May 142021
 
BMW 2021 Q1 Sales

Last month BMW 2021 Q1 sales were announced coming out of the pandemic year of 2020. The numbers told a positive story, with sales in North America up 20.1 percent and global sales up 33.5 percent to an all time high of over 636,000 vehicles. However, sales of BMW’s competitors in the NA market were […]

Apr 192021
 
State of the Wine Industry 2021

Silicon Valley bank bank produces an excellent annual report on the U.S. wine industry. With all the industry has been through recently, first fires and then the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of the Wine Industry 2021 report is particularly relevant. 2021 is the 20th anniversary of SVB putting out the report. It’s a deep dive […]

Mar 272021
 
M Chapter Conversation with Eric Keller of EAG

What does a car club do when the pandemic wreaks havoc on their activity calendar? They turn to video of course like so many other organizations. On Tuesday 3/23 the ///M Chapter of the CCA held a video conversation with influencer Eric Keller, founder of Enthusiast Auto Group (EAG) in Cincinnati, Ohio. No one used […]

Feb 222021
 
Sloppy Content Sharing

When sharing content online it’s important to bring your “A” game. This is especially important when sharing content designed to to educate or persuade the audience on a particular issue. You need to know the audience, know the topic and be ready to engage with the reaction your content receives. Last week I read some […]

Jan 132021
 
Looking Back on the GAIN 2020 Conference

It seems incredible that we’ve finally reached 2021 holiday season. Despite all the challenges presented by the coronavirus it was a busy year in the world of B2G marketing. As in past years one of the biggest events for government marketers was the GAIN 2020 conference. GAIN again offered tools, insights and inspiration for government […]

Dec 142020
 
BMW E39 M5 Battery Replacement

Recently my wife and I returned from a week away and the battery in my E39 M5 was totally dead. This was disappointing because the battery was less than two years old and I had charged it prior to us leaving. The dead battery was an Interstate MTP-95R. I’ve had good experiences in the past […]

Nov 292020
 
A French Thanksgiving

Like (hopefully) most people, our Thanksgiving was smaller and quieter this year. We couldn’t celebrate with the number of family and friends that we typically have in past years due to the pandemic. So to try something different we went with only French wines with the meal. Not that drinking French wine is a radical […]

Oct 262020
 
Old School Oil Change

Last week I did an old school oil change in my driveway. I use that term because I’ve become very used to handling DIY work at the events organized by the local National Capitol chapter of the BMW Car Club of America. But of course COVID-19 changed all that and there hasn’t been an event […]

Sep 242020
 
Measuring Content Effectiveness

It’s commonly said in marketing that “content is king.” But how do you demonstrate content effectiveness to other stakeholders in your organization? Marketers need to show that the content they are creating and promoting is helping to achieve business objectives. It’s important to understand that key performance indicators (KPIs) vary by campaign stage. For example, […]

Aug 302020
 
Cars and Bids Takes On Bring a Trailer

In 2018 I wrote about the fast growing online auction site Bring a Trailer. Since then the site continued to grow, was acquired and just got some competition. According to an April feature story in the New York Times, Bring a Trailer had over 100,000 registered bidders in 2019 and revenue totaled $230 million. In […]

Jul 202020
 
Pandemic Wrecks 2020 BMW Sales

2020 BMW sales in the U.S. have been badly hurt by the corona pandemic. Sales in Q2 were down an amazing 39.3 percent, totaling 50,957. Year to date BMW is down 28.4 percent in this market, with 110,412 vehicles sold. Globally BMW is doing a bit better, with BMW brand sales down 21.7 percent. While […]