Study says Chinese Mercedes-Benz owners are likely wealthy entrepreneurs
Ryan Joseph Ramos November 30, 2014It may not sound like much of a surprise, but according to a brand study, Mercedes-Benz owners in China belong mostly to a class of wealthy entrepreneurs, and are in fact among the wealthiest in the nation.
Those were the findings in a study conducted on the eight major luxury automakers in the biggest automotive market in the world, via a report by The Detroit News. Successful and wealthy entrepreneurs comprise the crop of Mercedes-Benz owners, and these same owners have the highest household assets among the groups of luxury car owners, pegged at 11.3 million yuan.
The study, conducted by Hurun Research Institute that is based in Shanghai, also associated certain walks of life and attributes to ownership of a particular luxury car brand. For example, Audi, which still holds the distinction of being the top-selling luxury automaker in China, is the car of choice for government bureaucrats. BMW is most attractive to those who belong to ‘the new rich’. There are still, of course, many first-time luxury car buyers who have no established brand loyalty, which provides an opening for other brands like Infiniti and Lincoln.
In order to come up with the analysis, Hurun Reseach Institute surveyed 800 owners of premium car brands across 10 cities in China. This allowed the research firm to associate certain characteristics for owners of certain luxury brands.
Mercedes-Benz sales continue to grow in China, which is a great thing even if the company still cannot wrest the top spot from one of its biggest rivals. The German automaker posted sales figures of 23,150 units just this October, which represented a 33.4 percent increase over the previous month’s tally. The introduction of new compact models as well as a partnership that introduced the Denza automobile are key strategies for continued growth by Mercedes-Benz in China.
