Материал: Marketing plan on BMW

In the case of BMW the company can match its strengths against its opportunities, for example as previously mentioned that BMW spends a huge chunk of its revenues on research, what the company can do is to direct most of its research into how to make smaller and more efficient cars for the middle class society as most of the consumers are not able to afford the current premium prices of BMW cars. If the company can in some way accomplish this, it will result in elevated sales in the EU and globally as well.recognizes the threat of volatility in the oil and fuel prices and has thus launched its Active Hybrid 5 car which is better than the previous hybrid cars and has a better fuel-electric consumption than its predecessors. The car can accelerate on electricity alone. Over here it can be seen that BMW has countered this threat by its biggest strength which is its diversity and product development.

3: Marketing Programs

.1 Target Markets

main markets for BMW automobiles have been in Europe, the USA, Japan and the Pacific region, with the markets of Germany and the US accounting for almost half the total car sales. Important markets have also been the fast-growing UK, and the Italian, French and Japanese markets.who want this car should make approx. $125,000 per year based on a 5-year loan. He or she should spend up to 15% of income covering transportation costs (car loan, fuel, maintenance, etc.).           $125,000 per year or morestatus            Anysize      Any                   Bachelor degree and higher                      30-45                   Any                    Any                   Manager or professional, technology specialist           North America, Asia, & much of Europethe Possible Segment and NicheDigerati: We have decided to select the Young Digerati as our target market for several reasons. First of all, they are wealthy enough to afford the BMW of all series. Also, they care about technology, and the BMW is very technologically advanced. Furthermore, they care about image and status, and the car is a hip, trendy status symbol. Lastly, we want to get customers while they are young, so they will become lifelong BMW customers. Hopefully, the Young Digerati will purchase pricier BMW cars like the 6 Series and 7 Series as they age.

variables: Full time employee, full time dad. Very active lifestyle: often attends sporting events, opera and theater, business parties, networking events. Active in community and church, coaches kids sports: Driving, Reading, stock trading, attending plays and sporting events, watching CNBC and ESPN, exercising often, eating at fine restaurants, and drinking only the best import red wine.variablesof usage: Drive everywhere… to work, the kids’ schools and sports, groceries, church, dinner, parties, date night, short family trips.Status: Powerful, important, upper-class, demands respect, someone to knoworientation: customers will want the best… a BMW. BMW will offer the best; most advanced technology in cars including increased fuel economy, collision impact safety devices, seat comfort design with heating and cooling, music and sound, engine and sound, transmission shifting and options, and hundreds of extra accessories that could make their car fit their every need.sensitivity: Not the cheapest car line, but not our most expensive car line either. Our customers are willing to pay more for perceived personal status. They want status, prestige, luxury, reliability, and everything else that is associated with our brand.

.2. Product (PLC, BCG)

most important element in the marketing mix is the company’s product because this provides the useful requirements required by customers. For example: a car that does not start in the morning will not be liked by consumers. Marketing managers develop their products into brands that help to create a single position in the minds of customers.

models of BMW:

The 1 Series <#"815491.files/image005.gif">

3 series, 7 series, 1 series, 5 series, 6 series, X1, X3, X5, X6 and Z4, out of these models the best in running is the BMW 3 series; the car has collected the greatest chunk of revenue for BMW over the years. But the thing to consider while keeping these models in mind is the product life cycle. It shows the sales of the product through their useful life during different stages of their lifecycle. The stages include Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.considering the product life cycle against the portfolio of cars that BMW has to offer then it can be said that most of the BMW cars are on the maturity stage, even though the BMW 3 Series has high market share but the market which it belongs to does not show signs of growing as previously mentioned in the analysis of the BCG matrix. BMW has realized this and has launched the new version the BMW 3 Series in 2011.

BMW has to consider and place its products accordingly into the market, if most of the products of the company are going to be in the maturity stage then there will be serious problems for the company as all of them will be going into decline together. Thus constant and increased improvement into research and development has to be made in order for BMW cars enter into the growth stage of the product life cycle.2007 BMW launched a clip on the internet about its GINA Light visionary model, it is a fabric skinned shape shifting sports car concept built by BMW. The car is enclosed with flexible, stretchable water resistant translucent man-made fabric skin - polyurethane-coated Spandex, is resilient and durable. It resists high or low temperatures, does not swell or shrink and the movement does not slacken or damage the fabric. Though the car is not for sale and thus hasn’t been introduced into the markets and is kept at the Munich museum it has caught the attention of the world when it was premiered in 2007.should launch this car in the markets now using outdoor campaign and digital marketing as such mediums should be used for high value impact products. The BMW Gina can give competition to the Mercedes invisible car as both of them are new and innovative technologies and consumers are willing to pay higher prices for such innovations.

.3. Promotion

saw BMW ranked as the world’s most reputable company by Forbes.com. Criteria included ‘people’s willingness to buy, recommend and to work for’ the company. Interestingly, the answers were driven 60% by perception of the company, and 40% by perception of the company’s actual products. We marketers know that to build a positive brand perception, it takes years and the same has happened with BMW. BMW has been promoting itself with the most amazing television commercials, print advertisement, out of home advertisement and now through online advertising.

Key promotional features in the marketing mix of BMW:

·              Strong brand pull due to excellent marketing over the years

·              Company relies on pull strategy <http://www.marketing91.com/strategy/> more than push strategy

·              Top of the mind positioning  <http://www.marketing91.com/21-companies-top-brand-positioning-sector/>in automobile brands

BMW has always focused entirely on their cars with same advertising company, WCRS being the used since 1979. A broad range of advertising is used by this agency such as television for branding campaigns and new car launches, the press with Tabloid weekend colour supplements, regional publications and magazines, Outdoor campaigns, Sales literature, brochures, etc. Advertising Campaigns/Slogans used by the company in the past .

BMW association is the ‘James Bond’ films from 1983, 1994, 1997 and 1999. E.g. In ‘The World in not Enough’ James Bond drove the new Z8 before the car had been launched and in ‘Austin Powers 3 - Goldmember’ the Mini Cooper was used. This kind of move has helped BMW to position its Car and the brand in front of vast audience across global also this also indicated that the car was fast, more technologically advanced and had created an image in mind of future customers that have best quality, safety, they are different from others.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion involves offering short-term incentives for potential customers to commit to the purchase of products and services. BMW Group is recommended to use sales promotion in the world market in an occasional manner in order to increase the levels of revenues for short-term perspectives.example, 100th anniversary of BMW on March 7, 2013 was specified as an appropriate occasion to announce 10% sales promotion for all BMW models. However, it is important to note that BMW needs to engage in sales promotions in the world market only in an occasional manner, no more than once a year, because using sales promotion more frequently may cause depreciation of BMW premium brand value.

Moreover, BMW management can initiate the development of identity magazine of the BMW Group which can cover the latest trends and news in local and global automobile industry and at the same time serve as an effective channel to communicate the marketing message to the target customer segment.

Engagement in Celebrity Endorsement

BMW can engage in celebrity endorsement by attracting celebrities that are respected by the majority of BMW target customer segment. Real-life examples of celebrity endorsements in automobile manufacturing industry include singer Heidi Klum associating herself with Volkswagen Beetle, Australian pop-singer Kylie Minogue advertising StreetKA, Victoria Bekcham associating herself with Range Rover, Uma Thurman serving as the face of Range Rover etc.endorsements can be done in relation to BMW brand in general, or in relation to specific car models within BMW portfolio. Effective engagement in celebrity endorsement can offer BMW the advantages of increasing the levels of credibility, enhancing the level of brand recall, enhancing the appeal of BMW brand to the masses, and others.

BMW E-Marketingoutrun its competition, BMW has incorporated the internet to its overall marketing strategies. Because about 85% of its customers conduct internet research before purchasing, BMW has invested on internet through website, online applications and television, and social networks to conduct e-marketing. BMW uses internet for online advertising, marketing public relations, promotions, direct marketing and improving customer relations. With its establishment on internet, BMW provides its customers with rich marketing information quickly, on-time and at low costs through e-newsletters, e-magazines, online broadcast, emails and text messages.networkse-marketing strategy incorporates social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube due to the potential of reaching a great number of people at relatively low cost. BMW uses social networks as they allow multimedia and interactive communication with a large number of consumers enabling to conduct viral, communal and influenced marketing campaigns. Additionally, the company uses the platforms for satisfied customers to easily recommend their products to others and also as a medium to conduct customer-product conversations and brand blogging. The official BMW Facebook page has 13,396,064 likes and more than 100 thousand followers on Twitter. With such a great number of fans compared to its competitors, BMW is able to deliver its advertisements to a large number of people at an instant and easily draw them to its websites at a relatively low cost.

“Story of Joy” campaign

BMW’s 2010 “Story of Joy” advertising campaign was intended to attract customers who were not necessarily driving enthusiasts as the “Ultimate Driving Machine”.campaign associated social networks, dedicated website , games and interactive ads, collectively integrated with traditional marketing channels. An industry-specific intelligent social media listening tool was used to determine the impact of the campaign; and was noted that the brand conversations by females had increased by 20% signaling a definite demographic shift (J.D.Power, 2010). The impact of the campaign was easily understood through internet compare to traditional channels due to the rich user information such as age, gender and location. The overall joy campaign was very successful resulting in a rapid recovery of company net profit.Films Campaign2001 “BMW Films” promotional campaign through online short films was designed explicitly to direct consumers to the BMW Films website. Web visitors were required to registration in order to watch the films, hence BMW was able to both spread the message and obtain consumer information. The campaign was supported by TV adverts, prints, billboards and online advertisement that all directed to the same BMW Films website thus collectively increase traffic. The campaign results were historical to the automotive industries at that time with more than 10 million views, 2 million registrations with 60% opting to receive more information, all at a cost of around only $1.20 per person (Hespos, 2002).. Additionally, 94% of the registrants recommended films to others which resulted in a viral campaign and website traffic increase by 55% to 214,000 unique visitors compared to the weekly 138,000 enabling BMW to increase yearly sales by 12.5% in 2002 and later reported to have reached 74% (Pareek, 2009; Strauss, et al., 2006).

.4 Distribution

marketing product life cycle

Distribution includes all of the business activities involved in making the product available to target customers. BMW sells its cars through a number of showrooms in each country and as well as from an extensive network of dealers who are provided with far-reaching expertise and knowledge from BMW. B sales services to their customers.

There are more than 16 dealers in Ukraine who are franchised to sell BMW cars. Worldwide BMW operate in more than 100 different countries with approximately 4,000 plus dealers which are authorised to sell both new and used cars, parts and after sales service products.of distribution for BMW is shown below in the diagram which is followed by the company: Manufacturer à Dealers à Consumers.flow performance of channel member:performs mostly in Promotion, Negotiation, Financing, and Risking, and Payment - as these are the most important parts of the business.is mostly involved in Physical possession, Negotiation, Risking as it deals with warehousing and transporting the cars and Ordering, as it needs to deal with customers directly.' performance is in Physical possession, Ownership, Promotion. Financing, and Payment, as it is the customer who makes the whole system working.

cost added by each member is as follows:

Channel for segmentsorder to satisfy various customers needs, BMW uses the following channels.make orders through the web site and in dealer offices.as well make their orders in dealers but they also can order the cars directly from BMW manufactures.Structures, obviously, order cars from BMW manufactures.dealers in Ukraine:

• AWT Bavaria (Lepse) - Kiev

• AWT Bavaria (Parus) - Kiev

• AWT Bavaria (Podol) - Kiev

• AWT Bavaria - Dnepropetrovsk

• AFZ Bavaria - Zaporizhia

• Car-Alliance - Poltava

• Emerald Motors - Odessa

• Impulse - Donetsk

• Bavaria Motors - Kharkiv

• Avtodel - Simferopil

• Christina - Lviv

• Aria Motors - Lviv

• M AUTO - Mikolaiv

• Car Alliance - Kremenchug

• Automobile House "Victoria" - Lugansk

• Bayern Zahid - Khmelnitsky

• Valerie M - Rivne

• Center Kherson - Khersonthe Ukrainian market BMW uses only exclusive distribution. This type of distribution is usually seen with high end and luxury products, which is absolutely suitable for BMW cars.structure of an exclusive distribution favors both the manufacturer and the distributor: All dealers receive cars and auto accessories without mark up, they have unlimited dealer agreement and are provided with all necessary corporate identity elements. The headquarters on the other hand have complete market coverage and a total control over the quality of front office, which is especially important for luxury products.Customer Segments are covered: those customers who are aware of the BMW products are able to buy very easily what they are intended to buy; those who don’t know what they need but want to buy some BMW car, receive high quality consultancy so that they can make a decision whether to buy a car and choose the specific package that absolutely suits the customers’ needs.order to communicate to those potential customers who don’t have the intention of purchasing BMW, the company uses TV, Internet, wire advertising, product placement and screening short films dedicated to BMW cars, so that potential customers become interested in this brand.

.5 Pricing

prices of BMW Group are based on a differentiated strategy. This means that they charge extra for premium quality. This difference in prices is due to each cars different engine size, gear levels, fuel consumption, sports version.’s take an example of the pricing strategy that has been used by BMW for the 3-series is competition-orientated pricing. Most of the Research shows that all other competitor such as VW, Audi, Alfa Romeo and etc. in the 3-series market is based around the same price. This is because the car industry is large and production costs are not so important and creating the largest profit is not as necessary as it would be for a smaller company.could be either dynamic or negotiated pricing depending on the sales person. Dynamic because the car can fluctuate between prices or negotiated because the buyer and seller can come up with a reasonable price for both parties.based pricingis definitely a value-based product brand. Cost can be an issue if it is priced unrealistically against the cars of close competition, but overall most of our customers are not concerned with price as a contribution factor. BMWs are luxury cars and are elastic expenses. But when the economy is weak, our car becomes a hot pick as a secondary choice for BMW customers who buy the higher luxury cars. BMW customers are not only purchasing their car due to legroom, high technology, and comfort nor just for the reasons of high horsepower and great fuel mileage. They are buying BMW’s because of the brand name and the quality and reliability the brand name stands for.Pricing

.        Customers: Since it is perceived as a luxury automobile, BMW customers are willing to pay around $60,000 for a 5-Series. However, if BMW decided to increase the price of the 5-Series to $90,000, the company would most likely lose some customers because $90,000 is beyond the acceptable range for that type of product. For $90,000, BMW customers expect to buy the larger 7 Series.

2.      Competitors: Regarding the BMW 5 Series, its main competitors are the Audi A6 and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. As a result, BMW must ensure that the 5 Series has a similar price.

.        Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Concerns: In addition to applicable laws and regulations, BMW should consider the ethical dilemmas in pricing. For instance, what are BMW’s ethical responsibilities regarding full disclosure of prices for upkeep, updates, or replacement parts?Pricing

.        Product Strategy: If sales of the Audi A6 increase dramatically, BMW could lower the price of the 5-Series to defend its market share.Pricinguses segment pricing in their pricing strategy by offering programs for recent college graduates. With a recent degree or diploma and a letter from a current or future employer, graduates that qualify can receive the best pricing and financial offers that BMW has. This is particularly good for the demographic chosen because of their young age. Many may have already graduated from college, but many more may be going to law school or going back to get their Masters. BMW wants to hook a younger market so they can be life-long customers. By helping graduates, they are making that possible.offers several different discounts depending on what and how the customer is purchasing. For example, in a lease, BMW offers a $1,500 dollar credit and a reduced interest rate of 2.9% for 36 months. Leasing, especially starting out, is a good idea for a young person like those in the target demographic. BMW offers discounts because, to a buyer, it is enticing. A good deal has the potential to persuade a customer to choose BMW over, say, Mercedes-Benz.

4: Conclusions and Recommendations

.1 Concusions

has taken a lot of referencing and researching for me to write this report and I have learnt a lot from this report too, I started off with very little knowledge about this topic and worked my way through the assignment and I would conclude that BMW is a very powerful name in the automobile industry due to its reputation of providing high quality products and services.Group is the leading premium car manufacturer and seller in the world. The sales of BMW Group are rising day by day. But one great threat for BMW Group is the increasing competition in the automobile market. BMW Group has got fiercing competitors like Audi, Mercedes-Benz being the two nearest to BMW Group in competition in the premium car industry.Group is now trying to target the emerging markets of the world. The sales of BMW Group in different markets of the world tell that the European and the US markets are the best markets for BMW Group in terms of sales. In recent years, however, the Chinese market has been a great attraction for the BMW Group and sales have been increasing every month for the BMW Group.the end it may be said that the BMW Group distinguishes from its customers by its great advertising and marketing campaigns and mostly by their great brand image. The innovation of the company, diversification in new markets, technological advancement and customer satisfaction are the key to BMW success in the luxury car market.latest TV-Ad of BMW Group is a great description of BMW Group as an automobile leader in which they say, “we just don’t make cars, we make joy”. BMW Group should also remain careful to the changing trends in demographics, society, thinking of people and remain a diversified company.

.2 Recommendations

of the people argue that there is always a chance to learn new thing or no matter. How big is the company and how successful they are companies needed to think about the future and make few plans for them? For the future marketing strategies, I would like to recommend few points.BMW cars are considered to be as the luxury cars, of which most products are applied to rich people but not the poor people. BMW can enter the market with Small ‘Lifestyle’ Car which can apply to the middle-class people, its market share can be expanded.the other hand, its accessories and parts of cars are expensive for maintenance, which can reduce the desire of people purchasing its cars.addition, for this can get few new models in BMW Mini this could help then to target few different segments and also can target females, Middle-class or upper middle class people. BMW can also create good relationship with female buyers, they need to do more of promotional strategies to attract more of female consumers in their existing models or for new models in this edition just by giving few simples thing which females like in the car, for example- pink colour, soft-toys, trendy seat covers, etc., The Asia Pacific region is becoming increasingly crucial to global automotive sales. Although it has been overshadowed by China's rapid growth in recent years, emerging markets is set for steady growth where BMW is already there but needs to concentrate more and needs to adaptive marketing strategies to get success out there. These markets are going to be huge as there is more population in these countries as in comparison to US and UK market.addition, BMW needs to come with few more BMW Films interactive marketing campaigns, the "Ultimate Driving Machine". As it is had very successful and showed good promise in it for the selling point. These kinds of advertising are creating very good brand value for the company and company portrayed itself how they want to be in front of customers.

1.      BMW Annual Report 2013.

2.      Hespos, T. (2002) “BMW Films: The Ultimate Marketing Scheme, retrieved October 3, 2005, from <http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/546.asp>

.        BMW BLOG, BMW targets 8% return on equity, Retrieved from <http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/03/15/bmw-group-annual-report-2010-bmw-aims-to-further-increase-earnings-in-2011/>

.        Article. Supply Chain Management of BMW. Management Paradise, online community

. <http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/elements-logistics/211402-supply-chain-management-bmw.html>

.        International BMW website

.        <http://www.bmw.com/>

.        Bavarian Auto Group website

.        <http://www.bag-eg.com/>