Target Market
The following advertising brief outlines the intent Mercedes-Benz has to market and promote its E-Class Cabriolet. Mercedes-Benz is a well-known luxury car manufacturer that is part of the Daimler-Benz Company; it has built its reputation globally on a foundation of quality and exclusivity. The company's marketing teams across the different countries it sells in have been instrumental in cultivating its prestige reputation, and the company has successfully targeted upper middle class and upper class people in who are aged 40+ as its target market. In recent years, there's been an increase in the number and type of cars that have entered Mercedes-Benz's traditional niche, with the result that the company now competes against rivals BMW and new upscale models of Toyota's luxury car brand, Lexus.

This report is a promotional plan for the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet model and makes decisions based on the company's current marketing strategy and the positioning the new vehicle will take in the market. Mercedes-Benz manufactures and markets luxury automobiles through a network of dealers. Its different vehicle offerings include hardtops, convertibles, sedans, coupes and sports sedans. The company has a broad price structure, with models targeting the low end of the niche luxury car market (prices in the $30,000 range) and continuing to cars costing up to $100,000.

Mercedes Benz Passenger Cars and smart (herein referred as Mercedes) is one of 5 divisions of the Daimler group, the leading German automaker. Daimler is a large organization that had EUR149.6 billion in revenue and 365,600 employees in 2006.
Within its microenvironment, the company’s marketing effort is well supported and coordinated by other departments. Mercedes produces in 104 countries and sells its cars in 200 countries through 13,000 sales outlets. It recently appointed a single ad agency for the marketing programmer of its entire range of products. Its primary customer market includes individual consumers while resellers and government agencies worldwide form its secondary markets. Its main competitors include BMW, Volkswagen and General Motors. The company remains very committed and connected to its employees. One such method is through its own internal television channel. Within its macro environment, it is responding rapidly to changing demographics by currently targeting the youngest of the baby boomers (born between 1958-1978), who are peaking in terms of their earning and spending capacity. Economically, fast growing Asian economies continue to indicate further opportunity for increased sales. These markets are also culturally very different in terms of their purchasing decisions or general view of luxury cars. The company has been actively engaged in the preservation of the natural environment by focusing on alternative fuel technologies. It is also continuously developing customer focused and need-based intelligent innovations, to further give their customers an overall, relaxed, and comfortable driving experience.
The C-240 Sedan, one of Mercedes Benz’s less expensive cars has been the company’s fastest growing and most successful product. The C-240 Sedan offers tremendous value for money as it has several E and S Mercedes’.
Price Strategy
The manufacturing process of AAV relied on high "value-added systems suppliers".
MB used their supplier linkages to ensure their systems suppliers were a part of the AAV development process from the concept phase to the production phase. Suppliers were required to produce components on time and within MB quality standards while remaining within their established cost targets. Decisions had to be made early in the development stages so suppliers were brought into the discussion early. MB used supplier knowledge to understand the costs of the manufacturing process by tarring down competitors’ products and identifying components and their related costs. Supplier linkages were used