[HN Gopher] Ferrari Status
___________________________________________________________________
Ferrari Status
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 48 points
Date : 2025-07-28 13:23 UTC (3 days ago)
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| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> "We are not - we are not - a car company. We are a luxury
| company that is also doing cars."_
|
| Replace Ferrari with Rolex and it's basically the same article.
| Veblen is such a good business model and place to work, if you
| can hack it that is.
|
| Imagine you're a sales guy at Honda dealership, well you have to
| work hard to convince the middle aged dad why buy a CRV instead
| of a Toyota RAV4.
|
| However, if you work at a Bugatti dealership, you don't need to
| convince the oil-rich Sheikh why he should buy the 2 million
| dollar car, he already wanted to buy it before he even stepped
| in. So not only is your job easier than the guy in the Honda
| dealership, it's also much better paid. The very definition of
| inequality. The same is true for other businesses. It's much
| easier and profitable selling Azure /Office 365 subscriptions to
| businesses, that some SW solution from a mom & pop shop.
| thefourthchime wrote:
| Exactly.
| VirusNewbie wrote:
| Ferrari makes money on F1, sells T-shirts and hats and whatnot,
| along with very expensive cars.
|
| Does Rolex have other revenue streams aside from overpriced
| watches?
| os2warpman wrote:
| I would never own a rolex because where I live only ambulance
| chasers, businessmen who are definitely guilty of wage theft,
| morbidly obese elderly men in gold chains who reek of cigars,
| and street pimps wear them but from what I can gather they
| charge approximately $1,000 for a service and a mechanical
| watch needs servicing every 5-10 years depending on how
| complicated it is and how often it is worn.
|
| So that's like a $100-200/yr. annual subscription to wear an
| already expensive watch.
| neogodless wrote:
| Assuming I take your anecdote at face value, I'm quite
| impressed at how well you keep tabs on all of the Rolex
| owners you've met, identified their occupations as well as
| illegal or immoral activities.
|
| I've seen people wearing watches, but hell I have hard time
| identifying the brand of watch, let alone where the person
| wearing it works.
| kulahan wrote:
| It's pretty easy to spot a Rolex once you know a little
| bit about them. Get a closer look and it's even easy to
| spot fakes.
|
| However, I agree with the first part of your comment in a
| way, but it's really not _that_ hard to get a rough
| estimate of someone based on how they _choose_ to present
| themselves. They didn 't exactly get forced into that
| look.
| neogodless wrote:
| That's a valid argument, that some stereotypical
| appearances are _relatively consistently accurate_.
|
| Though I'm wondering what, exactly, defines the
| appearance of a specific lawyer who pushes for accident
| victims to sue, or businessmen that participate in wage
| theft. How do you tell them apart from... other lawyers
| or random people wearing suits?
| no_wizard wrote:
| I'll say this though, when it comes to corpo execs, at
| least in the USA, if they think they can get away with
| some illegal and/or unethical activity and they believe
| that it won't impact any potential profits (either
| greater than the punishment or benefits to themselves,
| because we rarely if ever jail executives in this country
| or hold them accountable without immense public
| scrutiny), they'll do that thing 9.9 out of 10 times.
|
| Wage theft is rampant here, especially for lower wage
| workers. The government simply doesn't exist in a
| capacity to actually prevent these things, and people in
| general are too apathetic to other peoples well being,
| let alone engaging in appropriate political discourse,
| that the needle rarely moves forward for your average
| citizen.
| kulahan wrote:
| I don't think you can. I agree mostly on that point, I
| just think it's worthwhile to recognize that stereotypes
| aren't just completely random, is all.
| kridsdale1 wrote:
| I taught myself how to service Swiss watches this month.
| It's a very difficult skill (I failed).
|
| The people who did the training and have the surgical
| ability to fix a Rolex deserve $1000.
|
| An elaborate precision machine that is 35mm across and
| hand-built over a year (so they say), it makes sense that
| "cheap" Swiss watches are $9000. Rolex retails for 2-4x of
| that due to brand cachet and artificial scarcity, even
| though they are by far the highest volume manufacturer.
| mohsen1 wrote:
| 2nm chips are more impressive if we're talking about
| precision. And I have one in my pocket for less than the
| repair cost of a Rolex.
| kulahan wrote:
| The nm of chips doesn't mean anything anymore, and it's
| really not more impressive anyways - that's built by a
| machine, which is the epitome of precision. A hand-built
| 2nm chip might be more impressive, but also impossible
| anyways.
| caycep wrote:
| try replacing an individual resistor if it fails...
| VirusNewbie wrote:
| You can get a really nice Omega/Breitling/Tag for much
| less than 9k, no? Rolex just seems to be the luxury watch
| among high end watches.
| caycep wrote:
| It's beyond what is the watch. Rolex is good, but omega
| speedy starts (started before inflation/tariffs?) at $5k.
| And is certified for Space(tm)! Some good smaller brands
| (nomos) at around $2k.
|
| Watch market above that starts getting weird. You have
| some special models, technically equivalent w/ cosmetic
| bling hitting $80-100k
| wiether wrote:
| > ambulance chasers
|
| TIL
| caycep wrote:
| I looked into this, for a Speedy, Omega charges $900. What
| a steal!
| wdb wrote:
| Sadly, $1,000 is not even that much. Last time I serviced
| my Zeitwerk they charged nearly $6,000 for it.
| davedx wrote:
| Does Ferrari turn a profit on the F1? I support them and it's
| been a while since they've had any big wins?
| caycep wrote:
| Sadly, on my last trip over there, the average Italian
| Ferrari fan has been suffering akin to a Detroit Lions fan
| deadbabe wrote:
| If you cared that much though why not simply get a job selling
| Bugattis?
| fragmede wrote:
| They're not hiring. Unless you're the Bugatti dealership's
| son, or sleeping with him, you're not getting the job.
| kulahan wrote:
| ...For the same reason anyone can't simply get a job making
| $250,000/yr? It's not like jobs are something you choose -
| you request it.
| wcfrobert wrote:
| > he already wanted to buy it before he even stepped in. So not
| only is your job easier than the guy in the Honda dealership,
| it's also much better paid.
|
| Luxury brands spend millions on marketing and brand awareness.
| In some sense, all the "sales work" have already been done
| before a person sets foot into a Bugatti dealership. Reputation
| takes decades to build but just a few missteps to destroy.
| Brand is way more fragile than people think. As soon as Bugatti
| stops making great cars, they'll fall into a place where they
| can't compete in the luxury market, nor the mass market
| Japanese car brands like Honda or Toyota.
|
| In that sense, luxury fashion seems to be a easier market than
| watches or cars. You don't need an innovative engineering team.
| Just spend millions on marketing to uphold the common narrative
| you are a luxury brand. And that shirts with your logo on it
| costing 10x more than a similar product at say H&M, is not only
| justifiable, but sensible.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> Luxury brands spend millions on marketing and brand
| awareness. _
|
| When was the last time you saw an ad to buy a Bugatti Chiron?
| eschneider wrote:
| It's not a good/bad business so much as a _different kind_ of
| business, with different engineering/sales requirements and
| different customers.
|
| Neither is better, or more profitable over the long term than
| the other, but you really need to know which game you're
| playing.
| potatolicious wrote:
| > _" However, if you work at a Bugatti dealership, you don't
| need to convince the oil-rich Sheikh why he should buy the 2
| million dollar car, he already wanted to buy it before he even
| stepped in."_
|
| Respectfully disagreed. The sales people for veblen goods work
| _extremely_ hard because competition is intense even within
| that space. The Bugatti salesman is competing with Ferrari,
| McLaren, Lamborghini, etc.
|
| The margins per-sale are _great_ , but because of your low
| volumes you experience a _lot_ more volatility. Minor
| fluctuations in sales have disproportionate impact on your
| bottom line.
|
| I once worked for a luxury real estate brokerage and had
| opportunity to talk to real estate brokers who dealt in ultra-
| high-end real estate (the kind of properties that people make
| YouTube videos about). One conversation stood out to me that's
| relevant here:
|
| I asked him about a listing for a Manhattan penthouse that had
| been making the news (mid-8-figure buy-in), and his response
| was that it was an incredibly risky property to represent,
| because the list of potential buyers is perhaps a dozen people
| long. If none of them move on the deal then you're holding an
| absolutely immense albatross.
|
| Ultra-high-end goods are generally susceptible to this. Your
| market is small enough that it doesn't take a lot to
| existentially threaten you, and there is no shortage of people
| who want to eat your lunch (just like with any other market).
| no_wizard wrote:
| >I once worked for a luxury real estate brokerage and had
| opportunity to talk to real estate brokers who dealt in
| ultra-high-end real estate (the kind of properties that
| people make YouTube videos about). One conversation stood out
| to me that's relevant here
|
| Do you happen to have more sharable anecdotes / thoughts
| around this? I realize its off topic, however I think it
| still has value to warrant that.
|
| I'd be interested in anything you can share about it. I'm
| curious how the 'day to day' folks see things vs how its sold
| and told to the rest of us via news magazines or books.
| potatolicious wrote:
| It's a super interesting scene, and was a great eye-opener
| into how the mega-wealthy side of the world goes. A few
| things that pop into my brain in no particular order:
|
| - At the high end, everyone's got a gimmick. You can't just
| be personable and charming, you have to be so memorable as
| to feel like some fictional character. Your clientele are
| expecting more than mere representation, but
| something/someone who makes their life actively more
| interesting.
|
| - Part of this may have been the market (NYC), but I got
| the distinct feeling that a lot of this was that buyers
| wanted a NYC fairy tale. If you're wealthy enough, it's not
| enough to have an agent, your agent has to spring forth and
| become a side character in the adventure story of their
| life.
|
| - There's a lot of spilled ink about the mega-wealthy
| buyers (Middle Eastern oil barons, Russian oligarchs,
| Chinese billionaires, etc.) but they are a vanishingly
| small portion of the population of very wealthy people. In
| general I think most people have a poor appreciation of how
| little of the ultra-high-end consists of foreigners and
| high-profile business people that they've heard of.
|
| - Related, there are _way_ more wealthy Americans than most
| people appreciate, and the sources of their wealth are way
| more mundane than most people suspect. There are more
| 8-figure luxury condos being sold to families that own car
| dealerships and trucking companies than tech wunderkinds or
| petro-oligarchs. By multiple orders of magnitude.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> Respectfully disagreed. The sales people for veblen goods
| work extremely hard because competition is intense even
| within that space. The Bugatti salesman is competing with
| Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini, etc._
|
| Respectfully disagree. Which oil-rich Sheikh did you see who
| only has one supercar in their garage and not all of those
| you listed? These people aren't stock brokers or tech bros
| who need to work and save money for for years in order to be
| able to finally afford one dream car, but they own a multi
| generational empire that makes them enough money to afford
| all those cars.
|
| _> If none of them move on the deal then you're holding an
| absolutely immense albatross._
|
| Comparing real estate to exotic cars is apples to buffalos.
| Most exotics are already sold before they leave the factory
| floor.
| potatolicious wrote:
| > _" Respectfully disagree. Which oil-rich Sheikh did you
| see who only has one supercar in their garage and not all
| of those you listed?"_
|
| Except this isn't the main market for Ferrari, McLaren,
| Lambo, et al. There are maybe a few dozen people on this
| planet who fit into that kind of stratospheric wealth.
|
| The bulk of their sales are to the "merely multi-
| millionaire" rich - your business executive, late-career
| law partner, guy who owns a chain of dental practices, etc.
| These are people who are not exactly scrimping and saving
| for their Ferrari, but certainly don't have the infinite
| money cheat code.
|
| If you think Ferrari's sales ledger is consisted mainly of
| oil barons and other billionaires, I dunno what to tell
| you.
| buescher wrote:
| Replace cars with motorcycles,and luxury with t-shirts, and you
| have Harley-Davidson.
| thefourthchime wrote:
| No, you can go buy any Harley you want. You can't just buy
| any Ferrari or Rolex, you have to be invited, usually by
| buying lower level stuff they want to get rid of.
| kulahan wrote:
| Porsche (and I assume others) does this as well. You need
| something like $1.5M in Porsche inventory before they'll
| invite you to purchase a GT3 RS.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| I guess they probably don't want the dirty uneducated
| "new money" crypto bros, TikTok influencers and OnlyFans
| hoes spoiling their brand image, they want the well
| connected Epstein Island elites who come from royalty and
| old money.
| kridsdale1 wrote:
| TFA explains the true driving force behind Enshittification.
|
| It takes a very strong will to say no to growth and investment,
| because you know it will make what you do change from excellence
| in to shit. Sometimes your customer base morphs (see Facebook)
| and you survive. Sometimes your only market was the high end
| discerning customer, and now that you're shit, you're dead.
| bombcar wrote:
| One possible solution to enshitting is to basically franchise.
|
| If the market can support 5 of your nice business, instead of
| growing 5x (which often enshits) spawn four independent copies.
| Wojtkie wrote:
| How would you franchise out a product like software? I
| haven't really thought about that before.
| theyinwhy wrote:
| White label solution
| pantalaimon wrote:
| But when you look at restaurants that turn their business
| into a franchise, quality usually takes a turn for the worse
| ToucanLoucan wrote:
| I don't think it's so much that investment does that as leaving
| your competencies. I've been working at a private firm for
| years now. The culture is excellent and we use the products we
| make. We also don't make our product do every last thing it
| could possibly do, nor do we support every last thing our
| product in theory could: we focus on what our customers want
| and buy now. You can't use what we make for everything, but
| what you can use it for, we lead our industry in.
|
| We've grown tremendously but we're still sub-200 in head count
| and want it to stay that way. We're rolling in profits because
| we keep our operation lean and responsive.
|
| It seems to me the enshittification happens when you try and
| offer a service to the entire world and can't manage to succeed
| at that unless everyone and their mother uses it, which itself
| requires shit tons of employees and IT resources and
| datacenters, and if it doesn't work out, it all goes in the
| bin.
| trynumber9 wrote:
| >why don't more companies follow Ferrari's lead
|
| Ford did try before. For example, the 2006 Ford GT. In
| comparison, the similarly-priced Ferrari F430 of the era was the
| mass market automobile with about 5x as many made.
|
| So I wonder how much one should draw from these rationalizations
| of prestige marketing. At the end of the day Ferrari still uses
| its larger super-car production capacity to keep even Ford only
| an occasional entrant into the low-end of market.
| ben7799 wrote:
| That still doesn't prove anything. The market demand for the
| Ford GT could have been 1/2 what Ford produced but the market
| demand for the F430 was double what Ferrari actually produced.
|
| I am not saying that is actually the case, but production #s
| just don't really tell the whole story.
|
| Ford only dabbles in these kinds of cars, they have different
| reasons for picking the # of units they build. They are a lot
| like Honda, they are not dedicated to this and they instead
| just build a small # of sports cars every once in a while to
| try and improve their reputation.
|
| The article glosses over the core founding purpose of each
| company too. Ford was founded to build massive #s of assembly
| line built cars at a price the average worker could afford.
| Ferrari very reluctantly built street cars to fund racing and
| decided the sport/luxury cars were the best way to make the
| maximum money with the smallest # of street cars. Less street
| cars meant less distraction from building the racing cars.
| trynumber9 wrote:
| I'm not saying it proves anything but Ferrari is one of the
| higher volume manufacturers within super cars This applies
| even compared to many of their competitors we think of as
| mass market car producers (such as Ford, Toyota, Honda) when
| they make cars that compete with Ferrari.
|
| As you say that's almost entirely due to demand. But the
| focus should be on how does Ferrari consistently keep such a
| large portion of the high end car market? Because that's the
| key to their success. Many companies can make cars that they
| can sell out in small volumes at Ferrari prices. But they
| don't see it scaling, while Ferrari does.
| neogodless wrote:
| Building a halo product that attempts to compete in a luxury
| niche is _very different_ from running your (whole) business
| like a luxury niche leader.
|
| We see similar cases with the highest end Chevrolet Corvette.
| If you look only at statistics and performance numbers, they
| are arguably competitive, but cheaper. But GM intends to sell
| as many Corvettes as they can. They do not particularly
| restrict them in quantity or with a particularly inflated price
| that represents their role as a status signal or unobtainable
| luxury piece.
| trynumber9 wrote:
| That's why I choose two cars that are at effectively in the
| same target market at around the same price from the same
| time period, from Ford and Ferrari.
| neogodless wrote:
| That's fine, but maybe missing my point.
|
| You're choosing _cars_ (single products) but claiming that
| _businesses_ are operating in a similar manner. _All_
| Ferrari cars are part of how Ferrari operates, while the GT
| was an _exception_ to how Ford operates.
| trynumber9 wrote:
| And I don't dispute that. Simply that Ferrari is the Ford
| of super cars, building in large quantity for that
| market.
|
| And I _really_ doubt the applicability of the luxury
| approach to software. People will vastly overpay to have
| a 5% faster automobile because it 's a personally-owned
| status symbol and has racing-pedigree. I don't recommend
| building a company around a new 5% faster database since
| it isn't a source of prestige for anyone. For many
| potential customers it'd barely put a mark in their
| bottom line. And it might be negative if it compromised
| in any other aspect to obtain it. Benchmarking isn't a
| reliable winner-take-all marketing approach like racing-
| based marketing (and it sure isn't as popular).
| beau_g wrote:
| Making a high performance, expensive, rare car is a small part
| of the recipe. Most Ferrari owners own more than one Ferrari
| (65% according to Ferrari of North America study from a decade
| ago or so, not sure if there's an updated number). A
| significant number of owners own more than 2. Ferrari famously
| has dealer prioritization and waitlists that reward you for
| buying more cars, just like Rolex which another poster
| mentioned below. When I was servicing these cars around 2015,
| many customers would buy FFs and Californias that they didn't
| necessarily want just to have the option to buy something like
| a first year 458 Spider, not even one of the particularly rare
| offerings. If someone got something truly low production like a
| LaFerrari or F12 TDF, chances are that customer had already
| bought 10+ cars from the dealer and immediately trades in many
| of their cars at a multi hundred thousand dollar loss to them
| as soon as they are able to get out of a "regular" model into a
| special edition. Ferrari drives/meets also serve as social
| clubs/networking which certainly does provide some positive
| value for many owners of these vehicles. Very few customers I
| ever met really cared about outright performance/$ and would
| have been cross shopping a Ford GT with a 430.
| caycep wrote:
| Also they are very specific owners. There's one guy here in
| LA, specifically the San Gabriel Valley neighborhood who
| realized there were a ton of visitors from mainland China
| flush with cash who were either coming as tourists or buying
| property, i.e. the "fuerdai" phenomenon. Cue a few
| strategically placed watch/jewelry and lambo/ferrari
| dealerships later, and I think he's one of the top sellers of
| their cars in North America...
| kulahan wrote:
| Man, what I wouldn't give for one of those Ford GTs though.
| Really cool car imo. The fact that it comes from Ford kinda
| makes it more exciting to me. Like yeah, a Ferrari is a
| Ferrari, but wtf is a Ford doing here?? And why does it fit in
| so well??
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Yes, although "larger" here might not be understood by many
| people. The 360, which was said to be a "larger" production car
| (by Ferrari standards), only approximately 17,000 of those were
| ever made.
| DrNosferatu wrote:
| My understanding was that Ferrari was in the business of selling
| a very specific badge, a very specific engine purr, a very
| specific shade of red and a certain relative level of dynamic
| performance - the absolute value of this last one changes with
| time. All this on 4 wheels.
|
| Are you telling me that selling branding rights to Acer laptops
| and to cheap cologne is (an important) part of their core
| business?
| FinnKuhn wrote:
| I wouldn't call about 10% of their net revenue nothing, but
| also not a core part of their business. I think it goes more
| towards promoting the brand and image.
|
| https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/corporate/articles/2024-full-y...
| game_the0ry wrote:
| Enzo is literally projectile vomiting in his grave right now.
|
| This is not the Ferrari he created. This is the corpo-monster
| called "brand". Yuck.
| ecocentrik wrote:
| As for stock price, it's not reflective of their core strategy,
| it's reflective of an explosion in demand that is apparently
| starting to soften.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
| WalterBright wrote:
| Car companies fund racing to sell consumer cars.
|
| Ferrari sells consumer cars to fund racing.
| OtherShrezzing wrote:
| Ferrari spends $140mn on F1 and brings home $90-100mn in prize
| money, plus another PS150-200mn in sponsorship.
|
| Ferrari is a very rare thing in modern motorsport. A team that
| races to fund racing.
| caycep wrote:
| the problem with rarified air is that only Ferrari can race
| Ferraris. Given the low volume, high prices, and resultant
| engineering issues (cough cough overheating) that wouldn't
| exist in cars more on the mass market, requiring teams of
| engineers to support.
|
| The average car enthusiast for track days will be seen
| running Mustangs, Corvette/Camaros, BMW M2/4s, Toyota GR
| 86s/Supras/Corollas, Honda S2000s, Nissan Z's, etc. But
| Ferrari is essentially irrelevant.
|
| Sadly, I think Porsche is going that way; before, one could
| also run with the above gaggle with a decent 911 or Cayman.
| Now that the entry level is climbing well above the $100k
| mark new, and what was supposed to be their track car (GT3)
| is approaching Ferrari prices, they are becoming less and
| less relevant. And they might not even survive the China
| situation...
| WalterBright wrote:
| A couple years before Enzo died, there was a TV tire commercial
| which asked "Why do Ferraris come with Firestone tires? Because
| Mr. Ferrari wants it that way." and then showed a picture of Enzo
| smiling.
|
| (I don't recall if it was Firestone or Goodyear.)
| GoofGarage wrote:
| It was Goodyear, specifically the Eagle VR50. The advertisement
| featured a Ferrari 308 GTB.
|
| Ferrari had only adopted radial tires in racing a decade
| earlier. I'm curious as to what deal they got with Goodyear at
| the time, as radial tires _(including high performance
| versions)_ were already long ubiquitous in the United States by
| the time that commercial came out, which I believe was actually
| after the end of the 308 's production run.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Thanks for the correction! I tried googling it, and got
| nowhere.
| bix6 wrote:
| My neighbor is a huge car guy and owns everything but Ferraris
| because "they make you buy all the shitty Ferraris before they'll
| let you buy the good ones" :p
| caycep wrote:
| granted, even the good ones have issues...Gordon Murray had
| choice words for the welding quality on the F40s...
| bmelton wrote:
| Is Jay Leno your neighbor?
|
| I suppose the fact that the #1 car guy in America won't buy
| Ferrari amplifies the signal that Ferrari isn't actually a car
| company
|
| That they also won't let you modify your cars to your liking
| (see Deadmau5's fights with Ferrari) is another
| fredophile wrote:
| My understanding is that that's pretty common in that part of
| the car market. I know you can't get the really high end
| McLarens unless you've bought one of the cheaper ones already.
| caseyohara wrote:
| Also common in certain parts of the watch and jewelry
| markets.
|
| If you go to the Rolex subreddit, it's full of people getting
| waitlisted for watches they want to buy and excitedly posting
| when they finally "get the call" from the dealer -- sometimes
| years later -- that they are now allowed to buy the watch.
| It's a common "strategy" to buy lesser watches to ingratiate
| oneself with the precious Authorized Dealer(tm) demigod so
| that one day you might be able to buy the watch you actually
| want.
|
| Go search /r/rolex for the phrase "got the call" and prepare
| to cringe.
| wdb wrote:
| It's easier to buy a Rolex at the airport than at a AD
| these days lol.
| rubyn00bie wrote:
| This is the exact same thing that's happening for folks
| trying to buy a Porsche 911 GT3, GT3 RS, or S/T. Unless you
| buy multiple cars you don't want, you'll never get an
| allocation from Porsche. The end result is that most folks
| have to spend $100k-$300k over MSRP to buy one from someone
| who did get an allocation. The craziest part is it's
| probably still cheaper to pay that insane markup than it is
| to buy the cars to get an allocation.
| miohtama wrote:
| This is true.
|
| One of rich folks here I know automatically orders the latest
| Ferrari, gets it in some months or years, then sells it after
| driving one month.
|
| Even for some profit. Because he is one of rare people who is
| "on the list."
|
| Then orders the next one.
|
| Ferraris are a bit like NFTs for boomer investment bankers.
| toyg wrote:
| One should remember that Ferrari was effectively on the verge of
| bankruptcy for most of Enzo's tenure as leader. Eventually he was
| forced to sell to FIAT, and spent his last few years pretending
| that he was free to make the choices that FIAT's owner Agnelli
| wanted him to make. Ferrari eventually turned a corner once Enzo
| died.
|
| Enzo Ferrari always wanted to make a better Alfa Romeo, and he
| did. Branding was a side effect that other people exploited
| later.
| pedalpete wrote:
| I'm currently listinging to Founders Podcast - The Obsession of
| Enzo Ferrari[1]
|
| Though some of the points may be correct under current
| management, I think this quote would have Enzo turning in his
| grave "We are not - we are not - a car company. We are a luxury
| company that is also doing cars."
|
| This playbook where you put your brand on a bunch of random
| things to sell, while the prime focus gets watered down only
| works for a short period of time.
|
| Aston tried the same thing, going so far as putting their badge
| on child strollers.
|
| The car industry is going through such upheaval that much of this
| may not matter in the next 20 years, but I fear they are going to
| destroy a great brand through a lack of focus.
|
| [1]https://open.spotify.com/episode/2O6toYAw3RjjTQ4SEzKIru?si=1..
| .
| sib wrote:
| I mean, by the numbers in the article, Toyota has produced about
| $100B of net profit over the 5-year period, while Ferrari has
| produced $6B.
|
| I guess I'd rather own Toyota.
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