BMW, the UK corporate marketplace’s biggest-selling premium brand, picked up five prizes in the reader-voted 2013 BusinessCar Awards, retaining two of the headline prizes in the process as it cemented its place as the fleet industry’s favourite car manufacturer.
The firm kept its Manufacturer of the Year title and the 3-series followed on from its little brother the, 1-series, in being crowned our 2013 Business Car of the Year. That was on top of category wins for the Mini, 3-series and X5 as well.
“We’re delighted to again pick up so many awards,” reflects corporate operations manager Steve Chater. “The Business Car of the Year and Manufacturer of the Year are great accolades. They continue to be great recognition and something we aspire to as we work hard to prove we have the right products and services in the corporate sector.”
“Accolades like these give us insight into how our approach is working,” he continues. “We need to keep developing and improving the customer service we provide and keep listening to customers.”
Chater describes the awards as an indication that the firm is getting the right products for the UK market. “We try and fight for the right product and make sure they’re relevant,” he declares. “We try to have a stable appeal and focus on lease companies, end users and drivers, and try to ensure we offer the right service – not only with new customers but hopefully to retain the ones we already have.”
That last point is key to Chater’s 2013 ambitions for the German prestige brand. “We’ve got very large potential with the existing customer base and drivers that are in our products – if you can offer someone a comparable product there should be no reason to go elsewhere,” he says. “You can’t leave it to chance – you have to convince the customer that there is no reason to look elsewhere. You’ve got to market and promote the product and make sure it’s at the right price relative to the individual.”
Chater claims BMW is working with leasing companies so that in some cases drivers can acquire a new 3-series for the same money as the previous car when they took it three years ago.
“It’s absolutely central that we look to have a replacement product when they come to the end of their contract that is suitable and meets their needs,” he says. “We have to work hard to ensure customers know the products we have and their relevance so they are in a position to take another new car at the end of their three- or four-year cycle.”
That involves making “a lot more noise in the marketplace” about the continually expanding model line-up in order to “retain customers and ensure we have the right products for them”, explains Chater. “Hopefully they will continue to buy and lease. We need to work to make sure there is the awareness of our product and what we can offer.”
One of those new products is the latest expansion of the 3-series line-up – the Gran Tourismo. Offering more boot and rear space than a 3-series Touring, although also more expensive, the new GT will be a niche player compared with the saloon and estate 3-series models, but Chater claims that will help it retain an air of exclusivity.
“People will probably be coming from Audi A5 Sportback, or Mercedes C-class Estate or Audi A4 wagon, and we’ll probably see people move down from bigger cars because it’s so complete,” says Chater. “It’s a 3 Touring with more space and a coupe bodystyle and lower volumes, so it will feel a bit more premium.”
Untapped market
BMW’s focus on existing customers isn’t at the expense of new business. “We see big appeal for BMW fleet sales this year – even in the competitive environment,” declares Chater. “We have good availability of product and the right product for customers. We won a lot of new customers through 2012 and we will be going out to present our product and offering to prospects through 2013 with the desire to win new customers.”
BMW feels there is still a large untapped market for the brand, despite it being the fourth-biggest in terms of fleet registrations in 2013.
“There are a lot [of customers] out there that we haven’t got, and we will have new product that may appeal to people we haven’t appealed to before,” explains Chater. “We’re in a stronger position than ever before with prospects – we can go to them and put a compelling offer. If we have been locked out for many years, people haven’t experienced the breadth of our product. Where they may not have had cars from BMW or Mini in the past, now they would, so we have a lot of work to do.”
Sole-brand deals are an area BMW will seek to expand into: “I see more solus opportunities – we continue to see that as an opportunity as people look to reduce cost and create an efficiency of offer. With BMW and Mini it gives us a unique position we didn’t have in the past.”
The firm is about to launch a new corporate customer contact centre having recently appointed an agency to operate the service. Going live in May and designed purely for business car customers, the thinking according to Chater is to ensure “a reactive and proactive centre for providing an even better service”. That’s joined by investment in technology and systems behind the scenes, designed to speed the process to market for the group’s new products.
After a good 2012 that saw BMW set a new global sales record and achieve record sales and revenue in the UK despite the challenging economic climate, Chater predicts another flat year for the market with the premium segment growing, in part off the back of recent and forthcoming new models from the prestige brands.
“In the business world there is a lot of money available and those that are struggling have fallen by the wayside,” he comments. “Those that are around have cash but are unwilling to spend. The difficulties and challenges in the Eurozone mean that stifles confidence in the UK market.”
From BMW’s perspective, as well as replacing the 3-series saloon and Touring in 2012, the firm is also in the process of bringing in the new coupe-styled 3-series GT, four-wheel drive Xdrive models, petrol and estate low-CO2 ED models and the new BMW i sub-brand for electric vehicles (see ‘i of the beholder’, below).
Chater highlights that the brand now has more than 200 models under 160g/km, with what he describes as “CO2 champions” at various levels – the 116d ED at 99g/km, 320d ED at 109g/km, 520d and X1 20d at 119g/km and the petrol-powered 124g/km 320i ED. “We’re seeing more development of engines. We still believe there is an awful lot that can come out of development of internal combustion engines and it continues to be key for us along with development of EVs as well,” he said.
But the 3-series is still the mainstay of the range. “We had the benchmark with the previous 3, and this has taken that to a new level,” claims Chater “It’s testament to the product that it has surpassed the outgoing car. It’s such an important model for us in the corporate sector.”
Developing Mini
Mini’s move into the corporate sector has been slow, but is now gathering pace with the recent addition of the Paceman model and the Clubvan light commercial vehicle based on the Clubman, as well as the Countryman, which is practical enough to be considered in the main business car sector.
The task is now to develop the brand within the fleet marketplace. “With Mini, we’ve worked much more closely with the network and they have a strong basis for corporate sales,” declares Chater. “We have 60 or so Mini local business development managers (LBDMs) out actively working to support the development of Mini Corporate.”
The firm is also, at the time of writing, on the verge of appointing a corporate development manager at the company’s Bracknell headquarters to help develop Mini fleet business. “As we’ve started to expand further and further we wanted to get a clear focus on Mini opportunity and help and support the 60 LBDMs,” says Chater with regards to the newly created role.
But BMW’s fleet boss feels the company’s appeal crosses many areas. “We’ve got Xdrive, EVs, UK downsizing, Efficient Dynamics and [Mini’s] Minimalism technology across the range and DAB as standard, so it creates consistency and stabilisation from a customer perspective,” he says. “But you have to balance that with choice because consumers want some level of personalisation, especially in the premium sector; it’s crucial you have that.”
