According to Auto News, the Mercedes-Benz USA group and dealers have plans to spend a hefty amount over the next few years on their branding. They plan to spend around $30 million over the course of 4 years in employee training on the brand’s culture. The hope is that this will turn their own employee into an army of brand experts, ready to woo potential customers with their M-B knowledge.

The automaker is renovating their Vance, Alabama visitor center to include classroom training. It’s here where the first round of employees will get two-day training in through their Brand Immersion Experience. Mercedes-Benz USA VP of customer service, Gareth Joyce explains how this move is part their effort to make Mercedes-Benz a better “package” through their dealer network.

This kind of micro-branding, while not a totally new concept, is somewhat the opposite of what GM has been doing with their brands. While Mercedes-Benz is investing large amounts of money and time into a “boots on the ground” type branding effort, GM is still thinking world-domination.

Point in case, the redesign of the C7 Corvette to appeal to foreign markets — not to mention their rumored mid-engine redesign to move the model closer to supercar status. Another rolling example, the new Z/28 — GM has stripped the car of it’s “lug” image and turned into int an elite track-ready machine.

It’s hard to wonder if GM is monitoring their anti-strategy closely.