Inquiry Project: BMW Strategic Plan Analysis and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of BMW, a leading automotive manufacturer. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction to BMW, highlighting its history and global presence. The report then explores current trends in the automotive industry, including IoT and connected cars, car sharing, and micro-moments. A SWOT analysis is conducted to evaluate BMW's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The methodology section details the data collection techniques used. The report identifies problems associated with BMW, such as increasing competition and rising production costs. Finally, it offers recommendations for BMW to address these challenges and maintain its market position, including suggestions to counter Chinese manufacturers and manage rising fuel prices, emphasizing strategic adaptations for future market success.

Inquiry Project

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
CURRENT TRENDS IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY................................................................3
ANALYSIS OF BMW.....................................................................................................................5
Table1. SWOT Analysis table for BMW...............................................................................5
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................7
Data collection techniques......................................................................................................7
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH BMW....................................................................................8
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report is providing the depth analysis of the strategic plan for BMW an automobile
manufacturing company. The strategic plan is developed with the motive of overcoming the
barriers and factors affecting the success in growth of BMW in the prospective market. Various
tools and strategies are discussed in a descriptive and elaborated manner according to which the
organisation works and its operation depending upon.
INTRODUCTION
The enquiry report is based on BMW which is a short of Bavarian motor works. BMW is a
German multinational company which is dealing manufacturing sector of automobile industry.
The main products of BMW is the automobiles that is cars and motorcycles. BMW was founded
in 1916 around hundred years ago by Karl Rapp, Franz Josef Popp and Camillo Castiglioni. The
headquarters of BMW are in Munich, Germany and its operations are spread around The world
serving to worldwide customers. The automobiles that is cars are marked under BMW, Mini and
Rolls-Royce on the other hand motorcycles are marked under the brand BMW Motorrad
(Avdeeva, Z., Kovriga, S. and Fedko, E., 2019). It is one of the world's largest producer of motor
vehicle producing it’s weekend is in Germany, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, United States,
Mexico and United kingdoms. BMW has significant history and speciality in Touring cars,
Formula 1, Sports cars and Isle of Man TT. The company is dealing in manufacturing and retail
industries as it manufactures and make sales of its vehicles through its showrooms and with other
brands.
CURRENT TRENDS IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
The automotive industry is a large business sector which is related with manufacturing and sales
of different types of motor vehicles such as cars, motorbikes etc. The automobile industry is also
known as automotive industry which consists large range of organisations that span around the
globe which are Ford, BMW, Honda etc. The automotive industry is huge sector for business of
large amounts having increasing number of members regularly. The automotive industry is a a
very competitive industry where competition is increasing aggressively. New businesses and
organisation are entering the industry with innovative ideas and their new inventions which can
attract the attention of most of the people around the globe. The trends of automotive industry

are always fluctuating as trade barriers are very low providing chances to every type of
individual and entities to enter the marketplace. The current trends of automotive industry are
analysed and elaborated underneath.
1. IoT and connected cars- It is analysed that big data is one of the biggest factor driving
changes in automotive industry through online space. It has its range to automotive sector
particularly through IoT (Internet of Things). Currently the rate of adoption of IoT is
slow and sluggish but it is integrated that will it speed and rapidly in hands in coming
years inform of connected cars. Technological factors and trends of automobile industry
shows that applications can be used by car owners to interact with car dealerships and
service centres about their vehicles. These kind of applications are present in current
scenario and used today also but with in limited space and its usage will shoot up in near
future (Calabrese, G. G., 2020). BMW is a technology driven organisation providing best
updated technology and techniques holding vehicles to the customers fulfilling their
needs and use this trend of automobile sector in getting closer to their potential
consumers and also for providing them curated experience.
2. Car sharing’s- Car rental and leasing companies has a good news as a research and
analysis about the automobile industry states that people in developing economies across
the globe are rapidly losing the attachment to the cars. This has given rise to new trend
which is known as car sharing. Another reason of increasing car sharing is people are
feeling sense of responsibility towards the environment and showing respect to the nature
by reducing their pollution and misuse of natural resources.
3. Micro moment- The research has revealed that new car buyer conduct the research using
the internet and secondary data resources for gathering information from the time of
planning to buy a car to ultimate making the purchase. This micro moment of individuals
includes buying thought process which has many questions relevant to their purchase.
The most common questions are which car is the best for them, is that particular car
affordable to them, are they getting the best deal and where should we make their
purchase transaction from. Analysing these micro moments can help BMW to know
where the potential buyers are what they are looking for that is, what are their needs and
desires and what are the expectations of them. It is a valuable information for automotive

dealer such as BMW in order to be most effective and efficient gaining competitive
advantage from others in the marketplace.
ANALYSIS OF BMW
BMW is a huge brand and company of automotive industry, the brand image of BMW is huge
and very reputative among the marketplace. BMW is a mask manufacturer and retailer of it's
automotive cars and motorbikes dealing in global market. BMW is a luxury and sports car
producer targeting the upper class population of the society. The company deals and
manufacturers through technologies and machineries with making is use of technological and
other resources available to it. The analysis of BMW is done through using SWOT analysis
framework.
SWOT analysis is an acronym of Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats, this is a tool
consisting external and internal factors which effects the businesses and their operations. The
strengths and weaknesses are the internal factors focusing on the potentials and drawbacks of
company. On the other hand opportunities and threats are external factors reflecting chances of
growth and success to business along with highlighting potential risks. The SWOT analysis of
BMW is elaborated below.
Table1. SWOT Analysis table for BMW
Strengths Weakness
 BMW is a well-known organisation
with a high status branding which has a
very high recognition factor stuck to it.
 The budgets with company is used for
running their operations and pay for the
best skilled labours along with services
and products (Yang, D. X. and et. al.,
2019). Basically Company pays great
attention in keeping their workforce
satisfied antique earring best skilled
people. Also it puts use investment in
product and service research that is
 BMW details in and also provides
hybrid vehicles to customers. But it is a
weakness as the technology which is
used for developing such vehicles with
save fuel is very expensive increasing
the cost of production of such vehicles.
This Ultimately increases the prices of
vehicles and it becomes very difficult
to find customers for hybrid auto
mobile products.
 The biggest weakness of BMW is its
price structure and pricing policy. The

market research. It concludes that the
company has large investment and
profitability.
 The biggest strength of BMW is the
more the invest in their labour and
branding the higher will be there
revenue and profitability.
prices of BMW products increase due
to one more reason and that is because
the products are shipped across the US
and Germany which increases the
expenses as shipping rates are high
making the price of products higher.
 Another weakness of BMW is it
believes and works for developing new
updated models of cars and other
vehicles for satisfying the needs of
customers. But the company might
actually be wasting that time in
producing new models as they
uncertain about their and success in
future.
Opportunities Threats
 Fuel prices are continuously increasing
and are expected to rise more in near
future. This is an opportunity for BMW
as the company deals in hybrid
products and vehicles and by
increasing fuel prices the people will be
more attracted towards hybrid vehicles
with save fuel and energy. This is
because one it will affect their pocket
and another reason is people have some
sense of responsibility towards
environment which is making them
aware and responsible towards the
nature.
 Increasing demand for autonomous
 The competition is aggressively
increasing in automotive industry
which is becoming a great threat for all
different automakers as well as for
BMW. The government laws and trade
barriers are becoming flexible and
reducing by time which is allowing all
different types of entities to enter the
automotive industry (Guzik, R.,
Domański, B. and Gwosdz, K., 2020).
This factor is increasing the
competition and reducing the market
share of BMW. Also the government
regulations are becoming complex for
existing companies due to which huge

vehicles, many big automobile
manufacturers and organisation
including Google, Ford etc. are testing
their autonomous vehicles on road but
are still not making any sales. The
market for autonomous vehicles is
unpredictable but the efforts which are
made by major automaker companies
shows that the next big thing for the
industry is autonomous vehicles
(Bakhtari, A. R. And et. al., 2020). It is
a opportunity for BMW as the
company can speed up the
development of autonomous vehicle
technology enter the market before any
other competitive acquiring major
market share and gaining competitive
advantage.
increase can be seen incurred by
BMW.
 Chinese Market and automaker or
manufacturers are imposing the biggest
threat on BMW and its operations in
current scenario. Chinese
manufacturers of automobile vehicles
are developing identical cars as of
BMW with better technologies and in
lower prices. Due to which the
customers of BMW are being
distracted 18 and being attracted
towards Chinese market and
manufacturers.
METHODOLOGY
Data collection techniques
Data collection refers to gathering all the required information and data related to the particular
topic. There are several different types of Data collection methods which are being categorised
into two broad categories that is primary sources and secondary sources.
1. Primary sources of gathering data are those manners by those information’s are
collected which do not exist in marketplace or anywhere around the world. In other
words by using primary sources of Data collection the company for the researcher gathers
and entirely new information which do not exist. The primary sources of Data collection
are questionnaires, interviews and feedbacks.

2. Secondary sources of Data collection are those tools or methods by which that
information is gathered which already exist in marketplace but only specific information
is collected and sorted according to the need. This is the most common form of collecting
data which is relevant to the topic. The secondary sources of data aligning are internet,
libraries, social media platforms and print Media (David, F. R., Creek, S. A. and David,
F. RR., 2019).
Data collection method used for BMW analysis:
For this report and analysing current trends automotive retail industry along with gathering
information about BMW secondary data sources are used. The internet is the most efficient and
beneficial tool which is used for this research. The current analysis information of automotive
industry is gathered through internet by looking at published to documents and research of
different authors. The SWOT analysis of BMW is conducted by evaluating official website of
BMW and by analysing the financial report and directors report of BMW.
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH BMW
BMW is dealing in diversified market as company serve to worldwide customers through their
worldwide located operations (Büyüközkan, G. and Ilıcak, Ö., 2019). In the current scenario the
problems which are faced by BMW and our potential affecting its revenues and cost are
increasing competition and Chinese manufacturers copying its ideas, designs and technologies
for developing vehicles at low cost and with better technology. Another problem which is faced
by BMW is increasing cost of production and decreasing market share due to increasing
competition.
RECOMMENDATION
The recommendation or suggestions for BMW for their problem related to operations and market
are as follows.
1. As the Chinese manufacturers are taking over the business of BMW and its market share
the company should evaluate and modify their pricing policies and price structure
accordingly. More flexible pricing policy can help the company to gain its competitive
edge again.
2. The target market of BMW are the upper class families and individual of society in there
diversify marketplaces. The company should be more attentive and make research to

attract middle class population too by developing designs of vehicles for the market
sector (Bellver, J. And et. al., 2019).
3. In order to be competitive and face the increasing competition in automotive market
BMW has to lower their production cost and move to varied target market for
establishing their competence again.
CONCLUSION
The above report is an enquiry project on automotive business sector and the organisation. It is
concluded that the current market analysis and research states that the future of automotive
industry and businesses working in it is huge and profitable. The current trends shows that
automotive sector is increasing and technological advancement adding value to it. SWOT
analysis is conducted of the respective company in order to gain knowledge about its potentials
and weaknesses along with knowing its future growth possibilities. At the end few
recommendations are given for improving and gaining back the competitive advantage.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Büyüközkan, G. and Ilıcak, Ö., 2019. Integrated SWOT analysis with multiple preference
relations. Kybernetes.
Bellver, J. And et. al., 2019. Preimplantation genetic screening for aneuploidy (PGT-A 2.0)
in assisted reproduction: A SWOT analysis. Reproductive BioMedicine Online.
David, F. R., Creek, S. A. and David, F. RR., 2019. What Is the Key to Effective SWOT
Analysis, Including AQCD Factors. SAM Advanced Management Journal. 84(1). p.25.
Bakhtari, A. R. And et. al., 2020, March. Assessing Industry 4.0 Features Using SWOT
Analysis. In Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems (pp.
216-225). Springer, Singapore.
Guzik, R., Domański, B. and Gwosdz, K., 2020. Automotive Industry Dynamics in Central
Europe. In New Frontiers of the Automobile Industry (pp. 377-397). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Yang, D. X. and et. al., 2019. The government regulation and market behavior of the new
energy automotive industry. Journal of cleaner production. 210. pp.1281-1288.
Calabrese, G. G., 2020. The Italian Automotive Industry: Between Old and New
Development Factors. In New Frontiers of the Automobile Industry (pp. 163-201).
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Avdeeva, Z., Kovriga, S. and Fedko, E., 2019, July. DSS-Tool for Demand Planning: An
Example of Automotive Industry. In 2019 IEEE 21st Conference on Business
Informatics (CBI) (Vol. 2, pp. 51-59). IEEE.