IN keeping with the Mini brand, a new model based on the Clubman shooting brake concept due at the end of this year will not be aimed at the mass market. Rather, it will target a very specific group of adventurous people.
'The new Clubman will definitely not be for a mainstream' buyer,' explains Kay Segler, vice-president for brand management at Mini .
'We're targeting the real avant-garde drivers. It's a unique concept that will put a smile on your face. You will see the car and think, Oh my goodness,this is interesting'. Cosmopolitan, design-oriented, global thinking; a trend-setter rather than a follower.'
He was speaking during an exclusive interview recently when he visited Singapore as part of an entourage - in his capacity as honorary consul and BMW manager - that was accompanying Bavaria's Minister President for a series of meetings to develop and forge closer business ties between the German state and Singapore.
Dr Segler is no stranger to the Republic, having spent the tumultuous years of the economic crisis and yo-yo-ing COE (certificate of entitlement) premiums here as head of BMW Asia.
And rather than shudder at the memory of those days, he fondly cites that era as a learning experience for him. It honed his management skills and taught him to adapt to unpredictable changes.
For him, the Singapore economy is an effective learning tool that can be regarded as a microcosm of the larger economies in Europe and elsewhere.
'I'm not surprised by things any more, since I've learnt to do business in an environment that changed so fast and drastically you never knew what to expect,' says Dr Segler.
And he appreciates the demanding customers here that kept him on his toes,which led to very high standards.
But it is his enthusiasm and passion for the Mini brand that is most apparent about the 52-year-old. With a global reach spanning 70 countries, the most important aspects of Mini's brand development are education and the buying experience for customers.
According to Dr Segler, the whole business development of Mini is a very careful exercise that must be done in a proper way.
'If you just push out vehicles, that doesn't mean the brand is successful.You have to educate and work with 1,500 dealers worldwide to establish the brand.'
He reiterates his position: 'A customer's experience must be the same allover the world. You have to create the feeling and you need the right people for that. And this needs time. You can't learn a language overnight and you certainly can't learn about Mini overnight.'
Dr Segler confirms that the Clubman - a shooting brake concept shown at the Detroit auto show - can be expected at end-2007 as well as another high-performance JCW, or John Cooper Works, variant.
But he is tight-lipped about a rumoured cross-over vehicle ('It's not a Moke' was his only response).
In keeping with the Mini's irreverent image, a cheeky move that caught the automotive paparazzi off-guard was the brand's brazen decision to drive a camouflaged Clubman through the streets of Geneva during the motor show in March.
'We might do something at some other event, but not a car show, and it'll be another surprise,' says Dr Segler.
His only clue? 'It'll be in Italy.'
Those who fear a dilution of the brand, especially with the prospect of several new models, need not fret either.
'Mini is not totally glued to one face, but it has to be true to the base model. The only parallel thing in the car industry is the Porsche 911. If you change it too much in one direction, the customers won't like it, so the development of the new Mini reflects this thinking,' Dr Segler affirms.
Fans of performance Minis will be happy to hear that a more focused variant of the Cooper S is expected to break cover in 2008.
'You can expect a very nice engine that won't be just a tuned Cooper S engine. It will have a real John Cooper heart' that is the same engine used in the Mini Challenge races. So you can use it on the race course as well as on the road with identical performance figures. We are living the spirit of the races (on the roads).'
