MiNi CooPer

Company background ^__^

The MINI is small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation( BMW ) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered an icon of the 1960s, and its space-sawing front-wheel-grive layout ( that allowed 80% of the area of the car's floor pan to be used for passengers and luggage ) influenced a generation of car-makers. The vehicle is in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German contemporary, the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar popularity in North America. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century, behind the Ford Model T. This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation ( Australia ) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations including an estate car, a pickup truck, a van and the Mini Moke-- a jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "s" were sportier versions that were successful as rally in 1966 the Mini was disqualified after the finish, along with six other British entrants, which included the first four cars to finish, under a questionable ruling that the cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps and spotlights. Intially Minis were marketed under the Austin and Morris name, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor, until Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969. The Mini was again marketed under the Austin name in the 1980s.

Rationale

Why this Brand?

'To allow people to drive in safety a mythical car while giving it their personal touch, finding everywhere a place to park, and perserving the enviroment'

The Mini Cooper's branding strategic vision seems to fallow a dual goal. The first one aims at preserving the original and famous Mini's spirit, while making it more safe. This is a mean to keep activ the bond comsumers developped with the product since the sixtees, and what makes Mini Cooper different from the New Beetle. The second goal is to beyond the car's utilitarian value, that is mainly its small size, and to meet new comsumer's expectations such as expressing its personallty and taking care of the environment.

SWOT Analysis Mini Cooper

Strengths

Looked really different from other cars when came out and sold well. Car not geared towards one particular demographic of people. Heavily promoted and used in the movie Italian Job Light weight and probably relatively fuel efficient. Wasn't it made by BMW, a reputable company

Weaknesses

Seems as though it was just a fad. Don't see the car selling as well as it did when the car debuted

Opportunities

Sell in countries where gasoline is expensive and where need a small car. Japan for example you want to drive a small car because parking is hard to find and can only accommodate small cars.

Threats

Other companies are coming out with mini cars also. I heard one company is coming out with the for two, a mini car that seats two people hence the name.

Mini Cooper's Promotion

These cars will be distributed to the 51 MINI dealerships across the country and will be allotted four months for this promotion. Each deallership will also receive promotional MINI posters. The dealerships chosen will not be exclusive to the MINI dealerships. This will target both customers who are shopping who are shopping specifically for a MINI and those who are originally in the market for something else. It is up to the owner of the dealership to determine what to do with the free MINI.

- Dealerships can sell the free MINI and use the money earned for incentives for thrir employees to push sales of the MINI. Employees can earn bonuses for each MINI sold.
- The dealership employee with the highest MINI sales( no less than three cars per three month ) during a given time may keep all the earnings from the sale of the free MINI.
- The employee with the hightest MINI sales( no less than three cars ) will win the free MINI.

This will help increase MINI sales because employees will have incentive to show the MINI to customers rather than other cars on the lot. They will likely educate themselves about MINI in order to help address concerns about the MINI from customers. Competition between dealership sales people will also help to push sales.

Product strategy

Research Analysis

The MINI Cooper S, the very recent Jhon Cooper works GP are more "sporty", the Park Land one is more dedicated to women. Mini adapted the original design to the actual attractive and technological requirements without losing the original style. The design is a modern interpretation of the simple and stralghtforward look of the original MINI, for example, centre speedometer in the middle of the dash board:friendly look. This consists in a wild range of optional equipment. You can choose youe MINI ' a la carte'. Powerful engine runs fast. Occupants are extremely well protected in case of accident. Every thing is done for the consumer to frrl comfortable inside: luxury material, apace, technogy; All the bottons, swiches, levers and dials are easy to use and understand. The car enjoy an excellent handling and road holding making it both safe and great fun to drive. No dangerous material are used in the MINI' production. 10% of the plastic components are made with recycled material. From the very beginning, MINI has been designed with the idea of an optimal recyclling. Each one of this feature is developed according to the BMW group's premlum standards. The combination of them gives the MINI Cooper significant competitive benefits.

TARGET MARKET

IT is important to sell the right product to the right people; this is the 'target audience', which is usually defined by age, sex and income. MINI also targets a certain character. Different types of marketing and different creative approaches can be used to reach different audiences.

BRANDING

A brand is a name, term, sign or symbol that lets customers identify a product or service in a way that sets it apart from its competitors. But a brand can be more than just a company name and logo; by creating a consistent image in the minds of their customers the strengest brands can be said to have a recognisable 'personality'. MINI, for example, is energetic, cheeky, stylish, self-confident, rellable and exciting. MINI use a recognisable graphic style, with brightly coloured boxes around text and the same typeface, or font, for all its communications. All the marketing from MINI is written in the same style, or 'tone of voice', using cheeky, intelligent humour, to make MINI feel gutty and fun. It all has the same personality. At the heart of the brand is the car itself. Much of the MINI personality comes from the uniqueness of the desiggn and thee exciting driving experience.

Positioning / Unique selling point

This is whatever makes a product or service unique- the one thing it has that its competitors don't. One Unique selling point of MINI is that, because of its history, it is more a cultural icon that just a car.

Key successful factors related to the product

The success of the MINI caught even paymasters BMW on the hop. As fast as they could turn the cars out, the queues grew even quicker. Some models though. were more popular than others. While there was soaring demand for the petrol derivatives, th diesel was always a bit more of a sticky.