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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 Eukars 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