Insight: how Mini is growing up as a brand

In case you missed it, that included a subtle recasting of the logo, and a changed corporate identity, at least in terms of how the brand communicates and also how Mini looks and feels in the showroom environment. “So instead of perhaps looking like a nightclub, the showrooms looked a bit more like an Apple store,” says Brownridge. There was more to the relaunch than messaging, of course. “We started the product offensive with the current-generation hatch, which lifted the bar in terms of substance. It’s still highly differentiated, still has great personality and is still true to the Mini genes. The next step was the five-door, which was a huge boost in terms of conquesting customers who didn’t need to settle for an ordinary car in the small car segment. We also wanted to enter the C-segment.”

These changes might have alienated existing owners, but Mini’s research indicates that customers like what’s been done. “We’re also bringing new customers to the brand, because historically it was easier to dismiss us,” says Brownridge.

“We now position ourselves as more credible, perhaps more grown-up but still individual and full of personality. We’re seeing customers coming from premium and non-premium brands.”

A final, vital ambition is to get buyers to understand that Mini isn’t just one car, despite the previous seven varieties. “We’re five cars,” says Brownridge. “Of course people know the Mini Cooper, but the awareness of the Mini Countryman and Mini Clubman is really quite low. So the second thrust of our relaunch was to really drive the awareness of those products. We needed people to reappraise the brand and reappraise the products.”

The relaunched range is still cementing its place. “We’ve got three products in the small car segment, with the three-door, the five-door and the Convertible, and they are all strong or the strongest in their segment,” says Brownridge.

“We’re not looking to grow them because they’re stable: they’ve got good residual values and a good customer base. With the Clubman we have an opportunity to bring in new people, as well as people growing out of the hatch.”

The Countryman, meanwhile, is now big enough to qualify as a household’s main drive rather than the second car.

More new roles are heading Mini’s way. As detailed in last week’s issue, plans to launch a fully electric Mini in 2019 are well underway. Brownridge reckons the brand is well poised to be the innovator in electric mobility, urban mobility and car sharing.

“There’s a growing trend towards urbanisation and people moving into cities. What we are moving towards is really innovating in that arena,” he says. Mini could explore the idea of shared-usage cars that are personalised via some form of biometric recognition.

“It’s your car but it’s not your car,” Brownridge says. “You pick your appearance and it’s personalised to you in terms of power, spec and colour. When you arrive in Spain, for example, another Mini comes up to you and becomes the same car. The possibilities are fascinating, and they fit hand in glove with the brand.”

Plenty of car makers are staring into that same middle distance, as Brownridge explains: “Getting greater utilisation from an asset is something we’re seeing from a lot of start-ups. With different generations [of consumers] having different expectations, there will be increasing demand in that area. We want to increase our market share of miles travelled. So if people still move around, how do we offer the best premium service? It could be that this is where you see the exploration of ‘Mini Living’ [a think tank that examines the creative use of space in urban habitats].

“The Mini originally came about as a solution to a problem, so there’s a real parallel here. What role does the brand play in maybe solving some of the challenges of suburban city life? I think we’re a brand that has relevancy in urban environments, in innovation and the use of space.”

There is clearly more to come, then. The next steps in Mini’s fruitfully busy period with BMW are as likely to be part-inspired by the 1959 car’s conceptual origins as much as its physical shape. That sounds both intriguing and exciting. 

Mini’s superheroes 

Mini refers to the five models in its range today as ‘superheroes’. “It’s an internal title to say every car stands on its own four wheels as a hero in its segment,” says Brownridge. “As a consumer, you can see the role of every car within the brand. A lot of people talk about the bigger car. Is it a Mini anymore? Of course, Mini is a brand, a personality. For us it’s about delivering products with a high differentiation in terms of product substance, and also in the way that they drive.”

Is Mini's profitability improving? 

BMW won't reveal financials for its individual brands, but industry watchers, Autocar included, have questioned the viability of a marque that competes with mainstream models selling in vastly larger quantities. So is Mini on safer financial ground now?

Brownridge thinks it is. UK sales have stabilised at around 70,000 units, but there are still markets that are “growing quite quickly”. Selling more cars obviously helps the bottom line, but so does canny industrial planning. “We’ve made a lot of steps forward in terms of platform sharing [Countryman, Clubman and front-drive BMW 2 Series] and using the ‘Baukasten’ family of modular engines.”