Week 14- ( Chap.8)-Segmenting Targeting Markets

In United States, BMW is a niche market. Although BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi dominate the market for executive cars, BMW has found its specific target market by focusing on a relatively small group of customers. However, the brand and cars make BMW successful. It often said that said that " its better to be a relatively big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond". BMW does that by shrinking the market and creating a specialized marketing mix for the customers. For example, the customer at BMW dealers look for cars that are classic, executive, and sporty. Generally, the people that own a BMW car are professionals, not saying that an illiterate person shouldn't have it. As a example I have a family who is a doctor and he has one BMW Z4, my boss who is a pharmacist has a BMW M3. In addition, young married/divorced without children are more likely to have a BMW, not saying that elderly or parents shouldn't have it. In my way to BMCC every morning I see business people driving this car. I know for sure that in the future I will be in that position. BMW dealers are more visited in Manhattan Downtown than in The Bronx. It means that they target geographically that community in Downtown because over there customers have more purchasing power and is more accessible. BMW also fulfill the needs of the customer and the environment. They manufactures their car thinking quite a lot about sustainability. BMW is one of the three biggest player in the market for executive cars. The competition for sales between the big three German premium brands is heating up but BMW still remains ahead of rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz. For November 2010, BMW Group's global sales were 129,014 units - a 20 percent rise over the same month last year. BMW outsold its closest competitor Mercedes-Benz by more than 15,000 units. Mercedes-Benz global sales were 112,300 units while the VW Group's Audi brand were 87,050. BMW benefited from having a new 5-series and the all-new X1 and MINI Countryman models to offer its customers.

Source: Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-08/bmw-says-november-sales-gained-putting-2010-car-delivery-goal-in-sight-.html