BMW Ultimate Rewards
Rev up your loyalty program with BMW insights! Accelerate customer engagement, fuel brand loyalty, and outpace competitors on this episode of Loyalty Program Slam!
[MUSIC]
Welcome back to the loyalty program SLAM.
I'm your host, Amber Collins, head of marketing here at Annis Cloud,
the comprehensive and agile,
fast solution for enterprise loyalty program management.
The loyalty program SLAM is GM packed with real world commentary on some of
the world's most beloved programs.
So here's how it works.
Each slumber gets roughly two minutes to take their case on these four areas.
Program design, value proposition, engagement, and performance.
And then we'll score that program.
So if you haven't checked out the other ones,
be sure to visit the loyalty program SLAM collection on the loyalty lounge
today.
Our slammers are Alex, head of strategy, Scott,
director of product solutions, and
Elise, manager of digital and design.
But today's program SLAM is BMW's ultimate rewards program.
So BMW's program is, in my opinion, a really interesting way for
automotive company to deliver loyalty.
This is obviously a luxury car manufacturer,
an inverse performance, their innovation, and
their premium brand image, which means that their competitors include
the baby fans, Audi, Alexa, and Volvo.
The BMW rewards, if they're a loyalty program,
it's designed to reward BMW owners and enthusiasts for
their loyalty and purchases and not just purchases like the initial purchase of
the vehicle, but also their service appointment, the BMW branded here,
and using their BMW financial services.
So members can redeem their points for more branded merchandise,
accessories for their car, his counsel and service, and exclusive experiences.
They do have a credit card tier, an offering that you can earn points for
partners like travel and cashback or at least in loan payments.
I've been told that they offer a 25% bonus value when you use your points
towards your monthly payments, which I think is something that it's pretty
unique
in the space.
I haven't seen anybody say, hey, you can pay your bill with the points that we
gave back to you from purchasing things from us.
Now, I wasn't able to find how many members they have in this program,
and maybe one of our slammers was able to, but let's jump into it.
Let's jump into BMW Ultimate Rewards.
And also, to closure, I don't want to be a donor.
I'm not sure if any of you guys want to be a BMW or if you're a part of this
program,
but I wasn't able to join because I actually drive an Audi.
So I haven't experienced it first to end disclosures.
So let's go with Scott.
What do you think of BMW Ultimate Rewards?
Well, I'm kind of torn with this program between what I like and what I dislike
For a lot of the things I know that they're putting the owner first,
by putting them into like driving, giving them access to driving schools,
rental car offers, experience vouchers, concierge service,
they are definitely rewarding a BMW driver.
But what I don't like is a lot of their really cool benefits
start at such a high level that just buying a BMW alone isn't enough.
It has to be paired with a credit card.
The 25,000 point executive level entry point,
when you're only earning 1,000 points for the purchase of a vehicle
or 5,000 points for the purchase of certain other vehicles,
that means you're relying heavily on service,
you're relying heavily on credit card.
Now, they are giving you things that the obvious population doesn't have.
But in my humble opinion, I believe that BMW
would still give a non-member a lot of these benefits or certain access
if they believe that you would become a BMW owner.
If you have the money, you'll get it anyway.
That's what I've seen in the industry.
So I'm not seeing a lot of engagement elements to create a community,
like some other auto brands are, where they're doing like rallies
or big shows where you can drive your vehicle up and down cliffs
and really get a thing.
I think it's track-based because of the M series.
So I feel like the program is kind of the car owner plus card owner
is really the target audience, rather than just the vehicle owner.
I think that's a great point.
If buying a vehicle, BMW in particular, that is not, by no means,
a cheap thing to do, doesn't get you automatically to that status.
That's extremely interesting because it's like, I mean, you're getting into the
--
I want to say $60, $70, $80,000 plus to just even get your foot in the door.
So that's really just-- also, does anybody know if you purchase a vehicle
through a third party, maybe you perhaps it's used,
or it's not through their certified program?
What does that count for?
That's the question for me.
It's like the second-hand market, which is extremely prevalent.
Obviously, in automobiles, you're not always going to go get it new.
Most people are buying used.
Like, how do you, as a BMW owner of a three-owned car, now participate in this
program?
And you probably don't get any points for buying it.
Well, you don't, but not that I saw it.
I apologize for the interruption.
But I did see that as long as you're registering a vehicle every seven years,
you can maintain an active participant ship.
So whether they're-- they are recognizing it in some way.
They do have these events where you can earn 10 or 15 times the amount of
points.
And if you do pair that with a car, you do have an ability to kind of ramp up
the points kind of fast.
So I mean, I guess if you wait till those promotions happen,
then there is kind of an easier opportunity to get to those higher tiers from
the get-go.
I think that's a big point, right?
Like, the average BMW owner is probably not waiting for a 10x points event.
Right.
The average BMW owner from my experience is want car now, get car now, have car
now.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess it just depends on your circumstances.
So like, if you have the opportunity to wait, you can.
But sometimes you just need a car and you don't have the opportunity to wait.
So--
I think it goes back to some things that we've said before.
Are people-- is the loyalty program getting people to interact more,
be more, or is it simply an add-on to a purchase that they were going to make
anyways?
And I will be back that question before.
So Elise, do you want to continue what you're saying about BMW owners and sort
of the value of this program to them?
Yeah.
I mean, I do think that there are-- there's enough differentiation between the
tiers
that I think it does motivate you to want to keep being part of the program.
Like, as soon as you hit that second tier, you get 25% more bonus points.
And then when you hit the last tier, you get 50% more points, like per
transaction.
And I just think they have a lot of-- I know Scott was saying that the
engagement opportunities aren't a lot,
but I kind of thought the opposite.
They have for a friend.
They have bonus points for registering with BMW experience bookings.
They have-- you can get points for just having a test drive and for scheduling
service
and taking your car in.
I just think there are a lot of opportunities for people to engage and continue
to participate in the program.
So I just thought that-- and you can start with even credits.
Like, you can-- I think it's at 300 points.
It's already worth $30.
So I just-- I think-- I mean, if you want to get like something small, you can
do that.
I don't know. I do think that there are a lot of engagement opportunities.
And just kind of switching gears a little bit, I did look at the app.
And what I thought was really cool about it is that there's-- they have a whole
demo function.
So even if you're thinking about getting a car, you can engage in the demo
function
and kind of get a feel for all the functionality of the app and kind of see
everything,
how you can interact with the app versus the car versus the service.
If you order a car but haven't had it delivered yet, you can still in demo mode
you can enter in all your information and start engaging with the app right
away.
I just think that there-- it's really comprehensive and it's really functional.
And it gets people engaging with BMW before they even have ownership of car.
So I just thought that was interesting and something-- I don't know if other
companies do that,
but I thought that was kind of cool.
I think if I'm wrong, there was an article that came out a while ago that said
-- and I think that it was BMW
that was putting your seat heaters on a subscription so you don't pay for it to
go up right.
And I just-- it just-- for me, I'm like, okay, so maybe if you had enough
points,
you automatically get your seat heaters' subscription and just sort of like the
opportunity to help keep using those points in different ways.
So how did you brought up like the-- the earn points for bringing into doing
your search,
have a disappointment?
So I think that the lowest program is also sort of their driver profile, right?
So like people who are buying new tie-in cars definitely want to keep a
maintenance record that is nice and neat and clean
and trackable because it affects the resale value of the car.
It's going to affect if they want to put it back in their own certification.
And so loyalty is also one way to help create those profiles and incentivize
people continuing to track their maintenance
and be rewarded for it and be rewarded for bringing it to a dealership and
maintaining that relationship with dealerships.
Like a deficit of value of the program there for both sides of the member and
the BMW.
So without being said, Alice, let's get into it.
Yeah, I would say it's a very transactional program, but if you are in the
market to buy a BMW,
the goal of this program is to upsell you to the credit card, which can be very
lucrative for BMW.
It builds a relationship with banks and financing.
I think it makes a lot of sense.
And I do think it's a very valuable program if you are going to take a card and
be a BMW owner, right?
You're getting, if you take their AMX, you get 50,000 bonus points.
That's equivalent to $5,000 in credit towards maintenance.
Again, not like there's some specifics, right?
It's like not under warranty, like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But it's $5,000 plus it's $5,000 for accessories.
So if you want to get added features to the car, special snow mats, other
enhancements,
like that's pretty valuable.
That just taking the card, spending a little bit on it, you unlock all those
points to go get more merch,
more like build more love of the brand and kind of take advantage of like some
of the more sophisticated components of the accessories.
I think it's pretty good.
And even that 50,000 points, you can also put that into a $1,500 off your lease
So I think it's very lucrative.
It's like a no-brainer that if you own a BMW or you're in the market for one,
you take the credit card, no-brainer,
and you're going to get a ton of value out of it.
I do agree with Scott, though, that there is not this emotional connection.
There's not this community feel.
I think Harley Davidson is a great example of a company that really focused on
the rider and saying,
"I want to reward you for being a part of the community, connecting others,
being a part of your clubs."
I think one of the other really odd things is they don't connect their BMW car
clubs of America.
Like, that's a completely different membership.
That's a paid membership and has no connection whatsoever to ultimate rewards,
at least from what I saw.
I think that's a huge mess because they have hundreds of thousands of people
that are part of those car clubs.
They're the most avid and loyal users.
This is a no-brainer to upsell them into credit cards, get them into more cars,
get them into more leases.
So overall, I think there's some components missing in the program, but from a
transactional element,
it's definitely high value if you have a credit card.
And I do also like that they have transfer relationships with travel.
Because we know that a BMW owner is likely affluent.
They're likely travel a lot. And so I think it's cool that they have transfer
with Marriott and British Airways.
I think Singapore Airlines. So it's close. It's right there.
Like, I think it could be really cool. They just don't market this as well as I
would have expected.
But the value is definitely there within the program.
Yeah. So speaking of the clubs and community, I think we've talked about this
before with some of the kids' clubs that happen some brands have.
But isn't there an opportunity here to do something with the kids and build
that generational affinity because the kids are literally riding in the BMW
with the mom and the dad and that's where love brand love starts.
It's really parents who love a brand. So I think that there's also an
opportunity there to perhaps have like a little BMW driver, future BMW drivers
situation as well to get a little bit more engagement in the community.
But whatever it is, they've got those little BMW cars and gold cars and just
start to build that generational affinity because I think that luxury cars,
that is a real thing.
People are in love with those. My dad got his big job and we got a BMW and ever
since then BMW has represented success to me.
And just really lean into that. So I think that there's a lot of opportunity
here for engagement that will ultimately down the line create new BMW owners.
I like it.
I like it.
I cast model cars would be really fun. It's something that you can redeem for
the little Hot Wheels version or smaller versions.
But I think you're right. With an aspirational brand, they're leveraging
experiences. I like that they give you credits towards going on the track and
driving your car there or getting to trial other cars.
So they're playing into the experiential piece, but they're missing the
emotional connection in the experience of an aspirational brand like BMW. I
agree with that. And I laugh too because like the car that we own, you can, you
can program in the, in the main dashboard, like the color of the car, it can
sing and dance and like my kids love it.
So like they're super engrossed by the features and functionality that the car
has, but also like, yeah, the brand, the vibe, whatever these kids say these
days, right? Like, I think that is a big piece that's missing here with
something like BMW.
But it's close. I think the program structure is nice. I mean, they just need a
couple little elements to sophisticated and actually create something that's a
little bit more fun and and sexy, which is, which is tied to BMW.
Yeah, so with that, just to play devil's advocate to like, to me, a car is
something that I drive, it gets me to where I need to go. And like, I wanted to
function.
And if I can be a rewards member and I can get perks for bringing into service,
like, and just like just getting the things that I actually use a need on a
daily basis, that to me is more meaningful than like, I don't know, then, then
somebody else.
Isn't that the essence of a loyalty program, though? Like, you are a consumer
and not a loyalty member of your loyal car.
You think of like other, like, car brands that are creating that community or
like, as Alex mentioned, the motorcycle there.
They're the devoted people and then they're the commuters or the users, right?
The same thing can be said about a grocery store. I want to get in, get my
sandwich, get out. That kind of thing versus the emotional connection with that
It's just not an area that you've explored. And that's fine. It's just, I think
that there's.
I see it. I get it.
I think it's that it's segmentation, right? Like, I view a car as an extension
of me. It's my personality. It's like, when I drive that sucker in, like, it is
, that's, that's me.
As a physical car, like, I feel very connected to my cars that like, I had to
drive.
I've had to drive some real interesting products, but like, at one point, as my
family was like starting out or whatever, my parents were like, Oh, you can
have our niece on Versa.
And I was like, ew, like, I don't want that. But I'm like, well, I need a car.
So like, to your point, at least, it's like, I need to go from point A to point
B.
But I like, you have that ego aspect of like, but I want this to be an
extension of me. And now I'm driving a Nissan Versa.
But what that sucker was so comfortable 200,000 miles. Great car.
But I think there is this interesting aspect though with cars. And I think
depending on the segment or the demographic, it becomes a very big part of your
personality.
And so I think playing off of that, while also making sure it's transactional.
So, Elise, your segment sees value in it.
And it makes sense to be a part of the program because I want to get goodies
out of it. But people that really are diehard fans of the brand because of the
way that it makes them feel.
I don't think they're playing that well enough. And I think they could because
I do think there is a segment that ties a little bit more to it.
There's an, and there's a massive aftermarket community of every kind of car
and every kind of brand that you can think of myself as personally being been
to cars. So that pride is definitely there.
And I don't expect them to, but BMW do not make the mistake of assuming that
this is a male dominated interest either.
So I have to stand up for that. But I think that particularly, you know, you
have this story passed and it is, it is a, it is a big thing for sure. I had
some vanity plates on a car that I used to love.
And that was my name and stuff that I really embodied it. So that was mainly
because the car was purple. But there's some people that work here with a lot
of vanity plates. So there's some, there's some good ones out there.
And so at least the point is, if that first tier is really hard to get to. And
I think at least just made the case that that perhaps is a, a tier that has a
lower lift for people that are simply wanting the car to perform wanting to be
rewarded and recognized as a person who owns a car
and have their data used to provide them with a little reward every once in a
while. Yeah. I like that idea of like there's this idea of fans that don't own
the car, but they are fans or they're aspirationally I really want a BMW.
So I'd want to be a part of this program because maybe it'll help me get one in
the future. But then you have owners and then you have advocates, right? Like,
I think there's three very clear segments here that they need to really review
and do some customer research
to decide if there's some elements of this program that they could really help
hone in and fix, especially on that entry level. And I like the idea of like
the kids and the aspirational pieces to it. I think they could have a lot more
fun with this program.
But again, baseline solid transactionally.
Okay. Well, with that, let's jump into the scoring Scott, you were first, let's
go with what you are scoring for their program design program design. I gave it
a two. The information was really hard to find on the program. Yeah.
Great. Give it a different score to engagement and value prop. But as far as
the design, I'm sure that there's a lot of literature that they hand to you
once you've bought a car or when you're sitting there in the dealership or like
a post login for car owners.
But just if you like Alex said, if you're just a fan of the vehicle, there's it
's very difficult to find some of that information. We had the really hot impact
Yeah, I agree. Elise program design. I do have a three and a half, just because
I do think that it is kind of a big jump in between tears, but they do have
enough differentiation between the tears that I do think that it's designed to
kind of be aspirational in that,
in that sense. And I just think that they do and what they offer an engagement.
I think it is more than we've seen other companies have just, I mean, not
really. Maybe not comparatively car wise versus another industry, but I do think there
are a lot of opportunities for engagement and, and you can start earning points
right away and with like a lower barrier to redemption 300 points for $30.
And I mean, no, that's not going to get you anything like amazing but that is,
you are earning off the bat. So I just thought that altogether, it was a pretty
decent program.
Yeah, I mean, they really have to lean into high value experiences.
You're only going to buy a car so frequent. And then you're also only going to
buy BMW swag so frequently. So yeah, Alex, how do you feel about the program
design.
And I would give it a, I would give it a two in general, but if you're a credit
card holder and a BMW owner, it's probably a three and a half four just because
of the transactional value. It's a really nice give back.
But they're missing all the community engagement, the interaction based earning
, the fun of it. But I would say, yeah, so I'm probably netting more towards
like a three.
Yeah, for general. I think they're just missing the segments. They're just
solely focused on up selling you into the credit card to make money.
Well, BMW is their listening and you would like to show us the program elements
that we weren't able to see behind the owner log in wall will be happy to to re
examine the program but but we couldn't get that deep into it. So it is what it
is. Scott, you feel about the way we need to get one of the we need to get one of
the program managers from these slams to come on and be like, wait a minute,
like I'm going to challenge you.
I got to educate you. That would be fun. So what BMW, whoever you are, come on,
come on.
Yeah, we challenge you to educate value proposition.
I gave it a two for non card holders and a three for card holders. Because if
you're a non car holder, it's really difficult to achieve some of those things.
Yes, you can get something out of it.
It's not a lot, but you can get something. If you are a card holder, it's a lot
more. I don't know that it's world changing or like really exclusive access
because I believe that again, if you're somebody of worth or somebody of note
that they would give you access to a lot of these things anyway.
But I think it really opens up the doors a lot sooner. So I gave it a, we'll
call it a two and a half, but it's a two for nine card holder, three card
holder.
Got it. At least value proposition. Yeah, I mean mine was higher. I get rid of
four just because, I mean, before like hearing more of what Alex and and Scott
had to say, like, I just, I just thought that there were good opportunities
with there to earn a lot of points during events.
So, if they have that 10 times or 15 times the amount of points, I thought that
was an easy entry into being able to earn a lot of points and kind of start
using the gallery and those experiences. So, I think even for Alex, but he's a
lot of of people, I think it's like a two four. It's just, it depends on which segment
you're in. If you're a credit card holder, there's a lot of value in it. If you
're not, I don't see the point of it. So, I just think same.
Scott, engagement. I give it a three across the board. There are a lot of
opportunities for the driving school, the experience vouchers that they give
out experience rewards.
There are a lot of interesting things that they know that they have. It's a BMW
. It's not climbing rocks. It's not towing boats or anything.
But that M-series, you can take it on a track and you're going to have a good
amount of time. So, they kind of grabbed onto that and said, these are the
experiences that we want to get.
And so, I think it's a three. They could be doing more to engage, like the
community aspect of it, but they're not doing a terrible job.
Fair enough. Fair enough. At least.
I gave it a four as well. I do think if you are engaging with the app a lot,
then that also gives you opportunity to engage a lot. Can plan your routes. You
can find charging stations. If you have an electric vehicle, you can test for
functionalities.
You can set up the car, how you want it to be before you even get the car in
terms of experiences with road testing and at all of their track elements.
I think there are in-person experiences that are interesting. That can be fun.
And just the fact that they let you get points for servicing your car at the
dealership, I think that stands out from other competitors. And that was a
unique opportunity for them too.
I agree. I like to tell them about the engagement. I think based on all the
programs that are out in market, I have to give them a two. They need to step
it up here. I don't think it's as engaging.
It's missing that it's missing that brand vibe love aspect to it completely.
Even though as a transactional program for the credit card holder, it's very
successful.
I'm sure those people are engaged, but I don't think it's working for the mass
population that they could actually acquire into the program.
I know that performance. I know that this is really hard for us to judge.
That's kind of why I gave it a one. Not because I felt hurt that we couldn't
read a lot more information on it, but I generally get the feeling that the
program is not changing minds.
It's you have bought a car, so now you can do this. So again, it's not adding
anything to it. It's just enhancing the value of the overall experience. So to me, that's not really necessarily loyalty so much as it is rewards. And
that's a really odd distinction. But again, if you go back to my statement,
would I differentiate between a BMW or an Audi because of the rewards program?
I absolutely would not. And I don't think that a lot of people would. It's just
something that is thrown in after you've bought the car.
Like Alex mentioned, there's things that they could do for those fans to kind
of get them in and doing stuff. I just don't see this as changing hearts and
minds.
Now, I mean, to be fair, I think that statement of is it going to make the
decision? I think that you would have to say all things being equal, right?
Because there's a lot, there's a lot that goes into the decision to take a car
purchase. So perhaps, perhaps there's no situation where it's all things being
equal to the loyalty program, move the needle for anybody.
We might never be able to cover that, but I respect your ones that at least
have you feel about the performance.
Yeah, I mean, I didn't really know how to judge this either. I just kind of
based on all the scores that I gave for everything else. I gave it between like
a three, like a three, three and a half, just because I don't know kind of
averaging out between what I was saying and kind of what everyone else was
saying for all the other three elements.
Yeah, I mean, especially because we don't really even know how many members
there are. We don't know much about anything. So it's kind of hard to decipher
or guess what the best.
There's not much hype around this and the news. There's not, there's not, there
's not any profiles on how their program is doing.
There's a lot of these programs that we've looked like have the CEO come out
and speak about the retention rate and the purchase frequency and the AOV.
And there's just, it's just not really a program that's leading in their, in
their market assets. So it is really hard to tell that does also make it seem
like this thing that we do rather than an integral part of the brand.
So, Alex, that being said, which is work performance.
Yeah, I would give it a two. You hit everything where if no one's talking about
it. I've never heard of it that much.
It's probably not doing that great, but I definitely bet that it's doing well
in terms of monetizing the program and getting credit card revenue in.
So I'm sure that they're really happy about that. That's why they keep it
around.
But yeah, I'd have to go with it too. Just given what we're, what we think we
're seeing. I will also say too, I did test drive the electric BMW and they
never even talked about this.
They never mentioned it. They never said you get benefits. They never tried to
offer a card. Nothing. So I don't even think like the dealerships might even be
really participating in this at all.
So big opportunity.
Yeah, I mean, just in our research too. It's hard to tell like the national
program versus dealership to dealership. Like how are there differences between
dealerships? Like how are they participating versus like the overall program.
It's really hard to get a idea of like what's actually happening. Yeah.
No, the dealership offers is so confusing because they're not associated with
it, but they call it a loyalty offer. And then you're like, well, is this part
of ultimate rewards and has nothing to do with it. It's just Joe blows
dealership in Wisconsin is giving you $1,000 off your lease.
This is not well connected at all.
That being said, let's go for that low means that there's a lot of opportunity
here. Right. So that's our show. Thanks so much for watching the lowest program
slam. Check out the rest of our loyalty program slams to see how BMW is right
through all the rest of the brands that we discovered and keep coming back.
Who knows your brand Mikey next craving more commentary.
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