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Who would have thought that BMW was still being dogged by the ghosts of yuppies? Not me. But, according to the marketing brass at the Bavarian automaker and its new ad agency, too many luxury vehicle buyers are ignoring BMW because they associate the brand with people named Skippy and Buffy.
It can't be too bad. After all, BMW scored record sales in the U.S. last year. But marketing chief Jack Pitney, who took over the brand last year, says that 75 percent of those in the luxury car market don't give BMW the time of day. That troubles Pitney, who successfully launched MINI USA for BMW before taking over at the mothership. Not only does BMW North America not want to take their success for granted, but they also are bringing in new vehicles to new niches that may not appeal to their traditional, core fans. A forthcoming crossover vehicle, for instance, could bring in new customers to BMW.
So, BMW on May 8 kicked off a new ad campaign that, while it still uses "The Ultimate Driving Machine slogan," gives pretty scant notice to horsepower and road-hugging handling. Instead, the ads spotlight BMW as a "company of ideas," a champion of design, a place where mavericks flourish, and a company that makes the most of its independence and dedication to environmental responsibility. Whew! Is BMW really such a nice company?
In one ad, BMW shows a rear-quarter view of - and I can't believe I'm saying this - the 7-Series flagship sedan. This was the car that drew catcalls at its 2001 debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show for its busy looking bustle butt. It's been derided ever since as the "Bangle butt," named for the company's chief designer. But a funny thing happened last year. Toyota seemed to emulate the Bangle butt in the new Camry and even Mercedes seemed to have Bangle-ized its S-Class rump. Respect? So, next to the 7-Series photo in the ad is the headline, "Not Taking Risks is Risky."
There is a series of ads, print and TV, that play off the company's Leipzig, Germany plant, which was designed by architect Zaha Hadid. The recurring shot of white-collar workers at their desks just below a manufacturing line taking vehicles from the body shop to final assembly is arresting. Here, BMW is using the image to assert the kinds of decisions it can make as an independent company not answering to a corporate parent. "A parent company would never let us build this," goes the ad. BMW in this campaign has fun here and there taunting its rivals like Ford, Mercedes, and Toyota, by pointing out or reminding people that other luxury brands are but divisions of big parents: Jaguar and Volvo reporting up to Ford; Lexus reporting up to Toyota ; and even Mercedes sharing office space and resources with Chrysler.
So, what's the point of these ads, as well as others that play up BMW's Art Cars painted by such luminaries as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein? BMW is trying to up its cred with the so called "creative class." This is the "class" of people identified by author and marketing guru Richard Florida (The Rise of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life). Florida describes these people as those whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content. In general this group shares common characteristics, such as creativity, individuality, diversity, and merit. The creative class makes brand and product purchases not just on the basis of value and benefit, but based on whether the product is designed aesthetically right and the company behind the product stands for the right values. Sometimes, marketers short-hand such buyers as the iPod class because of how Apple soaked up the vast majority of MP3-player sales by designing one that appealed to buyers as a badge even if it cost more than other players. Florida even consulted directly with BMW's new ad agency GSD&M, Austin, which won the account late last year after BMW parted ways with Minneapolis ad agency Fallon Worldwide, which is best remembered for creating the BMWFilms series.
It is a big campaign that will last through the summer in advance of the launches of the 3-Series coupe and redesigned X5 SUV. In another series of TV ads, BMW uses images of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house getting hit with a wrecking ball and a Jackson Pollock painting resting in a dumpster. The message of these ads is that BMW, unlike the companies who destroy maverick and radical ideas, is a champion of ideas and design and fosters the sorts of investments in art and design that is vital to its culture.
The campaign is turning up in many of the usual places one would fish for BMW customers. But the Internet ad buy packs some new names: www.gawker.com, www.theonion.com, www.thegothamist, and www.flavorpill.com, Web sites that attract this so-called creative/design class and which are easier to build ad strategies around than they used to be.
On one hand, I can envision a BMW exec picking up an award for this campaign and having a Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars-moment: "You like me?you really like me?I'm so happy." But it's not as ham-handed as all that. In fact, I think BMW and GSD&M carry this strategy off pretty well. BMW enthusiasts who appreciate the M3 and M5 as the finest street-legal performance cars around know that the yuppie effect apparently crowding BMW's image is an irrelevant vestige of another time. If you don't like the iDrive, you don't like the iDrive. And that's okay. But it doesn't seem fair to shun BMWs because you are afraid the neighbors will think you have too much money.
Environmental sensitivity in an age of $3.50 a gallon gas is also part of the fresh BMW message. One ad hails the 745h hydrogen car as ready for prime time and to sell or lease. The ad says BMW is just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. Another ad shines a light on the Spartanburg, S.C. , plant where the Z4 and X5 are made. It already draws more than 50 percent of its energy from methane piped from a landfill nine miles away, and it's going up to more than 80 percent [I admit, I was impressed by that]. Another ad shows off that one could drink the water discharge from the 745h, a harbinger I am told of a demonstration BMW is working on when it shows the car at the next Los Angeles Auto Show.
It's not as if BMW is in trouble. It posted record sales in the U.S. last year. It's flanked by a phenomenally successful MINI brand. And BMW AG is maintaining healthy profits and one of the best operating margins in the business. This ad falls under the heading of preventive maintenance. After all, with the return of muscle cars, the Volkswagen Rabbit, a Rolling Stones tour, and a Green Acres movie, can yuppies be far behind, ready to exact their revenge at being cast aside nearly two decades ago?
Who would have thought that BMW was still being dogged by the ghosts of yuppies? Not me. But, according to the marketing brass at the Bavarian automaker and its new ad agency, too many luxury vehicle buyers are ignoring BMW because they associate the brand with people named Skippy and Buffy.
It can't be too bad. After all, BMW scored record sales in the U.S. last year. But marketing chief Jack Pitney, who took over the brand last year, says that 75 percent of those in the luxury car market don't give BMW the time of day. That troubles Pitney, who successfully launched MINI USA for BMW before taking over at the mothership. Not only does BMW North America not want to take their success for granted, but they also are bringing in new vehicles to new niches that may not appeal to their traditional, core fans. A forthcoming crossover vehicle, for instance, could bring in new customers to BMW.
So, BMW on May 8 kicked off a new ad campaign that, while it still uses "The Ultimate Driving Machine slogan," gives pretty scant notice to horsepower and road-hugging handling. Instead, the ads spotlight BMW as a "company of ideas," a champion of design, a place where mavericks flourish, and a company that makes the most of its independence and dedication to environmental responsibility. Whew! Is BMW really such a nice company?
In one ad, BMW shows a rear-quarter view of - and I can't believe I'm saying this - the 7-Series flagship sedan. This was the car that drew catcalls at its 2001 debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show for its busy looking bustle butt. It's been derided ever since as the "Bangle butt," named for the company's chief designer. But a funny thing happened last year. Toyota seemed to emulate the Bangle butt in the new Camry and even Mercedes seemed to have Bangle-ized its S-Class rump. Respect? So, next to the 7-Series photo in the ad is the headline, "Not Taking Risks is Risky."
There is a series of ads, print and TV, that play off the company's Leipzig, Germany plant, which was designed by architect Zaha Hadid. The recurring shot of white-collar workers at their desks just below a manufacturing line taking vehicles from the body shop to final assembly is arresting. Here, BMW is using the image to assert the kinds of decisions it can make as an independent company not answering to a corporate parent. "A parent company would never let us build this," goes the ad. BMW in this campaign has fun here and there taunting its rivals like Ford, Mercedes, and Toyota, by pointing out or reminding people that other luxury brands are but divisions of big parents: Jaguar and Volvo reporting up to Ford; Lexus reporting up to Toyota ; and even Mercedes sharing office space and resources with Chrysler.
So, what's the point of these ads, as well as others that play up BMW's Art Cars painted by such luminaries as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein? BMW is trying to up its cred with the so called "creative class." This is the "class" of people identified by author and marketing guru Richard Florida (The Rise of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life). Florida describes these people as those whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content. In general this group shares common characteristics, such as creativity, individuality, diversity, and merit. The creative class makes brand and product purchases not just on the basis of value and benefit, but based on whether the product is designed aesthetically right and the company behind the product stands for the right values. Sometimes, marketers short-hand such buyers as the iPod class because of how Apple soaked up the vast majority of MP3-player sales by designing one that appealed to buyers as a badge even if it cost more than other players. Florida even consulted directly with BMW's new ad agency GSD&M, Austin, which won the account late last year after BMW parted ways with Minneapolis ad agency Fallon Worldwide, which is best remembered for creating the BMWFilms series.
It is a big campaign that will last through the summer in advance of the launches of the 3-Series coupe and redesigned X5 SUV. In another series of TV ads, BMW uses images of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house getting hit with a wrecking ball and a Jackson Pollock painting resting in a dumpster. The message of these ads is that BMW, unlike the companies who destroy maverick and radical ideas, is a champion of ideas and design and fosters the sorts of investments in art and design that is vital to its culture.
The campaign is turning up in many of the usual places one would fish for BMW customers. But the Internet ad buy packs some new names: www.gawker.com, www.theonion.com, www.thegothamist, and www.flavorpill.com, Web sites that attract this so-called creative/design class and which are easier to build ad strategies around than they used to be.
On one hand, I can envision a BMW exec picking up an award for this campaign and having a Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars-moment: "You like me?you really like me?I'm so happy." But it's not as ham-handed as all that. In fact, I think BMW and GSD&M carry this strategy off pretty well. BMW enthusiasts who appreciate the M3 and M5 as the finest street-legal performance cars around know that the yuppie effect apparently crowding BMW's image is an irrelevant vestige of another time. If you don't like the iDrive, you don't like the iDrive. And that's okay. But it doesn't seem fair to shun BMWs because you are afraid the neighbors will think you have too much money.
Environmental sensitivity in an age of $3.50 a gallon gas is also part of the fresh BMW message. One ad hails the 745h hydrogen car as ready for prime time and to sell or lease. The ad says BMW is just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. Another ad shines a light on the Spartanburg, S.C. , plant where the Z4 and X5 are made. It already draws more than 50 percent of its energy from methane piped from a landfill nine miles away, and it's going up to more than 80 percent [I admit, I was impressed by that]. Another ad shows off that one could drink the water discharge from the 745h, a harbinger I am told of a demonstration BMW is working on when it shows the car at the next Los Angeles Auto Show.
It's not as if BMW is in trouble. It posted record sales in the U.S. last year. It's flanked by a phenomenally successful MINI brand. And BMW AG is maintaining healthy profits and one of the best operating margins in the business. This ad falls under the heading of preventive maintenance. After all, with the return of muscle cars, the Volkswagen Rabbit, a Rolling Stones tour, and a Green Acres movie, can yuppies be far behind, ready to exact their revenge at being cast aside nearly two decades ago?
