An Analysis of BMW IMC Strategy in China Market
Shuangyi LI, 1155081974
Effective communication with customers is fundamental to the success of the brand. With flourish of different online channels in the digital era, customers can never be effectively reached with mere ATL (above the line) communication efforts. Micro-marketing and customer engagement are playing crucial roles in successful marketing communication activities. In order to attract the attention of target customers, brands have to connect all the consumer touchpoints online and offline to provide a comprehensive multichannel marketing communication strategy, which is referred to as IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) strategy. According to IMC strategy, all marketing communication tools and channels should be coordinated to achieve the maximum influence on customers.
As a world-famous high-end automobile brand, BMW has become synonymous with luxury, quality, creativity and superb customer services. BMW are good at integrating different marketing communication approaches to get customers' attention. We can grasp some knowleage of the IMC strategy of BMW through the following cases.
1. Social Media Marketing
a) H5 + Viral Marketing
H5 advertising is no longer a brand new communication approach. However, the BMW M2 H5 advertisement on WeChat moment makes a great breakthrough. It was launched in April 2006 and quickly became viral on social media, receiving over 10,0000 page views within less than 1 h.
The H5 advertisement starts with a normal news release which immediately changes into a moving page and switches to a short video clip.
Then the mock-up scenes of video websites, WeChat moment, and music app interface come into appearance one by one. Shocking visual effects are added to create immersive contexts for consumers to have interactive experience.
The entertaining, creative and interactive characteristics of the BMW M2 H5 advertisement are the main reasons of incredibly high sharing rates and viral spread on social media.
You can have a look at the H5 advertisement by scanning the QR code through this link: http://bmw2.thefront.com.cn/m2_2016/pc.html
b) Chinese Culture Elements + Continual Exposure
In addition to viral marketing, BMW also tries to utilize some Chinese elements to convey its brand images. BMW makes a perfect combination of Chinese culture and brand identity in the implementation of social media content marketing.
For instance, in the last month of 2015 the year of horse, BMW released a series of posters themed by “BMW makes heroes real heroes (无宝马，不英雄)” on the official Weibo account.
Here’s another example. In Chinese culture, we have 24 solar terms marking the 24 divisions of the solar year in the traditional Chinese calendar. The 24 solar terms are always marketing sources for content marketers, while foreign brands in China find encounter difficulties when trying to generate creative ideas from the 24 solar terms. BMW is an exception.
On 20th Mar. 2016, BMW released the “Chunfen” poster and expanded it to a 24 solar term series with consistent artistic style.
This series achieved great success on social media through continual exposure and active consumer spreading. Some other typical posters are presented below.
2. Customer Experience Marketing: Offline Events + Promotional Video
BMW started to hold the “BMW M Track Experience Day” event in 2010. This offline event has become an important platform for BMW racing culture promotion, BMW M new technology display, and Delight of Driving BMW M. Offline events can provide customers with real experience, but only a limited amount of customers can take part in.
In 2015, BMW conducted successful customer experience marketing activities by combining offline and online approaches together. To expand the influence of the “BMW M Track Experience Day”, BMW created a promotional online video named “Hunting Curves (猎弯传奇)” in order to reach more customers online.
You can have a look at the promotional video by clicking this link: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTY4ODQyODUwOA==.html
3. Online Community Marketing: Cooperation + KOL Influence
During the 9th Guangzhou BMW Auto Show, BMW made close cooperation with Guokr.com in order to convey technological function centered marketing messages to young tech fans and KOLs.
In terms of pre-event promotion, Guokr.com designed warm-up discussions within the community and on Weibo to attract as many target consumers as possible.
During the event, Guokr.com sets a special BMW section, where users are exposed to viral tests, viral video, original articles and infographics. Users can easily share interesting contents to social media.
Guokr.com also carries out offline activities to reinforcement communications between target customers and BMW.
To conclude, in order to deliver a positive brand image and maintain brand awareness, BMW leverages different communication approaches, such as mass media, engaging offline events, social media, and joint promotions in an integrated way to communicate its marketing messages to target consumer segments. Social media marketing, customer experience marketing, and online community marketing are three important parts of the BMC IMC strategy.
References:
1. BMW H5 advertising: http://www.yixieshi.com/27586.html
2. BMW solar terms content marketing: http://http://t.im/1b4er
3. Story of "Hunting the Curves": http://www.digitaling.com/projects/15079.html
4. BMW cooperates with Guokr.com to do online community marketing: http://www.meihua.info/a/61565
5. BMW marketing communication mix: http://research-methodology.net/marketing-strategy-for-bmw-recommendations/
6. Cllenges for marketing in China: http://www.slideshare.net/Ashishmichael/challenges-for-marketing-in-china-15966457
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