Quote:
Originally Posted by ryivnx
It's very interesting to me that BMW M division is trying to appeal to a much younger and wider population. As someone pointed out at 100k+ for a car most people would at least be in their early 30s - kind of like the Porsche customers. I'm not hating - I am also an "elder" millennial but I have a very good job and own 4 BMWs (two of which are M). I will likely end up getting the new M4 but seeing some YouTube "influencer" advertise it to me is not good marketing IMO..
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Companies have to look at their marketing budgets and decide whether to focus on bringing in more of the same type of customer/user persona (assuming the market still exists and is growing), a new customer/user persona that exists/is growing, or in rare cases create a new persona where it does not exist.
BMW M simply did what any prudent business needs to do and looked at its demographics to understand where the market is growing/shrinking and I'm sure the data showed that the market (persona) it typically goes for is shrinking (how many conversations have we had with enthusiasts who are talking about their next car being the Model 3, etc.). They had a few options - change the car, change the marketing, or create new categories and capture all of the pies.
I think they decided to do all of the above. That is, they changed the car a bit (bold new look, less focus on weight savings, more on aggressive details), they changed the marketing to appeal to a younger crowd that they are worried no longer cares about cars to convince them that hey cars are really cool, and they at the same time are pursuing other categories (touring, electrification, etc.). The bet they took is that by keeping enough of the DNA alive (manual, dual purpose, rawness) they would still keep their traditional segment interested and only time will tell if they actually lost a lot more of this segment than they gained in new segments. I believe they won't lose many despite all the whining around here.
Looking forward to seeing (and feeling) the outcome!