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Mercedes Hopes to Buff Its Image

January 31, 2006

Mercedes-Benz • c230 • c240 • c320 • CL500 • CLK320 • CLK55 • G55 AMG • ML320 • S55 • SLK230 • Odds 'n ends --- News • Mercedes Hopes to Buff Its Image

Mercedes-Benz faces an uphill fight to restore an image tarnished by recalls, defects and failure. The storied car company is turning to a massive television and newspaper advertising campaign in an effort to polish its three-point Mercedes star.

Once the second-place luxury automaker in the world, Mercedes-Benz has fallen far from the front of the pack.

Along the way, Mercedes had to deal with an embarrassing glitch in a new high-tech braking system that forced an even more embarrassing vehicle recall in 2004.

The German car company's customers have complained that the vehicles are sometimes too complex and difficult to use.

While the automaker's quality free-fall seems to have hit bottom, the climb back through critical automotive reviews, consumer quality rankings and surveys is just getting underway.

One television commercial running now reminds viewers that Mercedes won the world's first auto race in 1894 and the company is still in a race with itself, presumably to improve quality.

With new products including the top of the line S-class sedan about to debut in Mercedes showrooms around the world, image at least for the moment, is becoming everything for the German automaker.

Mercedes is buying advertising space to run almost ten times as many newspaper and television advertisements as last year. TV commercials for the new S-class sedan are designed to convince consumers of the benefits of Mercedes engineering, technology, safety and luxury.

Detroit learned long ago that while defects in a car can be eliminated relatively quickly, much more time is often required to win back consumers soured by those defects.

Mercedes has recovered some of the ground lost in the quality rankings. After dropping to 14th in the initial quality rating in J.D. Power's annual survey of luxury cars in 2003, the company rose to Number 5 last year.

Mercedes rankings in long-term quality remain weak however, and the company lags behind archrival BMW as well as GM's Cadillac and Toyota's Lexus.

TV spots for the new S-class seem produced to highlight the impressive Mercedes heritage and remind consumers of the old Mercedes -- the one they knew before quality problems became an issue with the car.

Mercedes will not divulge the amount it is spending to reshape and rebuild its image other than to say 2006 will see a significant advertising campaign for the car company.

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