A Brief Tale of Smart Marketing – As Eclectic as the Car

Mercedes Benz USA’s smart campaign isn’t their newest one its their first and only one. As the new smart team division working under MBUSA attempts to breath some life in these un-selling cars.

Smart wasn’t able to build on its 2008 success in the U.S. in part because Penske couldn’t simultaneously build long-term brand awareness for Smart and Penske’s strategy emphasized social media and event marketing, not TV. Truthfully Penske didn’t even need to do any marketing. Zap, the high hype no show California, company had already done that.

Italy’s Fiat launched its first big advertising campaign, portraying its little 500 fun car as “simply more” and Mercedes Benz USA’s campaign puts emphasis on the unbig-ness of the cars, while poking fun at America’s fascination with big.

Smart Fortwo general manager Tracey Matura said the message is for people to rethink what they need from transportation. Many think Ms. Matura may have been un-wise in her choice to exploit America’s fascination with big and unbig-ness of the smart when in fact the smart has so many other more positive aspects.

The whole point of the ad seems to be that Smart is, well, different — well to be honest you can tell that from your first look.

When USA Today first reviewed the smart fortwo, they referred to it as the “Breadbox on Wheels.” The eight foot, eight inch microcar can fit head-to-the-curb in any ordinary car parking place. It doesn’t have a real hood or trunk. It really is as eclectic as a car can be! It’s unconventional! It’s hip! And it’s a car that has become a new force, while quickly developing followers in a country renowned for mega scaled automobiles.

Smart is produced by Daimler AG, which is quickly becoming known as an ingenious and creative manufacturer of superb microcars. This company is located in Boblingen, Germany but the smart minicars are manufactured in France.

The smart was initially a creation of Swatch – the Swiss watch maker, renowned for idiosyncratic, innovative designs and cutting-edge marketing concepts. The smart was in fact created to be revolutionary as well as inexpensive. Interestingly, although the car is highly fuel efficient, the objective associated with the design and style had not been gas mileage but simplicity of parking. Incredibly, it was (is) still possible for two or even three smarts to be fitted in to a single regular auto parking place.

Nicolas Hayer, the mind behind Swatch searched for a well established car manufacturer to create the smart. Volkswagon was fiscally incapable of manufacturing and supporting the new car. So, Hayer made a connection with deep-pocketed Daimler Benz. As partners they constructed a manufacturing plant in Hambach, France in 1994. This partnership was not successful and following numerous disagreements as well as considerable financial losses, Swatch got out of the arrangement and smart ended up being assimilated by Daimler.

The initial markets for the smart were in Europe and Asia. Subsequently in 2004, the smart fortwo was made available for sale in Canada through existing Mercedes Benz retailers. Just prior to 2008, smarts were sold in the US as “grey market” imports. Later in 2008, the smart fortwo was launched in the US and was marketed through the Penske Group.

The marketing and advertising plans to market the smart proved to be as unconventional as the car. Smarts weren’t found on dealers’ lots. They were displayed in places like the 2nd floor of the Mercedes Benz showroom in San Francisco as an exhibit. The car was sold on the web. In order to buy one, a buyer was required to make a $99 refundable reservation deposit on the web site and then delivery would be arranged.

Initially, because of its size, safety was a serious issue with customers. Nevertheless, the smart went on to pass a number of safety tests with flying colors. A Tridion safety capsule makes up the primary framework of the car, which creates somewhat of a steel enclosure, which envelopes and protects passengers. Even so, the actual vehicle is much more for city commuting rather than long-distance, cross-country journeys.

Three choices are currently on the market. The standard, smart fortwo pure has a solid roof and is also outfitted with a three-cylinder powerplant and a 5 speed automatic transmission. The smart fortwo passion has a few deluxe extras like a panorama roof, power windows, electronic digital, heated mirrors, air conditioning with climate control, and an AM/FM stereo.

The smart fortwo passion cabriolet comes with a soft top with a heated rear glass window. It also has an enhanced stereo sound system.

All the purchasers that initially reserved smarts had above average earnings. Eighty percent of owners own homes, and quite a few preferred to be contacted online.

The smart is designed to appeal predominately to metropolitan hipsters. Targeted customers aren’t going to be characterized by age or even earnings, but by mindset and chosen lifestyle.

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