Segmenting And Targeting Markets

        Market segmentation is breaking down the market into smaller categories grouping together customers with common characteristics and who respond to given product types alike. Therefore, a market segment constitutes a group of people who have resemblance in values and traditions because of the effects of being together. Markets are broken down into segments because it is not possible to appeal to all customers with a similar approach (Kotler And Armstrong, 1989). When homogeneity exists in a segment, segmentation would be wholly successful. 

            From the definition of segmentation, markets are broken down into segments for useful gains. BMW has divided its markets into several segments with the first one being geographical segmentation. On a close observation of the markets supplied by BMW, the biggest markets in terms of geographical locations served by this company is United States of America and Western Europe which account to almost 67% percent of the buyers of its cars. It is logical to conclude that developed Western Nations is the biggest market of BMW cars and a lot of effort should be made to maintain and sustain them. However, as they strive to maintain these markets, they should not neglect other markets.

            According to Jobber (2004), the other criterion they have used is income segmentation where they have classified the market according to income levels. Their products range from close to twenty five thousand Euros to one hundred and thirteen Euros. It is clear that BMW targets the high income level market. The above market segmentation is very broad and cannot be solely used to generalize the market (Giardina, 2002). BMW further uses multilevel segmentation where several other factors are considered in a market in order to identify the desires of customers. 

           From the discussion, it can be concluded that BMW’s biggest market target is the premium car market. BMW serves a market that requires premium cars. The car maker goes further and serves high income people within its market segments which are their effort to satisfy them.  

Developing And Managing Products

Every industry has its own plan of the development. In order to be always in the market and to hold out in it the company should produce new products. They are important to sustain growth, increase revenues and profits, and replace obsolete items.

The products of BMW Group shall meet and exceed the expectations of our customers regarding innovations, performance, and quality.
                    

BMW has announced more production details of the all-new, all electric compact car codenamed the ‘Megacity’, which will go on sale as early as 2013 under a new sub-brand from the German luxury car maker.

The first BMW’s dedicated electric vehicle will be manufactured at the Leipzig factory in Germany. According to the definite records, it will be sold as either a Mini or a ‘0 Series’ BMW.  BMW is approaching the electrification of the automobile through what it calls Project i. And although its cars  including the battery powered Mini E and the Concept ActiveE, which is an electric version of the BMW 1 Series Coupe the company introduced in Detroit  have made a splash, Project i has generally flown under the radar.

The manufacturers of BMW are now developing a new car to release in 2013, the BMW i3 (also called Mega City Vehicle). It will have an all electric range of 31 miles. It will also be a plug in to charge. The car will be 4 doors, 4 passengers and will be a bit bigger than the 1 series. It will have a 134 horsepower electric motor running on lithium ion batteries. These new models will be manufactured in a new plant in Moses Lake, Washington, and will cost 100 million dollars. The raw materials for this model will be shipped from Japan, and cars will be shipped back to Germany where parts will be fabricated. The cars will b sold in the big cities around the world (US, France, Germany, and the UK).