Question: What was the objective of BMW films? Was it successful?
The BMW is a car manufacturer with quite small market share in the U.S. market (slightly below 2%). Brand is being perceived as a yuppie and status car, while consumption patterns in USA market changes from “conspicuous consumption” to more pragmatic style. In comparison with Lexus and Mercedes Benz, BMW is perceived as less comfortable, roomy and dependable. Still, in 2001 BMW is at its top in terms on sales and brand strength. The company decides to continue its innovative advertising style (first innovative advertising – Z3 in James Bond series “Golden Eye”) and makes 5 short films with A-class directors, producers and actors. Short film series main actors are Clive Owen and BMW cars. The films were given a very warm welcome from audience, and were hailed by the critics. Now the company should decide what to do next.
The objective of BMW film was stated by vice president of marketing Jim McDowell as “pure branding” and showing people “what makes a BMW a BMW”. Some unstated parts of actual purpose of short films are:
1) Increase BMW market share
2) Show customers different BMWs, like for example “If you want to change your 3 series to a SUV, you do not need to change the brand, we also have comfortable and spacey BMW X5”. Show them that BMW doesn’t end with luxury and/or sports cars, but also have other types of vehicles.
3) Make existing customer more loyal.
4) Change brand image to more timely and modern in current market situation. (Actually, this point is stated – it is pure branding)
It is doubtful, whether the campaign is successful in terms of revenues, because we do not have sales data. Audience’s and critics’ reviews are very enthusiastic and rave. Some viewers even told that their next car purchase will definitely be a BMW, and some that they already purchased a BMW, but in this case we have no proven data that it is true and that films have actual influence. In addition the portrait of average film viewer slightly differs from average BMW customer. Meanwhile 85% BMW users are also internet users, BMWfilms.com audience is younger than average BMW drivers (31 y.o. against 46 y.o.), less wealthy ($88,000 against $142,712) and more masculine (85% male against 63%). Only 16% of the audience are BMW owners and this point could be good news for the company. Videos became extremely viral (94% recommended films to others) and 88% want to see more. There is no straight evidence that engaged viewers will switch their car model to BMW or become more loyal (whose who already are BMW drivers). Still, the campaign is a success. As it is stated above – the main purpose of the ads is company’s branding – to change company’s “yuppie” image, and to show customers BMW outstanding performance in deed and not in name. In addition, the campaign attracted and caught the interest of big amount of none-BMW users.
What to do next?
1) “Milk” five films by making them available to broader audience. As we can see, the average viewer differs from the average BMW driver. It would be just logical to make films approachable to wider audience, taking into account films’ success. Accessing films on the internet could be too difficult for reasonable part of potential audience (as we see only 15% of viewers are female), so the watching process should be simplified.
2) Develop more short films. Developing additional films would cost company about $3m ($15million : 5 films = $3million) per episode (additional episodes could cost slightly cheaper, but let’s approximate on the base of existing available data). This looks expensive, especially in terms of relatively low BMW’s marketing budget ($62 million against Mercedes’ $132 million and Lexus’ $187 million). Still, with such a low (in comparison) budget they have almost the same sales as Lexus and Mercedes. In addition, this films looks like incredibly efficient way to spend a part of marketing budget in terms of the popularity and engagement that company gets for its money.
3) Develop a feature-length film. I wouldn’t suggest this option. This one in some terms would look like repeating of “Golden Eye”. In addition, it would be much harder to keep viewers’ attention for 2 hours (or 1.5h) especially when it is clearly known that the film is advertising.
4) Do nothing. Not suggested option. The interest is still there, and it is possible to get additional benefits for the company from the campaign.
Suggested actions: Make some additional films on the wave of current interest. Make new and old films more available for broader audience, not only on the internet, attract broader auditory.