The AMG Ducatti Partnership - or is it more?
It has been announced that Mercedes performance division – AMG – is to join with Italian superbike maker Ducati in joint promotion ventures
We didn’t see this coming, we must admit. And at first glance we really don’t really see the synergy. Mercedes AMG are to join up with Italian superbike makers Ducatti to acess new customer groups and get involved in joint marketing and sponsoring.
The logic is that customers of both companies have a similar – wealthy – profile and there’s a chunk of synergy – not to mention potential cost savings – in marketing to both at once, and a bit of cross-selling.
Trouble is, at least from our perspective, the two don’t really market to customers looking for similar things. We think of Ducatti as a rapier whereas AMG is really a heavyweight broadsword. One’s about finesse and the other about a Thor-like wave of power.
But there is a possibility that there’s more to this deal than is being announced. Autocar are claiming that this AMG/Ducati partnership will lead not only to AMG badged two-wheelers but to the eventual takeover by Mercedes of Ducatti.
In terms of size, Ducatti is a minnow compared to AMG Mercedes and produces just 35,000 bikes a year. If Mercedes really do want to emulate BMW by being the makers of motorbikes as well as cars then this is probably a sensible route. It also seems unlikely that Ducati would be able to resist AMG’s overtures if that is the plan.
But has anyone told AMG?
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