
BMW Aftersales Program
BMW
Issue 6 | July 2008
Agency
Shackleton
Creative Team
Juan Nonzioli – General Creative Director;Alfonso Marian – Executive Creative Director;Monica Balanzategui – Creative Director;Miluska Castillo – Copywriter;Iñigo Reyna - Copywriter;Marta Ares – Art Director
Production Team
Itxaro Vicuña - Production Manager;Blanca Grande - Production Assistant
Other Credits
Javier Suso – Account Director;Sebastian Torme – Account Director;Laura Vitriago – Account Supervisor;Idoia Cañadas – Account Executives
Date
March 2006
Background
BMW wanted to keep car buyers from migrating to non-affiliated service providers after the end of their warranty period through customer loyalty to the Official Service and increased sales of BMW Original Accessories, Spare Parts and merchandising. They also wanted to improve their customers’ knowledge of the aftersales service, increase their satisfaction with it and modernise its image. The concept had to be flexible to highlight the range of services, while adhering to BMW’s tone and style and fitting within a tight budget.
Idea
Shackleton embarked on a large scale integrated campaign including direct mailings, print work, ambient, POP, SMS and email. BMW customers were sent various mailings highlighting elements of the aftersales service. A die-cut piece that exemplified the subtle difference of 2mm invited customers to change their tyres. A mailing advising that other repair shops could only offer imitations of the car’s paint-job featured a cover showing various similar colours, only one of which was the true BMW colour – customised to the customer’s own paint job. A two-fold displaying a car travelling from home to the dealership featured simple images of the recipient’s home city.
Reminders for maintenance work were also sent to customers by SMS and email, each leading the recipient to their official repair shop. Indeed, a sly wink to the ‘BMW detail’ was even added after the cars had been through the service. A hanger on the rearview mirror indicating that the car had been washed contained a raincoat, because, as the hanger’s headline states, ‘Once you have your car washed, the probability of rainfall is five times higher.’
Results
The global results of the aftersales marketing activity were 114% of the objective. The program achieved an ROI of 255.5% in 2006 and according to a survey, car dealers believe it has improved their image and profitability. The number of campaigns used by the dealers has increased by 112%.
Target Audience
The communication program is aimed to the owners of BMW cars from the first moment of the car purchase, independently of the car age, model or how long ago they last came to the Official Service BMW
Our Thoughts
There’s a good strategy here, aligning BMW’s after sales service with the attention to detail that goes into creating ‘the ultimate driving machine’. The creative executions are a bit of a mixed bag, but I liked the ‘paint job’ piece that matched the colour of the car in the brochure to the colour of the recipent's BMW. And I loved the idea of giving each newly serviced BMW a free car wash and then returning it with a free raincoat (because we all know it pours down as soon as you've washed your car). This is a lovely little example of seeing the world through the customer's eyes and thus humanising a brand that is best known for a rather cold-blooded technical efficiency. SH