Mercedes-Benz tops world’s most valuable premium auto brand

Mercedes-Benz continues to be regarded as the world's most valuable premium automotive brand.

In the latest ranking by respected brand consultancy Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux, 'Best Global Brands 2011', the three-pointed star brand again took 12th place – as it did last year – emerging the most valuable European brand.

With sales of around 1.1 million passenger cars per year, Mercedes-Benz is also the world's most successful premium car manufacturer. Passenger car sales figures doubled between 1993 and 2003, with turnover for all of the Mercedes Car Group brands soaring more than two-and-a-half-fold to €51.4 billion during the same period.

"Mercedes-Benz's success is largely due to its extensive, systematic analysis of customer requirements and trends within society," the manufacturer says on its website.

This approach enabled the Stuttgart-based manufacturer realise at the start of the '90s that customer expectations and, in turn, demand within the premium car market were changing.

The traditional segmentation of the passenger car business into compact car, mid-size and upper category no longer applied while demand for new vehicle variants was increasing: cabriolets, roadsters, coupés, off-roaders and concepts that also offer a high recreational value in addition to meeting pure transportation needs have been going strong ever since. Market niches have consequently turned into booming market segments.