MKT7006 Digital Strategy: BMW's Social Media Management Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of BMW's digital strategy, with a particular focus on its social media management practices. It begins by outlining the background of the company and evaluating its current social media efforts, highlighting both effective and ineffective strategies. The report then delves into a critical evaluation of the stakeholders involved in social media content production at BMW, followed by the development of justified digital marketing objectives aimed at improving social media management. A recommended digital marketing strategy is presented, along with a critical evaluation of the integration of social media into BMW's wider marketing strategy. The report also includes a detailed analysis of the resources required for the successful execution of the recommended digital marketing strategy, and concludes with a recommendation of key metrics and tools for measuring the effectiveness of social media activities.

Digital Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Background of the company........................................................................................................3
Evaluation on social media management in BMW and the benefits delivered to stakeholders. .4
Example of effective and ineffective social media management................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
2a Critical evaluation and outline of stakeholders involved in social media content production
of BMW.......................................................................................................................................7
2b Development of justified digital marketing objectives with focus on improving social
media management......................................................................................................................9
2c Recommendation of digital marketing strategy for social media management at BMW.....11
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
3a Critical evaluation of integration of social media into wider marketing strategy of the
company.....................................................................................................................................12
3b Detailed analysis of resources needed for successful execution of digital marketing strategy
previously recommended...........................................................................................................13
3c Recommendation of justified key metrics and tools which can be used for measuring
effectiveness of social media activities......................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing is defined as usage of online and internet based technologies to
promote products and services of the company. Social media marketing is an important element
of digital marketing strategy in the current corporate world. The reason for high significance of
social media marketing is that it is cost-effective and helps the company be informed about their
target audience. In addition to this social media marketing improves the consumer interaction
and consumer relationship of the firm. This report looks at social media management at German
auto-mobile manufacturer BMW. The company is headquartered in Munich and was founded in
the year 1916. It is one of the most successful car manufacturers in the world with global sales
network expanding to 140 countries (THE BMW GROUP, 2021). This report critically evaluates
social media processes at BMW and provides suitable digital marketing strategy for improving
social media management at the company. Elements of digital marketing plans such as resource
requirements are also included in this report to enhance social media management at BMW in
future.
MAIN BODY
Task 1
Background of the company
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is a manufacturing company which
manufactures luxury vehicles and motorcycles. It is headquartered in Munich, Bavaria,
Germany. It is founded in 1916 by Camillo Castiglioni, Franz Josef Popp and Karl Rapp. At
initial days of its manufacturing it manufacture aircraft engines. They started manufacturing
automobiles in the year 1928. The first car of BMW is named as “BMW 3/15”. Due to world war
2nd, they have to stop manufacturing their cars aircraft engines. It again started its manufacturing
of cars and motorcycles in the year 1948 after many years of break. BMW has their factories at
worldwide and they are providing quality cars to their targeted customers. The prices of their
products are high but the quality of their vehicles is good and satisfactory for customers. The one
of the most working slogan of BMW is “Sheer Driving Pleasure” which was kept in the year
1930s. BMW has a good brand image and market shares to attract their customers.
Targeted customers are those customers which are selected by a company from various
kinds of segments in market to offer their products to specific kind of customers who uses their

products (Dwivedi and et. al., 2021). Hence, targeted customers of BMW are those upper class
social groups which are able to afford their cars because they sell their automobiles at high
prices. They also targeted those customers who prefer to use advance technologies and features
in their automobiles. They also targeted their customers from the age group of 35- 50. They
reach their customers through digitally like social media marketing, advertising on their official
websites and many others. They keep records of their customers like their mail ids and contact
number to aware them regarding any change in new model to grab their interest to buy their new
model of automobile.
They upload pictures and videos on their social media accounts to gain more followers so that
more customers will get aware of their brand and they can gain a better brand image in market.
They also focus to provide effective services to their customers so that they will gain their
loyalty and good experience (Adetunji, Mohd Rashid and Ishak, 2018). They focus on the
complaints of their customers which they receive on social media or any other platform like e-
mails, website and chat box then they will make changes in their products to make their
customers more satisfied.
Evaluation on social media management in BMW and the benefits delivered to stakeholders
BMW is world famous company which has customers from all over the world. They
advertise their brand through social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and
many others. They upload pictures of their products and them aware their customers by
uploading information about the new model launch by them on social media platforms. This will
help them to gain more customers. Social media is having worldwide reach which means the
person sitting at any corner of the world can view the profile of BMW at any time on social
media. BMW is having separate team for handling their social media accounts like uploading
pictures on regular basis, reply to the comments of their customers, asking for feedback and
many others (Raji, Mohd Rashid and Mohd Ishak, 2019).
The main task of this team is to identify the ratings which their customers provide them
on social media and the ways to handle negative reviews. They can identify the reason of their
negative review on social media and try to make changes in their models of automobiles and
keep satisfying their customers regularly. Whenever they are going to launch any new
automobile in market then they share the information like date and venue of launching new
model on their social media sites so more people will get to know about it. Secondly, they

always make sure that they will not share such kind of information on social media platform
which will harm the feeling of any community. Their messages are precise, short and contain all
essential information. The quality and graphics of their uploaded pictures are good to make their
uploaded pictures more beautiful and attractive. They also use the technique of advertising their
brand by their brand ambassador which is Alessandro Zanardi who is a world famous
professional Italian racing car driver. They use such kind of personality in their social media
advertisements to gain more attention of their customers toward their brand.
Stakeholders are those individuals or group of individuals who have interest within a company
and their activities because they are the one who invest in the company and make appropriate
decisions for the success of company (Al-Zyoud, 2018). In context of BMW, their main
stakeholders are their investors, employees, customers, executives, suppliers, R&D institutes and
many others.
Minimal efforts- Here, those stakeholders are kept which have low power and low
interest in BMW. Here, general public are kept in this part because they are not given any power
due to their lack of knowledge on decision making process and they are least interested due to
their roles within the decision making process.
Keep informed- They are the individuals who are given low power and high interest
within the company such as employees, R&D developments and interest groups. They are having

high interest in company due to their involvement and their detailed knowledge about the
product and customers satisfaction in market (Lashgari and et. al., 2018).
Key players- Customers, partners and executives fall in this category where they have
high power and high interest within the company due to their position and knowledge within the
company’s success.
Key satisfied- They are the stakeholders who are having high power and low interest
such as government, media and suppliers. They are having high power within the company due
to their influencing nature. Government formulate rules and policies of overall economy which is
essential for BMW to follow and their suppliers provide them raw material that’s why they are
given high power. They are having low interest in company.
There are various kinds of benefits which can be gained by the stakeholders of BMW
which is mentioned below-
 Increase in knowledge about corporate world- Stakeholders can gain a lot of
knowledge on decision making process of company and other areas in a corporate world.
This will help them to analyse which company in market is having higher growth and
which one is having low growth to make an investment decision on the basis of
company’s performance (Ulas and Vural, 2019).
 Improves their recognition and identification- Stakeholders of BMW are well known
in market as well as in other part of world. They can develop a good reputation as an
effective stakeholder in corporate world.
 Enhance their decision making skills- Stakeholders can enhance their decision making
skills, communication skills and ,many other skills within the company by attending
meetings and making effective decisions for the company.
Example of effective and ineffective social media management
In context of BMW, they are having effective management of social media management
by uploading effective contents and targeted customers interested contents to gain their interest.
They also take corrective measures on the complaints of their customers on social media
platforms. They also focus on the cultural diversity of customers who follow them and mainly
focus to deliver that message which do not harm their culture and emotions. BMW is having best
and effective social media management due to their various effective social media practices like
they share only correct and useful content to their targeted audience (Andresen, 2019). They do

not mislead their audience in wrong direction by sharing wrong information. BMW is having a
separate team to handle their social media account that takes care to handle all complaints and
identify the reasons of negative reviews on social media. Secondly, they also measure and
monitor the performance of their social media contents through various software measuring
matrix.
On the other hand Volkswagen another world famous car manufacturing company is
ineffective in managing their social media practices to attract more customers. They share wrong
message at their social media accounts to attract more customers and create a good brand image
in their mind but it is considered as wrong. It is essential that companies must share correct and
appropriate message to their customers (Adetunji, Mohd Rashid and Ishak, 2018). Misleading
customers is ineffective practices of any company. Secondly, they also do not monitor and
measure the performance of their social media influencers that whether they are effectively
influencing the audience or not on social media platforms. Another ineffective social media
management from this company is that they do not deliver their message to their targeted
audience on social media. They also ignore negative reviews and complaints of customers which
they arrive on Instagram.
TASK 2
2a Critical evaluation and outline of stakeholders involved in social media content production of
BMW
Social media content production refers to the art of developing suitable social media content for
various social medial platforms. This involves developing content consisting, videos, images,
graphics and more to gain attention of social media users and make positive interactions with
target audience (Arora and Sanni, 2019). Developing suitable and successful social media
content is a sensitive and significant matter. It is sensitive because lack of attention on social
media content can lead to consumer backlash. It is important because success of social media
content helps business firms connect with large number of consumers on social networks and
make greater digital impact. BMW has created strong presence in various social networks
including Facebook, Titter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. The stakeholders involved in
social media content production at BMW include potential consumers, influencers, followers,

employees and competitors. Critical evaluation of each of the stakeholder with a focus on
benefits and risks associated with each stakeholder is provided below:
 Potential Consumers: These are the salient stakeholder of business firms when it comes
to social media content production (Atherton, 2019). This is because the primary aim of
social media content production is to reach prudential consumers and turn them into
existing consumers and social media followers of the firm. In case of BMW, the
respective frim curates their social media content to that it related to the target audience
consisting of upper class social groups. The benefit of these stakeholders in social media
content management is that it enables the company to produce content which is shared
and space to upper class consumer base. This type of content helps BMW stay relevant
among the target audience and gain competitive advantage. The risk introduced by this
stakeholder is the concept of socials media overuse by BMW. If business firms make
unnecessary low quality posts to attract more potential consumers and increase follower
count, they risk losing existing followers and reduce brand relevancy.
 Employees: This stakeholder associated with social media content production involves
digital marketing team who curate social media content and rest of the workforce to
communicate internally using social media (Bhandari and Bansal, 2018). BMW ensures
that talented employees handle social media activities of the company so that internal and
external communication through social media is of high quality. The benefit of this
stakeholder for BMW is that it supports creation of effective social media content. The
risk introduced by this stakeholder in context of social media content production at
BMW is the threat of hacking. Mismanagement by employees can provide cyber
criminals opportunity to hack social media account of the company and for extortion or
damaging company reputation.
 Competitors: Audi, Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Aston Martin are important
stakeholders in creating social media content at BMW. This is because the company has
to ensure that their social media content is unique and more successful than business
opponents. The benefit of considering this stakeholder in social media content
development at BMW is that it helps the company create a distinguished social media
brand image from rival brands. The threat introduced by this stakeholder is that focusing

too much on competitors’ social media activities can lead to alienation of existing
followers as it reduces organic and authentic social media interaction.
 Influencers; This stakeholder is defined as people, brands and personalities on social
medias sites which are trusted by people and are able to influence their followers (Bilgin,
2018). BMW utilizes influencers in producing social media campaign which makes them
an important stakeholder in producing social media content. BMW created successful
influencer marketing camping #DrivingLuxury on Instagram which lead to generation of
effective social media content (BMW'S INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER MARKETING
CAMPAIGN, 2021). The benefit provided by this stakeholder on social media content of
BMW is that it helps the firm increase social media reach through large follower count of
the influencers. The risk introduced by influencers on social media content production of
BMW is related to inauthentic partnership and content. According to 47% consumers,
repetition in influencer social media posts and for 23% of consumers’ low quality of the
posts are the main disquiets in context of influencer marketing (Content called out; 47%
of consumers fatigued by repetitive influencers, 2018).
2b Development of justified digital marketing objectives with focus on improving social media
management
The first digital marketing objective for BMW to enhance social media management at the
company is ‘To increase YouTube and Instagram reach by developing videos with high
production value which exude the luxury lifestyle and brand image associated with BMW
owners alongside informational content about BMW production and maintenance’.
The justification for this digital marketing objective is that it will help BMW develop
suitable brand image on social media sites which matches the consumer perception of BMW cars
being status symbol and the association of the company with luxury. This objective helps the
company adopt marketing specifically for luxury brands and avoid creating an average brand
image on social media which can harm the long-term social media presence of the company. The
high quality videos of the respective firm need to focus on creating an effortless aesthetic of
exclusivity, craftsmanship and heritage.
This objective focuses on increasing the follower count and subscriber of the firm on
YouTube and Instagram because these social media platforms are helpful in spreading video
based content. This objective will help BMW crate social media presence which matches

opulence and wealth associated with owning BMW cars. This is an effective digital marketing
strategy for BMW and will help the company avoid controversies such as the Twitter backlash
explained in previous task.
Digital marketing strategy which centres around brand storytelling is better than directly
focusing on converting social media followers into consumers in case of luxury brand (Heggde
and Shainesh, 2018). This means that directly asking consumers to purchase products of the
company can harm the carefully crafted brand image of BMW around advanced technology and
affluence. This objective will support creating a value added consumer experience through brand
storytelling and depict specific lifestyle for the targeted upper class audience.
Another aspect of this objective is to produce informational content about the luxury cars
are produced and maintained across BMW repair centres across the world. This will provide the
target audience a look into the behind the scene stations at the company and witness hr handcraft
and skill associated with making BMW products. This will act as an evidence of the high quality
of BMW products offered by the company and will also help further the messaging of wealth and
extravagance associated with the brand. In addition to this informational videos do not incite
social media backlash as they simply provide behind the scenes information about the company.
In this way the objective of using YouTube and Instagram to produce high quality videos
targeted towards upper class consumers will help the company avoid and social media backlash
and build brand image suitable for luxury auto-mobile manufacturer.
The second objective for BMW which will help enhance social media presence is ‘To
utilize influencer marketing to increase community engagement on Twitter and Instagram’.
This is a straightforward digital marketing objective which will help BMW build strong
relationship with existing community and create an authentic brand image about the company.
Usage of influencers in production of social media content has the risk of looking repetitive and
fake by the consumers (Hollensen, Kotler and Opresnik, 2017). So, it is important for the
respective company to only collaborate with regional social media influencers in different
international markets who ae associated with luxury or auto-mobiles. This is because the selected
influencer will attract right audience to the social media pages of BMW and will be actually
interested in the products of the firm. Therefore, this is justified objective for BMW, as the
company will be able to build positive relationship with social media followers and increase
reach through authentic influencer collaborations.

2c Recommendation of digital marketing strategy for social media management at BMW
The first recommendation for BMW to enhance digital marketing strategy is to collaborate
with global talents in cinema to produce videos with high production value which set the social
media content of the firm aside from the rival firms and helps them attain digital marketing
objective. This digital marketing recommendation is useful for BMW as collaboration with well-
known individuals from cinema such as photographers and cinematographers will make the
video content of the company more attractive and credible. In addition to this, the association
with well-known professionals to create social media content will increases the luxurious image
of business firms because every aspect of the company will be costly (Lepkowska-White, 2017)
The second digital marketing strategic recommendation for BMW is to collaborate with
influencers to promote CSR initiatives of the company. This involves creating influencer
marketing camping in which an influencer which is related with social causes views and informs
consumers about the CSR initiatives introduced by the company in action. The influencer will be
communicating the positive impact of CSR initiatives of the firm on the environment and society
and the ethical nature of BMW. This is suitable strategic recommendation for the company
because consumers across all social classes are focusing on becoming more responsible shoppers
and ethical brands are preferred by consumers. In addition to this, the respective company will be
able to avoid usage of repetitive content in relation to influencer marketing as the CSR initiatives
promoted through influencers marketing will unique to the company. This will also build
authenticity of the company as it will include influencers participating and informing consumers
about the CSR activities and their impact on the triple bottom line.
It suggested that BMW needs to invest in making social media video content of social proof
from existing consumers who have purchased the products of the firm to provide evidence of
high quality of the products and efefcitve4ness of the service centre of the company. This type of
videos will also help the company connect with consumers and avoid controversy on social
media platforms (Leung, Bai and Erdem, 2017). It will also help the firm build social media
reach as the evidence will be coming from actual consumers who are not paid to praise the firm.
Another justification for the recommended digital marketing strategy is that creating high
production videos on consumer testimonials will help the firm attain objective of creating a
luxurious person on Instagram and YouTube through superior production videos.

TASK 3
3a Critical evaluation of integration of social media into wider marketing strategy of the
company
7 P’s of marketing mix
Product
This element of the marketing mix includes the product offered by the company. BMW
offers luxurious cars which are built with advanced technology (Mothersbaugh and et. al., 2020).
The digital marketing recommendation of building informational and promotional videos with
high production quality will provide additional value to consumers by elevating the status of the
products to status symbols. The positive impact of this element of marketing mix will be better
social media image while the negative element impact will be increased expenditure.
Price
The pricing strategy adopted by the company is included in this element of marketing.
BMW has adopted premium pricing strategy. The digital marketing recommendation of
informing consumers about the behind the scenes activities of producing luxury BMW models
will help justify the pricing strategy of the firm and attain objective of driving social media
reach. The negative impact of this part of the marketing mix will be lower unknown about how
BMW models are manufactured which damages the distinctiveness of the firm.
Place
The distribution strategy adopted by the company is described in this part of the
marketing mix. In context of BMW, the company has adopted selective distribution strategy as
BMW cars are only sold in selective showrooms and dealerships across the world. The
recommended digital marketing strategy of the firm focuses on quality rather than quantity of the
content which will also help maintain exclusive accessibility of the firm on social media sites.
The positive impact of this will be that the company will not be able to gain viral social media
publicity.
Promotion
In this element of the marketing mix the focus is on determine the promotional tactics
adopted by the firm to interact with consumers (Parsons and Lepkowska-White, 2018). Social
media and traditional marketing are used by BMW to interact with consumers. The digital
marketing recommendation of using influencers to promote CSR initiatives will increase