Digital Marketing Plan For Mercedes-Benz To Increase Sales In Germany

Corporate Objectives of Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz which is commonly called Mercedes is a luxury automobile brand of Germany. The first vehicles of Mercedes-Benz were manufactured in the year 1926. In the year 2018, Mercedes was the largest seller of the premium vehicles all across the world. They had made sales of 2.31 million passenger cars (Dash and Sharma 2019). From provisos research, it has been found that Mercedes-Benz is planning to increase their sales in Germany and for this reason; there is a need of a proper digital marketing plan. The following report comprises of a Digital Marketing Plan of Mercedes-Benz for increasing the sales in Germany in the upcoming 12 months.

Figure 1: Marketing planning process

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The present mission Statement Of Mercedes-Benz states that they will inspire as well as create an exceptional place for working and for carrying out business (Nieves-Casasnovas and Lozada-Contreras 2020). One Employee, One customer and one vehicle at a time.

The future mission of Mercedes-Benz would be focused on the delight of the customers and to provide innovation, corporate responsibility and positive experience. The main mission will be to delight the customers all across the world.  

Corporate Objective of Mercedes-Benz through SMART analysis

Specific	·         Organisation’s wealth maximization ·         Introduction of a digital marketing strategy ·         gaining more sales for enhancing the profit
Measurable	·         Increasing the wealth by 50% ·         Enhancing the level of profit by 40%
Achievable	·         Enough capital of the firm will assist in introducing a new marketing strategy ·         A strong image of brand will help in increasing profit and sales (Essamri McKechnie and Winklhofer 2019).
Relevant	·         the company wants to increase the sales and for that introducing a digital marketing strategy would be relevant
Timely	·         The company sets 12 months period for the set purpose

Table 1: Corporate objectives of Mercedes-Benz

Political	·         There is a political stable condition in Germany which can help in the introduction of the new digital marketing strategy and increasing the sales. ·         The company gets a concession of tax on its business that can reduce the operational cost (Ulas and Vural 2019). ·         There is a flexibility of trade restriction in Germany that can help the company in expanding internationally.
Economic	·         Germany’s economic growth can help in increasing the sales. ·         Frequent rate of Inflation of Germany might lead to an increase in the cost of business operations (Guercini et al., 2020). ·         The fluctuations in the economy might restrict the company in qualifying the business loan for the capital expenditure.
Social	·         There has been an increase in the powers of purchasing of the Germans which can have a positive impact on increasing the sales in the nation (Vanderhaeghen and Chevalier 2020).
Technological	·         The high quality as well as effective machineries and technology of the company will help in innovating the product. ·         The utilisation of the channels of social media will aid the company to successfully communicate the worth of their products to the customers. ·         the company wants to increase the sales and for that introducing a digital marketing strategy would be relevant
Legal	·         There is maintenance of equal opportunity of employment by the organisation which can help them in getting skilled employees. ·         All the consumer laws are followed by the organisation (Eastman Shin and Ruhland 2020).
Environmental	·         As the maker of automobile, the company needs to follow different laws of environment at various production as well as sales areas.

Table 2: PESTLE analysis of Mercedes-Benz

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Customers – Mercedes-Benz has an effective as well as strong communication with the customers. Therefore, it will be effortless for the company to converse about the products through the digital marketing channels. Along with this, excellent service of customer care will help in the creation of lenient customer behaviour on the products of the organisation.

Employees – The employees of Mercedes-Benz are very talented and highly skilled for their job role. The sincere and efficient nature of the employees will result in the creation of a perfect digital marketing strategy for increasing the sales in Germany (Deprince and Geerts 2019). The company also offers constant programs of training to the employees for helping them in being technically improved. It will also aid the employees in understanding the technical upheavals for creating a new digital marketing strategy.  

Shareholders -Mercedes-Benz has been able to maintain a strong transparency level with its shareholders. The organisation offers adequate as well as correct return on investment to its shareholders. Therefore, the company is very much capable to maintain collaborative relationship with the shareholders. They will be very investment for the new digital marketing strategy or the organisation as they always get a right return on investment. Moreover, a transparency of such a kind is very beneficial for the company in developing brand image.

Suppliers – The team of procurement at Mercedes-Benz are in constant search for some qualified suppliers (Kim et al., 2019). It helps them in maintaining high product standards. The qualified suppliers will guarantee the touchstone quality of the raw materials for the products.

Strength	·         Just like BMW and Audi, Mercedes Benz is a popular brand that sells premium cars. The organisation has an excellent brand image. ·         The company has bus as well as car manufacturing in 26 countries and 6 continents, this permits them in maintaining a low operational cost and increase profits (Bartikowski Fastoso and Gierl 2021). ·         Mercedes-Benz has been able to maintain a strong transparency level with its shareholders. The organisation offers adequate as well as correct return on investment to its shareholders. Therefore, the company is very much capable to maintain collaborative relationship with the shareholders. ·         There is a financial stability, Daimler with is a parent company of different other famous brands, has a very important financial role which helps in reducing the business cost with the use of common sources.
Weaknesses	·         Maintenance and service cost is a weakness, it impacts the sales of any vehicle. In comparison to the rest of the market players, the maintenance cost of Mercedes Benz is high.  ·         Daimler is a very large group and there is a possibility that Daimler might fall victim to the conflicting objectives and this will have a direct impact on Mercedes Benz.
Opportunity	·         Strategic alliances can prove to be a good tactic for the companies of automobile. With the use of advanced potential as well as collaborating with other firms, there might be a differentiation of the offerings. ·         Technological advancement such as development of futuristic technology fuel, efficient as well as hybrid cars can help the company emerge as a leader of the market.
Threats	·         There is intense competition from some players like BMW and Audi in the market. ·         The policies of the government like reducing global warming through discouraging the use of personal transport can impact the sector at large. ·         There is a need if introduction of the joint venture strategy of market entry with some new as well as rising This procedure will allow the marketers in collecting detailed knowledge of market and at the same time, reducing the production price.

Table 3: SWOT analysis of Mercedes Benz

Figure 2: Smart Objective Model

PESTLE analysis of Mercedes-Benz

Specific	·         Increasing the sales in Germany ·         Introducing a new digital marketing strategy.
Measurable	Ø  The amount of growth will be represented through quarterly figures of sales.
Achievable	Ø  The wealth maximization of the stakeholders through corporate expansion will provide the motivation of investing, performing as well as achieving.
Realistic	Ø  Increasing demand of the vehicles of Mercedes-Benz.
Timely	Ø  12 months

Table 5: SMART objectives

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Being a plan of increasing the sales, The STP analysis of the vehicles of Mercedes-Benz has to be examined before the marketing mix.

Demographic  

• Age that ranges from 18 to 55
• Range of income would be the group of high income.
• Together for the nuclear plus joint families, high socio-economic status.

Geographic

• New Market- Germany

Psychographic

• High lifestyle consumers
• Corporate officials, businessmen , couples and teenagers

Behavioural

• advantage sought people with elevated rate of purchase

Targeting

• size of the market- High population market
• High economic rate of growth- Germany has a high economic growth rate
• Market stability- Politically stable market, rising economy and population (Petravi?i?t? et al., 2021).

Positioning

• Developing a strong connection with the customers will result in a deeper level of engagement of the brand.
• Allowing the company to charge premium price for their products.

Along with the strategies of growth and expansion, the company also needs to concentrate on the strategies of marketing mix like product, pricing, promotion, placement, physical evidence, people as well as process for the introduction of the consumers as well as market focused offerings with enhanced communication as well as services.

Products- the products produced through the division of Mercedes-Benz comprises of a huge spectrum of the brand of Mercedes-Benz along with its “Mercedes-AMG” as well as “Mercedes- Mybac” sub brands. the new ranges of the product of the firm requires to comprise high quality little cars, solar power cars, cars which are fuel efficient, electric as well as cars which are powered by batteries (Kiygi-Calli 2018). They have to focus on current potential of their weighty as well as carriage vehicle large, medium as well as small SUV trucks. The transports have to hold elevated visual idea with the high presentation technologies for attracting the customers.

Price- the pricing strategies are designed by the company relying on the sensitivity of pricing of various markets. The aim of the company is to deliver the best products between the competitors and therefore do not make any compromise on value (Dong and Koo 2018). The organisation even needs to introduce the strategy of price skimming for the transformed commodities for increasing the competiveness as well as attractiveness of the market.

Place- Mercedes-Benz has a global presence with more than 8500 sales centres all across the world and the facilities of production in the 19 nations. The key nation of production for the division of car is Germany but it has the amenities of production in the U.S, China, South Africa, and India. The most significant markets for the Mercedes-Benz cars in the year 2014 were Germany with 16% of the sales unit. There is a need if introduction of the joint venture strategy of market entry with some new as well as rising market (Kim Park and Dubois 2018). This procedure will allow the marketers in collecting detailed knowledge of market and at the same time, reducing the production price.

Promotion- The activities of promotion comprises of personal selling, public relations, advertisement as well as sales promotion. The company maintains public relations through carrying out shows of road in existence of the media personnel and even through providing test drives to the media. Mercedes-Benz takes on the wide measures for supporting weaker markets on the basis of the degree of local unit of sales. The organisation also needs improvements in their after sales servicing procedure through providing free or honoured after sales services for their best customers (Sánchez and Sánchez 2020). There is a need of properly keeping a track of the lifecycle of the product and therefore, need to offer proper services for the enhancement of the vehicle’s performance.

Customer Analysis

In the recent times, the organisation has aimed at increasing their sales in Germany through the introduction of a new digital marketing strategy. This is one of the strategies used by the company for the endurance of the brand as a luxury car in the gradually improving economy. As per a survey carried out through the organisation, among the possible customers in Germany ageing between 21 to 29 years old, approximately 60% had a satisfactory point of view about the brand and out of them; only few had articulated their motivation of buying a Mercedes car (Strebinger et al., 2018). The innovative as well as rigorous digital advertisement as well as physical store campaigns has permitted the major competitors like BMW in attracting new customers. Thus, Mercedes-Benz should increase their concentration as well as investment in the digital media as well as advertisement. There is also a need of modifying the visual impact of their physical stores. The company can make use of their interactive pages of promote in-store campaign of promotion along with the free test drives as well as session product knowledge.

Physical evidence- the physical evidence grabs the attention of the customers for buying the products. This comprises of the images of the outlets, appearances of the staff, products, customer service as well as the outlet’s atmosphere. Innovative road shows along with the in-store campaign can grab the attention of a large portion of the population towards the brand. 

Process- the way of offering a service along with the behaviour of the individuals who delivers the service impacts the satisfaction of customers. The organisation should focus on the consolidation of the sales as well as services activities for offering superior customer service throughout the whole life-cycle of the vehicle.

People- The organisation’s employee has an interaction with the customers and therefore represents the brand in the market. Therefore, there is a need of adequate training for the people, the people must be motivated well and must have the correct attitude. Mercedes-Benz needs to carry out extensive programs if training for the development of the needed skills as the organisation’s people represents its value (Ramadan Farah and Dukenjian 2018).  There is also a need of focusing on the hiring of the local people in all the market which is operating for appropriately communicating as well as serving the need of the local consumers.

Action Step	Responsibility	Time in months	Resources Required	Potential Challenges
Product determination	Teams of Research & Development	1 to 3	Ø  Capital/Investment Ø  Human resource, Ø  Data of supply-demand	Ø  Limited timeframe Ø  Negative interest from investors Ø  Volatile market
Price Determination	Marketing team	2 to 4	Ø  Competitive data of pricing Ø  Market demographics Ø  Data of market trend	Ø  Limited market research Ø  Changing market demand Ø  Market substitutes
Place Determination	Marketing team Purchasing team	4 to 5	Ø  Human Resource Ø  Financial resource Ø  Digital Platform	Ø  Lack of distributors
Promotion determination	Marketing team Advertising team	5 to 6	Ø  Capital/finance Ø  Technology Ø  Print media	Ø  Outdated digital infrastructure Ø  Poor user acceptance

Table 6: Marketing strategy action plan

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Objectives	Month 1	Month 2	Month 3	Month 4	Month 5	Month 6
Product Determination
Price Determination
Place Determination
Promotion determination

Table 7: Gantt chart

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The total budget is $2,897,440 that is the least budget for 12 months, It is identified that maximum investment will be needed for advertisement in the first six months, that is $900,764.00. The preparation of the budget has been done only on the basis of the reserved cash that is without the direct intervention of the shareholders or the investors. 

Risk	v  legal as well as regulatory challenges will increase the price of the vehicles v  Any physical damage of the sector of production might affect the allocated budget.
Impact	v  Increasing effect of the hazard has to be taken care of in the market of Germany but the individual threat has to be compact in the new market. v  Impact matrix will aid in the assessment of risk with a rating for 1 to 10.
Risk management	v  The maximum rated risk in finance as well as operations will be needed to reduce. v  The unforeseen legal as well as financial risk is very common for which there is a need of cash reservation.
Planning	v  Faster plans of recovery, disaster recovery plan, employee training as well as succession planning will aid in planning. v  There will be a need of reserving the contingency funds in the launch plan.

Table 8: Contingency plan

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Figure 3: Evaluation of the marketing plan

Feedback of the customers	v  Online polls hosting in various social media platforms will help in the identification of the response of the customers.
Target market sales	v  Difference between the estimated as well as projected sales volume will aid in quantification of the differences in profits. v  Demographic breakdown of sales will help in the indication of the new target market.
Budgeting	v  Will aid in the making of balance between the advertising cost of material and generated revenue. v  With time, there has to be allocation for the payment of advertising, travel, trade fair as well as employee preparation.
Market share	v  Complete line of product  has to be broken down into particular items so which concentrate for each product group can be analysed.

Table 9: Control measures

Employee Analysis

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Conclusion  

In the conclusion, it can be said that Mercedes-Benz has found a lot of success in the maintenance of its position as a brand of premium cars in the middle of the financial crisis which affects majority of its major markets. The aggregate conditions of the economy have a considerable impact in the automobile industry’s sales. The situation of risk has been managed really well by the company by the introduction of some innovative products, services as well as technology and therefore has constantly attracted the attention of people. the organisation engages in intense research as well as development of the technologies as well as digital services for the maintenance of a good contact with customers all the time. Mercedes-Benz should continue to expand its sales and market, develop green technology for maintaining safety as well as sustainability and also for enhancing the customer service through digitalisation.

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