[from smart USA insider, used by permission]
These past few weeks have gone by in a blur since we have started with smart and I wanted to update you on two areas that we’ve seen a lot of questions about: the dealer network and our marketing plans.
As far as the retail network is concerned, this is a top priority for us. Our goal when we took over from the Penske organization was to have essentially the same footprint, i.e. 75 dealers. Those dealers are in place but we are keenly aware that there are gaps in coverage that need to be taken care of as well as areas of untapped opportunity. To that effect, we plan to add another 25 dealerships by the end of the year.
On a related note, I’ve seen several questions as to whether smart service, parts and/or accessories – or the fortwo itself — would be available at every Mercedes-Benz dealership. The answer to that is no: all sales and service will be at authorized smart dealerships where we will have trained personnel who can support smart to the level of your expectations.
From a marketing standpoint, our main goal will be to increase awareness of the smart brand and the fortwo. Beyond the fact that MBUSA has some top-tier platforms that we’ll be able to leverage to increase visibility of smart, our team is currently working with our agency team to develop a robust marketing plan that increases awareness and perception and reflects the iconic nature of the smart brand. This will include traditional advertising (yes, TV commercials), online presence, social media and events. Our goal is to realize a creative campaign that breaks through the clutter and brings to life not only what makes smart unique but also the right car for the right people. I think you’ll like it.
Obviously sites like [smart USA insider] will be undergoing change and a lot of that will be based on input from you. With that in mind, I’d really like to encourage you to share with us your thoughts, comments, questions and ideas. We’ve started a new discussion in the forum section ‘give us a shout’ to facilitate that. I can’t promise you that everything will be answered all the time but what I can promise is that everything will be seen and we will address as much as we can.
That’s it for now…we’ll be back at the page in the weeks ahead!
Tracey
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It’s great to see that Mercedes-Benz USA is taking an interest in the smart car, plans to do some marketing, and will do their best to get the brand going — I look forward to what comes next!
We survived Penske’s rather lackluster effort since initial launch.
As a journalist I always felt a bit of a disconnect here in the states, while Daimler AG has always been great covering international events and seems downright enthused about the brand, surely I look forward to some great campaigns and the forthcoming new models (electric, 4 door, and who knows maybe a new roadster?) that may be exciting.
It’s true I paid $18,000 cash for the smart passion ‘base’ model which I later sunk another $10,000 in modifications and custom bits to make it mine. Sure I won’t get anywhere near that on trade-in today, but I guess that’s the price we pay for early adoption? The 2008 smart has a high bluebook of around 13k, yikes.. but I digress!
Being the founder of the local smart club, I’ve always had a good rapport with the local dealers, so it was sad to see 3 of them go, now we’re down to two – one in Sacramento and one in San Francisco. The city people are already sold on the smart car, it’s the mainstream “everywhere else” that may not see the benefits, and in 4×4 mud/snow country (even though they went to the Arctic Circle and back) people don’t generally “get” that the smart does extremely well in adverse weather, especially considering its a RWD and not FWD or AWD.
So, the brand faces the same challenges they did back when the car first launched, and historically it’s been a bumpy ride so far for the smart.. we just have a new set of eyes on it. I hope it does well. I really, really, hope it does well. Time will tell.