English Presentation – Topic 3

Tapescript
English presentation- topic 3

Instructror : Mai Huu Hanh

Merbers of group :Vu Thi Thuong(group leader)

Bui Quoc Phuc

Tran Thi Hoang Trang
Vo Dieu Linh
Pham Thi Huyen
Pham Thi Minh Tam
Class :A6- TCQTB-K46

A6 – International Finance 1
English Presentation – Topic 3

Good morning everyone. It’s pleasure to meet you today. Let’s me

introduce myself. I’m Hương. I come from Group I, a6 class, international
finance. Today, we’d like to give you our presentation about brand image.
Then we will give an example of a famous brand and its branding
strategyies. We have chosen Mercedes – Benz, one of the most common
names for luxury car manufacturing in the world. Its marketing strategy is
our example. We have divided our presentation into 2 main parts: first, the
definition and role of brand image; second, its effective branding strategies
looked at 4Ps: product, place, price and promotion. It will take about 20
minutes to cover this issue. Lastly, there’ll be time for questions after my
presentation. Well, we ‘d like to start our presentation right now . Phuc,
another member of our group is going to give you some information about
brand image.

• What’s brand image?

Thank Huong. Hello everyone! I’m Phuc. So let’s start with some
background information about brand image. What’s brand image?
Brand image is the impression or what people think or feel about a particular
product, company or symbol (logo). Brand image is developed through
advertising campaigns with a consistent theme, and is accepted through the
consumers' direct experience. Consumers perceive and accept many brands
within a certain trade group in different ways. And the image basically
expresses a way of a consumer thinks about the brand and the feelings the
brand arouses when the consumer thinks about it.

• Role of brand image

As you know, many companies spend large amount of money on building
their brand image. Why do they do that? Let’s move on to the role of brand
image to explain.
Brand image is of key importance to long-term management of a brand. It is
also important how the consumers formed the brand and what kind of
relationship was formed with the brand - what the brand means to them and
how they have accepted it. Understanding the relationship between
consumers and brands can help a company control its successful brand
positioning and the efficiency of advertising..
Brand image is the image of a good or service which is formed in the
customer’s mind. Company image is the valued customers, potential
customers, lost customers and other groups of people connect with the

A6 – International Finance 2
English Presentation – Topic 3

organization. Brand image is acompanied by brand identity to contribute to

company brand as you see from the slide. Now. We’ll give you an overview
about a famous car brand and strateergies to promote its brand image. I’m
sure all of you know about this brand, one of the most famous brand in
luxurious manufacturing ar in the world, Mercedes- Benz. First, Minh Tam
will give you some genaral information about its history and its success.

• Genaral information of Mercedes

Now I’d like to talk about history of Mercedes. Gottlieb Daimler and Carl
Benz were born only 60 miles apart in southern Germany. In 1886, Carl
Benz built a motorized tricycle, produced trucks. And Gottlieb Daimler built
a horseless carriage. In 1888, Daimler made a business deal with William
Steinway (of piano fame) to produce Daimler's products in the US. From
1904 until a fire in 1907, Steinway produced Mercedes passenger cars,
Daimler's light trucks, and his engines on Long Island. Moreover, Benz and
Daimler signed an "Agreement of Mutual Interest" in 1924. The two
companies merged on June 28th 1926 and named Mercedes-Benz. This is a
very important event which highlight Mercedes-Benz’s foundation.
Let’s now take a look at Mercedes’s logo. As you can see, this is Mercedes -
Benz Logo. This has been around since the 1920s, the three pointed star of
Mercedes’s logo has been designed to represent their domination over the
land, the air and the sea. I think Mercedes’s logo have a meaningful content
which express Mercedes’s power. First, it was used on a Daimler in 1909, a
laurel wreath was added in 1926 to signify the union with Benz, and later
was simplified to the current logo design in 1937. This may be the spiritual
way of looking at the logo, but nowadays Mercedes - Benz owners probably
do not look at the logo in that way. The Mercedes- Benz’s logo is a symbol
of reliability, speed and quality of workmanship.
Today, Mercedes Benz is especially important on the race track. Many race
car drivers choose the Mercedes Benz logo for their own car. So you should
know that you will have a quality car. All the time that Mercedes Benz are
designing and racing cars. It means that the technology breakthroughs can be
used on their cars destined for the domestic market. Which means that we all
end up with a finer product. That is all I want to talk about Mercedes’s
history. Then, Huyen will show you clearly about product stratergy.

A6 – International Finance 3
English Presentation – Topic 3

• Product strategy

Hi everyone! I’m Huyen and now I’ll continue to the next part: Mercedes’s
products. After 100 years of development, Mercedes has got great success
with high quality on each product. To do that, this brand always focuses on
quality and changes product policy suitably. To get satisfaction, a customer
will only be attracted with a car which is almost perfect. Observing the fact,
mercedes has lauched out many perfect products.
To satisfy it’s customers, this brand has many styles for it’s cars. They are
various, from ancient to modern for other hobbies and suitable for both
young and middle aged people. It’s fashion will certainly make you double
confident when sitting in a Mercedes. An other factor is it’s multicolour. The
variety can be loved by the choosiest customer. You can see all the colours:
gray, yellow, ivory, white, red, green ... In addition, I’m certain that its speed
will make you astonished because a mercedes can give 510 horsepower. You
also can set high-speed and change quickly if you like. And one more reason
makes mercedes loved all over the world is it’s facilities. Each car is
equipped with many modern equipments: System compressed air
suspension, anti-vibration, many diverse types of lights; automatic gearbox;
warning system, systems sign road and hit from behind, vision and suitable
lighting, radio, TV, air condition ... all are invented to satisfy you.
Futhermore, to meet new demands quickly and exactly, Mercedes
continously launchs new products right time. You can see the product policy
of the brand always changes suitably. Here are some significant car models
produced, for example. In 1928, its SSK legendary racing car, then
Mercedes-Benz 300, known as "Adenauer Mercedes" in 1951. And in 1969,
C111 was lauched. In 1995, Mercedes-Benz SL73 AMG, 7.3L V12 the
biggest engine ever put in a Mercedes-Benz and in 2010, Mercedes-Benz
AMG Gullwing SLS will be shown.
And now, I’m sure that all you want to know about the latest product of
Mercedes. It’s Mercedes-Benz SLK 2009… Being in the fourth year of
production, SLK Mercedes-Benz continues to bring driver the feeling of
driving sports cars with capacity and power. With a series of improvements
in 2009, SLK is one vehicle capacity attracted and distributed under the car
boko ratings. 2009 SLK-Class has all the equipment safety standards. Its
designed and decorated perfectly to bring driver the comfortable and easy to
control feeling.
Mercedes-Benz SLK 2009 has three versions, with 44950 USD, you will
have the basic SLK300. It is produced for passion for sport style with

A6 – International Finance 4
English Presentation – Topic 3

Gearbox and the V6 engine of 3 liters capacity reached 228 horsepower and
momen maximum 300 Nm. If you have passion for speed Version, SLK350
is the best choice. Gearbox automatic 7 levels associated with the V6 engine
of 3.5 liter capacity reached 300 horsepower and the momen maximum 359
Nm with 49950 USD. And if you do not take care of money, SLK55 AMG
version is produced for you. It’s mounted V8 engine capacity reached 355
horsepower with momen maximum up to 510 Nm with 64300 USD.
However, to own these features you must pay so much. Therefore, 2009
SLK is one of the vehicles classified as boko luxury, which has the most
expensive price in the market. Then, Trang will show you clearly about
place strategy.

• Place strategy

I am Trang. Now I will tell you about place strategy of Mercedes. As you
know, place is one of 4Ps, it helps company distribute a strong brand image.
We’ll turn to the detail. Mercedes’s headquater are in Stuttgart of Germany.
It is not an only traditional but also potential market. Stuttgart situated in the
heart of one of Germany's largest wine-growing regions, this place
fascinates visitors from all over the world. A big draw for visitors to
Stuttgart is the sensational Mercedes-Benz World. On a total area of 17.000
sq.m. the Mercedes-Benz Museum shows around 160 vehicles on permanent
display, including not only the earliest models but also the latest series
production vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz automobiles are available at dealerships in more than

129 countries and their work fleet (trucks and commercial) vehicles are
available from a group of dealers worldwide as well as direct from the
factory. As with several other European automobile brands, Mercedes-Benz
offer a European delivery option for international customers who purchase a
Mercedes-Benz automobile. Let’s move on business alliances, in 1958
Mercedes-Benz entered into a distribution agreement with the Studebaker-
Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana (USA), makers of Studebaker
and Packard brand automobiles. Under the deal, Studebaker would allow
Mercedes-Benz access to their U.S. dealer network, handle shipments of
vehicles to those dealers, and in return receive compensation for each car
sold. Studebaker also was permitted to use the German automaker’s name in
its advertisements, which stressed Studebaker's quality over quantity.
Mercedes has managed an effective and has friendly relationship with all
suppliers. Besides its native Germany, Mercedes-Benz vehicles are also

A6 – International Finance 5
English Presentation – Topic 3

manufactured or assembled in many countries such as Austria, Brazil,

Canada, Hungary and so on. In addition, Mercedes have been invested
millions of dollars in the showrooms every year. Please look at the screen, as
you can see this is one of the showroom of mercedes. Showroom has been
designed especially to attract the customers. The products have been
arranged beautifully. And now, Linh will help you know about the price
stratergy of Mercedes, one of the most important strategies to make
impression on consumers.

• Price strategy

Price is perhaps the most important of the four Ps of marketing, since it is

the only one that generates revenue for a company. Price is most simply
described as the amount of money that is paid for a product or service. When
establishing a price for a product or service, a company must first assess
several factors regarding its potential impact.
In case of Mercedes, the price of each car is quite expensive, however, the
time of using is by far longer than any other normal car, so when calculating
the price for each using-year, Mercedes’s price is “cheaper” than those.
Customers purchase products from them knowing they probably paid too
much. But, these companies have the prestigious reputation of high quality
products and exceptional customer service. That's how they maintain market
share.
Mercedes company chose to promote, maintain, and enhance the image of its
product through the use prestige pricing, which involves pricing a product
high so as to limit its availability to the higher-end consumer. This limited
availability enhances the product's image, causing it to be viewed as
prestigious. Although a company that uses this strategy expects to have
limited sales, this is not a problem because a profit is still possible due to the
higher markup on each item.
Power of Customers Buyers compete with the industry by forcing down
prices, bargaining for higher quality or more services, and playing
competitors against each other-all at the expense of industry profitability.
Differentiation of product has enabled Mercedes Benz to beat down the
power of its customers by offering them basically the same product
(engines) at various prices under various models and class. And now, you
will understand about promotion strategy of Mercedes- Benz with Thuong’s
presentation.

A6 – International Finance 6
English Presentation – Topic 3

• Promotion strategy

Now, I will tell you about the promotion strategies of mercedes. Obviously,
promotion is a critical part of doing business. Potential consumers must get
information that will positively influence what they think of a business and
convince them to use its services. Promotion is the tool to accomplish this
goal. There are four main promotional tools: advertising, personal selling,
sales promotion, and publicity. Because of its importance, many people are
confused with advertising stratergies and marketing stratergies. In fact,
advertising is one of tools of marketing.
The promotion strategy has reflected the evolving Mercedes-Benz range.
Over the past few years, the Mercedes-Benz marque has dramatically
expanded the range of vehicle on offer, and the addition of the M-class and
A-class was viewed by some as a potential threat to the integrity of the
brand. This was anticipated in the promotion strategy well in advance.

About advertising stratergies, Mercedes always attachs special importance to

advertising campaigns. The company have mass media included television
ads, magazine ads and billboard ads. Especiallly, The “Oh Lord Won’t You
Buy Me A Mercedes-Benz” TV campaign has been used extensively, to
appeal to a wider prospect group. This new group is much younger than the
traditional Mercedes-Benz owner, with more relaxed lifestyle values. The
“Oh Lord” campaign has been used to introduce the new models and also to
provide a younger feel for the marque. At the same time Mercedes-Benz has
continued to make extensive use of magazines and newspapers. Advertising
time of the year is Q1 and Q3 as well as December and June.all of you can
see the advertising cost of the company increase along with sales. The
company introduce new product message and branding, reach most amount
of people through televison. They can tailor message by placing in speific
magazines and p;acement allows for message to be reached by specific
audience through billboards.

Mercedes really make strong impression by a lot of PR activities. About

Internal publics: Daimler-Benz holds excellent relationships with all its
suppliers this is due partly to the scale of operations and the total
expenditure on suppliers. In the car manufacturing industry, suppliers are
usually large in number, and Daimler-Benz recognizes this which is why
they manage an effective and friendly relationship with all suppliers. This
can be seen by the economic downturn of the late nineties when Daimler-

A6 – International Finance 7
English Presentation – Topic 3

Benz had asked if suppliers could reduce their prices, which they all did. The
reason for this is that Daimler-Benz has existed for over .

About External publics, they celebrate many social events. They organize
training class to costumer drive new car and regard it by themselves. By this
way, Mercedes reached many objects. First, they can do opinion poll with
low cost. Second, their brand becomes more friendly with people. Third,
they can check quality of their product. It’s “to kill two birds with one
stone”.

Like no other brand, Mercedes-Benz incorporates the highest standards of

quality, safety, innovative drive and visual appeal. Even though the
Mercedes-Benz brand is over 100 years old, it is always young at heart.They
links with the world of style through Mercedes-Benz fashion week and
sponsorship of both the arts and sports such as horseracing, tennis and golf
help maintain the image and keep Mercedes-Benz in touch with what its
customers love and how they live.

Mercedes-Benz continues to sponsor carefully selected events, including

The Presidents Cup Golf, Australian Fashion Week, Horse Racing, Tennis,
opera and other cultural events as well as closely related vehicle activities
including Formula One and CARTS. Each is selected because of its ability
to support the total promotional strategy and the marque’s values. The
integrity of the brand has been maintained throughout.

I can update you on three of those activities.First, beginning in 2009,

Mercedes-Benz will be the title sponsor of Stockholm Fashion Week by
Berns, the most important fashion event in Sweden. The initiative was
already launched this summer with the first presentation of the Mercedes-
Benz Young Fashion Industry Award at Stockholm Fashion Week in July. In
cooperation with event organiser Berns Salonger and national design
schools, Mercedes-Benz established the new prize in order to encourage up-
and-coming Swedish fashion designers
Second, for over a decade, Mercedes-Benz has established itself as a
supporter of premier international fashion platforms. "Cars and fashion have
many similarities including the opportunity to create exclusive products that
meet the desire for individualism based on style and design," said Lisa
Holladay, Manager Brand Experience Marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA.
Third, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week – Miami 2009 will be held at July 15 -
19, 2009. Coinciding with the swimwear industry's largest trade show, the

A6 – International Finance 8
English Presentation – Topic 3

invitation only event provides a runway platform for designers' swimwear

and resort collections with exposure to national and international media,
style setters and fashionistas. Fashion, beauty, supermodels and celebrities
come together in South Beach to celebrate the sexiest swimwear designs in
the world
Well, this bring us to the end of our presentation. Before stopping, let’s me
go over the key issues again. Firstly, we give you a brief overview of brand
image, then we analyze Mercedes – Benz branding stratergies as our
example for well-defined branding stratergy. Thank you for listening. Now,
It’s time for questioning. we’re very pleased to answer any question from
you. Are there any question?

A6 – International Finance 9