Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
Mercedes-Benz and BMW have sold luxury cars for years with advertising that extols the precision with which the automobiles are designed and built. Now they are adding an emotional tug to the sales pitch.
Mercedes will be playing classic love songs from Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, while BMW will ride the new James Bond movie's coattails in commercials that introduce new or substantially redesigned cars.
The commercials are part of multimedia marketing campaigns for the redesigned E-Class models made in Germany by Mercedes and the new BMW Z3 roadsters made in South Carolina.
Admakers for both companies felt that a more emotional than cerebral approach would help attract prospective customers to the new cars.
``Customers have so much choice, and there is so much competition across the entire spectrum, that we have to build far more emotion into our products,'' said Mike Jackson, a top marketing executive for Mercedes-Benz of North America Inc. in Montvale, N.J.
Mercedes dug through the photographic and musical archives for its introductory ads for the redesigned E-Class cars, three models of sedans with manufacturer's suggested 1996-model retail prices of $39,900 to $49,900. The company has invested $2 billion and three years in developing the cars.
It is running newspaper ads with photos of long-gone movie stars such as Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Erroll Flynn and Gary Cooper posing with their classic Mercedes cars. ``Born too soon,'' the headlines say.
Bing Crosby is in one of the ads with his 1954 Mercedes. His 1935 recording of ``Love Is Just Around the Corner'' provides the backdrop for a commercial that provides glimpses of all the celebrities who lived before the new E-Class models were developed.
The television commercial started running Wednesday. It will be followed next week with four commercials, including one featuring three arrow-toting Cupids who turn head over heels after spotting an E-Class model as Nat King Cole's 1964 recording of ``L-o-v-e'' plays.
It isn't the first time Mercedes has used pop music in its ads. Earlier this year, it featured Janis Joplin's 1971 counterculture classic in which she pined for a Mercedes-Benz in an ad for its C-Class and old E-Class models.
For Mercedes' C-Class - the smallest and cheapest ($29,900 to $51,000 in 1996) passenger cars - sales are up 18.7 percent this year, while E-Class sales are down 22.5 percent. But the company said the drop in E-Class sales reflects deliberately lower production of the cars because of the impending model makeover.
Joe McDaniel, sales manager at West Motor Sales in Roanoke, a Mercedes-Benz dealership, said the ads seem to be working. The dealership unveiled the redesigned E-Class on Wednesday morning and by early afternoon had sold two. In a good sales year, he said, the dealership will sell between 40 and 45 Mercedes cars.
According to 1994 sales information from the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes accounted for less than 1 percent of new car sales in the Roanoke and New River valleys that year - 148 out of more than 21,000 cars sold.
Although the market for $40,000 cars would seem to be limited, McDaniel said the Mercedes E-Class is priced comparably to American-made luxury cars and, with its cup holders and other convenience features, has been designed to appeal to a broader range of American buyers. The ad campaign, he said, reflects the company's plan to target a wider audience.
BMW's new Z3 roadsters won't go on sale until February, but it hopes to build anticipation for the two-seat convertible by advertising its featured role in the new James Bond movie ``GoldenEye,'' which opens next week.
In the movie, the British supersleuth drives the Z3 roadster rather than the Aston Martin that earlier Bonds have driven, and BMW's ad agency, Fallion McElligott of Minneapolis, has developed two ads with film scenes that carry the story a little further.
In one ad, people are shocked by a newspaper classified ad for an Aston Martin with equipment such as only the suave Bond would have - Stinger missiles and a champagne cooler. In another, a fictional member of the House of Lords announces to gasps that Bond has switched to a BMW and is driving ``on the wrong side of the road.''
Jim McDowell, a top marketer for BMW of North America Inc. in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., said the ads should establish the $29,000 Z3 as a ``fun, exciting automobile that embodies feelings of freedom, romance and adventure.''
"It's for an entirely different buyer," said Gary Surber, BMW sales manager at Valley Cadillac Oldsmobile Inc. in Roanoke. "It's not going to be a primary car. It's going to be the weekend pleasure `I wish I had when I was 16' kind of car."
Response to the ad campaign has been strong, Surber said. The dealership is slated to receive 12 of the new roadsters in 1996 and will start taking reservations early next year. Valley sells about 100 BMWs a year, he said.
Mercedes and BMW are using a variety of nontraditional media in addition to the normal TV and print outlets in marketing the new cars.
Each has developed sites on the Internet so computer users can get more information on the cars, and each is offering CD-ROM products on the cars by mail to potential customers.
Mercedes is putting its ``Cupids'' ad in 2,000 theaters and is running commercials with videos shown during airline flights.
In addition to getting its new roadster placed in the new James Bond movie, BMW authorized Nieman-Marcus to offer the car through its holiday catalog. There have been 4,800 inquiries so far.
Staff writer Megan Schnabel contributed to this story.
by CNB