BMW is trolling you and it's working

BMW. It's a company that, as of very recently, seems to be in the process of one of the weirdest rebrandings the car industry has ever seen. It's seemingly become obsessed with bigger and bigger grilles (to the point of them being almost comically huge) and has not only decided to fully embrace electric propulsion, but also actively mock the automotive boomers who are vehemently against it. There's also that weird 'Joytopia' thing it was doing very recently, as well as the sustainability-focused collaboration with Coldplay. Now there's been the Concept XM, a car so divisive it's setting off fireworks all over the place. That's including here!

So, why is BMW doing this? Why is it going to such huge lengths to alienate its traditional car enthusiast demographic? Well, I reckon BMW is basically trolling us and it's working. "Hold on right there, Robert," I hear you say. "No car company would be stupid enough to troll its enthusiasts like that! It'd lose business!" Yes, you are right to an extent. It is a big risk for the company to lose a certain customer base that is, let's say, more traditionally-minded. But, are those customers still going to be buying new cars in about 20 years? Probably not. It's harsh to say this, but it's probably not a bold stretch of the imagination to say that a lot of those super traditionalist car guys (and yes, they are mostly guys... toxic masculinity rules all it seems when it comes to car boomerism) will either be medically unable to drive or dead. Or they'll be obstinately buying used ICE cars as a form of protest and complaining that petrol stations aren't the ubiquitous institutions that they once were...

In that case, is it even worth trying to market to those customers anymore? You're not going to get long-term brand loyalty from pandering to automotive boomers. They're just not going to be around for as long as millennials and zoomers will be. The earlier you hook those younger Gen Z-minded car customers in, the more likely you are to have them as customers for life. What does Gen Z like? "OK, boomer" memes and corporate messaging that promotes a more inclusive and more sustainable future. Basically, everything that the oldest generation of car customers (baby boomers) don't like. Yes, it means that BMW ends up losing those boomer customers, but the Millenial and Gen Z customers who like that kind of new corporate messaging are going to stay around for a lot longer and become much more important in the future.

There's also the whole thing to do with those grilles. Yes, they're massive and ungainly. A lot of people really aren't a fan of them. But, you have to admit that they are not only a visual statement but the controversy surrounding them also generates a lot of guerrilla marketing for BMW. The more people talk about how mad the massive grilles make them, the more people are therefore talking about BMW and its design choices. So, what will BMW do in response to that? Keep on making cars with absolutely massive grilles until people stop caring about how controversial they are.

It's hardly the first time BMW's design choices have been controversial, either. Remember how worked up people got about Chris Bangle's 'flame surfacing' era of BMW design? Quite a few of those Bangle-designed cars (such as the V10-powered M5 and M6) are now regarded as modern classics and people aren't annoyed by Bangle's designs anymore. In fact, quite a few people think the Bangle-era cars look better than BMW's current designs! It really is ironic how things have turned out, isn't it? Bangle's era of BMW designs was definitely controversial amongst both the critics and the general buying public, but it got people talking about BMW. Perhaps nowhere near as much as the current BMW designs we're seeing now as social media really wasn't a thing back in the Bangle era, but people definitely made their feelings known.

At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that we live in a post-modern, post-truth, post-pretty much everything society. Whether you like it or not, that's how things are now. The traditional notions of marketing and brand philosophy are almost completely dead in the water, because they don't work with how the world's media works anymore. When we get to that stage of post-everything weirdness, why not just troll everyone as a marketing strategy? In BMW's case, it honestly looks like it's worked. Big grilles and anti-boomer marketing makes car guys go mad and the outrage only makes people talk about BMW more. BMW is trolling you and, contrary to what popular belief might tell you, it's working.