BMW's website marketing strategy and brand positioning differentiation

BMW's website, as part of the company's overall marketing campaign, seeks to establish the company as an innovator. For example, under BMW i, there is the tag line "the future of mobility," and the copy focuses predominantly on the innovative engineering and design features of its vehicles. The visuals are of prototype vehicles, the design facility in Germany, and some of the newer vehicles that the company has on the market. One of the quotes is "Visionary vehicles concepts and mobility services, inspiring design and consistent orientation toward sustainability redefine the understanding of individual mobility." While this is perhaps a little cluttered -- clunky even with the generic "sustainability" name-checking -- the message is clear that BMW is an innovator in its field. By positioning itself as an innovator, BMW supports the brand's broader positioning as a premium automaker, because innovation is one of the key traits of a leader in this field.

Another point of differentiation for BMW on its website is power. Under "BMW m," the text reads "The letter M. always stood for more than aesthetics and innovation power -- it is a symbol of high-performance racing engines and unique holistic vehicle concepts." This text is just as awkward as the text under BMW i, in that the letter "M" never would have been understood to represent traits that do not begin with that letter -- there is no intuitive connection between "M" and "aesthetics." The text makes more sense in German, where M. refers to 'motorsport', bringing clarity to the power reference. BMW is positioning its vehicles as being powerful, in particular drawing a connection between the company's commercial vehicles and its racing heritage. Again, this form of positioning supports a broad premium positioning, because power is usually something that people will pay a premium for. When combined with the other differentiating element of innovation, the premium status is enhanced, drawing a further differentiating line between BMW's power and, say, the power of a less innovative vehicle like an American muscle car.

A third point of differentiation that the company makes on its website is with respect to the emotional connection with the vehicle. The copy "Our innovations create emotion, enthusiasm, fascination and thrills" is just as messy in English as the rest of their copy, but it gets the point across. The cars that BMW produces elicit emotional reactions, something that differentiates them from at least the average car on the road. They could have done better than "thrills" -- while it is important to avoid the word "fun," which is reserved for tiny cars with no selling features, "thrills" is only marginally better.