BMW and the Brand Promise

Most think of branding as a purely “image” oriented process or practice. That may have been the case in the past, when marketing and advertising was a lot more straight forward and companies could hide behind their propaganda. Now, nothing could be further from reality. Human consciousness, technology and media in the information-age have changed things completely. People now have more insight into the companies that influence them and those companies have limitless points of contact with their audience. By nature of evolution branding has become a complex yet organic and neverending process that involves a company’s entire experience and existence, both from an internal as well as public perspective.

A company’s Brand could be better understood as the expression and essence of its personality and psyche. In other words, whether a company realizes it or not, they are a brand. They are an entity that is constantly communicating and interacting with all of those that come into contact with it, on all levels. Although there are several creative branding practices that work to embed companies, products and services into our minds, the true brand experience is ultimately a holistic one. Even products are mediums that carry a company’s values to the consumer and further ingrains their brand.

The most successful and conscious companies embrace branding as a tool to help manifest their underlying corporate mission, which ultimately is (or should be) to make a contribution to society. They continuously refine and evolve their brand to give form and emotional tangibility to their philosophy and mission, ingrain their existing values and create new value in an ever-changing world.

A great example of the modern-day brand is BMW. BMW is a company that was founded on the promise of performance and quality. Those values are still part of their brand to this day, but BMW has also evolved to meet the demands of the world around it. It has embraced technology and global concerns as a means to maintain its brand’s position. By doing so BMW has built on its founding values and created new value. The video presented here is about their electric vehicle concept. It illustrates, on many levels, the various degrees that their brand has manifested, evolved and continues to propagate.

Video about their new electric car concept:
http://www.bmw.tv/intl/us/video.do?articleID=6401&spaceID=4&channelID=12

Teaser video:
http://www.bmw.tv/intl/us/video.do?articleID=6394&spaceID=4&channelID=12