BMWs Core Target Market - Essay Example

The competitors such as Lexus, Acura, Mercedes Benz, Ferrari, Cadillac, and Infiniti also have established brand names and reputations in the market of luxury vehicles. Also, the competitors target elite and upper-middle customers with income levels of $75,000 and above. Therefore, it is justified to argue that the luxurious automobile industry is one of the most competitive industries across the globe and the USA.

It should be mentioned that BMW has developed a strong brand strategy, which is communicated with potential customers through the use of traditional and integrated marketing communication channels. The sales of the company’s brands across the USA peaked in 2000 at over 0.21 million units, which is evidence of nationwide acceptance, recognition, and inclination of customers toward BMW’s brands. The company recorded a negative growth rate during 1986 – 1992; however, the product development approach later resulted in phenomenal growth during 1993 – 2001. On average, BMW grew 10% per annum in the mentioned period. Nevertheless, the major weakness was the mixed performance of distributors, i.e. some had been providing excellent customer experience whereas some were unable to maintain quality due to certain inefficiencies in the distribution network.

Since BMV’s core target market is elite technology-savvy customers, it should be argued that BMW Films was a good marketing campaign because it involved the element of integrated marketing communication. The campaign was quite successful because it attracted a mass audience toward BMW products and increased awareness and brand recognition among customers. For instance, over 9 million users viewed/downloaded the films produced by BMW. Also, the growth rate increased because it helped remove ambiguities about the performance of the company’s brands in the minds of potential customers. The basic motivation behind the idea was that such a unique marketing campaign was never launched by any other automobile group.

The main strengths of BMW have enhanced brand recognition, market reputation and goodwill, high customer loyalty, high sales volume, and extensive financial resources due to profits from increasing sales. The weakness was certain inefficiencies in the distribution network that had been affecting the overall performance and customer experience. The opportunities include an increase in market size followed by growth in international trade volume due to various trade agreements. 

The company used ‘market penetration strategies to increase sales of existing products and to reduce excessive inventories at hand. However, the main strategies of BMW were ‘product and market development’ because it manufactured, assembled and marketed new and innovative existing products to existing US, European and new Asian markets. However, the company did not use any diversification strategy by acquiring businesses/firms in different sectors.

Read More