BMW has taken the No.1 position in the luxury car segment in Thailand from Mercedes-Benz and maintained its crown for three years in a row since 2020. The secret key to this success is the rise of strong communities of BMW owners.
To achieve this, we adopted a two-pronged strategy, with the #bimmermeet serving as the community platform for BMW car lovers (both classic and new) to meet and share their passion, while the JOY programme catered to communities based on their individual lifestyles. Whether you are a marathon runner, a golf enthusiast, a globetrotter or an avid foodie, there was something for everyone.
This community marketing strategy was a crucial step in elevating the BMW brand in recent years. I would like to share the story of the JOY programme over a three-part series: Chapter 1 – The Angst Before JOY; Chapter 2 – In Pursuit Of JOY; and Chapter 3 – JOY To BMW.
The Angst Before JOY
In 2016, we went through a series of changes both internally and externally. Social media transformed the way a brand connected to its customers, and how its customers connected among themselves. With such fundamental changes, we had to adapt and behave differently to continue to stay on the edge of this new frontier.
The Wake-up Call
In 2016, BMW celebrated its centenary in style by unveiling the futuristic-looking BMW VisionNext 100 concept car to mark this key milestone. The concept car demonstrated the company's technological capabilities and represented its ambitious goal of wanting to lead the automotive world for the next century.
But the celebrations soon turned into a nightmare when its arch-rival Mercedes-Benz seized BMW's throne as the world's No.1 luxury car brand that year.
This bitter feeling was beyond mere words.
It made us realise that the winning formula that delivered us to the top over the past decade does not necessarily guarantee us the same success in the days ahead.
It was a wake-up call. A call for transformation had to be made.
In Thailand, I must admit that the pain wasn't that bad because we've always been holding the No.2 position. So, losing the global crown didn't really change much for us. However, it presented us with an opportunity to relook at our current way of managing things and its overall effectiveness.
We realised that our marketing plan had always been the same, year after year. Be it our advertisements, new product launches or even our website. A quick comparison to our peers made us realise that our marketing activities weren't that different from what others were doing.
It was then that we realised we had always been aiming to be better than our competitors all this while, rather than to be different from them.
Voice Of The Average Customer
At that time, "customer centricity" was a new buzzword. Something that we kept hearing from every company, including ours.
One day, I received a phone call from a disgruntled customer who felt he wasn't treated fairly, as he wasn't invited to a BMW golfing event despite being a loyal customer for years. To rub salt in the wound, his neighbour who drove a Mercedes-Benz got the invitation.
So, I was thinking, what could have gone wrong? Maybe it was just a mistake on our end.
After looking into the matter, I realised there wasn't anything wrong with our processes or the people who had handled it. What led to this unfortunate outcome was simply that we had set strict, measurable targets that required all BMW activities to generate sales. As a result, it was only logical that we invited potential sales prospects (like our customer's neighbour) to our golfing event over that very customer who had already bought a car from us.
As it was very costly to organise a golfing event, we had to ensure that our prospects were given priority as they were more likely to buy cars from us than existing owners. It was a shrewd business decision.
But despite everyone doing things right, we wondered if we had done the right thing.
The question about customer centricity went through our minds. While we followed the rules and achieved our goals, we knew it was wrong to have disappointed our loyal customers deep down inside.
Experience Is The New Luxury
With the rise of social media, luxury was being redefined. The focus was gradually shifting from "material" towards "experience".
Increasingly, we noticed our personal friends posting on their social media about their ultra-cool experiences like taking part in overseas marathon running, skiing in the Alps, swimming with whale sharks, hunting for the Northern Lights and even climbing Mount Everest.
Participating in such extraordinary activities has become a new luxury trend. Incidentally, "luxury" is the value that BMW wants to be associated with. However, when you approach any random person on the street, they are more likely to associate "luxury" with Mercedes-Benz. It is probably the same when you mention "safety", and one would naturally think of Volvo.
Seeing these once-in-a-lifetime experiences inspired us to step out of our comfort zone because we realised that it was the best opportunity for us to define a new "luxury" perimeter of our own.
Summary
There were numerous changes coming our way, including the rise of social media, the arrival of new luxury trends and a call for transformation within the company.
Yet, how can we emerge as leaders amid these changes? How can we be different from the rest? There were so many questions in our heads that we simply had no answers for.
But what we knew for sure was that we had to stop what we'd been doing, and do things that were completely different from the rest.
Sethipong Anutarasoti is the former general manager of Marketing at BMW Thailand.
