MINI USA Head of Marketing Talks to Us About MINI Quality, Marketing and Future Products

If there’s one MINI podcast you listen to all year, this should be the one. Rarely to you get a chance to talk to a MINI executive on-record in such a candid way. But then again MINI USA Head of Marketing Pat McKenna is a straight shooter. We’ve know Pat since he started at MINI USA eight years ago leading product at the brand. While there are literally 100s of people responsible for MINIs dramatically improved quality over the last few year, few have been more of a driving force for that change than Pat. He’s also been critical in not just developing the current line-up of cars but what’s coming: the JCW GP and the MINI Cooper E. Suffice to say there are few people a US MINI enthusiast would want to chat with more than Pat McKenna. So it was with great anticipation that we sat down with Pat at the recent LA Autoshow to talk about the current state of MINI quality, marketing and the future of the brand in the US.
Coming from the second generation MINIs, the brand has had a long way to climb in terms of quality. But just as dramatic as some of those issues were to owners, the shift has been equally dramatic. “The MINI Countryman is the number #1 small luxury SUV in consumer reports. Ahead of Mercedes, Audi and let’s just say everyone,” McKenna proudly told us. The challenge in (marketing) that fact is that Consumer Reports is a non-for-profit organization and has rules against such things.” For the record the brand he wouldn’t say was the one with the Roundel next to the MINI booth at the show.
Being in product Pat has had a view into the hard work that make this transition happen. “We had the highest levels of engineering involved. We visited dealers and literally walked through service bays having technicians tell us the story of each car they were repairing.” We had Roger Penske (who owns a number of auto dealers including a MINI store) come to Munich to speak about the areas that had to be addressed in the 3rd generation. The results are that both initial quality and vehicle dependability surveys are way up. And most telling, dealers are having trouble keeping their service centers busy.”
“It’s literally small car company by volume and it’s also small in the portfolio in context to other cars. Our largest car is essentially the same size as a VW Golf,” He went on, “The Countryman is up 29% but there’s a lot of competition. In every other small car segment volume is drastically down. MINI is down as well but doing better than others. That translates into about a 2% drop – remarkable given the circumstances around us. If you look at a brand like Fiat for example, they’re 50-60% down.”
McKenna’s initial marketing thoughts were to focus on performance. But data shows that it’s the Countryman advertising that the market is responding to. He believes that’s down to what the market wants.
I was fascinated that a great spot for the hardtop wasn’t getting any attention. I believe that that’s because a lot of Americans are looking at it has small and just not for me. But the reality is the hardtop is doing fine in terms of sales.”
Still McKenna has hope; “To be a small car company down a little over 2%, it’s a good story. Our hope is that as other automakers stop producing small cars we’ll pick up share.”
We then turned our attention to product and specifically what he’s excited about. “We’re sitting in a plugin hybrid, we’ll have a full electric in 2020 and we’ll have the GP in 2020,” McKenna rattled off.
But what about future products? “If we were truly looking at the America market we would undoubtedly go bigger. So we could envision some larger format of the Countryman. But the reality is that the portfolio is rightsized for Europe and Asia. For the US to come in and say a larger MINI would fit our market. The question then becomes, would that product fit the brand? And can we build a business case to justify something created for the American market?”
I think we could envision some variation of Countryman but I don’t see the portfolio changing all that much.
Finally if you’re listening carefully. Pat slips in a little preview of the revised and much more powerful JCW Countryman and Clubman coming next year.
Needless to say this is a must listen as there’s plenty more in this 25 minute interview.
4 Comments
<p>Any update on the EV joint venture with China? Rocketman (I know, I know but I gotta ask every time)?</p>
<p>Thanx Gabe for sharing this as it was a really good listen. After reading reviews with Oliver Heilmer and some of George Kacher’s articles I must admit being very concerned about MINI’s future. After listening to the interview with Mr. McKenna I am very optimistic. He thoroughly understands the brand and has a realistic understanding of MINI’s position in the marketplace. The F60 May be too big for me but I absolutely understand there is probably no future for the hardtop without it. Just very gratified to hear Mr. McKenna’s words on the dedication to the smaller MINI’s and to what core MINI values are and should continue to be. Great Listen!!!</p>
<p>It was heartening to hear Mr. McKenna’s perspective. I bought my ’15 MINI in late ’14, just about the time the “rebranding” started taking place. Having bought my MINI based on the previous marketing (Fun, Unique, Individualistic, customisable), I was discouraged. Then I did MTTS2016. It was hard to reconcile the apparent “fun culture” with the brand positioning in the media. So, I am hopeful that MINI, or at least MINI USA, brings the brand back to its fun “roots”. I tell people, sometime so excitedly that its embarrassing, that owning and driving a MINI evokes the same feeling as when a puppy licks you; an inner giddiness that starts as a giggle and erupts into a face-cramping smile.
Just say’n.</p>
<p>So I listened to both of the last white roof radio podcast.. you guys definitely touch on a lot of good points… but at the end of it, for myself I came to the conclusion, that mini seems to be having a Identity crisis… which is both confusing and frustrating at the same time… over the last few years mini really seems to be switching gears an catering to a different crowd of people. Trying to cater to that hipster moms bebopping their way to the coffee shop…or the car enthusiasts , who believes 300hp FWD car is way to crazy’ or if it doesn’t have Apple CarPlay-Bluetooth-heads up Display-navigation or a automatic transmission or a hell of a warranty program they are really ant interested… which in my experience’ majority of the people who have that mindset are really not loyal to the brand.. Even two of the hosts on white roof radio has talked about going with a different car manufacturers for what ever reason they gave that episode.. At the ended of the day , MINI & BMW are in business to make money.</p>
<p>HoWeVeR !!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Mini as completely lost there race Heritage,</p>
<p>Mini has literally taken people, that has zero interest in cars or racing. An turned them into weekend track worries or time attack & autocross champions.Taking people who’ve had zero interest in working on there own car & making them into weekend Master mechanics.. I feel like mini has completely abandoned the guys who would rather hear the exhaust note revving through the rpm ranges , or the turbo spooling. For the guy who would rather have a automatic transmission an apple car-play… I feel like mini has completely forgotten their roots. Lets look at the evolution of corvettes and corvette guys.. there’s legitimately only three things you do with a corvette, good ridiculous fast, big Smokey burnouts an hang out with other corvette guys …yes they have changed in body style & motor over the years. But their continuing to cater to the same base of people. People who fell in love with them, for that particular reason.. maybe it’s a horrible marketing plan but it seems to work. At the end of the day Corvette has not lost the heritage of big smoky burnouts go ridiculously fast and hang out with other corvette guys. .. ever since BMW bought mini..it seems like there’s been a love-hate relationship with the car…. that’s pointing fingers at everybody including the manufacture an the owners . I was so excited when they announce the GP3 .. especially being that I’m in a position in life where I could go out and get one.. but then they came out an said.. yeah we’re only going to offer it in an automatic transmission.. that was a completely total buzz kill for me. And a lot of other people inside my local mini club. Not going to lie..I won’t even bother going to the dealer to look at it, because it’s that big of a disappointment. In my opinion..</p>
<p>Here is my suggestion for the marketing group.</p>
<p>Bring back mini racing heritage</p>
<p>BMW has a line of motorcycles called “ Hertage “ .. the bikes are very basic bike . They don’t have all the fancy electronics, no abs etc. the bike literally look like somebody just rolled it out of a barn , the entire marketing strategy , take it home customize it and make it your own…</p>
<p>Why not try something like that with a Cooper s or a jcw hard top… I Know for a fact if I went to my local mini club next weekend an said hey rumor has it, the new Cooper s will have 350 hp in a 6 speed manual with crank windows & two bucket seats , that would make heads turn. Just bring back the racing heritage,</p>
<p>Make mini great again .. definitely can be done</p>