Mercedes-Benz sets new benchmarks in customer approach: New "Mercedes-Benz Connection" City Store opened in Osaka

With the opening of "Mercedes-Benz Connection" city store in Osaka (Japan) last Friday, Mercedes-Benz is consistently continuing its strategy for individual customer approach. Along with Tokyo, this is the second completely redesigned city store in Japan. Worldwide, there are already about ten of these urban centers for the brand. In addition to a café and a restaurant lounge, Mercedes-Benz Connection offers the visitors around 600 square meters of interactive brand and product experience.

"With the Mercedes-Benz Connection city store network in Japan, we deliberately go into the inner cities to enter into dialogue with new audiences in a casual atmosphere," says Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Cars, Sales and Marketing. "We have created a place where visitors can meet and experience an emotional way to our brand and our products."

Since the opening of the first Mercedes-Benz Connection city store in Tokyo in July 2011, already more than a million visitors were recorded all alone in Japan. With its modern architecture, welcoming hospitality and event concept, this city stores speak to young and new audiences. About 80 percent of visitors of the Mercedes-Benz Connection in Japan are considering to purchase a product of the brand for the first time.

In both Japanese city stores, those interested can test drive the latest Mercedes-Benz models upon request. Regular events such as the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo make the city store a highly regarded and fashionable meeting place. In Tokyo, the visitors can also, through the open space structure in the restaurant, insights into kitchen from a Michelin-starred chef.

Closer to the customer - City Stores and Brand Centres

With the city stores situated in exclusive downtown location, Mercedes-Benz puts the focus on the brand communication. In 1997 Mercedes-Benz opened the first urban brand customers shops in Italy. In addition to the Mercedes-Benz Connection stores in Tokyo and Osaka, there are other stores around the world in Paris, Bologna, Turin, Verona, Rome, Brussels, Salzburg, Berlin and Munich. In 2012, the "Visionary Store" in Milan was launched, offering a unique infotainment experience around the car. In the same year, Mercedes-Benz started the A-Class Roadshow, a three-month presentation event through 90 European cities.

For a special customer experience, the large-scale Mercedes-Benz brand centers in major cities such as Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Berlin, Paris, London, Milan, New York, Singapore and Beijing come to complement the city stores since 2000. Since the beginning of the year, the Mercedes-Benz Brand Centre in Delhi attracts clients in its showroom. It is the largest dealership of a premium manufacturer in India. In the brand centres, Mercedes-Benz presents its entire product portfolio and the history of the brand in a space of several thousand square meters. Like in the city stores, the brand centres also guest automobile exhibitions, art galas, lectures and after-work events.

Credits: Daimler AG

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