11:32 pm, January 31, 2012
MERCEDES tuner AMG has been an untapped opportunity for the German maker, the firm’s sales director has said.
Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, Mike Whittington (pictured) told us the AMG brand has been a chance waiting to be exploited up until now, and Whittington plans to double AMG sales this year.
‘AMG is area of the business I want to change quite significantly this year and I want to push it more. I think it has been an untapped opportunity for us,’ he said.
‘I think the AMG brand is just not as known or used in marketing as overtly as our competitors – such as BMW with M-series,’ said Whittington.
‘AMG is a fantastic proposition, has always performed well and has been profitable for the network, but we have never really used the AMG name enough. And as a brand, we have never put enough focus on communicating the sport heritage that AMG has.
‘I will be looking to double our AMG sales this year on the back of new product and refocusing ourselves, our communications, our events, and our network on the opportunities AMG offers,’ Whittington added.
New products will help sales grow in 2012
Every dealer has the opportunity to sell AMG products, despite the three-pointed star setting-up ‘Performance Centres’.
‘The principle was that every market area would have a performance centre and would have better trained salespeople and technicians, would have more products available, would have a different display, and would have more demonstrators available,’ said Whittington. ‘But every dealer can sell AMG and that is something we will be strengthening this year.’
Whittington suggested Mercedes-Benz will be making ‘it easier’ for dealers to order AMG cars and to run them as demonstrators.
‘Mercedes Formula One team re-naming their team Mercedes AMG will help too,’ he added. ‘It will get the name more readily understood within the marketplace. There will be that link to the product – and we have seen this with the SLS due to it being the safety car. Let’s just hope the team performs well!’
