{"id":4376,"date":"2018-08-31T17:14:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T15:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blackeight.com\/?p=4376"},"modified":"2025-10-08T11:43:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:43:04","slug":"mercedes-benz-brand-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackeight.com\/en\/mercedes-benz-brand-purpose","title":{"rendered":"WHY Mercedes-Benz defined its purpose twice"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mercedes-Benz is one of the most valuable brands in the world. On December 8th 2017, Dieter Zetsche published the new purpose (or WHY) of Mercedes-Benz on LinkedIn. Usually, a newly defined purpose is something lasting very long, etched in steel. Not half a year later, on May 11th, 2018, he posted another article about the purpose of Mercedes-Benz. So what has changed between purpose 1.0<\/a> and purpose 2.0<\/a>?<\/div>\n
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Observations in a nutshell:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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  1. Bringing the new purpose<\/strong> to life is taken very seriously<\/strong> at Mercedes-Benz<\/strong>. It is a long journey<\/strong> from the first post on Linkedin to anchoring purpose in everyday business at Mercedes-Benz.<\/li>\n
  2. The new version<\/strong> \u00bbFirst Move the World\u00ab seems to be an evolution, not a revolution<\/strong> of the old version with Mercedes-Benz as self-proclaimed solver of the \u00bbparadox of the success story of cars\u00ab. Overall, this evolution<\/strong> is a step forward, nevertheless<\/strong> there are also some disadvantages<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  3. The purpose initiative of Mercedes-Benz shows that \u00bbpurpose\u00ab and \u00bbbrand\u00ab are strongly linked to each other: purpose<\/strong> will only unleash its full potential<\/strong> if it is linked<\/strong> to a brand<\/strong>. From our external point of view, we see three potential tasks arising.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    1. Purpose and its long journey at Mercedes-Benz<\/strong><\/div>\n
    Purpose (or \u00bbWHY\u00ab or \u00bbbrand purpose\u00ab as used synonymously) can be defined by the company\u2019s reason for being \u2013 beyond making profit. Aristotle has already stated:<\/div>\n
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    \u00bbAt the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose.\u00ab<\/div>\n

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    There are many indications that Mercedes-Benz takes the purpose initiative very serious.<\/div>\n
    On the one hand, this can be noticed in the initialization phase<\/strong>: Purpose is embedded in Daimler’s leadership 2020 initiative<\/a>. The fact that there are two articles about Mercedes-Benz’s purpose on Dieter Zetsche\u2019s LinkedIn profile shows two things: firstly, he demonstrates full C-level support for the initiative and secondly, great importance is attributed to the search of the \u00bbtrue\u00ab purpose of Mercedes-Benz.<\/div>\n
    On the other hand, this can be observed in anchoring<\/strong> the purpose in everyday corporate life<\/strong> at Mercedes-Benz: A \u00bbPurpose Activation Officer\u00ab is staffed and \u00bbFirst Move the World\u00ab is the official reason for the shift to CO2-neutral-car-production. Dieter Zetsche keeps explaining \u00bbFirst Move the World\u00ab to the employees. Recently, he gave a keynote speech at the Digital Life Day and employees are using #firstmovetheworld on Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n

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    2. Comparison of both statements: evolution instead of revolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Brand purpose 1.0 is based on two key findings resulting in a paradox. On one hand the car has always been a personal declaration of independence (distances, parents,\u2026). On the other hand the incredible success of the car leads to huge dependencies (oil, emissions, \u2026): \u00bbHelping to solve that paradox is our purpose.\u00ab<\/strong>. Brand purpose 2.0 is \u00bbFirst Move the World\u00ab<\/strong>. This new version can be interpreted in different ways:<\/div>\n
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    While the second article clearly refers to Mercedes-Benz Cars with its 145,000 employees, the first article mixes up the corporate\/ employer brand Daimler and the product brand Mercedes-Benz.<\/div>\n
    Therefore, there are two possibilities of interpreting these two WHY-articles:<\/div>\n