Lingering and Longing: The New Language of Loyalty

That brings us to our final session, which is how to cultivate lingering and longing among consumers. In an era when loyalty is just it's very fragmented. It's hard to It's hard to capture it with considering it's hard to keep it, but we have the perfect expert guest to join us for this discussion. So it's my delight to welcome Jennifer Treba Ruckenbrod, the CMO of BMW Germany to discuss this exciting topic with us. Welcome of her. Thank you so much. Do you wanna join me? Yeah. Why don't you yeah. You can go in the middle. That's fair. Did I pronounce your surname correctly? First of all is I think Jennifer is okay. Okay. Fine. I would like to try and make sure it's important. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Jennifer. Can you just tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming the CMO of BMW Germany and what that role has entailed in in like a couple of sentences. Okay. It's a big will. Thank you for inviting me Anusha. So it's very I very appreciated. So, yes, the journey begins twenty years ago within the BMW group, so it's a long time, and I've mentioned it. And but I worked for all our brands. And so from Rose Royce, BMW, for Mini, BMWI, and m, and that was really fascinating me because a couple of different topics and departments, and I had the chance to develop two new departments in my career, in the area of customer insights, that we try to find out what we can do that we reduce the number of flops. So that what can we do to integrate the customer in the early phase? So before a decision is made for a model, for the sign for the new concept, and that was very interesting and fascinating, and I was also heading the communication department. So the other side talked to the media that was also very, yeah, fruitful for me, even in the job now, Because now, if you have a feeling what storytelling is important, when you talk to the media, It it's also the other side when you are in the marketing. So I think in total, it's it's three hundred sixty percent. It's not the one side and the other side. And what I've also done in the past is I was heading the strategy department for all our brands, so I could develop with my team, the target pictures for all our brands twenty thirty, and that was amazing because it's totally different for Rose Royce in comparison to BMW or Albany, and we started from the trend analysis. We we looked in the future for customer needs, where we are heading for the whole group, and then we developed a kind of house of brands, which target do we have for all our brands? Because it should be a target for a brand. Otherwise, we should sell it, to be honest. Yes. That's what I'm asking the board. And then we had different targets on different KPIs, and they should fulfill it. And at the end of the year, we measure that, and then we had some measurements for them, actions they have to fulfill the next year. And as a total, you have yes, the whole brand portfolio, it's called the was called the brand portfolio strategy. And and now, since October, I've been working within the marketing department and heading it, and that's that's very cool because everything comes together from my career coming from the customer perspective ecommerce. I had at ecommerce at the beginning of my career twenty years ago when no one believed in online marketing. So I came to the company, and I fought for ten percent online marketing budget, and they said, ten percent are you crazy? And I think we all know that the share is in this direction today. Right. I mean, it's it's amazing to to hear about so many varied roles that you've had and how those experiences have culminated in in leading the marketing function at BMW Germany. BMW is such an iconic house or name, and you've got other brands within the staple like Rolls Royce that everyone would have heard of. All associated with luxury. How have these brands cultivated such a strong following even among consumers who might never be able to afford to own a BMW or Rolls Royce. I think our brands are very Yes, fascinating, and they are very emotional, all of our brands. I think that's the secret behind it. Coming to Rose Royce, the customer, they really love the brand, and every rolls royce looks different, everyone. And on the other side, when you come to Mini, they they love the brand. They tell you the customers tell you I wanna go take take the mini to my apartment. In my bed, he has a name. It's called Max or so. It's like a friend. It's it's not like a car, to be honest. And then you come to BMW. It's totally different and here, it's more about driving pleasure, it's about engineering, And but all brands are very fascinating from their core, from their brand core. And I think that was for me very exciting and also about why we have so successful over the years and decades. Thank you so much. It's really interesting hearing about the different personalities or the brands they almost made me think which one am I. I think I might be a mini as well. Obviously, we're here today talking about how we elevate the art and science of marketing, and you've your career has spanned roles in both things like ecommerce functions, and creative functions. What have been some of those marketing highlights with BMW? And how have you measured the success assess of some of those campaigns. I think you need both what Leonard also mentioned. You need the creative part, you need The gut feeling for a brand, you need on the other side, the heritage where the brand comes from and and where it should heading But on the other side, you have to measure it and we are working very close with different KPIs because I come from my research, and it's in my heart. So we have also the reverse funnel planning, and I think that's a great tool to be honest because you can see what we have to do for each model. So my team and two of them are here from our customer journey manager. Every day, they look into the data and they have a lot which campaign works for which model do we have enough awareness after TV sport, for example, or print campaign we have enough wizards on the website and enough leads for example. And what's about when it comes to sail at the dealership because when you have enough leads, but not the sales, we go into the data, what could be the reason? The one hand side could be that the value for money is not good enough. That that the design when you can see it real, it's not good enough, for example. Or the price is too high in comparison to other competitors. So there we go into the different steps and then we we we we find out in which direction we have to go, which actions do we need. For example, when you see, we have we have enough leads, but not enough sales then we can go into the details. Maybe we should reduce the price on the one side. That that could be an idea or we should integrate the kind of campaign what we are doing or for for electoral mobility, for example, we had to offer more test drives because there are some pain points customers. Is the charging in what's about the charging? Is the region enough? And so so we go very detailed, and then we can also see if you have two hundred thousand more euro — Yeah. — then you can read so many sales. Mhmm. And that that's our target. But on the other side, What's also important is that you can improve the the attractiveness of your brand. And I think for the one side you can use the KPIs, and someone goes to your website, configure, and buy. But on the other side, you need the experience, you need Yes, the glamour of the brand. You need big pictures, you need yes, events like this. For me, it's long term and short term, steering of the brand, what we are doing. Thank you so much. And you mentioned that you were one of the first people to champion ecommerce and digital evolution at BMW. And you also mentioned the importance of customer journey. Today, a lot of people might do their research about a a new car model that they're considering online, but a lot of people are still visiting showrooms to actually see and experience the product. How do you create that single view of the customer? And how how those points evolve, I guess, to crystallize that question a little bit better, how are you also personalizing those experiences when a customer is engaging with you both by the digital touch points and via showrooms. So we are heading in the direction of online sales more and more. So like Mercedes is doing this, and the reason behind is that more people are going online and not just to a dealership. To be honest. But you need both, you need a personal experience. But in another way, it's not about our gaming the whole day. It's more about explaining the product, have a special experience, an event, a test drive, and it's not just dealing with the price. And in the past, it was a lot of deal deals. And when you talk to the dealers, they say, oh, that's my my hard topic to deal with the price. To negotiate with the customer. And that what is but that's not good for a premium or luxury brand because I think when you go to a mess shop at Saint Laurent, who deals about the price? I think no one. Yes. So and we we learned the last two years while we had corona, that it's not necessary. And we can earn a lot more money with selling less cars and I think that should be the right direction from a company part of you. So that's what we did the last years. And where we are heading. But to come to your question, the online says we improved this on the website at the moment so we reduce the number of clicks and they're in the number of packages. That's not so confusing to have three hundred thousand alternatives options for car in this color, this steering wheel, this wheels and so on, and to reduce the complexity on the one side. But on the other side, you can offer some films, you can offer some more experience, but it's not the same. I think you need, on the other side, events, you need to touch the car, you need more than just an experience about the car. It it's more It's the whole of the brand. Ecosystem. Yeah. Yes. It's it's it's the lifestyle of the brand. So if if we can just A springboard from that question, I mean, most people aren't buying a BMW or Rolls Royce every month or or each or or even every year. I mean, these are these are not high frequency products. So when you have somebody who might only be buying a car every, let's say, three to five years and that's that's a generous assumption. How are you actually building that longevity in the relationship with the customer and maintaining that contact between those purchases because these brands have such strong loyalty, but people aren't buying that frequently from them. Absolutely. I'm absolutely right. So what we have developed, it's a kind of app. It's the My BMW app, or for many, it's the mini app. It's it's the same. It's like an ecosystem. So it's more like just the car. You get some content. You will be invited to events that we are offer. You can make the service with your app, the appointment. There are information on. Do you need some some winter tires? Do you need an appointment? You can book it through the app. So it it's a kind of conversation directly with the customer and what we've also integrated now half year ago, it's like an Bev community for the the Bev customer, the electro mobility customer. So they can chat with each other and they they tell them stories, and their experience with the electromobility, and they show picture of their cars. So that's also a kind of loyalty program because they are part of a community that's important. And we try to to find out what is important for the customer and fulfill his needs and wishes as far as possible. It's not just about creating a relationship between the customer, the brand, but also a relationship between the customers themselves so that they — Absolutely. — they feel part of that brand community, which is a really interesting strategy actually. I mean, you've mentioned some of some of these apps and new loyalty programs as a differentiator, I also read about the BMW Excellence club, and and you mentioned actually, as you've been evaluating your strategy, that certain things have changed, like the price positioning, you know that you can defend that price positioning when you're a luxury brand. When it comes to the BMW Excellence club, how are you elevating the experience for the for those VIP customers to help drive that loyalty. The BMW Excellence Club, it kind of loyalty program. And I think it's it's very unique for us because we headed it in Germany so far. We have just some more markets but on a lower level and there we invited. We started eleven years ago. Now with the excellent circle at the beginning with a seven series customer. I think with seven hundred, now we have a membership of seven thousand, and it's increasing from year to year because we have new models, the exam is new on the market, and we will integrate them. And there are all the seven and eight series customers automatically part if they want to, part of these club, so to say. And what we offer them is an experience once a year, like in fine dining, arts, sports activities, driving experiences, and for free, with a great hotel, with a cool dinner, a cool network, and we had the Opera for example, and then we invite them to to Sultant. You have driving experience in the snow, and they really loved it. So that's what we offer them once a year for free, and or they can also have a service appointment for a free So and what we started, this year is to to improve the kind of experiences in the direction of money can buy events. And the first time ever we offered them can because we were main sponsor in can and also villa Desta, what is our main own event, what we are heading, and that was really amazing for them because normally you had not the chance to come to Khan to the red carpet, because you cannot buy the ticket automatically. It's not so easy and also for Vila Desta. And they had to pay an additional amount to the normal membership, and they were so excited because they it was so great and you are so close to the customer because we had two days together. From lunch, to dinner, we we invite them to to to our new boat, electric boat where we had the cooperation and that was also crazy for them and say, wow, that's so cool. And we had dinner. We were on the dance floor together that also helps, and they told us, it's so great to have this kind of experience because this is special. Because it's not I think in the future, it's not about products. They are all very on the same level. Massedus Audi BMW, BMW, to be honest, It's it's not so different. It's brand wise, a little bit different, but they come closer the last ten to twenty years, very close. But it's more about experience. How you can touch the customers, the the feeling, the senses, and that's my aim for the future to go more in this direction. What we can offer because an experience you cannot really buy. It's about people you you meet. It's about an especially experience about the red carpet, about about the the people at the dinner, and they wrote us after this event, it was so great and the personal side was was amazing was was great for them and some said, oh, I had some problems with my service, and also my boss wrote an email directly, and the next day, it was fulfilled. Amazing. So and and this this is what I I think when it comes to luxury, you have to do this in this direction, and I think you know it very well, and we have to improve much more because we have one serious customer in seven hero's customer. That's not so easy because especially when you have a look in the dealership, our dealer are not the specialist in luxury goods, to be honest, and it's also not so easy to to improve this because yes, you have to train it and and, yeah, a salesperson within an MS or a San Laurent shop is perfect and absolutely expert in this, and we start to doing this. And what we can do from the headquarter is to offer such kind of events. And to to push it, to to what we are doing at the moment, and that's very good. I I I guess there are two key things that I take from that. One is obviously, the experience economy plays a huge role in being able to deliver that that level of clientelling. But exclusively, you mentioned money can't buy events. These are things that only BMW can do for its customers, and and clusivity is like one of the key things that luxury consumer demands, but also some of the types of events and experience, as you mentioned, actually related back to what Kirsten rang at Vogue Germany was talking about, which is a cultural relevance. And actually tapping into those other forms of entertainment and culture that consumers have an appetite for, whether it's sports, whether it's film. And creating those relationships across the luxury lifestyle of a customer, not just the category that they're purchasing. So I thought that was a really helpful answer Thanks, Jennifer. I've just got one more question before I open it up to our audience, which is what advice would you give the brands in the room that are thinking about creating or improving a loyalty program for premium or luxury customers. I think What is really important, you have to plan in the long term. It's not a short term thing because you need the IT behind it you need the CRM systems behind and you need a very good call center on our member desk, which could really deal on a high level with the customer, and you need perfect events, to be honest, because everything should be perfect there and you need good corporations, and you need a lot of money also. So Yes. What if you don't have lots of money? Yeah. We try to be pragmatic sometimes. And what we also try to do like in can that we work from a global perspective, so our global marketing department was in charge of can and all the markets had the chance to to be part of it and invite their customers. So we paid for for ten or twenty places for for seats there. And so and then we have a combination. So we have one picture for the brand worldwide, what is good, but we share the costs and and I think it's the right direction because in the past twenty years ago, every market has its own marketing idea, to be honest, and own campaigns for a lot of money. And we had a lot beamW, it looks different all over the world. And I think that couldn't be the right direction because one branch should speak one language. Could be different between Asia and Germany that I've learned from market research or even the US. But in Europe, for example, it's not so different. And also when it comes to budget restrictions and one picture for the brand then, that's the right direction. Thank you. Okay. Actually, one one final final final question, which is what can we expect next from BMW and marketing? To be honest, a lot. Yes, really. Because we will start twenty twenty five with the Noyah classic called a class and I saw the new models and it's really a huge step. The huge step I've ever seen the the last twenty years. And we showed twenty Yeah. It's sixty twenty eighty. The I x, it was the full electric car. With a new design years after the I three, which was the small one. And two years ago, we started with the I Vision circular focus on the circular part. And this year we shot at that says the d concept, the digital emotional experience, which was more immersive and it speaks to you. It's like a companion and within the Noye class who will combine all three ideas. With different parts. It's fully electric, circular, and absolutely digital. And that's what we are heading to and then in combination of experience, that's you can have a good experience in the part Sounds good. Taking it off the charts. Yeah. It's important to see that. Thank you so much benefit.