Can Mercedes be women's top choice?

Mercedes-Benz wants to be the top choice among premium car brands for women by 2020, at which time it wants at least 30 percent of its customers worldwide to be women.

Daimler AG's premium brand is increasing its emphasis on attracting women because CEO Dieter Zetsche believes they are the world's "fastest-growing and most influential group of customers." Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that women influence 80 percent of new car purchases, either by buying a vehicle themselves or having veto power over their partner's choice.

To get there, Mercedes has to make up ground, particularly in Germany, where years of conservative design and a stuffy image as the preferred brand for rich, older men has turned female customers away. Even sponsorships such as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week have not helped.

While 40 percent of Mercedes' customers in the U.S. are women, the share shrinks to 25 percent for China and just 20 percent in Germany -- the three biggest markets for premium cars.

To emphasize his point about the power of female car buyers, Zetsche cited China. "We first needed to create the awareness that we have great potential here and that's where this somewhat cheeky saying came from that "Women are the new China.' If we have potential in China, then we have even more potential when we increase the share of our women customers," Zetsche told reporters this year.

The automaker has created an initiative called She's Mercedes that addresses women and combines an Internet platform with exclusive event formats at various locations. The aim is to make women more familiar with the brand and help Mercedes learn more about women's mobility needs.

Since the end of 2015, Mercedes also has offered a lifestyle configurator as an alternative to the traditional car configurator. Instead of first picking a model and then working down from its powertrain options, customers are asked about their preferences regarding architecture, music, travel, sports and home life. Afterward, the customer is given a number of recommendations that correspond most to these preferences.

Appealing to women, however, is tricky and could potentially backfire, not only by inadvertently coming across as sexist. The door can also swing too far and become a self-reinforcing dynamic, as more and more male consumers turn their back on a perceived female product.

That was the fate of the first-generation Volkswagen New Beetle. Although the original was driven by many car enthusiasts, men were turned off by features such as a vase in the dashboard to hold a flower. This backlash prompted VW to reposition the second-generation model.

Volkswagen Group's Audi premium brand is taking a different path from Mercedes.

Audi says that while it analyzes women's tastes during its product clinics or via studies on market trends, it says differentiation based on gender is not central for its business.

"We don't communicate that since it varies considerably from market to market and model to model. Also, the names on the registration papers don't always mean they will be the ones driving the car," a spokesman said. "We register differences much more between those who are looking for a corporate car or a sporty car, those who are technology-inclined and those who gravitate toward a car because of its design, for example."