BMW: Selling an Emotional Product that Fulfills Wishes for Status
No less a personage than the Chairman of the Board of BMW Helmet Panke back up this strategy when he admitted that BMW offer’s “customers emotional products, which, through the strength of the brand and the substance of the products fulfill the customer’s wish for individualization and differentiation.” BMW therefore should considered a company more in the business of selling hopes and dreams than automobiles. This dream that so many consumers have isn’t something that is natural, but rather something that was established by intelligent product branding. And BMW’s product branding differs from most others; it wasn’t accomplished so much through a clever advertising campaign, but instead stems from their corporate culture. In recent years, however, BMW discovered that what is a dream to one person would be a nightmare to another.
In making the decision to create an emotional product instead of an automobile, BMW learned that emotions run very deep among their customer base. When people feel an emotional commitment to a thing, even the slightest tweak in that thing can have enormous ripples of impact. BMW recently experienced the dark side of selling an emotional product based on wish fulfillment, resulting in a deep division between BMW consumers who are unhappy to say the last with the new designs. This rumbling of unhappiness among the dream purchasers kicked off when Chris Bangle appoint chief of design. In 2002 Chris Bangle made some sweeping changes in design, turning what had been sleek and angular lines into what critics usually referred to with such terms as blocky and, well, ugly.
The new designs by Chris Bangle did nothing less than turn many owners from way back into frothing maniacs. The typical criticism was that the new autos simply were not as elegant as BMW autos should be. It should come as little surprise that much of this civil war was engaged over the internet, in chat rooms and on forums. What is keenly fascinating about these comments from those who viewed Chris Bangle in a negative light was how certain they were that the negativity over his designs would affect BMW profits. Time has been as kind to these negative nellies as they have been to those guys who’ve predicted the end of the world. Chris Bangle’s designs have by now permeated the market and not only has BMW not suffered, but revenues actually rose.
Can anything be made of this result? Well, it certainly does seem that BMW status is based less on outward appearances equitable to owning a fancy Italian sports car than it is to something that is particularly intrinsic about owning a BMW. In other words, the status associated with BMW is more about the idea of owning a vehicle than it is to the actual physical presence of the car itself. That kind of emotional attachment to a status symbol is the kind of thing that other CEOs would literally kill for. Fortunately for the rest of us, it is also the kind of thing that provides enough room for experimentation to make some innovative and groundbreaking moves.
BMW has a history of environmental innovation, though in all fairness those environmental innovations were spurred because they made good business sense. Big business survives only through give and take, however, and whatever the reasons they decided to investigate these innovations, there is little argument that BMW automobiles rank very highly in terms of being the most recyclable. In fact, BMW cars are nearly completely recyclable. In 1990 the BMW Group’s Recycling and Dismantling Center began operating, and this was prior to when politicians finally were forced to begin imposing statutes and regulation. As far as environmental innovations are concerned, for BMW it is all about sustainability. In 1999 BMW implemented the EMS management system to facilitate the process of identification and management of its environmental risks. A year later BMW introduced the world’s first production-based hydrogen car, the BMW 750hL. BMW has made a commitment to the environment, although certainly not due to any altruistic motivations. They have managed to discover the secret to protecting the environment while also increasing capital and revenue and, more importantly, further engaging in successful product branding.
In the past few years, BMW reintroduced a blast from the past: The Mini Cooper. This stylish little car was marketed specifically to a younger, more liberal-minded consumer than the traditional BMW customer; just another case of creating wish fulfillment through differentiation. It won’t be long before differentiation at BMW extends to green-minded individuals looking to fulfill their own wishes for a clean-burning luxury car. The Mini Cooper is smaller and therefore more fuel-efficient that most BMW models. The Mini Cooper’s size creates instant obsolescence for families with young children. Differentiation is the keywords and Panke outlined the importance of it in the culture of BMW.
BMW simply is not interested in the sub-premium market; nobody in their right mind fulfills a wish by buying a sub-premium product. The Mini Cooper is a wish fulfillment for consumers wanting to go retro. The hydrogen powered vehicle is wish fulfillment for those desiring a status symbol car minus global warming guilt. BMW is creating a blueprint for extending their unique brand of status to those wanting to save the rainforest while also driving a BMW. This potential customer, on the other hand, is desperately searching for a way to insinuate itself into BMW culture while at the same time preserving their anti-business cache.
BMW made the choice to create a status system based on selling an emotional product and a path toward wish fulfillment. That is a corporate methodology that is incredibly difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain. BMW has managed it by instituting a corporate structure that imprints this legacy of status upon every employee and through a series of incredibly subtle advertising campaigns. BMW obviously doesn’t create truly individualized cars, and neither does fulfill the wish of every single consumer. What BMW does do, and quite successfully, is generate the idea of the status of owning a BMW that is individualized, that was built for your very own design and comfort and security, that bonds the consumer to the manufacturer on seemingly equal terms. It is a dream, certainly, and one with the potential for turning into a nightmare for BMW, but so far it is one that both consumer and company seem perfectly content in which to engage and pretend.
