Strtegic Position of BMW - Essay Example

ustrin industrilist Frnz Josef Popp purchsed the compny in 1917 nd renmed it Byerische Motoren Werke. The Trety of Versilles, June 28, 1919, directly influenced the entry of Rpp Motoren Werke (lter to be known s BMW), into utomobile mnufcture s the terms of surrender by Germny resulting from World Wr 1 stipulted under rticles 198, 199 nd 201 tht ny militry or nvl ir forces were prohibited nd it lso stipulted the mnufcture of or importtion of ircrft. Rpp Motoren Werke, s result of sid bn, mde rilwy brkes until its fory into utomobiles in 1929.

The hyperinfltion rising s result of the severe economic snctions imposed by the Trety of Versilles rered its hed in the 1920's nd helped to stgnte growth in Germny. This pper will nlyze the strtegic position of BMW with the help of five competitive forces of Porter, SWOT nlysis nd other mrketing nlysis in the utomobile industry. More prticulrly, it will be nlyzed how the forces hve n effect on the cr mnufcturer BMW. Bsed on this nlysis, the force with the most impct on the compny will be identified.

Bsed on tht, it will be described how BMW uses informtion systems to offset the force. BMW, which stnds for Byerische Motoren Werke, hs mde well-known nme s luxury cr mnufcturer (Bernhrdt & Kinner, 1994). The hedqurters of the BMW group is in Munich, Germny, but the compny is present ll over the world. The compny built high brnd equity over the yers through continuous brnding efforts nd high qulity products. BMW is rgubly the most dmired crmker in the world nd BMW products inspire ner- fnticl loylty (Kiley, 2004).

SWOT nlysisStrengths BMW is well-known compny with high sttus brnding tht hs very high recognition fctor. The compny hs been strengths in both reserch nd development nd design s well s in mrketing. For exmple when it comes to mrketing it ws BMW dvertisement tht ws the first e-dvertisement tht mde it to Cmpigns 'Pick of the Week' (Domn). However, in long-term purchse such s this there is need for moire substnce thn just mrketing, otherwise the life of the compny would be reltively short due to the nture of the purchse.

It is in these longer-term systems nd strtegies tht we cn see mny of the strengths of BMW, we cn consider these by strting with the mrket position of the compny. BMW s well s Mercedes' nd few other compnies hve mnged too successful ttin m mrket position where they hve focus on nrrow rnge of exclusive crs. These cn be seen s imed t the mrket plce tht is not lso sensitive to price, nd s such we must rgue tht the mrket positioning my be seen s strength s there will not be such rection if the economic conditions chnge.

The customers tht re in the trget group re hppy to py premium price for wht they perceive s premium product (Thompson). This my not be so true of the subsidiry compnies tht hve hd different problems, such s the ill-fted Rover group. However, the core product hs remined strong (Thompson). This my be seen s diversifiction, nd some of the diversifiction my lso be seen s strength, for exmple the purchse of Rolls Royce where there is similr strtegy, however the rnge nd trget mrket re even more focused nd exclusive.

The strtegy of BMW is designed to be defensive ginst other cr mnufctures, nd s we will see when it comes to the section on threts this is defensive