Branding of luxury cars should be treated with great care

Agus W. Soehadi, Contributor, Jakarta

On one busy afternoon a flashy red Porsche overtook several cars on one of Jakarta's longest roads, Jl. TB Simatupang. Although not a very frequent scene or not exactly crowding the streets of Jakarta or the other major cities in Indonesia, a number of luxury cars, such as Porsche, Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari and Range Rover are found to be cruising the city from time to time. The list of luxury cars also includes the latest series and high end types of Mercedes and BMWs.

This indicates that a demand for these extremely expensive cars exists in Indonesia. Although the country's economic situation is yet to fully recover, the sales figures for luxury items, including cars, has grown over the past few years as indicated by as sales data gathered by the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo).

PT Eurokars Chrisdeco Utama, the authorized importer and distributor for Porsche and Saab cars in Indonesia, for example, sold 50 cars in 2003, even though the company just started its marketing here in 2002.

While vice president of VW Asia Pacific Wolfgang Glaser said that luxury car sales in the Asian market had not been affected the region's economic situation. The VW group recorded a 7.2 percent increase, totaling 461,000 cars in Asia.

Although the growth of luxury car sales is promising, it is not a mass market, in fact, it is a special niche with plenty of players today. Obviously, the target market is also very segmented and consists of high-income jet-setters. The key to marketing success in this segment, more than any other expensive item, is building a strong brand.

Some important lessons can be found in Aaker's best seller Brand Leadership. He wrote that two vital elements in establishing successful brands were brand performance and brand personality. Both elements are often used simultaneously in the marketing of a number of products. BMW cars, for example, carry both themes: the ultimate driving machine (for the performance of the product) as well as the personification of an achiever or a highly successful figure.

Marketing luxury cars requires a different technique, which is totally unique in comparison with lesser priced cars, due to customers' expectations both for product performance and the related after sales service. Customer expectations are sky high while at the same time manufacturers are competing with each other in enhancing their products with the latest hi-tech and luxury features. Speed is another plus point. The Jaguar XK-R, with its supercharged 4.2 liter V8 engine, for example can easily reach the 100 kilometer-per-hour speed within 5.2 seconds.

Realizing that after-sales service and the availability of a wide service network with professional technicians is a must to give luxury car owners the real sense of security, all major importers of luxury cars have set up such a network throughout the nation. One of them, PT BMW Indonesia, has even gone as far as to invest Rp 5 billion for the establishment of its National Training Center at the German Center in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang.

The company's main objective is to upgrade the competency and maintain professionalism of its local staff and mechanics to conform with the international standards set by the company's headquarters in Germany. The result is the company is now ranked number one for customer satisfaction based on the research conducted by JD Power. In market share, BMW now leads with 46.8 percent in the related category as reported by the Prospektif magazine.

To maintain customer loyalty, next to product performance and service that exceed their expectations, the brand should also reflect the customers' personality. Clearly, luxury cars are more than simply means of transportation, as they emanate the owner's status, prestige and lifestyle. The owners of these luxury cars belong to a privileged class and belong to an extremely affluent group that is world apart.

A brand that exudes a strong personality helps strengthen the emotional bond between the product and its owner as it influences the owner's perception and thoughts. It also influences how the car owner defines himself and his position in society. The Cherokee Jeep with its macho image, for example, fits the owners who love off-road driving and often express their masculinity in various ways.

Building the personality of a brand is quite a challenge for marketers as sometimes a certain image evokes different emotions in different parts of the world. The physical prowess of "Rambo" of United States films is clearly not the same as the more subtle strengths of James Bond in the United Kingdom. Both are hero figures, but each represents a different kind of strength. Hence, marketers have to be careful in using celebrities to endorse their advertisements.

Mark and Pearson in another best selling book on marketing, The Hero and The Outlaw: Building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes suggested the use of archetypes that can convey not only the most basic or elementary ideas, but can deliver elementary feelings, create elementary fantasies and visions. They believe that archetypes can bridge consumers' motivations and product features.

Based on their research they found that there are 12 archetypes that can contribute to marketing themes: hero, outlaw, caregiver, lover, innocent person, magician, explorer, ruler, jester, regular guy, sage and creator or inventor. One of the phenomenal successful marketing stories on the use of an archetype is the outlaw by Harley Davidson motorcycles. The Volkswagen Beetle has also gained popularity through the innocent image that is incorporated in the baby face of its front.

A valuable lesson for car companies, including those producing luxury cars, is the importance of building a most effective brand that can convey both messages: superior performance of product as well as personality that matches the target market. In many cases, as proven by several advertising campaigns, the use of archetypes can be helpful as long as the marketer hits on the right one. In short, the communications in marketing luxury cars should be an effective combination of both the tangible and intangible elements. After all the promise of an advertising line should be proven by the product and in the field, that is in the after sales service that ensure the longevity of the extremely expensive items. -- The writer is chairman of the marketing faculty at Prasetiya Mulya Business School