Recently Daimler's CEO announced his concerns on the sales performance of Mercedes. For many decades, Mercedes achieved higher sales figure than BMW and Audi. But world has changed, one decade ago we did not have chance to use mobiles phone as a computer, internet was not fast enough to stream movies and many internet companies were bankrupted. Now, everything is totally different! Mobiles are used mainly for their computers functions. We use Skype to talk overseas, Google people are the new rich and it is very easy to watch HD video on internet. This shows that, if you don't change youself, you are out of the game.
Mercedes has changed significantly during last one decade, nobody can deny this! But they didn't change enough to keep up with the demands of consumers. Now, Aston Martin has a small luxury car, Mini has a Rolls Royce edition. Like the world, automotive world also changed! Being too conservative and traditional is not good that anymore. Bentley and Rolls Royce are still traditional but, they integrated the tradition with contemporary environment. Mercedes also changed their design philosophy and offers more sportive vehicles. But, I cannot say the same things for Mercedes like I said to Bentley or RR!
Mercedes is still too conservative and traditional for this era. I do know that, Mercedes doesn't wish to lose it main customers and destroy the brand loyalty but as they are more loyalty to traditional customers, they kind of ignore the contemporary world. That is the main problem, being too much conservative and traditional will not help to increase market share while BMW and Audi offer more contemporary vehicles. Mercedes offers better technology compared to other, but it is still packed with too much of conservative elements. Especially the design. You feel the excess amount of conservative and tradition bits in each Mercedes car, even with the new ML and CLS. They are really nice vehicles but when you have alternative like Range Rover, BMW X Series, BMW 6 series and Audi models, many people think again.
Thinking again is not good for consumption. If your consumers think your competitor as serious alternative, this means one thing; you are not that good anymore! If your consumers liked you, they wouldn't consider the others that much.
I hope Mercedes will change this conservative and traditional look, Bentley is a great example for Mercedes. They should do the same, integration!
Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce
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