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Mercedes-Benz To Present New Brand Design Across All Business Units Posted October 17, 2007 At 10:00 AM CST



Mercedes-Benz has announced today that after 18 years, the brand will be renewing their identity across all business units, starting November 1st. Under the motto "The Star always shines from above," the new identity features the iconic Mercedes-Benz Star prominently shining from above, with a distinct separation between this and the brand's written trademark.

According to Dr. Klaus Maier, Executive Vice President Mercedes Car Group and the gentleman responsible for company's Sales and Marketing: "In addition to having exciting products, a strong brand primarily distinguishes itself by a presence and positioning that is immediately and unmistakably recognisable – at any time, in any place and in any medium." He continues: "The new brand identity of Mercedes-Benz revives our entire presence, and ensures an unmistakable image which combines tradition with a future-oriented approach."

Expect to see Mercedes' new brand identity make its debut with the launch of the new C-Class Estate next month; in the meatime, keep reading for the official press release detailing MB's inspiration and objectives for the newest rendition of the Star.


OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


Mercedes-Benz presents new brand design

• After 18 years Mercedes-Benz is renewing its brand identity across all business units
• C-Class Estate as first product with launch campaign in the new brand design
• Revised brand identity under the Mercedes star completes a more sharply focused Mercedes-Benz brand positioning

Stuttgart – Mercedes-Benz has fundamentally revised its brand identity for all communication materials with a new design. The new, standardised brand identity will be introduced in all corporate units – from Passenger Cars to Commercial Vehicles – and in all the world’s markets from November 1, 2007. It was developed on the basis of the brand’s history, and concludes the process of a more sharply focused brand positioning which began in 2006. The central theme of the new identity is the motto "The Star always shines from above". With the launch of the C-Class Estate the new brand design will be applied to a product campaing for the first time in November.

As the inventor of the automobile, Mercedes-Benz is the world’s most valuable premium automobile brand. Over the last 120 years Mercedes-Benz has worked to achieve this position with trailblazing innovations, a clear brand positioning and management, and targeted expansion of its model portfolio. "In addition to having exciting products, a strong brand primarily distinguishes itself by a presence and positioning that is immediately and unmistakably recognisable – at any time, in any place and in any medium", says Dr. Klaus Maier, Executive Vice President Mercedes Car Group, responsible for Sales and Marketing.

The brand identity is a visible expression of what Mercedes-Benz stands for: it emphasises the company’s position as the world’s most traditional automobile manufacturer, and is also a reflection of innovative creativity. "The new brand identity of Mercedes-Benz revives our entire presence, and ensures an unmistakable image which combines tradition with a future-oriented approach", Maier continues.

The Mercedes-Benz star as the starting point for the new visualisation

"With our new brand identity we are completing the process of focusing the brand positioning of Mercedes-Benz for our customers", says Dr. Olaf Göttgens, Vice President Brand Communications, Mercedes-Benz Cars. Mercedes-Benz has one of the world’s most recognised trademarks in the form of the three-pointed star. Accordingly, Mercedes-Benz is also giving this world-renowned logo a central position in its future communications activities. "The image that has established our brand identity over the decades is and remains the star. In the future we will be featuring this even more prominently, where it is visible to our customers", Göttgens continues.

As a major innovation, the star as the central symbol of the brand always shines from above in the new brand design. Reproductions will show the star in two-dimensional form (for example in the print media), but it remains three-dimensional in physical representations (for example on vehicles or dealerships). Moreover, the star and the written trademark will be shown separately in communications activities in future. In this way the star shining above the written trademark will create a communicative linking effect. Whether in the form of an image or written communication, each core message will be visually placed between the star and the written trademark.

New imagery reflects the brand’s personality

In order to reflect the wide variety of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and commercial vehicles, the focus of the new design will be on uniform imagery. In future the various communications activites will not only feature images of autmomobiles, but also photos of architecture, people and landscapes. Generous compositions with unusual perspectives and specific use of lighting will create excitement and illustrate the personality of the brand. Vitality and dynamism are major components of the visual idiom, as are the inventive use of focal depth and unfocused images.

The signature colour for the Mercedes-Benz brand will be the elegant "arrow silver". The primary colour for signage in the dealerships will be the powerful "midnight blue".
The new design for the Mercedes-Benz brand was developed by an in-house project team working in cooperation with the agency Claus Koch Identity GmbH.

Copyright © 2007, Daimler AG

I see they have updated their web site: Daimler - Home

That's great...

Great news

This is good news to all MB fans. Good design and good quality would be great for MB, and even better for consumers becaust that will cause competition.

^^Mercedes is first and foremost a "consumer-driven" brand ....more today than ever before.

Hey it is logical. No consumers...no sales!
Our society is now focused on marketing, the new is the better, etc... So you have to move to survive, and you have to do advertising, marketing to have success. Building fabulous cars is not enough any more. I regreet it too...

^^ yes, you are utterly correct. Marketing is everything.

Yep.

That's why eg. latest MB & Lexus cars are sportier than ever before, and BMW & Porsche cars offering much more comfort than in the past.

Marketing. Consumer driven products.

Products changing with consumer's preferences, taste, needs etc.

Yes, one can see Mercedes products having some sporty-BMW accents, while BMW offers comfort "àla Mercedes", and Audi trying to make a synthesis of the two...
Consumer-orienting means standardisation...unfortunately for true enthusiasts or fans...