actively involved in driving the company goals to the next
level, transitioning from the automotive manufacturers to the networked mobile service. The
company uses the concept of intelligent aerodynamics automobile. This concept is commonly
known as the IAA Concept. In this view, digitalization is known to be a central strategy in all the
spheres of the Benz Company. The technical inventors such as the driveline electrification and
the autonomous driving are some of the key feature that the company attempts to use in its quest
to offer the best customer experiences. All these would not be achievable without the thought of
digitalization.
With production, the company makes use of the brand that is three dimensional in nature.
This is the three pointed star that it displays in each of its products. In its quest to reach out to
customers with varied expectations plus a myriad transformation, Mercedes Benz strives to take
into account these factors and therefore aims to adopt digitalization as a means of reaching out to
them taking into account, the varied behavior and communication patterns. By way of
digitalization, Mercedes has adopted a digital prototype that accelerates its performance. These
cuts across such things as the introduction of iPads for sales executives to stay connected and
also grow customer base. Besides, the use of iPad technology comes with the new interface of
iSales technology, an application that enables the users to have a virtual experience with the cars
at their disposal, creating such an environment of a variety of cars from which to choose their

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preferred choice. The Mercedes Company also strives to reach out on customers faster through
such moves as adopting a unique imitative that is in line with the Go to Customer strategy.
The advantage of the iPad technology is that it carries the merchandise to the doorstep of
the customer and through this, they are able to engage with the sales executives and have their
preferred cars customized before making any bookings. This helps the Company in attaining its
objective of evolving the young customers of the prestigious Mercedes Company. Apart from the
iSales platform, Mercedes Benz cars are fitted with quite a number of fascinating and
sophisticated features that would make no customer to have a second thought while purchasing
the car. In addition to the customer experiences that come with the iSale application, there is a
disclaimer prompt that enables the discerning customers to view the Company disclaimer
financial offers and also be able to lease their returns without much of a hustle.

How does Mercedes Benz make use of behavioral variables to create value for
customers?
Mercedes as an objective company knows that in order to make it in the competitive auto
industry, and market, it needs to constantly adapt to the changes and trends in the market and
also identifying the dynamics in consumer wants and needs. The motor industry is such that it is

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highly competitive and offer no other choice but car manufacturing to go a notch higher and
appeal, let alone venturing into the unexhausted market segments. It is no doubt that the growth
for the production of luxury cars is significantly low, prompting the baby boomers to rebel
against the mighty and upper middle class lifestyle cars. They are in pursuit of their new car
trends and images going against the paths created by their predecessors. It is said that the novices
are looking for more compact, smaller cars that are practical and this fact forces Mercedes to
undergo a substantial metamorphosis.
As a business purchasing behavior, every seller can choose to pursue their customer
markets, B2B markets or even both. As a result, one obvious technique to start off the
segmentation process is by segmenting the markets into group types. As far as buying behavior is
concerned, every customer is pushed by the fact that certain goods and services have certain
unique features that attracts their attention. Consequently, every company will single out each
and every customers preferences and by extension, group each customer depending on their
segmentation base. Each of these variables therefore, lay a certain layer of information which in
itself is a value addition. In essence, one question that Mercedes Company ponders is the
benefits that customers want from the company and how the customers themselves use products
from the company.
The common notable ways through which Mercedes Benz determines its buyer
behavior is through seeking out the benefits its customers get from their products and also how
often the product in question is used among the esteemed customers. This can be summarized as
a buyer usage situation. Another important factor that Mercedes puts into consideration is the
fact that customers have different buyer status and varied loyalty to products. In view of this, it
strives to meet every customers demands and needs be it a nonuser, first-time user or regular

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users. Since behavioral segmentation classifies people based on their behavior or their actions
based on certain products, The Mercedes Company leaves nothing to chance. Since marketing is
all about strategies, Mercedes has done all it takes to ensure that it evaluates all its market
segments while ensuring that it taps its attractiveness, thereby settling on one or more of the
segments it deems fit.
Mercedes has responded to one of the pressing consumer needs by introducing the AClass motor that serves to be the first step in meeting the dynamics of customer needs. The
introduction of these brands is done in such a manner that none of its highly regarded quality
brands is damaged. The changes introduced into the images are also considered so as not to
complicate their plans and appeals to customers. Nonetheless, in order to meet every customer
needs, the company has put in place a variety of classes from which customers can choose their
preferences. For instance, there are B-Classes and C-Classes, all from which varied customer
needs can fall.

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Works Cited
"Corporate History." Mercedes-Benz. Web. 17 Dec. 2015. Available at: https://www.mercedesbenz.com/en/mercedes-benz/classic/history/corporate-history/
Daimler AG Annual Report 2013. Stuttgart: Daimler, 2013. Print. Available at:
https://www.daimler.com/documents/investors/berichte/geschaeftsberichte/daimler/daiml
er-ir-annualfinancialreport-2013.pdf
Li, Joe. "Innovative Marketing Strategy Brings Success to Mercedes-Benz." The Daily
Pennsylvanian 17 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Dec. 2015. Available at:
http://www.thedp.com/article/2014/04/how-mercedes-markets-itself
Zoeller, Stephen. "How Mercedes-Benz Uses Marketing Segmentation." Stephen Zoeller's
Marketing Blog. 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 17 Dec. 2015. Available at:
http://www.stephenzoeller.com/how-mercedes-benz-and-german-luxury-car-brands-usemarketing-segmentation/

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