Interrelation of Marketing with other BMW Departments

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of BMW's marketing strategies. It begins by defining the role of marketing as a crucial business function and then delves into the structure of BMW's marketing department, outlining the key roles and responsibilities within the team, including the president, marketing managers, social media managers, and others. The report then explores the marketing process, emphasizing the importance of market research and the impact of the marketing environment, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors (PESTEL analysis). Finally, it examines the interrelation between the marketing department and other functional departments within BMW, specifically highlighting the connections with the operational department and the information technology department, and customer relations and management departments, underscoring how effective marketing contributes to overall business success and financial stability, brand recognition, and human resource management.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
1. Role of marketing as a business function....................................................................................2
2. Structure of marketing department of BMW...............................................................................2
3. Marketing process and significance of marketing environment to marketing function..............4
4. Interrelation between marketing and other functional department of organisation.....................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as the strategy used by the business organisations to bring
consumers, investors and employees for achieving the business goals (Davis, 2017). The report
will explain the role and significance of marketing in context of BMW. Bavarian Motor Works
(BMW) is one of the largest and most renowned manufacturers of motorcycles and automobiles.
1. Role of marketing as a business function
Marketing department of BMW plays a vital role in business functioning of organisation.
Apart from performing the departmental functions the marketing analyses the vast growth
opportunities for BMW. The marketing functioning aims at performing activities which can
contribute to the success and growth. The marketing professionals of organisation regularly
analyses the competitive marketing environment and formulates strategies which can distinguish
BMW from other automobile companies. The ineffective marketing policies will make it
impossible for company to explore the innovative methods which can be used for creating new
customers (Mac and Evangelista, 2018). The marketing functionalities not only help to build
customer loyalty towards the products of BMW but also make the organisation a well know
brand all over the world.
If BMW will not make much emphasis on its marketing roles then the rising competition
from other organisations will soon replace the BMW. Thus in order to understand the needs of
consumers and to promote services in a way such that customers can make purchasing decisions
marketing is important. The financial stability is also dependent on the marketing functionality of
business. The cost of products, transactions and investments between suppliers and dealers,
market share and other aspect of financial benefits are influenced by the marketing. When BMW
effectively follow its marketing plan and strategies then it becomes easier for customers as well
as other stakeholders to invest and trust company with more convenience. It is one of the factors
which affect the success of company and its financial performance (Baker, 2016).
The marketing also have great impact on the human resources associated with the
organisation. The vast success all over the world makes BMW a popular name. Thus it is easy
for the company to recruit highly skilled and talented human resources. If company will not have
sufficient and suitable marketing policies then BMW brand will not gain such huge success and
talented pool of employees will never give their skilful services to company. The marketing
functions will make it possible for BMW to achieve their sales targets and to retain its distinct
place among its competitors which is essential for the long term success of company.

2. Structure of marketing department of BMW
BMW operates in different countries of world thus in order to execute its marketing
functions successfully its marketing department consist of various employees. The marketing
team of BMW aims at developing strategies for promoting its services and products. The
marketing department of BMW is lead by marketing president who manages the marketing team
consisting marketing manager, social media managers, brand management and communication
managers. The organisation is multinational company and to develop more accurate and detailed
understanding of the market BMW has different marketing teams in each of its operating region
instead of having a common marketing president or manager for the entire BMW group. In
general for all operational regions of BMW marketing department comprises following
members.
Marketing president: The president is considered as the leaders of marketing team which
provides strategic guidelines for executing marketing functions. These leaders also monitors and
controls that other team members of marketing department of BMW are performing their
responsibilities with accuracy and as per the market and organisational requirements.
Marketing manager: These managers coordinate with other members and leaders of marketing
team so that company can achieve its goals (Iglesias and Saleem, 2015). They conduct market
research so that marketing strategies are formulated according to the business requirements of
BMW. Marketing managers also coordinate with other functional managers of marketing team
for proper functioning of department.
Social media manager: BMW is also aiming to promote its services through social media tools
and to establish more interaction with their consumers. For this purpose social media manager
prepares strategies and monitors these digital marketing tools. They are responsible for analysing
the social media popularity of company and how organisation can attract more consumers on
these digital platforms. It gives BMW clarity on its brand value success among people as well as
to promote their services on broad level with secure measures.
Advertising manager: These authorities are responsible for advertising the services and brand
name of BMW so that people can make purchase decisions easily. They analyses tools which can
be effective enough for drawing attention of the target audience.
Customer brand experience managers: Customer retention is the key success factor for
organisation. The customer management related authorities of BMW marketing department aims
at providing services and products which can meet the demands of customers. These authorities
also focus on feedbacks and complain of their customers so that they can be retained for long
term (Davis, 2017).
Retail marketing managers: Retails managers of BMW focuses on products and their
distribution. Their aim is to develop effective distribution and development strategies which can
help BMW to achieve its sales targets.

3. Marketing process and significance of marketing environment to marketing
function
The first approach in the marketing process is to implement a market research so that
BMW can execute its functional strategies in a way to generate optimized benefits. The
organisation executes the following stages of marketing process:
 BMW analyses the opportunities which can help company in achieving new levels of
success.
 The evaluation of opportunity requires the target market selection so that organisation can
execute its marketing strategy and plans.
 When BMW has clarity of its market segment then company evaluates the elements of
marketing mix which will determine the success of its marketing process.
 In order to make the marketing process effective and successful its management and
evaluation is necessary (Marketing Process and the Steps involved in Marketing Process,
2015). BMW can accomplish this by different monitoring and performance evaluation
tools.
The marketing process and functionality is also influenced by the marketing environment. The
internal environment factors such as consumers, suppliers and distributors can affect the decision
making of BMW. The company must make decisions which make a balance between its profit
goals and interests of these internal factors. Along with these internal factors the external
marketing factors such as political, legal, social and economical factors also affect the marketing
process of BMW. This can be analysed by PESTEL analysis of company:
Political: BMW must consider the legislative and political factors of the country in which it is
operating to avoid any conflicts.
Economic: The taxation system and stability of economy has great impact on the performance
and profits of BMW thus this factor is also analysed in marketing process.
Social: The social factors affect the response of consumers towards products (Lovelock and
Patterson, 2015). Hence BMW must consider the social component in its promotional events for
achieving success.
Technological: The innovations in products as well as promotion are significantly affected by
the technology. The lack of technical advancements can cause BMW to lag behind its
competitors.
Environmental: The growing impact of sustainable development concept demands more
attention towards environmental factors. It can give long term growth benefits to the company.
Legal: The Company must follow the legal aspects of the economy to avoid financial and legal
difficulties.

4. Interrelation between marketing and other functional department of
organisation
The marketing department of BMW also affects the functioning of other departments. As
per the latest trends the most dominating departments whose working is affected by the
marketing roles greatly are information technology department and customer relation and
management department.
Marketing and operational department:
The successful can beneficial execution of operational activities is possible only by
interrelation between marketing and operational team of BMW. The marketing team conducts
market researches and make effective strategies for product specification and price. The product
development cannot be accomplished without coordination between both the functional units.
The operational team develop products which are promoted by the marketing team for attracting
consumers (Iglesias and Saleem, 2015). On the other hand marketing team only specifies those
product attributes and qualities of products which are feasible and can be produced by
operational team. The price factors and other functional attributes of BMW products can be
possible only coordination between both of these departments. If there will be
miscommunication or lack of coordination between both these functional blocks then company
will not be able to provide products as per the needs of consumers. The interdependency will
help BMW to deliver quality and innovative services.
Information technology and marketing department:
BMW is using digital media tools for promotional activities. The information technology
department and marketing department both are interrelated to each other. The marketing
department always follows the guidelines from IT department for ensuring the networking
security. If IT department will not ensure the data and cyber security then consumers of BMW
will never consider organisation as trustworthy and marketing goals will not be achieved.
Similarly before using any social platform or technology for interacting with customers
marketing team make sure that it is safe and easily accessible (Baker, 2016). This is not possible
without coordination between both the departments. This interdependency helps BMW to
achieve its business goals by making its business processes more advance and secure. The
interdependency between IT and marketing units will make the functional activities of BMW
more reliable, trustworthy, accurate and efficient.
CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that marketing is an essential aspect for achieving the
business goals and to retain long term success goals. Thus business organisations must emphasis
on formulation and implementation of effective marketing strategies.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Davis, J.A., 2017. Measuring Marketing: The 100+ Essential Metrics Every Marketer Needs 3rd
Edition. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015. Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Iglesias, O. and Saleem, F.Z., 2015. The key role of HR policies and practices in implementing a
relationship marketing orientation. In Ideas in marketing: finding the new and polishing
the old (pp. 722-725). Springer, Cham.
Mac, L. and Evangelista, F., 2018, July. PROACTIVE AND RESPONSIVE MARKET
ORIENTATION ON MARKETING EXPLORATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE.
In 2018 Global Marketing Conference at Tokyo (pp. 303-303).
Online
Marketing Process and the Steps involved in Marketing Process, 2015 [Online] Accessed
through < http://www.businessstudynotes.com/marketing/principle-of-marketing/explain-
the-marketing-process-in-detail/ >