BUS304: BMW Marketing Strategies and Consumer Behaviour Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of BMW's marketing strategies and their impact on consumer behavior. It examines both internal and external factors influencing consumer decisions, including perception, motivation, attitude, psychological influences, learning, family, social class, cultural values, and market forces. The report also delves into the customer decision-making process, outlining the stages from recognition to post-purchase services. Furthermore, it explores BMW's digital marketing practices and their significance in the current market landscape. The report concludes with a comprehensive overview of the key findings and implications for BMW's marketing efforts, highlighting the importance of understanding consumer behavior in the luxury car market. The assignment is a comprehensive overview of BMW's marketing strategies and consumer behavior, covering internal and external factors, the customer decision-making process, and digital marketing practices. It is a valuable resource for students studying marketing and consumer behavior.

MARKETING PRACTICES

MARKETING 1
Executive Summary
This assignment will revolve around the marketing and consumer behaviour tactics of the
BMW. In this assignment customer behaviour analysis will be consider. Consumer behaviour
forms from two forces internal and external. Internal forces consist of customer perception,
motivation, their attitude towards the brand, psychological influence and their learning. On
the other hand, external forces of customer behaviour consist of family, social class, their
cultural values and market forces. This study also concluded about the customer decision
making process before making the purchase decision. Consumer gone through this process
before making the purchase decision, they can even modify and reverse these steps as per
their perspective.

MARKETING 2
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Marketing Strategies..................................................................................................................5
Importance of developing adequate marketing strategies......................................................5
Marketing strategies affecting consumer Behaviour..............................................................6
Internal factors of consumer behaviour......................................................................................7
 Perception........................................................................................................................7
 Motivation.......................................................................................................................7
 Attitude............................................................................................................................7
 Psychological influence..................................................................................................8
 Learning..........................................................................................................................8
External factors of consumer behaviour....................................................................................9
 Family.............................................................................................................................9
 Social class....................................................................................................................10
 Cultural:.........................................................................................................................10
 Market forces:...............................................................................................................10
Consumer decision-making process.........................................................................................12
Stage 1: Customer recognition.............................................................................................12
Stage 2: Research.................................................................................................................12
Stage 3: Assessment of options............................................................................................12
Stage 4: Final purchase decision..........................................................................................13

MARKETING 3
Stage 5: Post-purchase services...........................................................................................13
Digital Marketing.....................................................................................................................14
Importance of Digital marketing..........................................................................................14
Current digital marketing practices of the company............................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................17

MARKETING 4
Introduction
Automobile companies deal with various marketing challenges through their marketing
strategies. The purchase duration of any car is longer than most of the other purchases of a
household. Apart from these, the automobile industry's marketing department faces hindrance
due to various other non-marketing challenges (Brandmaster, 2019). Such as the price of the
car, maintenance cost, financial condition of an individual, fuel costs, and competitive force
from other companies. Selected company for this assignment is “BMW”. BMW is the
German multinational company which produces automobile and motorcycles. The company
was founded in the year 1945 and headquarter of the company is situated in Munich,
Germany. Registered name of the company is “Bayerische Motoren Werke AG” (Choma,
2019). In this assignment, there will be a discussion about the importance of marketing
strategies adopted by the company for fascinating their buyers. This report will force on
about the internal and external factors of consumers. Apart from this, consumer decision
making model will also be discussed in this report.

MARKETING 5
Marketing Strategies
The targeted audience of the company in the Australian market belongs from the age group of
35 to 50 years who are excelling in their career and who are serious in making higher social
status (bmwgroup, 2019). The targeted audience of the company is the upper-middle-class
people who can afford luxury cars. For fascinating their targeted audience their invest in the
creation of flagship stores. They use television promotion, online promotion, banner &
holding techniques, they also sponsor shows, etc. All these marketing and promotion
strategies help the company to establish a well-defined image in the Australian market
(Brandmaster, 2019).
Importance of developing adequate marketing strategies
Developing effective and efficient marketing strategy is the company's path to acquiring the
best return on their investment. BMW believes in marketing its core values such as
technology, quality, performance, reliability, customer satisfaction, and exclusivity. The
marketing management of the company uses a slogan like "The Ultimate Driving Machine"
and "Sheer Driving Pleasure". Developing an effective marketing plan allow BMW to
identify the gaps in the market. Here, gap signifies that what is the demand of the targeted
audience and what the company is offering in the market (Castaneda, et. al., 2015).
Marketing strategies also help in developing the brand image, market shares and uplift the
sales of the company. It also provides various benefits over the other competitive forces from
rivals. BMW faces major competition from the Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar. However,
BMW’s adequate marketing strategies are truly capable of giving the right direction to the
company. For example, a road map is essential while on the road trip, in the same sense
adequate marketing strategies are also essential in uplifting the business in the market
(Caruana, Carrington & Chatzidakis, 2016).

MARKETING 6
The company also uses television advertisement strategies and they made brand ambassador
to celebrities like James Bond, Tom Cruise, etc. The latest version of the cars includes BMW
8 series, X7 and I8 Roadster. Apart from this, the premium pricing strategies of the company
also help them in setting adequate marketing conditions (Esfahani & Shahnazari, 2013). The
company is labeled as "premium- tization”. Due to their establishment as a premium car
segment, this establishment triggers its customer to pay higher prices for the quality offered
by the company (bmwgroup, 2019).
Marketing strategies affecting consumer Behaviour
In every promotion and advertising due campaign, the company markets themselves as the
premium tization or premium car brand. They are establishing the psychological of the people
that the company belongs from premium segments because of the quality, reliability,
customer satisfaction, horsepower car engine, performance, stylish design, etc (Vigneron &
Johnson, 2012). Thus, it can be said that through the adequate marketing strategy they
updated in the psychological of people that the name “BMW” belongs to the premium
segment (Hyari, et. al., 2012).
Now, the consumer behaviour changes that owning a car of the company meaning luxury and
enhances images among the society. The consumer believes that owning a BMW car will
satisfy their needs because these cars have a superior engine, stylish desire, reliability, etc
(Caruana, Carrington & Chatzidakis, 2016). Through all these factors, the targeted audience
of the company agrees to pay the high prices of the cars and bikes of the brand. However,
after analysis of the consumer behaviour it can be concluded that BMW is the success symbol
among society (Angelovska, Sotiroska & Angelovska, 2012).

MARKETING 7
Internal factors of consumer behaviour
Achieving consumer satisfaction and fascinating the interest of the consumers is the prime
goal of the company (Rani, 2014). Study of the consumer’s internal factor includes when,
why and how people will desire to buy the product. Apart from this, the study of customer
behaviour also determines the company’s present and future profitable status (East, et. al.,
2016). When the company concluded all the parameter then it can be expected that the
management of the company makes better marketing strategies according to the behaviour of
their targeted audience. Below is the internal factor of the targeted audience of the BMW:
 Perception:
The internal perception of the customer is set for the BMW is that the car belongs to
the luxury car segments. As per the perspective of the customers, they believe that the
having a BMW car is the symbol of high-profile status because the company has great
core values for status, quality, safety, performance, design, technology and style.
Customer's perception also forms positively when they look at the car on roads, over
the interest and in the showroom (Foxall, 2014).
 Motivation:
It has been concluded that BMW belongs from the luxury segment and their targeted
audience is 35-50 years old who have achieved excellence in their career. However,
this thing motivates other people to buy a car. As discussed earlier, having a car like
BMW is the symbol of luxury. People motivate themselves to purchase the BMW
someday once they become financially successful or once they achieve abundance in
financial status (Gajjar, 2013).
 Attitude:

MARKETING 8
Customer may have a favorable attitude towards the brand but as per their current
financial scenario, they do not have purchasing power. Apart from this, the attitude of
the BMW customers mainly contains the attribute to focus on its high horsepower
engine, maximum speed, stylish design and specific features of the car. The marketing
strategy of the company and brand knowledge of the customers are significantly
important in framing the internal attitude of customers (Gunter & Furnham, 2014).
 Psychological influence:
When people see the advertisement for BMW on television and over the internet than
their psychological forms in a positive way. They started thinking of owning the car
or owing to such luxury car of other brands. Psychology of the people also changes
when they see celebrities, cricketers, etc wearing a t-shirt that has the fascinating logo
of BMW (Luchs & Mooradian, 2012).
 Learning:
Customers are a concern for the features and performance of the car. They are
concern about the airbag at driver’s seat, airbag at passenger’s seat, alloy wheels,
multi-functioning steering wheel, etc. Although the company provides all such
features to its customers (Mihaela, 2015).

MARKETING 9
External factors of consumer behaviour
The purchase decision of the consumer also gets affected by the external factor that is not
within their boundaries. Consumers get influenced by many factors which operate from
outside such as culture, subcultural, household vales, the behaviour of their family and
friends, social class and market forces. Many times, marketers and business owners organize
or speed up such external forces because they know that external factors can be a great
motivator for the people to purchase the BMW cars (Gatautis, et. al., 2016). Today
consumers have many choices to go with, they have a wide era of product selection and
competition is becoming intense in the automobile industry (Page, Thorsteinsson & Ha,
2012).
Internal and external both factors are interconnected and work together to assist the consumer
decision-making process. For example, external influence factors also include reference
group (Ramnarain & Govender, 2013). A reference group is a group for any person that acts
as a point of comparisons for an individual informing their decision. X persons a brand-new
model of BMW 7 series then his reference group (friends and family members) may develop
thought to purchase similar car someday based upon their financial status. Below is the
analysis of external factors that are related to the customers of BMW:
 Family:
Family members in an individual’s life play an important role in influencing their
purchasing behaviour (Stankevich, 2017). What an individual sees from his childhood
that becomes his habits and he tries to form his lifestyle accordingly. Family is the
most important family reference group for any individual. Generally, people want to
achieve greater financial abundance from their parents and ancestors. Thus, when a
person sees that his/her dad drives a car then he/she imagines that they gift their

MARKETING 10
parent's more fascinating car. In that case, the family becomes a prime source of
influence of any individual (Ramya & Mohamed, 2016).
 Social class:
Social class refers to a group of people who share equal class and lifestyle status. It is
defined by parameters like education, income, occupation, etc. Their choice of
residence, entertainment, leisure, etc (Shamin & Mohsin Bhatt, 2013). Member of a
social class commonly share basic interests, impact one another and share core values.
The primary social group has more impact on an individual then the second group.
Primary group members involve family members and friends (Hagger &
Chatzisarantis, 2014). Secondary group member involves social gatherings. As
youngsters develop into adolescents, their folks become less of impactful to them and
their friend’s group become more impactful to them. choices. This external factor
forces the consumer to buy the premium quality product in order to compete with the
social class (Rimkute, Moraes & Ferreria, 2016).
 Cultural:
Cultural factor consists of an individual’s sum of knowledge, their belief system,
customs, traditions, art, habits, etc. Customer’s behaviour also targets from the
cultural and from the background they belong (Hyari, et. al., 2012). For example,
Australian has different cultural values from India, America and other countries.
According to the marketer's perspective culture is an important part of customer
behaviour’s external forces (Sathish & Raiamohan, 2012).
 Market forces:
Marketing and promotion management of BMW uses various tactics in a promotion
like choosing a specific color, trending celebrities, Final and semi-final matches of
football cups, etc. Through these factors fascinate the interest of the consumer and in

MARKETING 11
their mind the consistent belief about the richness and luxury of the brand (Sethna &
Blythe, 2016).
Consumer behaviour and decision making is not straight-forward and is progressively
affected by complex internal and external components that are beyond the control of
marketers (Angelovska, Sotiroska & Angelovska, 2012). Generally, marketers make effective
strategies to control the behaviour of the customer through smart showcasing and promoting
tactics. The quantity of potential effects on consumer’ purchasing behaviour is boundless,
anyway brands and advertisers are very much served to comprehend the KEY impacts,
empower the customer to arrive at a position where they can make up their mind for purchase
designs. As the car of BMW is very costly, the customer needs to look at various factor
because making purchasing designs. Marketers also utilize techniques to influence their
purchase design (Sharma, 2014).