Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY ANALYSIS OF BMW 1

The Marketing Strategy Analysis of BMW

Xin Yang

193508M
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Abstract

This essay is based on BMW company and will lead readers to have a better

understanding of its current marketing strategies, compared with the company’s

competitors, such as Mercedes Benz and Audi. In this essay, I will discuss BMW

company from both marketer’s and consumer’s angle by using several consumer

psychology theories, for instance, relationships between a person and product, market

segmentation theory, sensory marketing theory etc., and give some possible solution

to improve the company’s effectiveness in its marketing strategies.

Keywords: BMW Marketing Psychology, consumer psychology, product

relationship with person, market segmentation, sensory marketing, balance theory,

consumer identity.
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The Marketing Strategy Analysis of BMW

The Relationships between a Person and Product

BMW company launches several series from 1 to 7 and M series altogether

(“Find your BMW”, n.d.), even though different series target different group people

which we will discuss later, the whole product line reveals a comfortable and

convenient lifestyle. According to its market pricing strategy, especially in Asia, the

car can be afforded by middle class at least. Therefore, we can illustrate this situation

by self-concept attachment. This concept explains ‘the product helps to establish the

users’ identity’ (Solomon, 2015, p. 21). In this case, buying a BMW car can help the

owner to set up self-awareness, and also be able to express their social class to the

public which will in return to strengthen the users’ identity.

All BMW automobile series adopt the similar classic front “kidney” grille

design, which was first invented 85 years ago. This product design keeps consistency

no matter what changes have been made, and it’s a quite useful strategy to attract

customers who were the passengers when they were a kid. According to nostalgic

attachment concept, ‘a product can be served as a link with the past self’ (Solomon,

2015, p. 21), the potential customers can be appealed because a memory of childhood

can be recalled by driving a BMW car.

Driving car to commute is very common in contemporary society, hence, driving

a car is ‘a part of the user’s daily routine’ (Solomon, 2015, p. 21), which leads to

build the interdependence relationship between owners and the cars.

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According to the love concept, ‘the product elicits emotional bonds of warmth

and passion’ (Solomon, 2015, p. 21). All the car series insist sport design, and BMW

company’ slogan says: “sheer driving pleasure”, as a consequence, an emotional bond

of passion and happy can be aroused through driving a BMW car.

Market Segmentation of BMW

There are many product lines of BMW, from 1 to 7, X1 to X6, and M1 to M7

series (“Find your BMW”, n.d.), among these, series 1 to 7 are mainly sedan cars, this

designed to satisfy the everyday need of people, while series X are all SUV (sport

utility vehicle) which are focused on people who have strong requirements of sporting

driving experience; moreover, each of series can be divided into different mode

according to engine output, exterior and interior decoration, such as 320 and 325.

These are the application of marketing segmentation principles, because each series is

targeting different group of people. Based on the theory, marketers can ‘use many

other dimensions to divide up a larger market’ (Solomon, 2015, p. 8). There are two

ways of segmentation:

 Segmentation by Demographics

 Segmentation by Behaviors (Solomon, 2015)

In this essay, I will mainly discuss the segmentation by demographics,

demographics are statistics that measure observable aspects of a population, such as

age distribution, gender and income (Solomon, 2015, p. 9).

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For instance, compared with 7 series, 3 series are designed for the middle-class

youngsters who earn a considerable income at their age group and who love to enjoy

the sense of driving. The general design of this series is more sport and fashion,

however, in 7 series, BMW company is trying to creates noble and brilliant

atmosphere by the overall line of car, visual of interior and texture of material. Under

this circumstance, 7 series are aimed at the people aged over 40 who are mainly the

successful business person or highly paid senior manager in an enterprise.

Furthermore, when we pay attention to each one specific car design has different

engine output as well as the exterior and interior decoration. From my perspective,

men have higher needs on engine power, however, women care more about the

decoration and the degree of convenience. In this case, BMW company launches

several modes containing various engine power output and exterior and interior

decoration to fulfill its customers’ needs.

The Sensory Marketing of BMW

According to Solomon (2015, p. 174), “Sensation refers to the immediate

response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, skin) to basic

stimuli such as light, color, sound, odor, and texture.” Therefore, sensory marketing

means utilize all kinds of stimuli to exert influence on customers and push them to

remember and even purchase the product.

This summer, BMW launches brand-new X6 series (BMW, 2019). Through its

official launch film, it is obvious that BMW company use as much as sensation the
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can to impress the customer. In the beginning, the unique engine sound starts with the

music, and this sound is being played throughout the whole advertisement.

This engine sound plays with beat music can arouse the passion for driving this

car. Besides, the “X” symbol can be seen everywhere, such as the keyboard of the

musician and the screen of the night club, this is used as an implication of X6 series.

Furthermore, the advertisement displayed many details of the car, such as the texture

of car seat, gear, and instrumental panel, by showing these, a greater level of

attachment can be aroused to the product (Solomon, 2015), therefore, customer may

raise the desire to buy this car. In addition, the car’s general function and many other

special features are exhibited during the advertisement, which successfully motivate

the customer to fully involve into this scenario BMW company trying to create.

According to cognitive learning theory, people ‘process at least some

information in an automatic, passive way, a condition that researchers call

“mindlessness”’ (Solomon, 2015, p. 219). In this advertisement and almost all BMW

ads, the company always choose seductive models, which is a useful strategy to

influence its potential customers, so that they may give higher rating to the car.

BMW Product Placement Marketing

BMW sponsored “mission impossible: 6” (Redfern, 2018), and product

placement is a huge business for automakers, since they can benefit a lot from this.

The most outstanding car in the movie is brand-new M5, which is driven by Tom

Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt. The movie suggests that driving this car will make the
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customers feel that they are capable of doing everything due to the car’s prominent

car. This subliminal advertising is planted. Besides, sponsoring a movie is a useful

strategy because it creates a great scenario for the audience (Solomon, 2015). To be

specific, there are four elements of persuasion:

 Communicator;

 Message channel;

 Massage content;

 Audience.

It is a common sense that we should keep absolute quiet in cinema, and it is

polite to turn our cellphone into silent. Therefore, if a product is placed in a movie,

even if the message channel is passive for the customer, the degree of involvement

will still keep a high level since the audiences are all attracted by the movie without

distraction, not to mention that the most of the audiences are in a relax and happy

mood which is helpful to accept messages that BMW cars convey.

The Possible Improvement for BMW company.

The Application of Persuasion and Balance Theory

In persuasion theory, communicator plays an important role in marketing strategies. A

good communicator should include those traits listed below (Solomon, 2015):

 Credibility;

 Attractiveness;

 Similarity
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Hence, inviting a spokesman or several spokesmen aiming for different series

will be an effective method to promote sales. Because the celebrities are generally

concerned as a combination of credibility and attractiveness. Under this circumstance,

if the BMW company choose a man who is masculine and represents high social

status and tasteful lifestyle will exert positive influence on the produce, that is car.

Besides, choosing a spokesman should be very careful, since this strategy works like a

double-sword, which means that some potential customers may be attracted by the

spokesman while the opponents might turn against of the car, as the balance theory

mentioned: a persons’ liking or disliking can be influenced by the celebrities

(Solomon, 2015).

The Application of Consumer Identity Theory

The general economic growth in traditional developed countries slows down

constantly, while the big economy booming in developing countries indicates a great

opportunity in Asia, Africa and Latin America countries, therefore, it is wise for

BMW company to expand their market share in such areas. In addition, according to

the consumer identity theory (Solomon, 2015). The company should pay extra

attention to the customers’ identity especially in regarding to ethnic and religious

subculture, for the reason that there might be some taboo in marketing strategy

against the subculture.

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Conclusion

BMW company is the leading premium automaker and car seller worldwide.

Although the company occupied a large share of high-end auto fields, its competitors,

such as Mercedes Benz, Audi, cannot be ignored. Those competitors have the similar

capability in car manufacture and sales, and the targeting customers are overlapped.

Bedside, with the emerging market of electronic cars, the product of high-tech and

environmental protection, some new car manufacture, such as Tesla, came into being.

Therefore, BMW company should always keep innovation and keep in line with the

time. A sustainable development strategy (BMW Group, n.d.) is the key to future

survive.
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References

BMW Group. (n.d.). Production: Flexible. Efficient. Innovative. Retrieved from

https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/company/production.html

BMW. (2019). The all-new BMW X6. Official Launch Film. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMRseEVaO-Q

Find your BMW. (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, 2019, from

https://www.bmwhk.com/en/all-models.html?bmw=grp:BMWcom:home:models

Redfern, J. (2018). BMW to star in new Mission Impossible film. Retrieved from

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/bmw-mission-impossible-fallout-

film/

Solomon, M. R. (2015). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (7th ed.).

Toronto: Pearson.