It’s no secret that BMW’s latest designs have not been well received everywhere, and the company has responded to criticism in unprecedented and outrageous ways. There are many cars that can be described as visually polarizing, but BMW’s constant defense of its own critics dismissed as ‘boomers’ although many of his customers are indeed boomers, it was a strange and fascinating drama to see unfold on social media.
In his latest defense, BMW design chiefs Adrian van Hooydonk and Domagoj Dukec spoke Highest gear in an effort to reduce the setback, but at the same time to welcome it. To be honest, there is nothing explicitly wrong with most of what Van Hooydonk and Dukec say here. Many fall into the area “you can not please everyone ¯ _ (ツ) _ / ¯”.
If you were in their position, what else can you really say? Especially like “Yeah, we made a little mess of it, didn’t we?” is not really an option.
The rationale that Dukec gives, however, is not very convincing, as it rests on this formless, unspecified desire to ‘stand out’.
“You can create something beautiful, and we also have cars that are just beautiful. But there are some customers who need to stand out if you want to reach them. You have to create something that is not in line; maybe not like an everyday car or an everyday product, but that’s exactly the reason. ‘
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Of course, it seems like a challenge to stand out if you build a series of intersections of almost distinguishable ones of slightly different sizes, and then push it into a market populated by the offerings of your competitors. But you do not necessarily have to shock or disappoint most of your audience to be remembered, especially if you have a rich heritage of beautiful and performing cars that are generally very well maintained. The heel twist is not easy to understand on its own and at least from the outside.
Dukec loses me even further with his next remark about especially the 4-Series, the car that got the most of the reproach:
“Not all of our products get the same critics,” Dukec said. ‘You can see that 20 percent of people hold on to something as polarizing as the kidneys in the 4-series. It fits the type of customers we target.
It goes back to a percentage breakdown of how BMW sees its customers and classifies them with demographic labels like ‘elegant creators’ and ‘expressive artists’ – you know, real marketing material. But by no means do I want to convey that I recommend for the mother to be inactive. I suspect the subtext here is that BMW wants to take an extremely discerning customer to court who wants to be considered edgy and brave and interesting, a person whose confidence is gained by a moody schnoz in front of their luxury sedan have. I can not help but read a little superiority here as well. If you do not get it, you just are not ‘elegant’ or ‘expressive’ enough to do it. be BMW.
Between all this and the passive insults that most passionate fans are lurking on Twitter, it seems like these days they are only going to search deeper when someone at BMW opens their mouth about design. I really hate to be that guy who sadly remarked on how everything was so much better, and I desperately stuck to something positive to say about the front-end treatment on the new 4 and 7 Series, or the iX – but I can not find it.
BMW has never had an attention-grabbing brand before, and that makes it so strange. Either way, it’s apparently very concerned about it today, and to the credit of the company’s designers, these are definitely ways to look forward. Van Hooydonk reflects on the uproar with a favorable turn:
‘It’s really fantastic [if you have fans]. This means you have people who not only buy your products, but who like what you do. Of course, if they love what you do, they might have a problem once you change it.
Remember: No matter what people say, they are just disappointed in you because they love you. This is something I think we can all benefit from.