Mercedes-Benz announces Santosh Iyer as Head of Sales and Marketing for India

Luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz India has announced an organisational change in its sales and marketing function effective from July 1. Santosh Iyer, currently Vice-President of Customer Service and Corporate Affairs, has been appointed as Vice-President, Sales and Marketing of Mercedes-Benz India. Iyer succeeds Michael Jopp who assumes the new responsibility of heading the Sales and Marketing function of Mercedes-Benz in Malaysia.

Iyer will be succeeded by Shekhar Bhide, currently Vice-President, Quality, and associated with Mercedes-Benz India for more than two decades.

Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said, “Michael played an important role in leading the company’s sales and marketing functions and successfully managed critical market disruptions and headwinds over the last three years. He was instrumental in introducing new digital initiatives and his tenure saw Mercedes-Benz sustaining the number one market position and also topping the JD Power top ranking in Sales Satisfaction. We highly value his contribution for the growth of the brand in India. We are equally excited to welcome Santosh, who has successfully headed multiple functions at Mercedes-Benz India, and played a key role in establishing the ‘service differentiation’ for the brand and driving customer centricity. We are confident that Santosh with his in-depth market understanding, rich industry experience and proven track record of driving excellence will continue the growth momentum of the brand in this highly competitive and dynamic market. I thank both of them for their immense contribution to the brand and wish them the very best for their respective new roles.”

Iyer has two decades of diverse experience in the Indian automobile domain spreading across sales, marketing, retail, customer service and corporate affairs. He has been associated with Mercedes-Benz India since 2009 and is responsible for the customer services, corporate affairs and CSR functions at Mercedes-Benz India. Iyer played an important role in driving ‘service differentiator’ as the key parameter towards achieving service excellence and customer loyalty. Under Iyer’s stewardship, Mercedes-Benz India significantly increased its customer satisfaction scores and topped the J.D. Power CSI rankings for two years in a row.

During his earlier stint as the Head of Marketing Communications, CRM and PR, he led some of the most exciting brand campaigns and digital outreach programmes. A MBA from University of Applied Sciences Konstanz-College of Technology, Business and Design; Iyer loves playing golf, traveling and is a self-confessed foodie.

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