At this moment vans become a trend in Indonesian automotive market. PT. Star Motors Indonesia, as the main distributor of Mercedes Benz, views this trend as an opportunity to expand its product line in Indonesia. Currently, this company is considering the possibility of launching MB-100K series as the first Mercedes Benz van in Indonesia.

The project assigned by PT. Star Motors Indonesia was performing a market re- search to identify customers' attitude toward MB-100K series. The results of this study will be used as an input to the management to determine the marketing strategy in entering van vehicle segment.

Market research results show that the customers perceived MB-100K series as old designed vans. They are not representing the quality they would expect from Mercedes-Benz products and the respondents do not see any distinguishing qualities of the MB-100K series other than that the vans have Mercedes-Benz brand name.

Mercedes-Benz has a good brand image in Indonesia now. Considering the customers' responses and the launching of these van series could harm Mercedes

Benz brand image in the future, the writers recommend PT. Star Motors Indonesia not to launch MB-100K series in Indonesia.

PT. Star Motors Indonesia should seek another Mercedes-Benz van series that has better design, and fit with the customers' preference.



Research Location: PT. Star Motors Indonesia

Supervisor: Deddy Herdiansjah, MSc, MBA

Accepted 6 November 1996



For IPMI Internal -- Read at Library Only.