Marketing Strategies of Rolls Royce and BMW - Essay Example

Marketing strategies of Rolls Royce and BMW Introduction The field of the automobile industry is growing at a faster rate due to a number of small brands of cars like Rolls Royce that are taking the market and competing with the large brands such as BMW (Bick, 2009). BMW group is taken as the largest and successful automobile company in the world. It is made of three main different brands that include the Mini, BMW, and Rolls Royce made to suit different target markets. Though Rolls Royce Company was bought by the BMW Company, the two companies use almost similar but different strategies to remain competitive in the market. Marketing strategies of Rolls Royce and BMW Both companies like to keep their product at the introductory and growth stages of the product lifecycle by introducing new models of cars to the market. BMW Company does not like having their products at the maturity or declining stage of product life cycle. They like introducing new models of cars to the market so as to keep a competitive edge over other automobile companies in the industry. In contrast, although the Rolls Royce Company keeps their products in the introductory and growth stage of product life cycle, this company also maintains their products in the maturity and decline stage of life. This is because they target a sale market of middle-income earners (Smith, 2013). Both companies use similar market approaches so as to have a competitive advantage over other automobile companies in the market. They both produce products that serve the global needs of customers. The two companies’ produces new models of cars to suit the customers demand and recognizes the need of quality and luxury as both of their products is built on this attributes. The two companies, therefore, produces attractive and trend products that suit the needs of their customers. Both companies differentiate their market into demographic segmentation. This market is segmented into income, age, and gender. Therefore, the two companies produce products that favor these segments of the market. BMW produce products that target high-income earners basing on the economic segment. Their target customers are those with an income of $75,000 unlike the Rolls Royce, who targets customers with an income of more than $30, 000. These makes BMW brands most common among the rich while the Rolls Royce more common among the middle-income earners ( Simms & Trott, 2007). Both companies have a good number of market dealership and imports from no dealership-networked countries. They both have various manufacturing plants in Germany and UK with the companies operating in more than 100 countries globally with a number of authorized dealers to sell new and used cars. This opens a wider market for these two companies all over the world. The two companies also use several advertising means to market their product. The commonly used methods used by both companies includes television for branding campaign, new car launches, brochures, internet and many other advertisements. Although, BMW and Rolls Royce companies use dealers to market and sell their products, the numbers of BMW dealers are found in many countries across the world as compared to the Rolls Royce companies’ dealers (Lange, 2007). Both companies use their brand in various ways to expand their market position. The Rolls Royce and BMW brands have special features that make them attractive to customers. This features includes, luxurious drive with simplicity, handmade and hand finished personalized features, cool environment inside the car, dynamic drive, ecstasy spirit and surge of power. All these features of the brands make them unique to the other automobile brands thus making the two companies have a competitive advantage over the other automobile companies. Both companies also maintain their market position by building their brand image. The two brands speak for themselves and are of superlative excellence born out of great innovation to make clients feel pleasure while driving. In 20003, Rolls-Royce became part of BMW brand and has been a fascinating brand among customers, “the luxury motor car per excellence”. The two automobile companies face similar barriers in developing its market position. Maintaining the same level of innovation and performance has been a challenge of the two companies. Other automobile companies have emerged with innovations that threaten the market of the two brands. This competition is evident in such automobile industries such as Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, Ford and Lexus. The Rolls Royce brand and BMW are both of unique qualities. Both brands sell at higher prices that have limited their market among people of middle-income earners. Other automobile companies such as Volkswagen, therefore, take this opportunity and produce cars that suit the market needs of the middle-income earners. Other automobile companies such as Audi and Ford also produce unique and quality cars that compete favorably with BMW and Rolls Royce in the market. Although, BMW and Rolls Royce find it difficult to maintain their market position, BMW has stood out against the Rolls Royce due to its unique features as compared to the other automobile branch. This is evident with the higher number of sales of BMW as compared to Rolls Royce brand. Automobile industry is growing at a faster rate and in the coming years new brand of cars will be in the market. This brand will emerge so as to satisfy the customer’s needs. Therefore, in the coming 5-10 years, the brands of both Rolls-Royce and BMW will be affected by the customer’s needs. The two companies will have to produce a brand of cars that suits the customer’s needs. The increasing number of automobile companies will also call for production of unique and quality brand of cars from the two automobile companies so as to gain a competitive advantage over other automobile companies in the world. Therefore, the features of the new brands of cars produced by the Rolls Royce and BMW will be dictated by the level of competition posed by the other automobile companies (Avery & Bergsteiner, 2011). Conclusion The automobile industry is growing at a faster rate. The industry is made up of various automobile companies that try to compete each other so as to stand out in the market. Both Rolls Royce and BMW Company use almost the same marketing strategy for their products. The BMW stands out against the Rolls Royce due to the uniqueness of its product. In addition, it has the largest share of the market. By maintaining their products in growth and introductory stage of the product life cycle, the BMW introduce new models of cars in the market that outcompetes the Rolls Royce products, which are maintained at the maturity and declining stage of the life cycle. References Simms, C., & Trott, P. (2007). An analysis of the repositioning of the “BMW Mini” brand. Journal of Product & Brand Management. Avery, G. C., & Bergsteiner, H. (2011). How BMW successfully practices sustainable leadership principles. Strategy & Leadership. Bick, G. N. C. (2009). Journal of Maketing Management. Journal of Marketing Management, 25, 117–141. Lange, L. (2007). CONNECTING PEOPLE AND BUSINESS AT ROLLS-ROYCE. Strategic Communication Management. Smith, D. J. (2013). Power-by-the-hour: the role of technology in reshaping business strategy at Rolls-Royce. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 25, 987–1007. Read More