Originally Posted by hu§eindesign

Maybach has two major problems that were the main reasons for it to fail beating RR and Bentley:

1. Marketing: The car was miserabely marketed. MB did the same freaking mistake they did with smart.. they bet that people will buy it blindly just depending on the fact that the car is actually a Mercedes. But that didn't work out, because Mercedes is entering new land here agains some giants who've been in the buisness for ages. So they decided to give it a glorious name for the past.. but who the hell knows what Maybach was? What was their history? what are the advantages of taking its new version over an RR with all its glorious history, powerful name and mighty image? You can't just present a car of which 80% of the world never heard, load it with luxury, demand half a million for it and be sure that it will be sold like hot cakes.. i mean come on.. There had to be some powerful marketing campaign to let the world know what Maybach is about and how glorious their history was. The concept shown in 1997 was presented as a Mercedes model under the name "Mercedes Maybach" and jounalists and people were amazed, because it was not only the luxury and innovation that the were attracted to, but the name of Mercedes. with its powerful image, people knew what they're getting if the car was built.

2. Design: another major mistake which is connected to the problem mentiond above. When presenting a car as a whole new product, you need to give it a whole new character and presence. A bigger S-class won't do it. People who would buy such a car want to be unique and be recognized as unique. The car needed to be given a whole new design that makes the car stand for itself and not be confused with a "normal" Benz. This is an other point where RR and Bentley were much stronger. They stood for ther own character and own history. I don't see that the Phantom is in any way looking like a BMW or Bentley like a VW!

these two major mistakes MB did are dependent form each other.. they had to do both right to be successful, but they -unfortunately screwd both.

so my advice to DC: cut it or give it an own character.