A Case Analysis - Exploring Customer Attitudes on BMW

Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: Giving the powerful means of branding and brand-based differentiation for creating and sustaining a competitive advantage especially in highly competitive markets such as the automobile market, this study explores brand attitudes of existing and potential customers towards the brand BMW. Moreover, this study analyzes the level and source of customer satisfaction as well as the level and source of customer loyalty of existing and potential customers. While this study considers five different factors for the degree of customer satisfaction, there is only one factor considered for the degree of brand loyalty. The factors considered for customer satisfaction are perceived customer service, perceived quality, perceived innovation, perceived technology and perceived price, while the factor considered for brand loyalty is customer satisfaction itself. The analysis of brand loyalty distinguishes between repurchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty, former being analyzed for existing customers and latter being analyzed for potential customers. The results indicate that (1) BMW has a high level of awareness, both in recognition and recall, (2) the image of BMW is favorable, strong and relevant, and (3) BMW is mainly associated with performance and style by existing customers and status by potential customers. Despite these overall positive results, weaknesses were identified, that contain opportunities for BMW. The regression analysis indicated that there is a strong positive correlation between customer satisfaction and perceived customer service and perceived innovation for existing customers and a strong positive correlation between customer satisfaction and perceived customer service, perceived innovation and perceived price for potential customers. Furthermore, the regression analyses indicated that there is a strong positive correlation between customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, both in form of repurchase as well as attitudinal loyalty.