Abstract
The German premium automotive market belongs to one of the most saturated market in Europe due to its large population and its strong economy, the most powerful within the European Union, which results a high standard of living. Added with the presence of local premium manufacturers, these factors assure a very strong competition for foreign automotive manufacturer which want to increase their market shares and moreover to establish their brands in this market.
Nowadays are established premium automotive brands the most rentable within their companies and bring high profits assuring a financial support. The biggest automotive groups are concentrating at least one or several premium brands in order to have access to their own share of the segment. Occidental premium brands are historically well implanted in the German market but with the increase of cooperation and acquisition within the automotive industry, new players also want to bring new premium brands on the market to establish their worldwide reputation. In 1989, Toyota created its premium brand Lexus and vehicles were directly available in Germany the next year. On the contrary, Nissan's premium brand Infiniti, founded the same year, only began on the German market in 2008. Recent brands from Asia or other emerging countries also could soon come to Germany to complete their ambitions for rapid growth.
On the German market is it possible to differentiate two kinds of premium brands: brands locally manufactured like Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and the imported brands like Lexus, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Each has its advantages and disadvantages in term of production and distribution but doesn't especially enable the same strategies.
