Brand Schizophrenia

[EnI]

An interesting article by Jack Trout, a marketing guru.
Some German car brands are also mentioned in the article.


Brand Schizophrenia

Jack Trout, 10.17.05, 6:00 AM ET

NEW YORK - Powerful brands have distinct personalities: Duracell’s batteries last a long time. Volvos are safe in a crash. But even dominant brands can fade if they fall prey to multiple personality disorder.

More:
http://www.forbes.com/columnists/2005/10/14/coke-mcdonalds-generalmotors-cx_jt_1017trout.html

 

[martinbo]

An interesting article by Jack Trout, a marketing guru.
Some German car brands are also mentioned in the article.

Interesting, it doesn't take a marketing guru to see that Mercedes Benz have a brand identity problem. But it's not as cut and dried as Mr. Trout alludes.
In the past Mercedes Benz only made large or sporty luxury cars. Mercedes Benzes were not the preserve of the man on the street.

In a modern age, volumes count and smaller, cheaper mass produced cars are the sure fire way to achieve economies of scale. MB surely recognised this a while back and instituted strategies to diversify their product offerings. Is that so hard to understand, Mr Trout? Do I view Mercedes model line-up as being overly diversified? Perhaps... but I don't view the model diversification as detrimental to the Mercedes brand, instead I feel that Mercedes have lost brand identity through a loss of reputation. Mercs just aren't made like they used to be. In my humble opinion of course.

One could argue that the model diversification is a reason for this, but I find that hard to swallow. There should be no reason why the introduction of a B-Class should negatively impact on the quality of an E-Class. That's just down to bad management and a lack of attention to detail.

BMW? Easy for them right now, in the eighties and nineties BMW had a reputation for building emotive cars that weren't that well put together nor were they expected to last beyond 200 000km. In those days a Merc was for life. So BMW are riding a wave of subconcious buyer acceptance that cars are disposable.

 

[Giannis]

Volvos are safe in a crash.

BTW, interesting article!

 

[Alx]

This guy has some crazy sentiments, i think that is what he does for Forbes. He gives very opinionated statements like ...

"The result is that in Europe, Mercedes Benz is not listed as the top brand. The Audi A8, BMW, Maserati and Jaguar have taken over this position. "

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

In a modern age, volumes count and smaller, cheaper mass produced cars are the sure fire way to achieve economies of scale. MB surely recognised this a while back and instituted strategies to diversify their product offerings. Is that so hard to understand, Mr Trout? Do I view Mercedes model line-up as being overly diversified? Perhaps... but I don't view the model diversification as detrimental to the Mercedes brand, instead I feel that Mercedes have lost brand identity through a loss of reputation. Mercs just aren't made like they used to be. In my humble opinion of course.

Exactly. This guy makes some pretty stupid statements, like the one Alx pointed out, with no credibility.

 

[Alx]

This guy has some crazy sentiments, i think that is what he does for Forbes. He gives very opinionated statements like ...

"The result is that in Europe, Mercedes Benz is not listed as the top brand. The Audi A8, BMW, Maserati and Jaguar have taken over this position. "

I still stand by my statement!

As for quality, it has been an issue with all GC's! Not just MB.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

I dunno if you misunderstood what I wrote, I wasn't saying your statment had no credibility...I was agreeing with what you said Alx.

That writer makes many statments lacking credibility.

 

[Alx]

I dunno if you misunderstood what I wrote, I wasn't saying your statment had no credibility...I was agreeing with what you said Alx.

That writer makes many statments lacking credibility.

Oh, i know that.... I was commenting towards Notic's statement before he deleted his post....

No worries!

 

[notic]

sorry, i deleted because i thought he quoted the article, but i realized he was actually quoting martinbo.

 

[SDNR]

Interesting article - but i wouldn't say that Mercedes is no longer regarded as the top brand - but it is perceived differently than in the past - many of it's traditional buyers in Europe have moved away from the S class - Audi and BMW have picked up quite a few of Mercedes old customers. Luckily for Mercedes, a younger and more newly rich market has emerged for their cars, but this also might put-off conservative potential customers even more.

One thing I do object to though, is the racist remarks I have read on some forums pertaining to the high status the Mercedes-Benz brand has in Hip-Hop culture - particularly among young black Americans. I have read some disgusting and offensive things from ignorant morons who seem to think Mercedes is a brand that should only be owned by a particular type of person - need I say more.

 

[bum-man]

One thing I do object to though, is the racist remarks I have read on some forums pertaining to the high status the Mercedes-Benz brand has in Hip-Hop culture - particularly among young black Americans. I have read some disgusting and offensive things from ignorant morons who seem to think Mercedes is a brand that should only be owned by a particular type of person - need I say more.

I don't remember reading anything pertaining to that in these forums. Which thread(s) did you see this in?

 

[SDNR]

No certainly not on this forum. But I have seen some awful racial slurs on the BenzWorld forum for example.

 

[bum-man]

You go to other forums Rob?! Blasphemy! Burn him at the stake!!

 

[Gene]

Exactly. This guy makes some pretty stupid statements, like the one Alx pointed out, with no credibility.

I just like to point out that he has credibility. This is his credibility:

With more than 40 years of experience in advertising and marketing, Jack Trout is the acclaimed author of many marketing classics, including Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Differentiate or Die, Big Brands, Big Trouble, A Genie's Wisdom and his latest, Trout on Strategy. He is president of marketing consultancy Trout & Partners and has consulted for such companies as AT&T, IBM, Southwest Airlines, Merck, Procter & Gamble and others. Recognized as one of the world's foremost marketing strategists, Trout is the originator of "Positioning" and other important concepts in marketing strategy.

So to say he has no credibility is unfair, for he has probably more credibility and experience in this field then most people on this board, including you and I (after all he is employed by Forbes). So in my opinion I would tend to trust his opinion on the market more than another uncredible source, since his opinion is based on experience.

I mean if Michael Schumacer said that a Mercedes Benz (or a BMW or Audi for that matter) drove like crap, I would believe him more than I would believe a typical forum poster, since he has (most probably) got better skills and more experience to make the judgement. But I say your being slightly hypocritical since your saying he's not credible when you can't really make that judgement (not meaning to attack you).

Sorry about the rant, and I really don't mean to attack you, but I think its fair to give him the benefit of the doubt and take the article more constructively than to dismiss it as not credible.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

I dont care how long he's been doing whatever it is he does, when an article is as poorly written as this:

"The result is that in Europe, Mercedes Benz is not listed as the top brand. The Audi A8, BMW, Maserati and Jaguar have taken over this position."

What exactly does this all knowing marketing guru mean by that. If he is talking about overall sales...he is wrong...if he is talking about brand value....he is still wrong...if he is talking about the upper luxury class segment...he is again wrong. So what exactly is he talking about? Why does he not substantiate. Mercedes are not last in sales (far from it), they still have the most powerful brand and the S-class still dominates its segment. The company has had its problems, but sweeping statments like this are rediculous.

"General Motors mucked up its brands over decades of endless line extensions. But Mercedes Benz has done it in less than one decade. Once upon a time, it was a high-quality, highly engineered, prestigious car. But now, if you wander into a dealership in Europe, you’re faced with the following lineup: A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, CLK, CLS, CL, SLK, SL, M-Class and G-Class. The prices range from 20,000 to 200,000 euros. "

Wheres the objective analysis of this so called destruction of the brand? Sweeping unsubstantiated statments dont cut it.

 

[SDNR]

What exactly does this all knowing marketing guru mean by that. If he is talking about overall sales...he is wrong...if he is talking about brand value....he is still wrong...if he is talking about the upper luxury class segment...he is again wrong. So what exactly is he talking about?

I think he is generally talking about Mercedes image in comparison to how it once was perceived. Mercedes- Benz is no longer the sole expression of German engineering excellence but more importantly, it no longer is the natural brand of the establishment. Mercedes was never a "cool" brand, it was a conservative and elitist marque. Today Mercedes is a far more democratic brand - the old connotations of class have faded and Mercedes has become a brand that [almost] everyone can aspire to.

I think that a lot of the changes with the way we now perceive brands like Mercedes-Benz are as a result of major social changes which are completely out of the control of Mercedes themselves.

The Mercedes-Benz brand name and image no longer just stands for one thing - Mercedes-Benz is no longer a mono-culture - different social groups view the brand differently. It still has a prestigious image but to a white-collar businessman in London, it makes a far different impression than say to a young kid in the Bronx. A Manhattan real estate tycoon is very unlikely to put 20 inch rims and black glass on his S class, but no self-respecting Hong Kong crime boss could imagine an S class without them.

It used to be that when you bought a Mercedes-Benz you were also buying into a kind of club - a club that was universally understood to mean approxamately the same thing - this is no longer the case.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

Good analysis Roberto, but his implication that any of those other brands have assumed what was once Mercedes position, or even that they are in a superior position to MB based on brand perception and value still don't add up. At the very least MB is on equal footing with the majority of those brands.

I wonder if MB could have survived if they continued with their pre-90's strategy, given that certain economies of scale are needed for technology leadership and the ever increasing competitive forces from not only the other Germans but the Japanese as well. Would Mercedes have ended up as some sort of mass produced rolls royce?

 

[SDNR]

Well I don't agree with him, that Mercedes is perceived as less prestigious than the others in Europe but perhaps Mercedes is perceived by traditional Mercedes buyers (ie. the conservative elite) as a bit too Bling for them these days. We must remember that Mercedes-Benz was socially in a different league to the others for so long - I'm not reffering to cost but to the brand's social-class conotations and the sorts of people who traditionally bought them.

The European elite classes can have some odd attitudes to things, the fact that the German Chancellor now uses an Audi A8 as his official transport and Prince Charles replaced his Daimler with an A8, shows that Audi is now regarded as the vehicle for the social elite. The A8 has found acceptance among the "upper classes" because it projects a prestigious image without being too flamboyant. In Britain and France particularly, but also on the East coast of the US, subtlety can make all the difference in high social circles. But there is still a larger and very lucrative market among highly paid, self-made people, whether they be business executives or entertainers - they may be newly-rich and not so familiar (or concerned) with the subtle social codes of the conservative elite, but they sure have the money to buy their expensive toys - and that is good for Mercedes in the long run.

 

[Gene]

Good analysis Roberto, but his implication that any of those other brands have assumed what was once Mercedes position, or even that they are in a superior position to MB based on brand perception and value still don't add up. At the very least MB is on equal footing with the majority of those brands.

I wonder if MB could have survived if they continued with their pre-90's strategy, given that certain economies of scale are needed for technology leadership and the ever increasing competitive forces from not only the other Germans but the Japanese as well. Would Mercedes have ended up as some sort of mass produced rolls royce?

This is a hypothetical question, but personally and in your own honest opinion, do you consider the Mercedes Brand Name to be as strong as prestigious as it was say 10-20 year ago?

(this post is not to imply anything, I'm just interested)

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

The brand name is as strong...but most definitely less prestigeous. The next few years will be fundemental in consolidating the brands strenght and prestige.