Benz Sold 200 Cars Within 4 Hours On China’s Groupon-Like Site

Groupon is hot in the U.S, so is Taobao in China, the country’s very own group buying site.

To leverage the popularity of group buying in China, Benz placed 200 Smart cars on Taobao, offering a generous 23% discount on its original price tag. The idea was inspired and managed by Mediaedge:cia.

As an experiment, the agency expected to sell these cars in 3 weeks. Fortune favors the bold. The campaign turned out to be a pleasant surprise as all 200 cars were sold in just three and a half hours! On top of that, the novelty of the campaign also attracted over 300,000 visitors.

It’s a simple but great campaign. Besides agency fee, Benz spent close to nothing. The amount of eyeballs and publicity attracted were well worth the money paid.

There are many complaints about the difficulties to market a product in China. At least, Benz and Mediaedge:cia have succeeded and set an example on how to sell to the Chinese population. However, I believe this is just the first step. The world (including us) still has a lot to learn about the complexity of the Chinese market.

[Via China Internet Watch]