Long known for safety, luxury and precision engineering, Mercedes-Benz now seeks to appeal to younger, less conservative audiences by presenting the more approachable, fun-loving, energetic side of itself in its car catalogs and promotional materials.

When you've long been considered the standard for automotive luxury and engineering excellence, extending your brand can be a sensitive operation. But with aggressive global competitors slicing the luxury car market into ever thinner segments, Mercedes-Benz sought to dispel its reputation as a status vehicle only for affluent, older guys to showing that it can be an accessible, fun-to-drive car for successful professionals. The launch of its new E-Class sedan targeted to youthful, less conservative 40-plus baby boomers provided the impetus to adopt a more emotional tone in its 1996 model catalogs and advertising.

The effort paid off. The Mercedes-Benz line - C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, SL-Class and 600 Series - saw U.S. sales jump 19.3% to 58,486 vehicles in the first eight months of 1996. Auto insiders predict strong sales to continue as Mercedes-Benz embraces lifestyle-oriented marketing to seed the launch of its U.S.-made products like the M-Class All-Activity Vehicle.

The public got its first look at the new Mercedes-Benz marketing strategy last year when the company pitched the generation raised on rock-and-roll with a broadcast ad using the Janis Joplin song, "Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes-Benz." Created by New York-based Lowe & Partners/SMS, the ad was a startling departure from Mercedes-Benz's sedate image. The carmaker continued appealing to younger, upscale consumers with its aggressive $30,000-plus pricing on the C-Class and then the debut of its new E-Class in the '96 model year.

Long Beach-based The Designory, which has been creating Mercedes-Benz car catalogs since 1993, has been responsible for changing the perception of the brand at the personal level through marketing materials distributed to prospective buyers via showrooms and queries on an 800 number.

"There's a strong evolutionary aspect to the design of Mercedes-Benz cars, and we look at that as a guideline to how we evolve their marketing materials," says Rich Conklin, The Designory copy director on the Mercedes-Benz account. The introduction of the E-Class with its softer, more organic silhouette suggested the tone of the new promotional campaign. So did its more approachable price.

Tim Meraz, The Designory creative director for Mercedes-Benz, explains, "More and more, we are trying to appeal to people like you and me, people who make Mercedes-Benz our only car. It's a worthwhile investment for us. For this segment, we need to get across the value issue and get away from the perception that every Mercedes-Benz costs $100,000." The challenge was to advance the Mercedes-Benz legend without divorcing itself from its original strengths. "Mercedes-Benz is one of the strongest brands in the world. You have to be careful with it," Meraz cautions.

The Designory set about reinforcing Mercedes-Benz's new message of approachability, value and fun by integrating similar design cues throughout layers of consumer communication in the 1996 model year catalogs. In a series of catalogs for the '96 model year, entitled "Inspiration," "Imagine," "Desires," "Dreams" and "Envision," The Designory unfurled Mercedes-Benz's new emphasis on lifestyle. "These catalogs were intended to be easier to read, more accessible and more emotional," Meraz says.

"But it's kind of a fine line," he adds. "We want to make Mercedes-Benz seem like these are cars that people wearing shorts go to the 7-Eleven in, but we didn't want to go as far as to cheapen the brand. Generally, we try to stay away from photographing these cars in front of mansions and opulent settings. The reality too is that Mercedes-Benz has few super-expensive cars. For the most part, they are competitively priced with BMW and Lexus."

"We are trying to get consumers to see a side of Mercedes-Benz that has always existed but hasn't been celebrated in marketing communications - namely, the relationship that you are going to have with the car as opposed to what we as engineers did to the car," Conklin adds.

With titles like "Desires," that message is conveyed right from the cover. "Most manufacturers would have put the name and model on the cover, but we wanted to talk about you, what inspires you, what you are all about." Conklin says. "The idea is that before we sell you a car, we need to sell you an idea about that car. We also recognize that buying cars on the Mercedes-Benz level isn't about somebody who wants a car just to get from point A to point B."

Inside, the catalogs feature photos of people and landscapes, not just cars, and experientially convey the excitement of driving a Mercedes-Benz through blurred action photographs, angled shots and a combination of duotone, tritone and full-color images. "If you look at the photography versus images in other car catalogs, it is imperfect by design," says Andrea Schindler, The Designory art director for Mercedes-Benz. "Others look retouched like mad. We do as little retouching as possible. If there is a reflection of a tree in a window, we leave it in as long as it looks good. We want to support a look of naturalness and approachability. Mercedes-Benz feels pretty confident that they have one of the 10 most recognizable brands in the world and they are willing to play with that a bit."

Another way Mercedes-Benz humanized its catalogs was by showing close-up fashion-style photographs of people, often without the car even in the picture. "We struggled with how to do that a long time," says Meraz. "We finally hired a fashion photographer and are pleased with the results."

The text is meant to be friendly as well. The copy - in an easy-to-read font called Corporate A, cut especially for Mercedes-Benz - is simple, clear and direct, counterbalancing the ethereal quality of some of the imagery. "Posing questions like What does it feel like to drive?," says Conklin, "puts the dialogue on the consumers' level and approaches information from their perspective."

The catalogs themselves were developed in three sections. "In the main part of the brochure, we wanted to present the beauty of the car and the emotional experience," explains Meraz. "People who want to go deeper can look at the back of the brochure and see it from a benefits standpoint. The third level is a diskette that fits into the back pocket, which shows Mercedes-Benz heritage and history of engineering excellence. These diskettes are rich with technical information." The Designory, along with its affiliate Pinkhaus in Miami, also produces other major pieces, including a welcome brochure for new car owners and lessees and a Collection catalog of signature accessory and gift items.

Compared to the average 16 to 24 pages of most other car brochures, the Mercedes-Benz car catalogs have a leisurely 52-plus pages to deliver their message. "Mercedes-Benz feels their customers have certain expectations, that their brochures need to have a certain tactile quality, a heft factor," says Conklin. "When you get the brochure and hold it in your hand, it needs to feel like there is substance there." The catalogs feature a combination of coated and uncoated papers in 100 lb. basis weight. "Uncoated papers are good for showing emotions, but when it comes to product, where we need to clearly represent the car and its textures, there is nothing like a coated sheet," says Meraz. As a result, the bulk of the catalogs are made up of coated papers, showing crisp details of the cars and exuding sophisticated energy.

The size and scope of the Mercedes-Benz marketing support program also means that work must continue year-round. The Designory has 20 people assigned full-time to the Mercedes account. The team includes two product specialists, with engineering backgrounds, "who do nothing but live and breathe Mercedes-Benz product information," Meraz says. "They go to all the photo shoots and make sure that art directors and copywriters are in line and review all the mechanicals (finished layouts) to make sure the best angles of the car are shown, the wheels are correct, and the cars are exactly the way buyers are going to get them."

During every step of the process, Mercedes marketing people are involved, providing direction and signoff. Mercedes-Benz director of national marketing communications Albert Weiss says Mercedes-Benz of North America, based in New Jersey, works closely with The Designory to ensure effective communications while allowing enough flexibility for creative powers to flourish. "Our process is to do a postmortem at the end of each year," Weiss says. "We try to anticipate what the customer is thinking a year or so in advance. Through the graphic design, layout and photo imagery, we try to provide the consumer with as much relevant information as possible - complete, engaging and emotional."

Much of this is hashed out at an annual retreat. "The client will characterize what will be happening in the next year. If there is a new car coming out, we go to the factory in Stuttgart, Germany, and talk to the people who designed it. We might spend a month designing the look of these brochures and nine months executing them," explains Meraz. The Designory also works closely with ad agency Lowe & Partners/SMS. "In extending the new Mercedes-Benz personality being broadcast by the agency, we try to drive it all the way down to the collateral level so everything will look and feel like one company. To make sure this message is cohesive, every time we're in New York, we try to get together with Lowe and do a show-and-tell," says Meraz. "It is surprising that even when we arrive at our solutions independently, they are remarkably synergistic."

Perhaps because customers see the Mercedes-Benz print materials as an extension and reflection of the prestigious cars themselves, they tend to hang onto the catalogs even after they have made their purchasing decision. "We find people use them on coffee tables in their offices," says Weiss. "Our literature is not only a supportive element in the purchase of the product, it's also table-top quality. They're passed from one consumer to the next."