Competition: BMW drops "Ultimate Driving Machine"

[Quickening]

Originally Posted by Autoblog

BMW drops "Ultimate Driving Machine"

Posted Aug 7th 2006 9:01PM by John Neff
Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, BMW

BMW has used the tagline "Ultimate Driving Machine" for 31 years. During that time its sales in the U.S. have gone from 15,007 units in 1974 the year before the ad slogan began to 266,200 units in 2005. While producing outstanding automobiles during that time may have something to do with the brand's success, no doubt the tagline is considered one of the best in the automotive biz (See Poll Results: Best Tagline Ever - Battle Royale). Regardless, BMW is dropping the successful phrase and replacing it with "A Company of Ideas".

We're of the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it camp, and Advertising Age has penned a nice article detailing why corporate culture often likes to change a winning slogan. AdAge also lists some of the monumental failures that have resulted. Hopefully we're wrong and BMW sales won't suffer from the new slogan, but we doubt the public will be able to think of Bimmers as anything but Ultimate Driving Machines for a very long time.

[Source: Advertising Age]

Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2006/08/07/b...iving-machine/

[mgescuro]

A Company of Ideas.

The original idea to drop "Ultimate Driving Machine" was to cater to those individuals who don't consider BMW as a "real" luxury car.
Well... "A Company of Ideas" won't do that either BMW.

Back to the drawing board!!

[MrMax]

That's hilarious. I'd love to see someone else pick the old tag-line up before BMW realizes what they've done.

[D C]

"A Company of Ideas"?

Didn't GE use something like that not too long ago?

[boblutzfan]

Originally Posted by MrMax

That's hilarious. I'd love to see someone else pick the old tag-line up before BMW realizes what they've done.

That would be great. BMW has not lost sales from that slogan - why drop it. If anything they should have kept it for use at the M division.

Stupid decision if you ask me.

[ghughes]

Truth in adverts - "A company with really, really ugglyy body styles but still sells them"

[New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66]

Truth is, the products sell. They are well-engineered cars, that perform well. The tag line could be, "BMW - the ****************tiest cars in the World", but they would still sell. Just like in the 1980s, 1990s and somewhat today, Toyota and Honda salesmen really don't need to sell the cars. They just write up the paperwork. The cars sell themselves.

GM is approaching that atmoshpere.

Owning a BMW says something about the owner. Something thats somewhat related. As I travel around this country I see different cars being prefered for different areas. Around L.A. I see allot of Porsche Boxters. Around Las Vegas I see allot of Mercedes C-Class'. Kinda funny, and interesting.

[Hunter]

"Ultimate Driving Machine" sounds really good..."A company of Ideas"...what the hell does that mean?

[TaHoE]

Originally Posted by Hunter

"Ultimate Driving Machine" sounds really good..."A company of Ideas"...what the hell does that mean?

I agree. Actually when they tell me they are a company of ideas, in my mind I think "Gee isn't that wonderful, but are they using any of these ideas?". I mean, I know that BMW is a very intelligent and sophisticated company and has a lot of breakthrough technologies, but it doesn't sound like they really wanna do anything, just having ideas is good enough I guess.

[Sporer65]

I remember reading something somewhere that Pontiac was the original company that used "ultimate driving machine."

[5 watt]

As much as I think BMW new tag line is a dud, I do get a kick out of the fact that one of the Benedict Arnolds looks like Rick Wagner.

[Quickening]

Pontiac should steal it back! Haha

[jwrebholz]

BMW doesn't even really need to advertise. The folks that want a BMW are going to get a BMW, ads be damned. And yes, they do attract a certain type--conspicuous consumers, ambulance-chasing attourneys and just plain pretentious JERKS. (I'm basing this on the fact that the last time I was in a BMW dealership they treated me like a walking pocketbook, and every BMW owner I've ever met has been exactly the same--a narcissistic jerkoff with the morality of a hole in the ground)

[boblutzfan]

Originally Posted by jwrebholz

BMW doesn't even really need to advertise. The folks that want a BMW are going to get a BMW, ads be damned. And yes, they do attract a certain type--conspicuous consumers, ambulance-chasing attourneys and just plain pretentious JERKS. (I'm basing this on the fact that the last time I was in a BMW dealership they treated me like a walking pocketbook, and every BMW owner I've ever met has been exactly the same--a narcissistic jerkoff with the morality of a hole in the ground)

Tell us how you really feel!

[usa1]

This will go down in history as a big mistake.

Any car company, any company at all for that matter, can call themselves, "A company of ideas". It's actually worse that Cadillac's recent "Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit." tagline.

The tagline mean nothing. They say nothing unique about BMW. As horribly, terribly bad as Saab's "Born from Jets" tagline is, at least it's unique to Saab.

First BMW uglified their cars with the 7 series, at the same time they loaded them up with technology no one likes like iDrive, now they are making it clear that aren't going to focus on performance. Someday, the world will wake up and realize BMWs aren't the same as they used to be: they are ugly, complicated, and (soon) average performing cars.

Good news for GM!

Mark