Maybach - media articles

$1m car on the table
By Neil McDonald
September 21, 2002

HOW do you sell a $1 million car?

First you print a coffee table book on it and then use it to kick off an ultra-exclusive, $100,000 nation-wide direct marketing pitch to lure buyers.

Mercedes-Benz already has identified a select group of 120 Australians who are likely buyers for its first $1million car, the Maybach four-seater limousine.

The potential buyers will receive, hand-delivered, a quality $50 coffee-table book detailing the car's history and brief details of the new model.

It is the first phase of an intensive direct-marketing campaign, according to Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman Toni Andreevski.

"We've gone for a personalised focus rather than mainstream advertising," he said.

Later next month, the country's top 160 individuals, identified through the BRW Rich 200 list will get the same coffee-table book but it will be presented in a hand-crafted high-gloss timber box worth about $300 and personalised with the potential customer's name in brass on the lid.

The Maybach has everything expected of a millionaire's chariot, including a 600-watt sound system with 21 speakers, aircraft-type reclining seats, double-glazed windows, refrigerator, two cordless telephones plus a mobile phone and the all-important retractable window partition between the driver and rear passengers.

Mr Andreevski said the company also had invested in a $30,000 laptop computer with a Maybach program that allows customers to configure the car to suit their personal taste.

Mercedes-Benz Australia already has taken three confirmed orders for the car. One Brisbane customer has put down a deposit of E100,000 ($180,000) and it's known that trucking magnate Lindsay Fox wants a Maybach, as well as a leading Sydney media identity whom Mr Andreevski would not name.

 

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