JackYan.com
Jack and Aston Martin V8 Vantage Monaco street signs
Jack Yan: the Persuader blog
  Click here to go to home pageWhat I stand forMy stuffWhat others have recently saidMeet some of the coolest folks I knowDrop me a line Visit my workplace
> My stuff > The Persuader Blog


20.7.06

Merc’s on the up 

Contrary to expectations when I wrote my previous post, the posts keep coming. CoComment is down for maintenance presently, and I felt it worth recording what I just wrote at the Kiwi Car Lovers’ Blog, which I discovered tonight, rather than leave it to the Swiss service to keep track of. But it is relevant to the core idea of this blog of .
   It’s a fairly well written blog with three contributors, and a case was made about the decline of Mercedes-Benz. In response, I wrote the following.

The quality issues are over these days, in my view, having driven B, CLS and S lately. The ML was a pig—borrowed one that was falling apart and with plastics that were typically nasty-American.
    problem with exploring so many —at some point we will have a Klasse for every letter of the alphabet—is not so much that they do. The issue is that the are not cohesive and the company’s approach to using design to express its is almost Japanese. In other words, disparate.
   Having said that, the CLS is sublime: it was a car I was ready to hate till I had one for three days, and it fitted as neatly as Pamela Anderson into a red wetsuit.
   As to the smaller cars, the B is competent but overpriced; sure-footed but visually incongruous. However, no manufacturer can survive without going downward, and creating a brand from scratch can be dodgy (to wit, Smart, though establishing takes time, and I agree with Rob about its US chances).
   I keep saying, ‘ is the new ,’ something that is happening in all . Cars are no exception to this demand for premium quality in everyday items.
   Thus, the takeover of was probably inspired in idea, but sloppy in execution—the destruction of Plymouth, the of Chrysler, all proving that the Germans, with the possible exception of Volkswagen, are not good at .


   The last sentence is an exaggeration: the are great at managing German , and they learn very quickly from their mistakes. Hence, is having a whale of a time with . But its failure with (which was partly a brand issue—notice how many times the tagline was changed during its ownership and how it could not decide if Rover was a member of the BMW Group) and Mercedes’ with (clever in many respects; less so with its pricing given where watches were positioned) were on my mind when I wrote the above.
   Not enough emphasis was placed, at the time, on how the brands could be integrated, nor how mainstream, volume could be combined with its . (Easy to say with hindsight.) But the Germans were right about three aspects: that new niches needed to be explored, would become important, and acquiring a volume manufacturer was a sure way to prevent someone else from buying itself.
   Mini was not a fluke: BMW followed its own handbook on that one, similarly with . The rest shows that branding and need to be part of the decision, especially where -targeted products and services are concerned. It is the one interface between organization and consumer.
   These days, fortunately for Stuttgart, has wised up, its brands’ standing so defined that it deems it safe for Chrysler underpinnings to be beneath the Mercedes A- and B-class come the turn of the decade. Plus, the quality shocks of the last 10 years have seen improve no end in the last year. All of that sounds like positive brand equity to me.

Del.icio.us tags: DaimlerChrysler Mercedes-Benz BMW premium niche marketing mainstream branding brand
Post a Comment  Links to this post

Comments:
In parentheses after The Persuader you should have The Car Blog, I know there is one already, there are probably a bunch but yours is definitely perspective I havent seen yet. Then you can always start a separate blog but I dont know if you would have the time for it.  
That’s mighty kind of you to say that, Blackops, but you are right: I would not have time. However, I think this last week was a bunch of coincidences: normally, I would not have so many car posts. There was just a big motoring week with business-relevant things that bugged me, including the three posts on MG Rover and the two on the Holden Commodore launch.  
SEEE.... there you go again. Think about it.  
True, but I have some TV-show yarns to tell next …  
I look forward to those.  
Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

 

 

Note

Entries from 2006 to the end of 2009 were done on the Blogger service. As of January 1, 2010, this blog has shifted to a Wordpress installation, with the latest posts here.
   With Blogger ceasing to support FTP publishing on May 1, I have decided to turn these older pages in to an archive, so you will no longer be able to enter comments. However, you can comment on entries posted after January 1, 2010.


Quick links

Surf to the online edition of Lucire
  • More ramblings at the Lucire Insider blog
  • The Medinge Group
  • Jack Yan for Mayor
  • My Facebook page
  • Follow me on Twitter
  • My Vkontakte page
  • Book me for public speaking
  • Contact JY&A Consulting on business projects
  • Check out fonts from JY&A Fonts
  • Add feeds




    Add feed to Bloglines

    Individual JY&A and Medinge Group blogs

  • Lucire: Insider
  • Summer Rayne Oakes
  • The Medinge Group press room
  • Detective Marketing
  • Amanda van Kuppevelt
  • Delineate Brandhouse
  • Paolo Vanossi
  • Nigel Dunn
  • Pameladevi Govinda
  • Endless Road
  • Avidiva news
  • Johnnie Moore’s Weblog
  • Steal This Brand Too
  • The Beyond Branding Blog
  • Ton’s Interdependent Thoughts
  • Partum Intelligendo
  • Right Side up
  • Headshift
  • Goiaba Brazilian Music
  • Jack Yan on Tumblr (brief addenda)

  • +

    Previous posts

  • Tailpiece
  • Barry’s adventures in DC
  • Driving us crazy
  • A modern CEO defends his patch
  • MG’s Oklahoma deal: not fully OKed
  • ‘Who are these people?’ ‘I’m having trouble contro...
  • Slowly, gently: MG returns to Longbridge
  • Keep it clean
  • Comment allez-vous?
  • Madonna, branding genius


  • Donate

    If you wish to help with my hosting costs, please feel free to donate.