Mini Merchandise Moves Fast
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 8, 2002
Local Mini lovers are going cuckoo over the BMW brand's trinkets.
Mini mania slipped into top gear last Friday as a few patient owners began wheeling away their boxy three-door $32,600 Mini Coopers, having waited a full year since the car's local debut at the Melbourne motor show.
BMW, while it braces to see whether its revived icon will be a shooting star (other retro-styled cars have started strongly, then nosedived within 12 months), has one sales hit in the shape of Mini merchandise.
Popular branded items include the Mini pen ($5), T-shirt ($65) and cuckoo clock - with a face all but identical to the large circular rev counter in the centre of the Mini's dash. Despite the $175 tag, 300 have been sold. The most expensive item is the least popular: a $269 wind-up/solar-powered home radio.
In January and February combined, "lifestyle accessory" sales exceeded BMW's forecast for the year.
With Minis now on the road, marketers expect sales to rise still further, as buyers cruise the distinctive black-themed showrooms taking in both cars and the numerous trinkets.
The Mini men are excited about the wide range of buyers drawn to the car, from the predictable fashion-loving twentysomethings to an octogenarian who thought he'd bought his last new car - until he saw the Mini in the metal.
BMW hopes to sell 1700 of the 1.6-litre British-built Mini Coopers this year; it is holding 560 orders. The more potent 120 kW supercharged Mini Cooper S goes on sale - at $39,900 - in July.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald