Mercedes Benz. The ultimate symbol of wealth, luxury, fame. As one of the top most expensive, luxurious, favoured automobile brand, Mercedes Benz has been ruling the market for luxury city cars, attracting mostly the market segment aged late 30 to 50’s businessmen who love to spend their money on their rides. However, with its competition, such as Audi and BMW, expanding to reach new segment that is younger and more modern, Benz is now tightened up to its throat to launch a new line of car that is competitive enough to overcome the new Audi A3 and BMW 4-Serie. To reach further into the younger generation, Benz is “exploiting the power of social media“, such as Twitter and Facebook.

The new Mercedes Benz CLA is lower in price and smaller in size, clearly showing that it is targeted towards a younger generation who has less money to spend for cars. The design also signifies the fresh, sharp look of a young professional who just step out of his internship and ready to do some business. Also, the price, estimated to start at $30,000, offers an opportunity to those who never had Benz on their list of car brands to consider for their new purchase, expanding Benz’s target segment in both age and average income size. The new tv commercial of CLA shows that by using a young actor as the main person in the video and showing how his life can be better by riding a CLA. Also, the famous celebrities, such as Usher and Kate Upton, are featured in the commercial to relate more with those who are aged 20 to 30.

Despite that this new market development strategy may be a harm to its brand image as a high-class, luxury car only for rich people, I believe this is Mercedes Benz’s great adaptation to the changing world and market that will sufficiently draw in new consumers who were never reached before and increase the influence of its brand in the market. As a  member of the young generation, I was also attracted by the changed design and price of the new CLA, and perhaps I will consider buying it as my first car.