Just wanted to take a few excerpts from it that relate nicely to my first post "Enzo Doesn't Need Supply and Demand."
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At Ferrari SpA, North American chief Maurizio Parlato says the company is taking a "conservative approach" to the current year, and emphasizing Ferrari's value as an investment-grade product. "Our cars keep their value," he says. "You put money in the market, and you have no money."
Ferrari is launching a new model, the California, in June. A limited-edition model called the Scuderia Spider 16M is already sold out, Mr. Parlato says. Ferrari plans to build only 499 of the 510hp Scuderia convertibles. If you Google the car, you'll see it has attracted more than one million searches. Mr. Parlato says Ferrari is flying some of the cars to eager buyers.
The super-luxury car market doesn't operate by the same rules as the mass market, of course. All together, brands such as Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bentley sell in a year what Ford Motor Co. or Toyota Motor Corp. dealers sell during one or two bad days. Mass-market brands talk about building relationships with customers. The senior executives of ultra-luxury brands know the names of many customers.
Ms. Eulberg looks at the paperwork for Maserati deals so she can get a detailed understanding of who her customers are and how they are paying for their cars. At Maserati's sales volumes, she can do that.
Worried or not, makers of ultra-expensive cars are starting to pay more attention to bread-and-butter issues, such as marketing pre-owned vehicles that need to be resold.
Ferrari is launching a new model, the California, in June. A limited-edition model called the Scuderia Spider 16M is already sold out, Mr. Parlato says. Ferrari plans to build only 499 of the 510hp Scuderia convertibles. If you Google the car, you'll see it has attracted more than one million searches. Mr. Parlato says Ferrari is flying some of the cars to eager buyers.
The super-luxury car market doesn't operate by the same rules as the mass market, of course. All together, brands such as Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bentley sell in a year what Ford Motor Co. or Toyota Motor Corp. dealers sell during one or two bad days. Mass-market brands talk about building relationships with customers. The senior executives of ultra-luxury brands know the names of many customers.
Ms. Eulberg looks at the paperwork for Maserati deals so she can get a detailed understanding of who her customers are and how they are paying for their cars. At Maserati's sales volumes, she can do that.
Worried or not, makers of ultra-expensive cars are starting to pay more attention to bread-and-butter issues, such as marketing pre-owned vehicles that need to be resold.
For Ferrari, one benefit of the downturn has been to shrink the waiting lists that Mr. Parlato and his staff once had to manage. "Now we have people who want to own a Ferrari," he says, not people who want to snag one and flip it for profit to someone behind them on the list.
Mr. Parlato says he's not too worried about the attacks on Wall Street bonuses and the troubles in the financial industry. "Our customer base is not mainly those people," he says. "Those people are quick buyers" who favor other brands that don't require a waiting list.
"Our people," Mr. Parlato says, "have serious money."
Mr. Parlato says he's not too worried about the attacks on Wall Street bonuses and the troubles in the financial industry. "Our customer base is not mainly those people," he says. "Those people are quick buyers" who favor other brands that don't require a waiting list.
"Our people," Mr. Parlato says, "have serious money."
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It seems as though Ferrari isn't too worried about the recession affecting their business, even though their sales were down 30% so far this year from what they were at this point last year.
I'm sure Mr. Parlato is putting up a strong image, and is a bit more concerned than he is letting on, but overall, Ferrari will make it through the recession in decent shape because of thier unique ability to influence price by controlling supply. (i.e. when Parlato says "we are taking a conservative approach" he means "we are scaling back production".)
