Consumer Behavior and Mercedes-Benz

This assignment delves into consumer behavior regarding Mercedes-Benz, specifically examining the role of brand fairness perceptions in shaping public opinion and driving purchasing decisions. It encourages students to analyze relevant academic literature, exploring psychological and sociological factors influencing consumer choices. The assignment emphasizes the importance of understanding how brand reputation, social norms, and environmental consciousness impact consumer attitudes towards luxury automotive brands like Mercedes-Benz.

RUNNING HEAD: Marketing Consumer Behavior
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Marketing Consumer Behavior

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Situational Analysis of Company.................................................................................................................3
Target Market Description...........................................................................................................................4
Target market decision making process......................................................................................................5
Need recognition.....................................................................................................................................5
Search process.........................................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of Alternatives........................................................................................................................5
Selection phase........................................................................................................................................5
Social impacts on Buying Behavior..............................................................................................................6
Family......................................................................................................................................................6
Reference group......................................................................................................................................6
Psychological impacts on Buying Behavior..................................................................................................7
Motivation...............................................................................................................................................7
Attitudes and Beliefs................................................................................................................................7
Personal impacts on Buying Behavior..........................................................................................................7
Age..........................................................................................................................................................7
Lifestyle...................................................................................................................................................7
Marketing Strategy Recommendations.......................................................................................................8
Concern about environmental issues......................................................................................................8
Fuel efficiency..........................................................................................................................................8
Strategic alliances with other manufacturers..........................................................................................8
Creating new brand.................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Consumer Behavior refers to the study of people, groups, or associations and all the actions
connected with the buy, utilization, and distribution of products and services by including
consumer feelings, psychological factor, behavioral reactions that follow these activities (De
Mooij, 2010). This report describes the marketing consumer behavior on product Mercedes Benz
E250. Mercedes Benz is a globally car manufacturer and also a department of German company
known as Daimler AG. The brand is well-known for its vehicles such as luxury cars, transports,
coaches and lorries.The report explains the situational analysis of the company, market
description, and target market decision making the procedure of company. The report also
explains the various impacts on buying behavior such as social, psychological, and personal. The
main objective of this report is to understand why, when, how and other factors influence buying
decision of the consumers.
Situational Analysis of Company
According to Ott (2013), Mercedes Benz is a currently a producer of various kinds of automotive
vehicles, such as transports, lorries, and coaches. Presently, the organization has turned into a
department under its parent company known as Daimler AG Group of companies. The company
has portraying various innovations progress and security advancements that have become famous
in the automotive industry. Mercedes Benz is one of the world's most automotive brands that are
still in presence today. Mercedes Benz has made numerous concepts of cars with alternative
drive, such as hybrid electric, fully electric, and energy unit power trains. The company has
presented the three Bluezero concepts at the North American International Auto show in 2009.
Every car feature has a distinct power train that is battery electric, energy component electric and
gasoline-electric hybrid (Wu, 2012). The company is also maintained goodwill which is known
for its quality and stability. The company main focus is to build the most secure, most
comfortable and most effective vehicles in the world for their customers and to produce them in
top quality in the overall assembling plants. Company adapts the plan and features of their
vehicles as required to particular customer demands in various markets. At the same time,
company continues to conducting research that supports the claim to leadership in the

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automotive industry with new developments. According to Worner et al. (2013), Mercedes Benz
contributes in the advancement of alternative drive frameworks such as electric vehicles or plug-
in hybrid innovation. Also, company is advancing the exploration into autonomous driving cars
significantly. The base 2016 Mercedes Benz E250 Blue TEC sedan brought out with a
turbodiesel 2.1 liter, four-cylinder engine that produce 195 horsepower. The E250's EPA-
evaluated 28/42 mpg city/expressway mileage rating is superior to the fuel economy ratings of
most other upscale average size autos, including other diesel models. While the 2016, Mercedes
Benz E-Class may not be the sportiest decision in the class, critics say it compensates for that
with a remarkably smooth ride, powerful engines and created handling.
Target Market Description
According to Chen et al. (2013), a target market defines the customers or groups which are most
likely to buy a specific product or service. The conventional target market of company includes
rich class consumers who are above the age of 40 and who want a car with the purpose of lavish
services and a high-class feel. Fundamentally, every expensive mid and full sized car such as
Sedan, wagon, cabriolet on the market is an effective target. The reason is that E-class consist
more models in its lineup than ever before and can be had with back drive or wheel-drive,as a
two-door coupe, convertible, station wagon or four-door sedan, with customer decision of two V-
6 engines, a V-8 and, and a four-cylinder turbo diesel. The target customers of Mercedes Benz
E250 are mostly rich. The target market for the Mercedes Benz E250 consists the middle-aged
individual with higher incomes or upper rich class businessmen who need cars as a status
symbol. The company does not manufacture low price vehicles because the company focuses on
upper class customers. Mercedes Benz E250 also targets males and females both as they
manufacture cars to fit both male and female specifications (Sierzchula et al., 2012). In 2016,
Mercedes-Benz brand sold a record of 2.2 million cars, up 10 percent over the earlier year. China
is the greatest market with 22 percent of unit deals, trailed by the United States that is16 percent
and in Germany 14 percent.

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Target market decision-making process
According to Darley et al. (2010), the consumer decision process is consisting of five phases to
examine how customers create their purchasing decision. The purchasing of a Mercedes Benz
E250 needs a high engagement decision. The price connected with the in purchasing a car is a
significant variable that leads to high engagement choice but not always. The target market
decision-making process for Mercedes Benz E250 includes various phases which are explained
below (Xu et al., 2011):
Need recognition: The first stage in the consumer decision process is the identification of a
need. The requirement of purchasing of a car is basically an obtained requirement. In order to
fulfill customer needs, the company set objectives. Objectives can be either broad objectives that
are "I need to purchase a car" or particular "I need to purchase a Mercedes E-class". The
requirement to buy an E-Class is not activated by the functional requirement for transport but by
psychological factors.
Search process: In the next phase, the customer will look for information to investigate the
decisions. The data is acquired either by inside, such as retrieved form the long-term memory
and or outside from his friends, family, advertisers sources and the public information. At this
phase, the reference group will assume a decisive role. In this phase, an organization can assess
whether their marketing endeavors have been a success or not.
Evaluation of Alternatives: A successful data investigation leaves a purchaser with the
possible choices. If the customer chooses to pick for a premium compact multipurpose vehicle,
the possible choices would be the Mercedes E-class, such as a sedan or the wagon. At this
phase, the customer needs to device an arrangement of criteria to measure the merits and
demerits of each option.
Selection phase: Once the criteria are set, these attributes are positioned by their significance.
If the customer values more security, quality, dependability, and distinction, he or she would be
inclined to purchase the Mercedes E-class, on the other hand, if the customer gives more value to
the design, performance, productivity and sportive look his or her choice would fall for either the
Sedan or Wagon. The choice is taken on the basis of which choices scores the highest.
Evaluation of Decision: In the last phase, the customer is prepared to make the buy, for this

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case, purchasing the E-class. Since the customer has influenced the buy, he or she can assess the
product execution in light of his or her expectation (Tzeng & Huang, 2011). The Mercedes Benz
E-class may match his expectations or exceed his expectations. If the product exceeds the
expectations, the consumer would feel satisfied with the buy.
Social impacts on Buying Behavior
According to Moshrefjavadi et al. (2012), social factors refers to the elements that are pervasive
in the society where a customer lives in. The society is made out of a few people that have
distinctive inclinations and practices. These varied behaviors affect the personal preferences of
the other set of people as they have a tendency to execute those activities which are satisfactory
to the society. The two main important social factors which influence the behavior of a consumer
in one or other way (Soroa-Koury &Yang, 2010):
Family: The family members assume a critical role in creating one’s preferences and behavior.
It provides a situation where in the consumer engages, create an identity and obtain values. The
family can affect the purchasing behavior of a consumer in the following ways:
Affects the consumer identity, attitude, convictions, and features
Influence the target market decision process in regarding to the purchase of particular goods and
services.
On the other hand, a spouse and kids also has a big impact on the consumer’s purchase.
Communication among spouses and kids assume an important strong role in buying behaviors.
This family affects how the customer looks at buys more specifically than most other social
impacts on customer buy.
Reference group: Reference group refers to those groups that customer will see to help in
making a buying decision. Reference group is the groups that purchaser contrast themselves to or
connect with. Reference groups are same to opinion leaders in that they can impact purchaser
behavior. An opinion leader is a person inside a reference group who applies the effect on others

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as a result of unique abilities, knowledge, and identity. Thus, all the above social factors can
influence the consumer buying behavior.
Psychological impacts on Buying Behavior
According to Oliver (2014), psychological factors may be defined as those factors that speak
about the psychology of a person that drive his activities in order to seek the benefits. The two
important psychological factors which affect the buying behavior of a consumer is explained as
follows:
Motivation: The level of encouragement affects the purchasing decision of the customers. It is
well-defined by Maslow through his need hierarchy theory containing fundamental requirements,
security needs, social needs, and self-actualization needs. The more essential the need, the more
prominent the need it expects in driving customers to satisfy it. If the company convince
customers that the product or services cater one of their motivating drives, or can convince to
purchase what the organization is selling. Marketing can help the organization to connect a
product with need satisfaction.
Attitudes and Beliefs: The people have certain convictions and states of mind towards
products on which their buy choices rest. These dispositions and convictions are the tendency to
react to a given product in a specific way, and these make up the brand picture that affects the
customer purchasing behavior (Huijts et al., 2012). Thus, the marketers of Mercedes Benz E250
try to understand the attitudes and convictions of the people and change these through various
marketing efforts.
.
Personal impacts on Buying Behavior
According to Gifford & Nilsson, (2014), the personal factors are the individual variables to the
customer that powerfully affect their purchasing behaviors. These variables shift from individual
to individual that outcome in a distinct set of observations, attitudes, and behavior towards
specific goods and services. The important personal factors which influence on consumer
purchasing behavior is as follows:

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Age: The customer purchasing behavior is mostly influenced by his age that is life cycle phases
in which individual falls. The individual purchases distinctive products in various stages of the
life cycle.
Lifestyle: The customer purchasing behavior is affected by individual lifestyle. The lifestyle
implies individual’s interest, qualities, assessments, and the activities that imitate the way in
which individual lives in the society (Van Doorn et al., 2010). For example, if the individual is
living in a luxurious lifestyle, then he will maintain a Mercedes Benz E-class as to maintain the
status symbol.
Marketing Strategy Recommendations
According to Benlian et al. (2012), the major recommendation that can be implementing by the
company is discussed as follows:
Concern about environmental issues: The Company should worry about the
environmental problems which can be occurring in the car designing. This is because consumers
are becoming more demanding and consequently, any new concepts that are able to deliver the
benefits to the environment will be favored.
Fuel efficiency: The organizations should also contribute to join the concept of fuel efficiency
into its plan. As the oil and petrol prices are depend on the ride on an increasing pattern, it is
management fundamentally for the organization to understand such issues and take appropriate
protective actions in order to avoid the current market share being seized by other competitors.
Strategic alliances with other manufacturers: The organization can choose to make
the strategic alliances with other car manufacturers. Due to the extreme competition, company
should consolidate those forces which can compete effectively and viably in global market place.
In order to enter to the developing business sector, it is also important for companies to make
associations with the local parties from the developing nations, as these local parties generally
have more knowledge on the local market.

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Creating new brand: The administration must also focus on creating a new brand in order to
meet with the middle-level groups. This step can be accomplished by framing key accomplices
with a part of the smaller scale manufacturers in the Asia Pacific areas.
Various organizations are enduring because of not having the necessary technology edge to
competitive with other big vehicles manufacturers Therefore, Mercedes Benz can get this chance
in order to connect with these partners and gives innovative support in return for a share in these
companies revenue.
Conclusion
From this report, it has been concluded that Automobile market is rapidly in the sneak of surging
as a major car producer, individual is buying a car as there is a rise in income of ordinary people
as well as a change in tastes and preferences. It is important for the car producers and car dealers
to be capable in order to understand the various factors influencing the degree of car buying
behavior. The report explains the social, psychological and personal factor which has an impact
on the consumer buying behavior. Car manufacturers must keep in kind all these factors while
designing their product. The report also recommends some measures which help the organization
to adjust the changes in the market and to capitalize on the trend of globalization and information
technology in the next decades.

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References
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consumer reviews in e-commerce transactions: An experimental study. Journal of
Management Information Systems, 29(1), 237-272.
Chen, J., Nguyen, B., & Klaus, P. (2013). Public affairs in China: exploring the role of brand
fairness perceptions in the case of Mercedes‐Benz. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(4), 403-
414.
Darley, W. K., Blankson, C., & Luethge, D. J. (2010). Toward an integrated framework for
online consumer behavior and decision making process: A review. Psychology &
marketing, 27(2), 94-116.
De Mooij, M. (2010). Consumer behavior and culture: Consequences for global marketing and
advertising. Sage.
Gifford, R., & Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro‐environmental
concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology, 49(3), 141-157.
Huijts, N. M., Molin, E. J., & Steg, L. (2012). Psychological factors influencing sustainable
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Moshrefjavadi, M. H., Dolatabadi, H. R., Nourbakhsh, M., Poursaeedi, A., & Asadollahi, A.
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