'Young Mercedes' models sparkle

Mercedes-Benz's full implementation of its innovative "Young Mercedes" strategy in China last year was a great success, playing a big part in the automaker's surging sales growth, said Cai Gongming, vice-president of sales at Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd.
"Its remarkable sales performance for the year can be partially attributed to the increasing popularity of its young products, as well as its effectiveness at promoting the trend of compact luxury vehicles in the market," Cai said.
Although new to China last year, Mercedes-Benz's younger line-up - including the smart, A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, C-Class Estate and GLK-Class models - made up almost 40 percent of automaker's total sales in China.
"We started the Young Mercedes strategy two or three years ago as we foresaw that smaller cars would be the major driver of the market in the future," said Cai. "Among them, the environmental-friendly and fuel efficient vehicles are expected to be well accepted by the young generation customers."
Thus, Cai and his team tailored a series of special sales campaigns to younger customers.
One of his successful and innovative ideas was the "Group Buy" campaign for smart cars in cooperation with online shopping website Taobao.com.
In September, Mercedes surprised the industry by selling out 205 smart cars in 3 hours and 28 minutes through a Group Buy on the Taobao platform.
The huge success proved Cai's idea of embracing younger customers through their tastes and habits of using the Internet in their daily lives.
Introduced into the Chinese market in 2009, the lifestyle-oriented smart sold almost 3,880 units in 2010, growth of 119 percent over the previous year.
It witnessed its best performing month ever last October since it entered the Chinese market 19 months before, with sales of almost 1,000 units.
With six new models launched at the recent 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show, smart now provides customers with a wider range of choices.
The B-Class luxury sports tourer, a perfect blend of style and practicality, ended 2010 with sales of over 11,810 units, an increase of 143 percent compared with the prior year.
As one of the newest additions to the Mercedes-Benz portfolio, the A-Class has been very well received by the market since its launch.
Another younger model, the GLK, maintained its reign as the best-selling SUV model in December with sales of nearly 1,570 units, bringing the year's total sales to more than 12,470 units, a 170 percent increase over 2009.
Total sales of the C-Class surpassed 27,220 units, making it one of the most sought-after Mercedes-Benz cars in China.
"The popularity of Mercedes-Benz's younger models indicates that we have successfully managed to further enrich the young brand image in China in tandem with our long-time renowned reputation in the top premium segment, spearheaded by our iconic S-Class," said Cai.