BMW: The Ultimate Brand & the Science Behind Emotive Marketing

Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University

Two loves blossomed at a critical point in my life – my love for the science of marketing and my love for speed. These two loves became intertwined as I progressed through my collegiate career. Around the same time I declared marketing as my primary area of study, I took up racing with the National Auto Sport Association (thanks to the money saved by scholarships and made by slinging tables after class and working half the weekend in racing control in exchange for free track time).

When it came time to author my thesis, selecting a topic was no question as the BMW brand was the personification of these two loves. Having lived and breathed the brand throughout the start of my racing career, I was fascinated not only with their engineering but their marketing and the science behind it.

In my thesis, I examine how BMW leveraged emotional involvement psychology in their marketing efforts, resulting in record sales numbers and profits. As I often say now, “People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.”

Click the image at right to read my thesis.

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