Marketing Strategy and SWOT Analysis of Mercedes-Benz
Elegance, luxury, comfort, status…the list goes on and on when we think of the name “Mercedes”. Mercedes has evolved into much more than a vehicle. It adds to the image of the owner, declaring success and building a social status. Designing and building luxurious, reliable, and performance vehicles is an achievement that makes Mercedes popular. However, the price tag narrows down the audience who can purchase and enjoy the vehicles with the star logo. It means that besides superior product offering, there is something more underneath the brand. This smoothly brings us to uncovering their marketing strategy and SWOT analysis to get behind the scenes of their success story.
Mercedes looks far to the future while staying loyal to traditions…
Mission Statement.
Mercedes’ mission is to delight customers, improve the quality of products and the business, and be aware of the surrounding environment. Mercedes has no problem in product development with the help of long-lasting traditions of high-end engineering.
The challenge is to maintain their position and improve on what they have built throughout these years. Besides the product quality, crucial aspects such as brand image, marketing strategy and clear positioning are the hardest to maintain.
It is hard to reach the top, but it is harder to stay up there. The belief in even day-to-day activities invests in the big picture of providing exclusive experience to the vehicle market.
Vision Statement.
“First Move the World”- that is the purpose of Mercedes Benz. Behind every move forward, people in Mercedes consider numerous details surrounding their company.
Human progress, the evolution of demand, dynamic needs of customers, changing standards and many other factors influence every action. With a true commitment to their core values and vision for the future, Mercedes controls what happens next.
Adopting the role of the pioneer is yet another challenge. Paving a road for others to follow, with higher risks, but promising and rewarding payback. Mercedes looks to the future and raises the plank for the whole market, leaving others to catch up.
Having a clear image of how to exploit every opportunity, Mercedes achieves sustainable growth and conquers new heights. The introduction of electric vehicles is one of the examples illustrating their vision for the future of the car manufacturing industry.
The positioning strategy of Mercedes reflects its mission in the market.
A clear positioning strategy is yet another major reason behind the company’s development.
At Mercedes, they ensured that accurate positioning follows a superior product offering. We will get more on this by analyzing the Instagram post of Mercedes below.
The design of the post is as simple as it could be. The Famous G-class off-road model is at the center of attention in forest scenery. The post emphasizes the “unique design” as if it can be powerful and dominant off-road, yet elegant to the eye in an urban environment.
G-class design, performance, and power are exclusive and recognizable. A truly iconic model with a history behind it, with a combination of class, comfort and sturdiness.
No extra details spoil the image of the photo. The Mercedes model demonstrates all its beauty, yet excerpts fear by only the look of it.
The car is not in motion; the beast is calmly resting in the woods, always ready for the next ride. In addition to a delicate caption, the post features some technical characteristics of average fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
Being one of the high-performance and unique models, G-class is one of the top-of-the-mind classes when thinking of Mercedes.
The vehicle market has not presented a worthy alternative to the German power wagon yet. With the power and the status it promotes, we can conclude that Mercedes belongs to the Ruler archetype.
Let’s get deeper into the key characteristics of the Ruler archetype to find its connection with Mercedes.
Desire: Excerpt control of their life and career
Goal: Contribute to creating a strong, successful and prosperous community, family or business
Gift: Responsibility, leadership and ability to guide others
Values: Taking control, power, patriotism, love of achieving status
We may recognize from these characteristics the famous Mercedes models, as well as their successful and high-status owners. This proves once more that the Ruler archetype is perfect for Mercedes and their targeted segment.
Listed below are the messaging levels of the Ruler archetype.
Level 1: Lack of resources, order and harmony
Level 2: Start building their own life and getting on the path of independence
Level 3: Exerting leadership in almost every aspect of life, including family, organization, community or elsewhere.
Level 4: Becoming an actual leader in your community, field or society.
The Ruler archetype may suit the brand if it:
- Is a product that adds to the status of the owner and helps enhance their power
- Has a relatively higher pricing strategy
- Is a brand that tries to differentiate itself from a more populist one
- Promotes a product that offers a lifetime guarantee.
- Is in a field that is relatively stable, predictable or offers a product that promotes safety
- Offers a product that helps people be more organized
A casual SWOT analysis of Mercedes will give answers to many “whys?” and “hows?”…
Strengths
- Distinct positioning of being “premium” – Customers of Mercedes know what they pay for. The clear advantage is not only the high-quality product, but also the prestige and status that it brings. The brand itself contributes to building an image for the owner.
It is safe to say that Mercedes’ positioning and customers’ perception of the brand match perfectly. - Huge R&D investments – Mercedes is financially strong and invests more than $12bln into research and development. Being one of the top car manufacturing companies, they constantly invest in innovating product lines and introducing high-end technologies.
They always make sure they arm their cars with the latest solutions and offer products way ahead of market standards. - Strong presence in sports – The dominance of Mercedes in Formula 1 is out of the question nowadays. Mercedes has built a bolide that has no competitor from an engineering perspective.
Their Formula team rules the world’s highest tier of motorsports, and that is a major influencing factor for the brand. Customers project Mercedes’ success in the sport to their operations and products, and the brand benefits from that as well. - Wide range of products – Mercedes offers a variety of cars for different segments and serving various purposes. From economy class to luxury sedans, from compact to off-road vehicles, from trucks to exclusive supercars.
Despite being a high-class and status brand, with relatively moderate to higher pricing, Mercedes finds its customer in every segment.
Weaknesses
- Intense competition – Mercedes is not alone in the car manufacturing market. Other industry giants step on the tail of Mercedes, creating fierce competition for every bit of market share.
Mercedes faces direct competition from fellow Germans like BMW, Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen and indirect competition from other smaller producers. This means that market share growth is limited for Mercedes, and it leaves their growth for the failure of others. - Problems’ scaling – With Mercedes being a global brand, even minor problems come at a high cost. When Mercedes faces a problem, it affects the brand not only locally, but the whole of Mercedes as well.
- Scandals and recalls – The company has faced many major issues during the last few years. Mercedes recalled many cars because of electric malfunctions in headlights, airbags, and defects in steering and other problems.
Moreover, the company had a scandal around its name on the cheating software in cars that gave wrong air pollution tests. The company has agreed to pay $2.2bln in total as reimbursement for the lawsuit.
Opportunities
- Hybrid and EV market – Fuel-efficient and electric vehicles are the newly emerging trend in the market today. Major companies started developing hybrid models earlier in this century, and now introduce fully electric vehicles.
Mercedes already started introducing fully electric vehicles, but there is a lot of room to grow in this market. The world is moving towards eco-friendly transportation, and Mercedes cannot miss its chance to capture a share. - Partnerships and collaborations – Mercedes can become a partner with producers of electric vehicles to develop unique products. Partnerships, in this case, would benefit all sides, meaning that Mercedes can utilize the resources and capabilities of others.
For instance, Mercedes can join efforts with Tesla and develop a superior product, with solutions that could take Mercedes years to achieve.
Threats
- Tighter regulations on emissions – The regulations on car emissions become stricter, and companies who violate them have to pay penalties and additional fees. This makes it harder to enter certain markets, and makes it even more financially heavy to adapt to regulations.
- No regularity in innovation – Mercedes has not regularly provided innovative products lately. Their latest product offerings were mostly answers to the models of competitors. Mercedes has built a reputation of being a pioneer in the market, paving a road for others. The company now has a mission of recovering its role as an innovative brand.
Learn about whom Mercedes targets from their segmentation strategy.
This commercial on the brand new S-class model will give us more insight into the segmentation strategy of Mercedes.
The commercial on the new S-class model is truly astonishing. It illustrates a journey, a stressful day of successful people who find their escape from reality in the new S-class.
Regardless of the power and success of our heroes, they face fatigue, feel annoyed and want to get away from stress. Problems Vanish inside the new S-class. Relaxing, comfortable, and safe environment, calmly following their owners after a business day full of emotional rollercoasters.
Besides emphasizing the role of such possession in the life of our heroes, the commercial demonstrates technological characteristics. The truly innovative and smart solutions to day-to-day problems are included in the car.
The delicate design of every small feature simplifies the life of the owner. Mercedes even has a personality here with the new AI voice assistant. It even makes jokes, gives you complete control of the car, and makes sure you live the absolute best experience.
The luxurious new S-class Mercedes is the perfect combination of safety, comfort, luxury and elegance. Owners inside the car want to escape from the outside world, though other people may dream of being inside such a high-class vehicle.
With what we have discussed, we can conclude that Mercedes targets the segment of the Fulfillers.
Who are Fulfillers?
Lifestyle and Values: Business and career dominate the life of people in this segment. Their job is not merely a way of earning money, but a mean of self-actualization. Fulfillers are always in search of risky and challenging, but exciting business opportunities.
Their success, results, and personality helps them stand out in the crowd. That is why they prioritize their career over everything, as it adds to their image and others’ perception of them.
Fulfillers are very socially active, often go out with friends, and prefer eating out rather than staying in. Their up-tempo lifestyle transfers to their social life as well. This explains the fact they like travelling a lot, of course when they have time.
Representatives of this segment have sport as a major part of their lives. Mostly, they are doing sports according to the season, skiing in winter, and swimming in summer.
Attitude to Shopping: The fact that Fulfillers pay a lot of attention to their looks and perception of others, they like shopping a lot. They usually go for premium brands, are ready to pay more for good quality, and do not pay much attention to pricing.
Trying out new brands is typical for them, but they would rather trust brands they have already used and liked. Visiting shopping centers is for leisure time, and spending money improves their mood.
Fulfillers tend to make quick decisions, and that may result to impulse buying sometimes. Even though they love considering details, spontaneous purchases can change their mood. Surely, the decision of buying a high-status car like Mercedes is not a matter of seconds, but it explains their love of premium brands.
Interesting facts about Fulfillers:
- Actively seek news and information to stay up-to-date.
- Prefer news magazines on business and economics,
- Care about good looks and health that is why they love sports and any shopping activity related to that.
- Internet is the first source of information.
- Like to keep up with the development of technology and being high-tech, love buying new home appliances.
- Love going out at weekends, mainly for leisure and escaping from daily stress at work.
- The family has to recognize their priorities, and Fulfillers might not allocate a lot of time to family.
In this long journey, we have analyzed Mercedes and found out how the company keeps growing and flourishing. Surely, strong positioning and accurate segmentation strategies have their share of “guilt’ in this story. In the premium segment of vehicles,
Mercedes has a strong name built on long-lasting traditions and constant innovation. Well-designed marketing strategy always follows the superior product offerings of Mercedes. That is the end, be sure to check out the main page of our website for more posts
