CompetitionBMW faced competitive rivalry in the United Kingdom most especially from Mercedes who are their biggest rivals. Mercedes have the second largest market share of cars in the United Kingdom, hence making them a strong competitor against BMW who are the first in market share in the United Kingdom. Besides that, there are introduction of new entrants into the car manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom.
The new competitor that enters into the market was taken over some of the market share that was previously owned by BMW due to the quality and affordability of the cars that they bring into the United Kingdom. However for our case study we just focus on the main competitors for BMW in the United Kingdom are Mercedes car group, and Audi. They will compete with each other in almost all market segments.
Mercedes –BenzMercedes- Benz is the second largest market share of cars in the UK and making them be a strong competitor to BMW. Mercedes is a multinational division of the German manufacturer Daimler AG, and the brand is used for luxury automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks.
Mercedes-Benz is headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name first appeared in 1926 under Daimler-Benz but traces its origins to Daimler’s 1901 Mercedes and to Karl Benz’s 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first automobile. Mercedes-AMG became a majority owned division of Mercedes-Benz in 1998. The company was integrated into DaimlerChrysler in 1999, and became Mercedes-Benz AMG beginning on 1 January 1999. Between 2003 and 2009, Mercedes-Benz produced a limited-production sports car with McLaren Cars.
The resulting Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren was an extension of the collaboration by which Mercedes engines are used by the Team McLaren-Mercedes Formula One racing team, which was then part owned by Mercedes. McLaren ceased production of the SLR in 2009 and went on to develop its own car, the McLaren MP4-12C, launched in 2011. Besides its native Germany, Mercedes-Benz vehicles are also manufactured or assembled in Argentina, Australia, Malaysia, china, India and many more.
Mercedes-Benz carries a full range of passenger, light commercial and heavy commercial equipment. Vehicles are manufactured in multiple countries worldwide. The Smart marque of city cars and Maybach luxury cars are also produced by Daimler AG.
AudiAudi’s recognizable logo features four interconnected silver rings, and those four rings symbolize the 1932 merger of four independent vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. These four groups formed what is known today as Audi AG. The original Audi was founded in 1909 by August Horch in Zwickau, Germany, and the company’s primary focus was on building automobiles that could compete in the luxury market. Horch was able to establish “a product design philosophy for the cars with his declared aim of building only high-quality, powerful models” (Audi, 2012). These cars came to be considered superior products in the industry and led to impressive sales figures, due in part to the high standards of manufacturing quality set by the company.
The company name is based on the surname of the founder, August Horch. “Horch”, meaning “listen”, becomes “Audi” when translated into Latin. The four rings of the Audi logo each represent one of four car companies that banded together to create the company. Audi’s slogan is Vorsprung durch Technik, meaning “Advancement through Technology”. Recently in the United States, Audi has updated the slogan to “Truth in Engineering”. AUDI AG has been a majority owned (99.55%) subsidiary of Volkswagen AG since 1966, following a phased purchase of AUDI AG’s predecessor, Auto Union, from Daimler-Benz.[8]
Volkswagen relaunched the Audi brand with the 1965 introduction of the Audi F103 series. Audi’s sales grew strongly in the 2000s, with deliveries to customers increasing from 653,000 in 2000 to 1,003,000 in 2008. The largest sales increases came from Eastern Europe (+19.3%), Africa (+17.2%) and the Middle East (+58.5%). China in particular has become a key market, representing 108,000 out of 705,000 cars delivered in the first three quarters of 2009. One factor for its popularity in China is that Audis have become the car of choice for purchase by the Chinese government for officials, and purchases by the government are responsible for 20% of its sales in China.
As of late 2009, Audi’s operating profit of €1.17-billion ($1.85-billion) made it the biggest contributor to parent Volkswagen Group’s nine-month operating profit of €1.5-billion, while the other marquis in Group such as Bentley and Seat had suffered considerable losses. May 2011 saw record sales for Audi of America with the new Audi A7 and Audi A3 TDI Clean Diesel.
In May 2012, Audi reported a 10% increase in its sales at 480 units which was 408 a year ago. Audi has 7 manufacturing plants around the world, although many sub-assemblies such as engines and transmissions are manufactured within other Volkswagen Group plants around the world. In September 2012, Audi announced the construction of its first North American manufacturing plant in Puebla, Mexico. This plant is expected to be operative in 2016 and produce the successor to the Q5.
