New BMW CPO ad campaign emphasizes the buyer

[BMWDave]

New BMW certified-used ad campaign emphasizes the buyers,
ARLENA SAWYERS | Automotive News
Posted Date: 7/27/05
A new advertising campaign portrays buyers of BMW certified-used vehicles as "unwilling to compromise."

BMW of North America LLC distributed TV and radio commercials to regional dealer groups last month to launch the campaign.

BMW is the top seller of certified used vehicles among luxury brands.

Bill Bates, manager of pre-owned sales at BMW, says the campaign looks humorously at consumers who won't settle for second best, whether they are picking a piece of fruit or a used car.

"Our whole deal is to give the marketing tools to the dealers," Bates says. "Those are the guys who are making it happen. They decide where they want to run (the ads); they decide when. We just execute the creative for them."

BMW sold 6,483 certified-used vehicles in the United States in June. That was a 6.1 percent increase from the year-ago month. In the first six months, BMW sold 36,412 certified used vehicles - a 1.6 percent increase over the first half of 2004.

Overall, the industry sold 139,270 certified used vehicles in June - 2.9 percent more than in June 2004. During the first half, 810,700 certified vehicles were sold, 3.3 percent more than in the year-ago period.

The ad campaign is the first in more than two years that advertises BMW's certified program with TV commercials.

One 30-second commercial shows a young woman who plows through a stack of newspapers until she finds one she wants.

Another depicts a man who poses repeatedly for driver's license photos until he is satisfied.

In both commercials, the finicky customer drives a certified BMW car.

The commercials share the tag line: "Unwilling to compromise? We have a car for you."

Bates says dealers can customize the broadcast ads to local markets.

Fred Gang, general manager at BMW of Bayside in Douglaston, N.Y., says he approves of the ads' emphasis on emotion rather than vehicle performance.

"From the retailer level, we wanted to get the humanistic side," says Gang, who chairs BMW's cooperative advertising association in metropolitan New York. "Cars don't purchase cars. People purchase cars."

Gang says his dealership sells about 25 certified-used BMW vehicles a month.

Print ads also will invoke the "unwilling to compromise" theme, Bates says.

The ads will run in newspapers such as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal and magazines such as Business Week and Money, Bates says.

The campaign also will include animated banner ads on third-party Web sites dedicated to used-vehicle shopping.