Mercedes-Benz aims for brand consistency as it revamps showrooms with new corporate ID
Mercedes-Benz is planning to refit all its UK showrooms with a new corporate identity as it looks to align its online and offline branding and appeal to a new younger consumer.
By Sarah Vizard
The revamp, which has already gone live in Shrewsbury, sees the old blue Mercedes-Benz logo replaced with a white version on a black background. It also gives more prominence to the Mercedes-Benz “star”, illuminating it against a black background on the showroom exterior, rather than on a separate sign.
Inside, pastel colours are replaced with black and white and walnut furnishing. Robert Mueller, network operations director at the car marque, says the aim is to give the brand a “contemporary yet still luxurious” feel.
Mercedes-Benz already uses the black and white logo online but has, up until now, stuck with blue in its retail environments. However, Mueller says the car marque is now looking to have more consistency by offering consumers the same experience of the brand whether they are researching its cars online or visiting a retail showroom.
It will be rolled out across its showrooms over the next couple of years.
“However customers interact with us – online, physically, in a pop-up environment or on mobile – we are looking to achieve a seamless experience between those environments. Shrewsbury and the new corporate identity are about offering a customer experience that is commensurate with the rest of the Mercedes-Benz brand,” he says.
The decision to revamp its showrooms comes as Mercedes-Benz gears up to introduce a range of new models over the coming years. It is launching 14 new models next year and by 2020 that figure will have risen to 30, with 12 of those in entirely new segments.
To promote those, Mercedes will be equipping its showrooms with new technology that aims to offer customers digital access to its full line-up, even if they are not available in that particular location. It will also allow shoppers to customise even more details of its vehicles.
The aim, says Mueller, is to offer customers that want to come into its showrooms access to all the same information that is available online. It will also help the car marque learn more about the behaviours and purchase intentions of new younger customers, which is it hoping to appeal to with the more modern showrooms and expanded product line-up.
“This is about choice. Some consumers choose to educate themselves online but we want others to be able to come into a showroom and work with our people to get a similar sort of experience face-to-face. This is about emphasising the fact we will put the consumer at the heart of our strategy – whether it is depicted online, in the showroom or in the driving experience,” he adds.
