Compilation / Ma Xiaolei
Editor/ Zhang Linyu
Design / Zhao Haoran
Design/ Forbes, by John Koetsier
With the rise of new car brands such as Tesla, BMW is one of them, and BMW is one of them. The 100-year-old car brand is undergoing major changes, including increasing publicity for electric vehicles and digitization, releasing new zero-emission models, and announcing a doubling of electric vehicle sales this year.
"One-third of buyers can buy a car online." Jens Theimer, BMW vice president, revealed, "However, to get this done, we still need to work with dealers. ”
BMW plans to sell 25% of all models of the brand online by 2025.
To achieve this, BMW has partnered with Adobe, The parent company of Photoshop, to manage data and deliver personalized digital experiences. Owners can enjoy a unified customer experience in all areas of digitalization, dealerships and more for a few years after they buy a car.
Simmel says this new unified experience can even extend to virtual test drives in the metaverse. Real-world dealers will also serve as a valuable asset and will not fall prey to digital change.
"For most people, BMW dealers are the main façade of our brand." Simmel said, "So, we can't completely abandon physical dealers." Even though direct selling and digitalization are megatrends, there are still a lot of brands that are completely based on online marketing starting to invest more in brick-and-mortar stores. Because all brands need to refine the customer experience and create opportunities for engagement with customers. ”
BMW has partnered with partners like Adobe to create the Experience Cloud, a suite of personalized applications for business, customer data, across channels, and media.
Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe's Digital Experience Business Unit, said: "Personalizing the digital economy requires customer experience and seamless service built on insights and data. As the web evolves, the need for data-driven immersive experiences, including e-commerce, multi-user capabilities, and more, is reaching its peak. ”
Buying a car doesn't end at the moment you pick it up, and your car may have features that haven't been enabled yet, and you can pay to unlock it in the future when you need it. For example, Tesla's Accent Boost feature can make your Model 3 or Model Y faster.
BMW is also considering doing this.
Usually, whenever a car manufacturer adds a new feature to one of its models, it will make it public and issue a press release to ensure that the world knows. BMW has very quietly added an important new feature to most of its products that is not well known: OTA software updates.
In July 2020, BMW has updated the operating system OS 7, and car owners can purchase or order new features through the app at any time after picking up the car. New features include the ability to enable driver assistance and seat heating. Since almost all the functions in the car are now controlled by software, the opening or closing function has become simple and clear. As a result, BMW has shifted features that previously needed to be paid for at the time of purchase to peer-to-peer in-app purchases (IAP).
"After the owner picks up the car, we may continue to provide digital services and features on demand." "For example, if a customer wants an active cruise control for a premium version, we'll provide it to them, and there's a free trial period," Simmel said. If a customer likes this feature after trying it out, they can subscribe to it in less than a minute. This keeps the car fresh. ”
It's also a step in the direction of a new type of car ownership, where in the future you may never actually "own" a car, but instead get a different vehicle by paying a subscription fee.
"No matter how digital the car is, no matter how digital the car buying experience is," Simmel said, "interpersonal communication will never go away." But where it appears should be based on data. People want to be in contact with real people from time to time, and I know that very well, and that's part of the demand for service. ”
This article was originally produced by Automotive Business Review
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