Chicago Mercedes-Benz marketers get help from Gen Y drivers online

Chicago Mercedes-Benz marketers get help from Gen Y drivers online

Forget focus groups Mercedes-Benz has gone high-tech and totally Gen Y to reach its youngest demographic. Mercedes-Benz is working to cultivate something the company has termed "customer intimacy" to design vehicles and a brand that are perfectly tailored to their customers. Some Chicago Mercedes-Benz owners or even fans are likely already part of this program. VP of Mercedes-Benz marketing Steve Cannon explained that they company is striving to move beyond mere customer satisfaction. "I'm talking about getting that much closer to your customer that makes some of our ways of targeting them look Stone Age," he said.

For the last couple of years Mercedes have been working on two initiatives to get to know customers of used Mercedes Chicago and others around the country. "We have actually taken money away from things like focus groups and the like and moved it to these new programs," Cannon stated. Owners and non-owners were targeted for this online community. As of now, there are 580 in the 16- 33-year-old community. Sixty percent of these are Mercedes owners.

"We want a well-rounded group, not just people who have decided we are the brand for them," Cannon said. "We asked them questions like what do you think of brands?', who do you turn to for decisions?', what kind of TV do you watch?' so we were getting rich sets of data," Cannon said. He also added that this is a very comfortable environment for such a group. Some select members of the group were even asked to be undercover shoppers for several brands. Cannon said some of their comment were "harsh" and revealed a disconnection of salespeople to customers that Mercedes-Benz had not realized.

Another program is the M-B Advisors with about 1,800 participants. They give feedback on the product and advertising and do monthly live chats with the company. Cannon says this group has influenced how models are being marketed and it has been eye-opening for some at Mercedes-Benz. Chicago Mercedes-Benz dealers are glad to know that such a group exists to help provide current and future customers with a more personal experience and to give a voice and connection to all those customers who are part of the online programs.

An important point that came form the M-B Advisors was that despite the economy, Mercedes owners still felt their desire for a luxury car was important and shouldn't be watered down or criticized. This kept the company from potentially stumbling in their marketing of the E Class, Cannon said. Whether of new or used Mercedes, Chicago buyers can be confident that Mercedes-Benz is going above and beyond to understand its customer base and meet then where they are. Would we expect anything less?

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