Published IN MERCEDES-BENZ SCENE

Sponsor: Mercedes-Benz

Additional branded content for Mercedes-Benz includes:

Drive With Me, a Q&A series with prominent Canadians about their driving habits   

Cool Jobs: Iain Forsyth

For Iain Forsyth, trading in his Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTEC for an ML350 SUV is all part of the job.

As product manager for Mercedes-Benz Canada, Forsyth helps create strategic and life cycle plans for vehicles, taking into consideration the various phases they’ll go through with respect to sales opportunities and challenges.

He considers driving each vehicle the best way to get to know its intricacies for these purposes.

“It’s a personal goal to live with and understand what our customers really love about these cars,” he says.

Beyond his own experiences behind the wheel, Forsyth examines what Canadian customers value and expect from Mercedes-Benz, and how global offerings may then be adapted for this market.

He points to Mercedes-Benz Canada’s all-wheel-drive strategy as differing from even the country’s closest neighbour to the south. Due to Canada’s climate, vehicles are always equipped with the all-wheel-drive system 4MATIC, while those in the States don’t always require it.

Though he knowingly recites such facts, Forsyth says the greatest challenge in his job is effectively ensuring a product is well received in the marketplace through careful research and strategy.

“The Canadian market does change quickly, so being successful in terms of sales requires factor A to meet factor B,” Forsyth says. “We need to make sure we’re offering something customers really want, we have to make sure we have the right production capacity for the types of products desired, and we have to make sure we’re offering them at the right price.”

Implementing model changes year over year requires planning 18 months in advance; making lifecycle plans for a vehicle that is already in the market, but will be reintroduced with a brand new version, requires planning five to six years ahead. Among other departments, the product team Forsyth is on works closely with the sales and marketing teams to make this happen.

Knowing the intended customer, and what they expect from their vehicle, is also essential to success. Many customers have perhaps driven E-Class or S-Class vehicles for years, Forsyth points out. So the goal becomes defining how to adapt them for their next want or desire.

What remains constant, Forsyth says, is a commitment to innovation that sets Mercedes-Benz apart, whether it’s through styling, safety features or new technologies. 

Putting strategic puzzles together is a rewarding experience for Forsyth, whose love of cars dates back to childhood when he would collect model cars – not necessarily to play with, but to display.

These days, his greatest satisfaction comes with seeing a car in action for which he helped plan the lifecycle.

“We’re not car designers, but seeing a successful model in Canada that you helped plan is incredibly rewarding,” he says. “It’s thrilling to see something you helped plan from start to finish actually out on the road.”