As part of our IAA Coverage this year we spoke with a couple of the top men from MINI, about the Clubman, and also about their own work inside MINI, in attempt to find out what makes them and the team at MINI tick.

Our first interview, below, was held with Bernd Koerber, MINI Clubman Product Manager.

How long have you held your position as MINI Clubman Product Manager, at what stage in the concept or design process did you become involved with the MINI Clubman?

Personally I started working on the MINI Clubman four years ago, two years on the concept, naming and strategy, then about two years ago I became product launch manager.

Initially outlining how the car would work, where it would fit in the MINI product strategy and so on, then moving on to preparing for the launch of the MINI Clubman and the work on the car itself, and guiding the launch team.

What would be your average day in the office, if there is such a thing?

Average in the office can be very frustrating as you are between everyone!

The main targets for a Product Launch Manager is to fight for the market and fight for the customer, always try to look at the car from the point of view of the customer, what the customer might like, how to improve things for the customer.

The second part is to prepare the launch activities, guide the launch teams, so at the end of the day there is a car, and a launch day all ready for production all in time.

The first week of production for the Clubman I spent in Oxford looking at the building of the car. Which was very interesting, there are many aspects of the car which are tough for the guys in Oxford to produce, which also has to be considered.

It’s really a role between production, design and marketing, and being an ambassador for the markets.

The Club Door, there has of course been a great deal of debate about the door being on the road side for right hand drive markets such as the UK and Australia, the “wrong side” you could argue. Was there any stage during the development you attempted or considered different door configurations, maybe four regular doors, two Club Doors, or even no rear doors at all like the hatch?

No.

When we started, the idea was a three door concept (counting the split doors as one door, because they were always considered to be the solution for the rear).

Then we thought one of the disadvantages of the hatch is that it can be hard to get into the rear, and we thought with the longer wheelbase this may be more of an issue with the Clubman, so we tried to think what would be a MINI typical solution, and we thought a solution that would be very unique would be the Club Door. It was always intended to be on the right hand side. So very early on we confirmed this concept.

Very early on it was considered how to make this door as safe as possible, for example having to open the door in front before you can open the rear, so safety was a big factor.

What for you is the most special feature of the MINI Clubman, if you could single out a single aspect?

For me personally it is actually the split rear door, because we had to have a good link to the forefathers of the MINI Clubman, the Mini Countryman, Traveller and Clubman Estate and that was so hard to fight for. As I found out in the plant, it is very complicated to do that, it is almost hand made.. it is very complicated to build. Also for the strengthening it was very challenging, and again there is the strong link to MINI heritage.

So for me it is the split door.

What was your strongest selling point, when talking to members of the BMW board, to justify turning the Traveller Concept into reality?

From the concept itself there was no fight about it. It was very interesting to see, I cannot imagine another car project in the BMW group that was so smooth. When the idea was first shown to the board as scribbles that was it, it was the concept.

That is why when you see the design sketches there is only really one concept and then it was rolled out. Usually you begin with many design orientations and then you narrow it down, but really it was a decision based on that one concept.

Internally, this car has a lot of fans.

The first car I had for internal purposes was a Hot Chocolate Clubman, and I really struggled to meet the demand for people who wanted to test the car for themselves.

What has been your proudest moment during the development, up to the launch here at Frankfurt of the MINI Clubman?

Proudest moment is always when you have the design freeze, and you present the vehicle to the board. You look into their eyes for their reaction, do they like it, do they not like it?

And the second one is here (Frankfurt launch) actually, people see the car for the first time, and you look into their eyes and you see if they are smiling and you know if they really like it.

To you believe the Clubman will win more customers to MINI, or retain more current customers or may otherwise be looking at perhaps larger vehicles from other manufacturers?

Basically the Clubman was designed and planned to win new customers. But also there are of course MINI customers who have moved on a stage in their lives and maybe they would need a MINI with a little more added practicality, and then there are also those who will always want something new, the latest MINI. So to keep them with the brand is also very important.

So the main focus is always winning more customers to the brand, but I hope we have a good argument for more MINI owners staying.

Did you, during the development or planning process, have an idea of the ‘typical’ MINI Clubman customer?

With MINI overall that’s always extremely hard to do, because you have people from all walks of life. If you start to think about it in terms of socio-demographics, average ages or whatever, it’s very hard to come up with a typical MINI owner. I mean, if you could look into the people’s head and minds, you must find something that is common about them! But from outside, I could not really give you a picture and say that is a typical MINI fan, because it could be a 20 year old student, but we also have so many enthusiastic MINI owners who are over 60 or 70, with a totally different background.

And I think that is actually a strength of the MINI brand, so in relation with our customers we are not in a small niche.

I have a three year old Nephew, and whenever I go to see him he’s always asking me to bring a MINI in a different colour, he really loves it, and then I also have my aunt who is over 60, who is also always very interested in the MINI and its details, although she has no interest in cars whatsoever. And I think you always find you have people who are interested in MINI who have no interest in cars overall.

Do you drive a MINI Clubman? What specification do you have?

Of course.

I already ordered one, it will be a Clubman Cooper S, Hot Chocolate, with the Hot Chocolate interior. As I think that’s one more step further with being unique.

This colour has such an interesting development, because before we had the colour on a piece of metal everyone said “Brown?! You’re going to make a brown car?!”, they wanted us to consider another colour. And we thought “hmm, strange”, because this is the exclusive colour and nobody seems to like it! So we decided it would be a good idea to paint one car in Hot Chocolate, and we did, and we showed it at various conferences and meetings, and people liked it. For the first customer orders, Hot Chocolate makes up about 20% of the total volume. Which to me is tremendous.

Maybe it will develop the same as Pepper White, at the time when we did Pepper White everyone said “White?!” and now, last month, it was the third best selling colour across the MINI range.

Amusingly all three MINI product managers drive R56 MINIs in Pepper White, all ordered separately, and now we all have a Hot Chocolate Clubman on order, again all ordered separately.

Final question. What next, what for the future of the MINI Clubman?

I would like to see the MINI and the Clubman developing very gradually.

I think from the past there are a lot of opportunities for what you can do with MINI, in many markets basically people know the MINI as a hatch and for them the Clubman is a major step, as they maybe don’t know the history behind the MINI Clubman so they need time to embrace it.

I think MINI should always be a very exclusive brand in terms of product portfolio, it should not bring out various derivatives and concepts because I think that would not do the brand any good. I would like to see a very gradual and very cautious development of the MINI.

And in terms of what those concepts could be, up to now there are no 100% confirmed concepts yet.

But lots of ideas.