Jim McDowell's, BMW's VP Marketing, remembers as a kid going to car dealers with his dad for fun, and recalls his dad pointing
out the workmanship of German cars, such as the finish on the inside of a Volkswagen's bumpers. When it came time to buy a car
that Jim could take to Colorado College in 1970, he picked the Volkswagen fastback, vintage 1966.
BMW's Jim McDowell at Cape Cod
But for several years after his college graduation in 1974, cars were only something Jim enjoyed, along with astronomy, geology,
bass fishing, wind surfing and many other avocations. But he did not focus on automobiles as a career until joining Porsche in the mid-1980s after years in community planning, corporate planning, and receiving
his graduate degree at Harvard, where he majored in public policy and city planning.
During our conversation at Michael's, Jim and I spoke about his long automotive career and BMW's leadership in innovative marketing. It surprised me that the conservative, serious-looking executive claims his
top priority is "having fun. A day hasn't been a good day if you haven't laughed to the bottom of your lungs at least five times," Jim believes. He brings that philosophy to his job, where he says most of his staff also
like having fun and have a great sense of humor. "Laughing releases juices that help us come up with serious solutions," he says. As an example, he points to BMW's early decision to make Apple's iPod available as an accessory in the BMW "3" series. "The ads marketing the iPod with a driver changing
the musicians in his back seat simply by touching the controls on his steering wheel is a fun commercial. Apple's manual for the iPod lists the BMW as an available iPod accessory. That's funny!"
As Tina Brown and Liz Smith laughed nearby, and as "The Restaurant" producer Ben Silverman spoke seriously in hushed tones with ousted restaurateur Rocco DiSpirito, Jim pointed out that the BMW is so
respected and so reliable, "sometimes when we do something with a smile and a wink, it takes people by surprise. When you analyze what makes something funny, you find truths that are valuable for impacting peoples' attitudes."
Jim sees fun in all aspects of BMW's marketing program. "We take two fleets of 20 cars to 230 home towns across America as a fund raiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. We have raised
more than $1 million annually by letting people have fun taking test drives. Before Thanksgiving, our marketing department gives away hundreds of turkey baskets, and we have a great time together." Jim brings the
same approach to BMW's agency relationship with Fallon McElligot and marketing partnerships with USA Today, Vanity Fair, and others. In 2005, Jim promises a new BMW marketing program "built
around something funny. It will make consumers realize something about our products that our competitors don't have."
The new marketing program will support the launch of the new "3" series BMW, and Jim says his team and Fallon "needed to come up with something no one else could do, something unique, and that will work
in most forms of media." BMW has a history of breaking the rules with innovative marketing programs. "Year by year, since 1995, we have added tools to our marketing tool chest that people haven't seen before," Jim points out. "Every year we do zero-based budgeting, and focus on our two or
three most important objectives. With a modest budget, we need to be focused and purposeful each year."
BMW made big news when James Bond switched from his Astin-Martin to a BMW Roadster, and the company sent shockwaves through the industry when it pulled traditional media budgets and produced a
series of short eight-minute films available only through the Internet. "We had the idea of doing a brand campaign," he says, "and knew we needed something new. The film campaign evolved from knowing our customers. To our customers, technology is a friend." He adds, "developing a
marketing campaign and identifying marketing partners is like picking a string of pearls one pearl at a time and stringing them together by ourselves."
Jim McDowell driving a BMW vintage 328, at the Monterey Historics in 1996
Experimentation and exploration has been a consistent pattern throughout Jim's life.
He grew up in the experimental community of Greeley, Colorado, a small city founded by the man who said "go west, young man," and
who led a group of intellectuals to the Rocky Mountains. After college, he received a Thomas Watson Grant to study experimental communities developed in the 1950s in Scotland and England, and then returned home to join the Rand Corporation, studying housing policy and working on
experimental housing projects in Green Bay and South Bend. "It was the biggest experience of my life," he says. "Rand gave us total freedom to find answers that could help people live better." His work at Rand came to the attention of GTE, which was the largest company remaining after the baby
bells were broken apart. GTE needed executives who could identify and develop new ventures that would take GTE into new businesses beyond the telephone. "I was there for four years," Jim says, "but the company
waited for others to develop new products and then would put out a lower cost version. For someone like me who wanted to take the lead with new products, it was a humbling experience."
Jim left GTE and joined OCLI in Santa Rosa, California, a high tech company that developed the "thin film" protecting the windows of the space shuttle. Two years later, when Porsche was searching for a
corporate planning executive, Jim's love of cars — and especially German cars — came back into play. After a five year stay at Porsche, he knew his potential to advance in the company would require
him to learn German, an effort made easier by his wife, Barbara, who is fluent. He was the first Porsche U.S. executive to be transferred to Germany, where he worked for three years before he was recruited by BMW in Munich in 1993. Jim and Barbara's three children were seven, five and three when
they moved to Germany, and Jim was convinced he would be there through their high school years, but BMW asked him to return to BMW's United States headquarters in New Jersey, and he has lived in Upper Saddle River since then.
He works out every day at 5:30 AM, and his passion for fun and experimentation leads him to foreign film festivals, art films, and unusual choices for his vacation and free time. His family vacations every summer at Coast
Guard Beach on Cape Cod, which he describes as "like no other beach experience." Barbara, Jim and their three kids wind surf, kayak, fish and "collect experiences." Jim is committed to sharing unique experiences
with each of his children. "It's so much fun seeing kids explore themselves and learn about their capabilities," he says. Anyone who says "work," "family" and "fun" are self-exclusive
should speak to Jim McDowell. He's found a way to find fun in all aspects of his life.
