Mercedes-Benz is repositioning its brand image to emphasize customer service. The aim is to win back buyers discouraged by declining quality.
DaimlerChrysler and Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche is pushing the new brand campaign, which Mercedes has labeled “Appreciation.”
The pillars of the new marketing strategy are service, comfort, value and safety. Mercedes is expected to launch the campaign globally later this summer.
“The idea is that all Mercedes customers who buy our cars will feel appreciated,” Markus Rubenbauer, head of product management for M-, R- and GL-class models, told Automotive News Europe during a press event here. “It's now important for us to re-emphasize values that have always been there.”
A Mercedes insider said Zetsche gave the automaker's marketing team the task of “sharpening the brand's image” a few months ago.
The idea is to use traditional values to reconnect customers to the Mercedes brand. Sportiness is no longer the priority it was when Mercedes unveiled its E-class medium-premium car in 1995 under the campaign “See new eyes.”
“That was meant to show the new 'face' of Mercedes and was an important step in emphasizing that we could build reliable vehicles that were sporty,” Rubenbauer said.
But the new strategy “doesn't mean a 180-degree turnaround,” Zetsche told Germany's Capital magazine recently. “Now customer satisfaction is in the foreground, not just for the product but also for all of the services.”
In the last two years, technology problems have damaged Mercedes' reputation. After two major recalls of vehicles plagued by faulty electronics — alternators, batteries and brake systems — Zetsche wants Mercedes to be No. 1 in quality surveys.
Chasing Skoda
In a J.D. Power and Associates survey released last week, Mercedes ranked No. 11 out of 28 auto-makers in customer satisfaction in Germany — behind Skoda and Daihatsu. In France, Mercedes fell two spots to No. 10 overall, just above the industry average. The surveys rate brands on the quality and reliability of their cars and the quality of their dealerships.
Mercedes dealers are also part of the “Appreciation” campaign. Within a month, dealers will get a training course to emphasize the importance of a one-on-one relationship.
“We need to service the customer the right way in day-to-day business,” Rubenbauer said, “because that's the first contact with the customer.”
Mercedes executives were scheduled to consider approving the campaign July 10, media reports say.
