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Opinion / What Mercedes can learn from Louis Vuitton about storytelling: luxury brands need to connect heritage to millennials’ sense of now

FILE PHOTO: Designer Virgil Abloh is seen before his Fall/Winter 2020 collection show for fashion house Louis Vuitton during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, France, January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Designer Virgil Abloh is seen before his Fall/Winter 2020 collection show for fashion house Louis Vuitton during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, France, January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

  • A Gen Zer in the market for luxury doesn’t much care if your brand has been around for hundreds of years, it’s the story that counts
  • Fashion houses like Louis Vuitton and Gucci – that have regularly updated a consistent brand story for decades – are great role models

This article is part of Style’s Luxury Column.

Mercedes recently announced the 2021 Mercedes-Maybach GLS. The company website states that “The GLS represents the peak of SUV luxury. But to earn Mercedes-Maybach badge, even this superlative vehicle needed to reach new heights.”

Mercedes has changed its strategy significantly at recent Maybach launches compared to earlier, failed, approaches. When Mercedes first brought the almost forgotten brand back in 2002, it tried a stand-alone approach. The Maybach 57 and limousine-style Maybach 62 were based on the soon-to-be-replaced Mercedes S-class at that time, but with clumsy modifications. At the time, Fortune magazine wrote that, “Mercedes took an ageing S-class chassis and plopped an absurdly elongated body on it … rather than develop a new car from the wheels up.”

The Maybach project had been launched by Mercedes in an attempt not to fall behind Volkswagen and BMW, who both challenged its leadership position in large luxury sedans with the Bentley and Rolls-Royce brands that they had acquired at that time.

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Mercedes-Benz new Mercedes S Class. Photo: @mercedesbenz/Instagram
Mercedes-Benz new Mercedes S Class. Photo: @mercedesbenz/Instagram

As a result, the launch of the first Maybach became a financial disaster – few cars were sold and for many, the car lacked any relevance and the technology was already obsolete when the car was launched. Primarily an oversized car with little practical function, it only really shone in terms of interior comfort which, at the time, was unparalleled.

It’s not a surprise that these cars mainly ended up being used as hotel shuttles and for high-end limousine services. Few people decided to buy one and use it as a private car. There was simply no storytelling and little desire created beyond its fancy interior. What Mercedes should have learned from that launch is that luxury is in the story.

To create extreme value, storytelling is everything. History can be part of a story and Maybach has a long history reaching back to the late 1800s, with its pinnacle flagship car, the 1929 Maybach Zeppelin convertible. However, as a result of the financial crisis of the 1930s and the second world war, the brand disappeared and was largely forgotten. Mercedes launched the brand with a historic name that no one remembered and that had zero contemporary meaning for a modern world. I am sure that if asked, at launch of the Maybach 57, practically no one had heard about the brand.

The Maybach 57S covered and ready for its big reveal at the 75th Geneva International Motor Show in 2005. Photo: Reuters
The Maybach 57S covered and ready for its big reveal at the 75th Geneva International Motor Show in 2005. Photo: Reuters
This is an important lesson for luxury brands. While history can be a driver of value, it only is if there is a connection to the now, or if the history creates a strong emotional value for consumers. There has to be a story that people want to be associated with today. A story that is merely in the past has little value for young, affluent consumers that have plenty of choices. If a historic name is just a badge, then it carries zero value. It’s just an identifier. And in luxury it is never good to be that.

The elements of a brand story need to have tangible elements that are authentic, meaningful and ideally tap into an important insight about the consumers they target. Gucci, for example, taps into the insight that many consumers want to express themselves unrestricted and in a safe way without having to ask for permission or be criticised. The brand story combines elements that allow people to self-express plus the emotional dimension of belonging to a welcoming community in which it’s OK to be you. Over time, the interpretations of the story have changed from the “sexual overdrive” expression of Tom Ford to the artistic, romantic and playful expression of Alessandro Michele. The underlying story never changed, and the story carries the value that drives the desire to buy Gucci.
Daniel Langer is the CEO of the leading luxury, lifestyle and consumer brand strategy firm Équité (equitebrands.com), and the professor of luxury strategy and extreme value creation at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He consults some of the most iconic luxury brands in the world, is the author of several luxury management books, a frequent media commentator, a global keynote speaker, and holds luxury masterclasses in Europe, the USA, and Asia. Follow @drlanger on Twitter