In a recent article published by theHuffingtonPost, titled, Start Your Marketing Strategy With One Word, eight brands where featured. All are household names, have global reach and are known to produce brilliant marketing campaigns. As a career marketer, I appreciate that and like to think it’s a bright idea. Two of these brands I would like focus on in this blog. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are two very similar luxury brands featured in the article, and they are the only two automobile manufacturers. Interestingly enough, both are German and among the best in the world. Below is a brief description of how they have used one word to grown and own their market.
BMW (Est. 1916): Have you seen BMW’s marketing? Their message and image define the experience for the driver. From the tagline “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” BMW took the word “driving” and crafted their marketing and brand around it. This helped solidify their one word market ownership using the word “driving.” BMW does a magnificent job of owning one word — “Driving.” If you examine how they brand their company image in paid advertising as well as owned and earned media, you will see they are relentless about the pursuit of the brand word “driving.” Today, their word is still “driving,” and they are using the tagline “Sheer Driving Pleasure.”
Mercedes-Benz (Est. 1926): If you enjoy cars like me, you know Mercedes stands for “Prestige.” That’s the word they own in the market. They’ve done it so well their brand exudes the essence of it through everything they do. If you were to walk into a dealership, you will soon discover prestige is evident in everything Mercedes does from the all-important customer experience right down to the quality control and look and feel of the dealerships they own. If you are an owner of a Mercedes-Benz, you know exactly what I am talking about.
Knowing that BMW and Mercedes-Benz are so successful, do you think the new auto company Tesla should review the business-marketing practices of both of them in order to learn how to create, grow and sustain a luxury automobile brand? Or should they just create a new way of doing business? That’s not an easy question, and certainly there’s not any one way to answer it. What word do you think Tesla should own in order to create their niche market? Is it a bright idea for them to choose one word or take an entirely new approach? — Great questions. Maybe in the near future we will see how Tesla will tackle the market. Bright ideas or not, they appear to be well on their way to making a dent in a crowded market. Good luck Tesla.
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