Individual Competitor Assessment: Mercedes Benz - Case Study Example

The paper "Individual Competitor Assessment: Mercedes Benz" is a perfect example of a case study on business. Mercedes-Benz is among the leading dealers in the manufacturing and selling of luxury and sports cars in Europe and across the globe (Ketschau, 2013). The company operates within a highly competitive industry like its competitor Aston Martin. Thus, the brand manager is essential to establish operational strategies that counter the competitive advantage of the competitors. Currently, Mercedes-Benz ranks fourth in the European market with respect to its competitors in sales and customer preferences.
The strategy of combating the competition
At Mercedes-Benz, the brand relates its success to the considerable strengths from which it bases its operations. Notably, the company features an innovative culture, high financial leverage, increased technology, customer loyalty and the established brand name built over the years (Ketschau, 2013). However, the company suffers from having a weak supply chain, customer service challenges and inadequate scales in the markets (Ketschau, 2013). Therefore, basing on these observations, the brand needs to incorporate essential and workable strategies to improve its competitive advantage. Most people have the perception that Mercedes is a symbol of success from its concentration on luxury and sports cars.
Therefore, the first strategic move to employ is creating a differentiation strategy on emotional benefits. Most companies such as Aston Martin continue to focus on continuous innovation, which is hard to achieve and maintain. Therefore, investing in the alternative of position brand on emotions towards the product will facilitate the company to gain a competitive advantage in varied ways. This tool is powerful, as it will allow the business to charge a premium for its products, hence, capitalizing on prices, which are essential to the diminishing role of purchase decision (Weihrich, 2012). Premium and luxury accompany each other. Thus, this tool will prove remarkably effective. Additionally, positioning on brand emotions will offer the brand a competitive advantage to the other labels that use lower prices as a differentiation strategy. Lastly, creating an emotional attachment to the brand will create a strong connection with the customers, which will lead to deeper levels of brand engagement, awareness, and communication (Weihrich, 2012). These establishments will facilitate Mercedes Benz to counter the competition in the industry. Additionally, among the weaknesses and threats to Mercedes-Benz is the weak supply chain, which correlates with the intense competition locally and internationally (Koster, 2013). Therefore, the brand will invest accordingly in establishing a marketing and brand awareness strategy, which will grow the company supply and distribution chains. This strategy encompasses the essentials of consumer awareness and communication. Therefore, from instituting this measure, Mercedes will gain better positioning in the competitive markets hence gaining a competitive advantage over the competitors in the industry. The ability to capitalize on the opportunities also institutes a reward in high profits and lower costs to the company (Koster, 2013). Therefore, Mercedes should continue initiating strategies that capitalize on opportunities such as exploring new markets leading to international expansion.
Additionally, diversifying services and products will grow the company towards establishing a competitive advantage, as it will have a broader platform for operating. The broad market and vast products in the market will facilitate higher profit (Koster, 2013). Thus, the company will gain a competitive advantage over its competitors including Aston Martin.