BMW: "What's Wrong Here?"
Taking a page from Detroit’s auto plant parking lots, BMW has been putting notices on employee vehicles built by competing firms, reports Bloomberg. “What’s wrong here? You like working with us. You appreciate your job and income. But you drive a vehicle from a competitor,” read the notices signed by Ian Robertson, the company’s sales chief; Harald Krueger, BMW’s head of personnel, and Manfred Schoch, its top union representative. Some 7,000 German employees of BMW received the friendly reminders. “We wanted to raise awareness that our employees are part of the product and could actually drive BMW,” said Bilgeri. “It’s a totally normal marketing program.” Except that this is the first time BMW has ever targeted employee owners of competing brands in twenty years of marketing to its employees. BMW employees need not worry that their choice of cars will leave them out of a job, clarifies Hans Haumer, head of BMW’s Munich worker’s council. This is more of a guilt trip.
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Maybe they don't care for the plain stark exterior styling that Bangle ruined earlier this decade or maybe there priced are too high or the quality with all the silly gadgets scares people such as the rediculous i-drive. Oh and I can also remember hearing a ton of complaints of the terrible cup holders. If you want to make a car compete today it has to have decent set of cup holders.
Perhaps the employees that don't drive the BMW's simply don't want to look like D-bags?
Let's look at this another way-- if I'm BMW do I really want all of my low and middle income employees driving around in BMW's? If you want to project an image of luxury, refinement, exclusivity, what does it say about your cars if a bunch of blue collar workers (even your own) are driving them? And I mean this with all due respect to blue-collar workers. One of the things that pushes BMW and other luxury nameplates down a bit in my eyes is that nowadays, everyone drives a "luxury" car, teachers, fast food workers, secretaries, lower management, semi-employed, wanna-be's etc. Just about anybody can purchase them (notice I didn't say can afford them). Owning a BMW should be something they want the public to want to aspire to achieving, if the roads are filled with them, then what's so special about owning a BMW?