...the mainstream. The Setup Like most car companies, BMW traditionally executes advertising campaigns (i.e., television, print and radio) to support new vehicle launches. However in 2000, there was no new vehicle launch for BMW, so the opportunity to spend advertising budget on pure branding arose (a marketer’s dream). The Key Insight Through extensive consumer research, BMW found their typical customer was 46 years old, with a median income of about $150,000 (USD). Two-thirds were male, married, and had no children. Delving deeper, they discovered this nugget: Roughly 85% of BMW purchasers used the Internet before purchasing the-hire-logo On April 26, 2001, the now defunct bmwfilms.com launches with a series of short films available for viewing. Clive Owen plays the driver, a man who goes from place to place (in sexy BMW’s of course), getting hired by various people to be a sort of transport for their vital needs. The series launches with Ambush directed by John Frankenheimer and featuring the BMW 7 series. Along with Ambush, four other short films were released in 2001, including: - Chosen directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) featuring the BMW 5 series >>> scroll to the bottom of this article - The Follow directed by Wong Kar-wai with Forest Whitaker, Mickey Rourke, and Adriana Lima and featuring the BMW 3 series and Z3 roadster >>> scroll to the bottom of this article ...
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...Question: What was the objective of BMW films? Was it successful? The BMW is a car manufacturer with quite small market share in the U.S. market (slightly below 2%). Brand is being perceived as a yuppie and status car, while consumption patterns in USA market changes from “conspicuous consumption” to more pragmatic style. In comparison with Lexus and Mercedes Benz, BMW is perceived as less comfortable, roomy and dependable. Still, in 2001 BMW is at its top in terms on sales and brand strength. The company decides to continue its innovative advertising style (first innovative advertising – Z3 in James Bond series “Golden Eye”) and makes 5 short films with A-class directors, producers and actors. Short film series main actors are Clive Owen and BMW cars. The films were given a very warm welcome from audience, and were hailed by the critics. Now the company should decide what to do next. The objective of BMW film was stated by vice president of marketing Jim McDowell as “pure branding” and showing people “what makes a BMW a BMW”. Some unstated parts of actual purpose of short films are: 1) Increase BMW market share 2) Show customers different BMWs, like for example “If you want to change your 3 series to a SUV, you do not need to change the brand, we also have comfortable and spacey BMW X5”. Show them that BMW doesn’t end with luxury and/or sports cars, but also have other types of vehicles. 3) Make existing customer more loyal. 4) Change brand image to more timely and modern...
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...HBS CASE: BMW FILMS 1. How fit is the BMW brand at the time of the case? Are there any reasons to anticipate undesirable financial performance in the future? How fit is BMW at the time of the case? Justify: BMW is very fit at the time of the case, which was August 2001. Verify: During the period from 1996~2001, BMW sales rebounded and eventually reached record levels in the US Quantify: Compared to their slump around 1991 where BMW sold around 55,000 cars, they were able to sell 190,000 in 2001 in the US Are there any reasons to anticipate undesirable financial performance in the future? Justify: No Verify: 1. Because BMW’s US unit sales have been increased since 1991. 2. The BMW films were launched in 2001 with great success. Their creative, innovative style of marketing through short films that were directed by big name directors starring famous actors have given them more positive publicity than ever. 3. BMW was also planning on introducing new products including the redesigned 7-series, new Z4 Roadster, and the $20K subcompact Mini-Cooper. Quantify: Analysts were reporting that over the next few years, BMW was planning to increase US sales by 40%, to 300,000 cars a year. Keep in mind that as of 2001, they sold roughly 190,000 units. 2. What is BMW’s unique selling proposition? Describe a typical BMW’s target customer and how the company’s products fulfill his needs. Unique Selling Proposition: The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the...
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...from 2002 shows BMW attempting to focus purely on branding BMW in order to surpass competition in marketing innovation, gain market share and reach new sales goals of an additional 40% in the US. This focus on branding resulted in the production of 5 short films under the name BMWFilms that attracted the younger generation and neglected the current consumers. BMW should supplement this with advertising focused on their current consumer as well as additional customer service benefits for their current consumers who could progress from the 3 Series to 5 Series to 7 Series if properly maintained. Additionally, BMW in efforts to differentiate itself with seven new series in 2002 may potentially cannibalize the brand and force entrance into the mass-market. In order to avoid this issue BMW should focus on differentiating series and cars models from each other to better target their customers. In 2000, BMW had reached new record high sales in the United States after recovering from a record low in 1992. Due to this new high of sales along with no new car production for the next six months, there was an opportunity for branding BMW’s name specifically to differentiate it from the competition. This opportunity led to the creation of five short films that were only available online at BWMFilms.com. BMW hired Clive Owen as well as A-list producers to create these 5 short films that showcased BMW cars as supporting actors in dramatic plots. These films neglected the BMW customer profile...
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...BMW advertising strategy BMW has built its brand on 4 core values: * Technology * Quality * Performance * Exclusivity Coupled with WCRS (BMW’s advertising agency since 1979), the company made his advertising strategy, based on these values. However, it is important to point out that BMW also relies on its sensitively to the environment, which is clearly seen by how the company’s advertisements evolved in response to economic, environmental and competitive changes. The brand image was built up by using over 300 color press advertisements and 64 television commercials. One thing that all BMW adverts have in common is that they focus entirely on the cars. TV Branding campaigns and new car launches. BMW has also placed it cars to a lot of films: * Four James Bond Films * 1983 BMW 5 Series and a BMW motorcycle appeared in Octopussy * 1994 the Z3 Roadster became James Bond's official car in GoldenEye * 1997 following the success of GoldenEye a 7 Series saloon and R1200C Cruiser motorcycle appeared in Tomorrow Never Dies * 1999 the Z8 sports car featured in The World is Not Enough * 1996 E36 318i in Mission Impossible * 1998 E36 3 Series, E28 5 Series, E34 M5 in Ronin * 1999 E36 3 Series Convertible in American Beauty * 2002 E46 3 Series, E34 5 Series, E23 7 Series in The Bourne Identity * 2003 R1150 Rockster motorcycle in Paycheck * 2006 Z4 in Stormbreaker Radio Branding campaigns (2002 was the first...
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...Final Project Marketing Plan BMW has always been premium brand oriented company. It manufactures three brands in BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce. These brands occupy various high end market segments from small car to luxury premium car. This leads to BMW become the only both premium car and motorcycle manufacture. Each brand within BMW has its own clear brand image. Its products have rich product connotation in aesthetic and dynamic design, dynamic performance, technical content, and overall quality. Thus, it can provide customer with practical value. Build on this basis, BMW can expect higher margin and continuing to maintain profitable growth and ensure its independent status. SWOT OF BMW The SWOT analysis is a sum up of the external and internal analysis. Moreover, the SWOT analysis will be used to manipulate the strategic findings in order to identify which areas are of particular interest for the BMW Group. This covers both the identification of the best opportunities and the biggest threats to the organization. The SWOT analysis will put things into perspective by identifying, which threats and opportunities should be dealt with right now and which should be a concern for the organization in the future. (http://pure.au.dk/portal-asb-student/files/10730/Valuation_of_BMW.pdf) The internal factors to...
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...profitability, due to their high level of sales, and the low level of expenditure needed to maintain the sales levels. The 7 series however is a model in decline in terms of its lifecycle. It is found at the ultimate destination of all products, a ‘dog’. The production does have market share, but its desirability is waning and its performance relative to its competitors is not what it once was. The market for the 7 series however, is still performing well. This means that BMW should, and will review the model with a view to re-launch in the near future. The above products are all fairly settled. Many of them have been being manufactured for many years now with several re-designs and re-launches. BMW has however recently begun expanding its portfolio, and the result of this is some new star and problem children. One of these stars is the X5. The X5 is a new market area for BMW. The 4x4 market can be extremely profitable, especially the ‘On road’ 4x4 products. This market is very large and growing, and BMW have made an attempt to get a slice of the cake with the X5. The Z3 and Z8 are very similar products. They are both small sports cars, differing in the Boston Matrix in terms of market share and price. The Z3 is a star, but the Z8 could be described as a problem child. More affordably priced than the Z8, and with a larger share of the growing market, the Z3 is a product beginning to mature and generate a...
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...developed and grown. With the development of technology, there appeared more transmission channel. According to Borrell Associates’ latest report, the auto industry’s use of print, radio, and direct mail will be taken over by this growing transition to digital media. To put things into perspective, about 40 cents of every media dollar spent for automotive marketing will go toward digital advertising in 2011 and in 2012 it is likely 90% of additional advertising dollars will go toward digital media.[1]Obviously, digital media is the general trend in auto advertising. Television; internet website; social media network and video network are all digital platform. In this thesis I will focus on creative TV advertising; product placement and micro-film advertising. Because among all those digital ads, there are fast-growing recent years and represent the develop direction of automotive advertising. Creative TV commercials Most of the time, advertising is regarded as a supporting communication way to achieve the marketing goal. The aim of ads is to deliver messages, attract clients and build a bridge between companies and consumers. Advertising cannot lose creativities. In 1960s, “the father of advertising” David Ogilvy said: it is necessary to have a good idea to attract consumers’ eyes and make them to buy your product. It is like to be swallowed by the darkness of...
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...Mid-Level Luxury Performance Sedans Situation Analysis By Craig Schlesinger and Jason Wachter I. The Mid-Level Luxury Performance Sedan Market Consumer Overview This market attracts consumers exhilarated by the thrills of driving. They are willing to spend more on their cars to obtain a desired level of performance. Although these drivers are primarily concerned with speed and handling, they are also interested in the luxury components, safety features, and durability of their automobiles. Fuel-efficiency is neither the first nor the last thing on their minds – they are not willing to sacrifice performance for the environment, but they are environmentally conscious enough to stay away from lowmileage sports coupes. These consumers have adventurous aspirations for their driving experience. They want nimble turning capabilities and powerful engines. They are not interested in efficient, basic cars suited for point-to-point driving. Rather, they want fuel-injected speed and sports-tuned suspension designed for what lies between those points. These owners crave vehicles with an attitude to assuage their need for excitement. For some of these mid-size luxury performance owners, driving is a reflection of their day-to-day lives. They tend to be youthful and exuberant, and they invest in these sedans to fit an image and satisfy a craving for performance. They cannot necessarily afford more expensive sports cars, but are willing to pay higher prices to avoid association with...
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...Suppose you work for BMW. Why does it make sense for your company to segment an overall market and target only specific segments? Why not go after the total market? Seems like the "shotgun approach" would be better, right? Be sure to form your arguments using concepts from the textbook In deciding how to properly market a product a company must have a good understanding of the product and the customer who the company is hoping to target. With BMW you are looking at a high cost sporty motor vehicle so my first order of business would be to look at my target audience and Use a number of tools to be able to properly understand my target consumer. I would use psychographics to identify the type of person who buys a new BMW .Psychographics targets consumers based on lifestyle rather than just simple demographics and because of the type of product BMW is this would be a better as most people buy BMW not for A to B transportation but more as a lifestyle choice. You would then create a segmentation strategy using effective segmentation criteria. Although BMW is a well-known company it has a relative small market share as the majority of car buyers view it as a luxury brand. So BMW needs to be able to capture as much of that market share with competition from companies like Mercedes and Porsche. This small market share means they do not have an unlimited budget but must target a particular segment. The success of this approach was seen in the early 2000s when BMW began to use less traditional...
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...BE ORIGINAL Introducing the New BMW MINI Cooper Hardtop, “The New Original”. MINI is known for its quirky campaigns over the years, the launch of the new model brought about MINI’s biggest campaign yet, with the slogan: “The New MINI. The New Original.” Spring 2014 announced the arrival of BMW’s new MINI Cooper Hardtop. The car that was first launched in 1959 has been entirely redesigned from bonnet to boot. Bigger and better than ever, the new MINI focuses on the things that make it undeniably different from all its competitors. With new engines, technologies and design, the MINI is faster, safer and more connected than a switchboard. It is completely different from any other car. BMW in collaboration with their respective advertising agencies worldwide, have used all possible forms of media and creative new ways to engage their target audience in the launch of their iconic MINI. MINI uses brand promotion tools including advertising and sales promotions. Back To Spike/ Spike The Bulldog/ Bullheaded/MINI Cooper Dog Lovers BMW decided to keep Mini’s iconic bull-dog stance in their first ad, “Bullheaded” which features Spike the Bulldog. The ad was launched on MINI’s YouTube channel and was broadcasted on TV. If you never thought you would buy a car because of a dog, THIS AD makes you think otherwise. Outdoor & Print Ads/ More Torque Less Twerk/ Nothing says quirky quite like their quick-witted and humorous outdoor and print ad campaigns, which show off the...
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...0021865942 BMW Film Case Study The Harvard Business School case from 2002 shows BMW attempting to focus purely on branding BMW in order to surpass competition in marketing innovation, gain market share and reach new sales goals of an additional 40% in the US. This focus on branding resulted in the production of 5 short films under the name BMWFilms that attracted the younger generation and neglected the current consumers. BMW should supplement this with advertising focused on their current consumer as well as additional customer service benefits for their current consumers who could progress from the 3 Series to 5 Series to 7 Series if properly maintained. Additionally, BMW in efforts to differentiate itself with seven new series in 2002 may potentially cannibalize the brand and force entrance into the mass-market. In order to avoid this issue BMW should focus on differentiating series and cars models from each other to better target their customers. In 2000, BMW had reached new record high sales in the United States after recovering from a record low in 1992. Due to this new high of sales along with no new car production for the next six months, there was an opportunity for branding BMW’s name specifically to differentiate it from the competition. This opportunity led to the creation of five short films that were only available online at BWMFilms.com. BMW hired Clive Owen as well as A-list producers to create these 5 short films that showcased BMW cars as...
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...171 a 1 Question 1 - Success of the BMW Group 1. Introduction The BMW Group was founded in 1917 and today is one of the leading. automobile and motorcycle manufacturers worldwide with a workforce of more than 100,000 associates in over 100 countries (BMW Group 2012). The company possesses three of the stron gest premium brands in the car industry, BMW. MINI and Rolls-Royce, as well as holding. a strong market position within the motorcycle sector (Innovation Leaders 2011). According to Linkedln (2012) the company aims to create profitable growth and returns that are above-average by focusing on the premium segment of the automobile market internationally. 2. Approptiate Measures for Success 2.1 Revenue and Profit According to the BMW animal report (2011), the company sold 1_668.982 automobiles and the overall revenue for the compan y was e68.8 billion at the end of the 2011 financial year, with the net profit standing at 64_9 billion, Furthermore the report shows that the 2011 fiscal year was the best in the history of the company, with sales volumes, revenues and profits reaching, new highs and exceeding annual targets set by the BMW Group. This is reinforced when comparing current profits to those before the worldwide economic recession; net profit in 2007 was E3,14 billion, meaning 2011 showed a 51_7% increase in profit from that year. This is a clear indication of the recent success of the BMW Group on a financial basis, as the company is outperforming their set...
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...pricing strategy of BMW Published: 23, March 2015 2. INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF THE PROJECT The topic that has been chosen for the project is related to the car industry i.e. to research the business strategies of BMW. BMW is the leading premium car manufacturer in the world. The report will look at the current business strategy that BMW adopts and also the future strategy of BMW Group. Business strategy has been defined by Johnson, Scholes & Whittington in their book "Exploring Corporate Strategy" as "a strategy that is concerned with how a business competes successfully in a particular market. It concerns strategic decisions about choice of products, meeting needs of customers, gaining advantage over competitors, exploiting or creating new opportunities etc." In this project, the author will research the marketing and pricing strategies of BMW Group. Also the markets BMW target and how BMW group as an automobile industry faced the recession period. The project will also look at the growing competition in the automobile industry and the major competitors for BMW Group. The marketing strategy of BMW Group will include their segmentation, target markets, marketing mix and by using SWOT analysis, the author will describe the advantages and benefits it is delivering to its customers and also its disadvantages. The pricing strategy of BMW will also be described. BMW adopts a differentiated strategy so the author will describe how it affects the prices of BMW cars. The project...
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...MINI was born in 1959 in United Kingdom and became an independent brand of BMW group in 1994 by SIR Alec Issigonis (BMW Group, 2009) At the beginning it was an affordable iconic British car, now it has become a cool luxury car dominantly for a young segment. Its international marketing strategy is differentiated in a way that a brand is built up on the historical iconic image of Mini for the UK and associated market, but it is not associated with any values in the past for the US customers. Overall, Mini’s marketing strategy is considered to be innovative, creative, and sometimes “silly”, which is of great value for its young energetic target audience. Mini focused on group of young generation – up to thirty five years old, well-educated and wealthy background. Those people that want to be different and willing to pay a big amount of money to show their status and images. Mini has used “un-traditional” way to advertise its products. Only $20 million was spent on traditional media in 2012 such as television, compared to $80 million spent by its competitors Fiat. Under direction of BMW group, beside TV and Magazine advertising, an extensive amount around @20.7 million euro was spent on E-marketing to bring people awareness about the product. As it is a technology world today, the Yo ungers would prefer accessing the internet to search for wanted information, rather than sitting at home and watch television. In addition, customers can access and see the cars in a fancy...
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