BMW

BMW

BMW

Introduction

The Bayerische Motoren Werke also commonly known as (BMW) is the world's most renowned automobile brand. The company is based in Germany with its headquarter in Munich, Germany. BMW manufactures automobiles, aircraft engines, motorcycles, and other premium products Rolls-Royce, BMW mini. The company has a total of 23 production facilities around the globe in 12 different countries with representation in more than 140 countries. The company is famous for its world class luxury cars offered to international customers. BMW is considered as the world's leading and most leading premium manufacturer.

Discussion

BMW was in a leadership position in the U.S. market as it peaked at 96,000 units sold. Its worldwide performance had continually improved. It was the “high flying” brand of the 1980s, the ultimate “yuppie” status symbol. Generally, younger affluent customers, the most demanding market segment, are buying BMW's. More specifically, people that make a median income of 100 thousand to over 200 thousand dollars and people with median ages from 39 to 46 are purchasing BMW's. The trend is that the customer who is younger who makes a lower income buys a lower series of BMW.

The U.S. car buyers' values changed value-orientation and BMW's marketing and new product development did not change to meet this change. The three external events that affected this change were: The 1987 Tax Reform Act, The Stock Market Crash of 1987, and The Luxury Tax imposed gas guzzler tax doubled (Gregory, 2010). BMW definitely could have prevented the sales decline by aligning their marketing strategy to value-orientation while they were a leader. They are in a highly competitive industry where it is important to constantly connect with your customer. They lost sight of this and did not change with the times.

Gerlinger has been successful up to this point. He has implemented many aspects of his ...