BMW: Selling an Emotional Product that Fulfills Wishes for Status

When one buys a BMW, what are they really purchasing? An automobile? Yes, of course. But more than that, to buy a BMW is to attempt to purchase status. BMW’s success, despite all the technological advancements to which the company can rightly lay claim, is far more dependent upon the successful branding of their product than almost any other mainstream automobile company in the world. The company has forged a passionate loyalty among their customers based both on owning an aesthetically pleasing and functional machine that is out of the economic reach of the average person. BMW itself bears the responsibility for creating one of the most loyal and involved consumer bases in the auto industry. It has done this through a thorough commitment to a culture which it has manipulated to be overly enthused by the possibilities of brand identification and wish-fulfillment.

No less a personage than the Chairman of the Board of BMW Helmet Panke back up this strategy when he admitted that BMW offer’s “customers emotional products, which, through the strength of the brand and the substance of the products fulfill the customer's wish for individualization and differentiation." BMW therefore should considered a company more in the business of selling hopes and dreams than automobiles. This dream that so many consumers have isn’t something that is natural, but rather something that was established by intelligent product branding. And BMW’s product branding differs from most others; it wasn’t accomplished so much through a clever advertising campaign, but instead stems from their corporate culture. In recent years, however, BMW discovered that what is a dream to one person would be a nightmare to another.