Mercedes Down In China, Audi Up
Here is one car company that didn’t profit from Japan’s losses in China: Mercedes sales in China were down 3.9 percent to about 15,900 units in October, Reuters says. Daimler blamed the “very strong” sales of October 2011.
Globally, Mercedes-Benz sales were up 6 percent in October to 109,632 units. In the first the months of the year, Mercedes sold 1.07 million cars, up 5.1 percent. Reuters snidely remarks that BMW and Audi had each” already sold roughly 1.10 million vehicles before the month of October even began.”
In October, Audi distanced Mercedes even more. Audi’s worldwide October sales were up 13.9 to around 123,600 units, the company says. Some 1,221,150 units were sold in the first ten months. Audi gained 29.5 percent in China in October on sales of 35,899 units. January-October Audi sold 332,959 units in China.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I feel like Mercedes has been in a fifteen year long funk. People buy Audis because theyre beautiful and flashy, BMW because theyre sporty, Lexus for the reliability, but Mercedes? They still have the prestige, and their products arent bad, but still, they need something to better differentiate themselves. I personally think that they should try to be the best at the price point that they are competing in. Best as in most solid feeling, well engineered, the whole Mercedes of old thing. Theyve paid lip service to this but theyre not there yet. There probably isnt as much demand for understated luxury as I would like, but they should go for it because there is almost nobody filling that space. They would have the market to themselves, and could sell sell AMG models because well engineered cars can be fast, too. The only downside I see with this strategy is that they may not have the resources to pursue the massive R and D, and Im not sure if such fine quality vehicles could compete at a price point.