Brand Analysis
Steven Tyson
Marketing Analysis – Grau
April 2, 2012
Introduction and Purpose
The automotive market is defined by the common goal of high efficiency, with the aim of lowering production costs and raising revenues. In this highly competitive landscape, standardization, components, and mass production are king. Yet, there is an outlier that refuses to abide by the market trend of efficiency over quality.
BMW continues to provide consistent growth both financially and in market share by believing that you can have the best of both worlds; a quality product that is made efficiently and doesn’t compromise the most important element of any car: the driver (Larrson, 2006). The purpose of this brand analysis is to dissect
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Note: To better narrow and describe the automotive industry, I have chosen to exclude the BMW Group brands of Rolls-Royce and Mini (as they are targeted at extreme niche markets), and to at times, focus only on the domestic industry.
Note: To better narrow and describe the automotive industry, I have chosen to exclude the BMW Group brands of Rolls-Royce and Mini (as they are targeted at extreme niche markets), and to at times, focus only on the domestic industry.
Overview of Industry
BMW originally created the “ultimate driving machine” catch phrase for the American auto-market in order to help define and distinguish the new concept of the sports sedan from the standard luxury sedan. With it’s positioning as a sports sedan BMW must consider the macro-environment of the automotive industry, and how the political, economic, social, and technological factors affect it’s positioning.
Political
* New government laws and incentives are being spearheaded by the European Union to cut carbon footprints in an effort to fight climate change. European car manufactures, such as BMW, have volunteered to an agreement toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 75% as comparee to 1995 recordings. The U.S. has recently mimicked statues like this. * Friction in the Middle East continues to affect oil prices and push consumers towards higher gas-millage cars. Stability in
It is important to realize the basic facts that are associated with cars and with BMW in particular, and that different demographic are attracted towards different types of car, to later understand that even though the product in the ad may be amazing but the ad itself is not. Did you know that in 2010 the number of cars in the world reached a billion (Noël)? Today’s culture is highly surrounded and based on the use of cars. They are such a prominent part of our culture today that if an alien were to visit our planet right now they might just consider cars to be the dominant form of life (The Hitchhiker 's Guide to the Galaxy). There are so many different types, and makes of cars that they can suit any personality in the world.
Given the current economic climate, I think the automotive industry is going to be faced with a multitude of economic challenges in the next five years. As an oligopoly market, the auto industry is highly dependent on strategic decision-making, and the demand for dynamic innovation and supply at decreased-cost levels. Competition, possibilities of turning substitutes into compliments, and shifts toward higher demand in services are seemingly leading factors that face the current automotive industry in the immediate future. But first, we should not ignore the political forces at play within the market.
Q.1 What are the causes and consequences of BMW’s quality problems with newly launched products? What should be done to improve “launch quality”? (583 words)
The industry for superior luxury cars is a highly exclusive one with a few automotive makers making their presence felt. The major market share is held by Porsche which is known to have formidable rivals like Benz and BMW. The SUV supercar segment is a highly evolving one where manufacturing style localities and units are the decisive forces that ultimately culminate towards the cost of the car.
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world’s most important economic divisions by profits. This analysis focuses on the industry, specifically, manufacturers of automobiles. There are five competitors in the StratSim environment: Firm A, B, C, D, and E. Industry sales in the most recent year were 4.3 million units, with expected growth in the next year. Within this industry, there are seven-vehicle classes: Economy, Family, Luxury, Sports, Minivan, Truck, and Utility. There are two new classes with potential – if properly marketed.
The company aims to generate profitable growth and above-average returns by focusing on the premium segments of the international automobile markets. With this in mind, a wide-ranging product and market offensive was initiated in 2001, which has resulted in the BMW Group expanding its product range considerably and strengthening its worldwide market position.
Industry definition: "Companies in this industry manufacture cars and automobile chassis. These operations, which are referred to as automakers, typically produce cars, including electric cars, in assembly plants. The manufacture of light trucks (e.g. vans, pickups and SUVs), heavy trucks and motorcycles is excluded from this industry." [2]
BMW Group is one of the largest and most successful multi-brand automobile manufacturers in the world, headquartered in Munich, Germany. Just like many other
The causes and consequences of BMW’s quality problems with newly launched products were plentiful and apparent all throughout the case study. For instance, BMW does not use pre-production tools during prototyping. This significantly lowers their opportunity to discover and fix quality problems earlier in the production process. Secondly, they let suppliers have a say in development after “cubing” has occurred. Unfortunately, if suppliers come across problems during the first production, they often don’t have enough time to fix it before new model introduction. Finally,
Thesis: From 1916 to the present day BMW has earned the title of "The Ultimate Driving
The United States Automotive industry has been dominated by five major auto manufacturers: GM, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, and Honda. As globalization increases the domestic automotive market (GM, Ford, Chrysler) suffers from foreign competitors. Although with high entrance barriers the market suffers little to none from new entries. There are several reasons for this the largest being capital. It takes a lot of capital to obtain manufacturing plants, raw materials, as well as to hire and train employees. PASTEL Analysis
BMW marketing veers towards standardization rather than towards adaptation although it has a combination of both. The aesthetics for instance on its websites and the rest of its marketing mix are similar on all its material reflecting standardization. The classic design accords with the image of the company and does not differentiate according to specific country. So, for instance, users switching from the Taiwanese website to the American one will find the same design. The dominant colors of BMW, too - blue, black, silver and grey- remained the same regardless of country, and the pictures are the same too
BMW (U.S) Holding Corporation is a franchise of the high-end performance based global automotive company BMW. For the first time in its history, BMW is to launch its first American made car, the BMW Z3 Roadster. Having only made cars in Germany, this time the car is to be assembled in Spartanburg, South Carolina. BMW’s objective is to expand its market share in the U.S., make the brand name more global and improve its dealer network. With this in mind, the company developed a two phases launch plan for the BMW Z3 Roadster.
Strength of Competition-Very high. Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar, Porsche, and more have invaded BMW’s market niche.
However, due to its unique targeting strategy, it has not win compatible brand recognition among the public. Although Audi enter much earlier than BMW and Benz in the luxury car market, its marketing strategy limited increase of public brand recognition even Audi has over 100 years’ history. Besides, although its styles are highly accepted by the targeting customers, there are a growing number of people who can afford luxury cars for family use in China. Lack of vitality is limit of its further market expansion. On the contrary, its major competitor in China, BMW, has launched a series of marketing strategies to promote its high-performance, manoeuvrability, as well as stylish design to attract young people (BMW, 2009) in order to expand its market share. Therefore, although Audi has achieved success in the targeting market, it may consider further development through diversification in product line and advertising campaign.