Another company selling by subscription: BMW offers heated seats at $18 a month

Here at Teach the 4 Ps we find subscription pricing for traditional products to be unusual—but apparently growing in popularity. We have previously posted on subscription to Panera coffee, Taco Bell tacos, and Nike shoes. Now you have one more crazy example to add to your list, “Why BMW is offering heated seats on a monthly subscription” (CN Business, July 14, 2022). Apparently this is the start of a trend that might grow in the auto industry. These examples might be used to stimulate a discussion on this pricing model.

A discussion might start by asking students if they have anything they buy as a subscription? Some might mention newspapers, magazines, cable/streaming TV (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+), or perhaps websites. Then I provide the examples shown here and ask students why these products are being offered as subscriptions? At least one answer is This can be discussed in Chapter 2 (customer lifetime value) or when you cover pricing (Chapters 17 and 18).