Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

                Personal selling and sales management is a major factor for BMW because buying a car isn’t like buying toothpaste, with cars a person has to analyze all aspects to be sure this car is for them and being this will be a large purchase they will most likely be keeping their car for a long period of time. However on the other hand when a person buys toothpaste they just grab whichever one seems the best because it’s cheap and will be replaced soon. BMW focuses more on the selling process than sales management, why have a person trying to persuade their customer about BMW cars when the car itself can show the customer why they should buy. Over the years BMW has improved their brand name to a point where constant advertising isn’t necessary, for example not often you will see a BMW commercial, especially compared to how often you see other car company commercials. BMW created that luxury social class therefore when it comes to prospecting BMW will just post some information on their social media site or website and the word would spread from there. Secondly BMW has a strong concern for their customer wants and needs that is why they are constantly upgrading the technological system and body structure of their cars to obtain maximum comfort and easy driving so the driver and passengers can feel the “BMW lifestyle”, also a customer can go to BMW and click “My BMW” and choose all the features BMW provides for its cars and modify them in the order that fits them the best. I commend BMW for increasing their brand status to where it is and having that luxury social class, it also benefits them because when it comes to sales there is no negotiating its either you have the money/credit to buy or you don’t.

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

There are numerous type of advertising in marketing but one of the major types of advertising BMW displays is product advertising. Their focus on product advertising is so strong that it distracts the positive programs BMW has such as “Corporate Giving “where in 2014 BMW gave away 36 million dollars; 47% to education, 35% to the community and 18% to the arts, needless to say their product advertising was a success because when you hear BMW the first thing that comes to mind is nothing else but luxury vehicles. One of BMW’s primary focus in product advertising is competitive advertising, BMW has convinced and still is convincing consumers that BMW is the way to go if you have the urge for luxury which is evident due to 1,905,234 sales in 2015. Even though there are other luxury cars, the BMW brand is not just luxury, but also high class, fashion and to be part of the elite. Another strategy BMW displays is pioneering advertising with their constant upgrades. In society today everything we use has some type of technology which increases regularly, BMW not only keeps its vehicles up to date with top of the line car technology but also futuristic technology that other cars don’t have which makes consumers not only get the urge to want BMW products but makes them feel as if they need their products to drive in the most efficient way. 

Ch. 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

 Originally BMW launched in Munich, Germany; after a few successful years they were able to open several production &research shops and headquarters globally to reach and understand each target market better.

However marketing channels still were extremely important because in most states (if not all) buying a car straight from the manufacture is illegal, so what good is all of their production & research shops if they can’t directly distribute to the consumer? In fact this decision to open global production & research shops was a smart one because they can manipulate some of the factors in marketing channels to their favor. For example

forming & place utility, being located in the area where they are distributing their product every day is a constant reminder of what people in the area like and don’t like which gives BMW the upper hand to shift their form strictly to that area and the same for others, rather than having a general liking of form and distributing it to different parts of the world because how people like and drive their cars in china is different from how people like and drive their cars in the us. These global locations decrease time utility tremendously because instead of distributing from Germany to different parts of the word, BMW just launched factories in different parts of the world which where they can be made in that area and get to the consumer faster. With the high end brand BMW doesn’t have to concern themselves with exchange utility because even after numerous owners and time in the market BMW still holds its value compared to other vehicles in that situation, Such as a 2010 BMW would still be higher priced than a 2010 Audi.

One of the best things of BMW marketing channels is directly to wholesalers such as car dealerships, So it’s only 3 transactions in getting the product to the consumer, BMW-Dealer-Consumer.