New AM
#1
08-29-2008, 07:53 AM
New AM
Aston Martin Markets
Coupe as Scarce Resource
New Line Will Boast
Only 77 Vehicles;
Yours for $1.8 Million
By EDWARD TAYLOR
August 29, 2008; Page B8
Ads for the new $1.8 million Aston Martin coupe intentionally say nothing about the car's top speed or horsepower. Instead, they play up a different fact: only 77 of the cars will be built.
The British sports-car maker's marketing pitch is a sign of how being fast and powerful is no longer enough for high-end cars -- scarcity and sticker price (the higher the better) are now what provides the car makers with bragging rights.
Aston Martin Aston Martin's sales pitch for its new coupe plays down performance and focuses on ultra-exclusiveness, as the company plans to make only 77 of the vehicles.
Upper-end auto makers have struggled to find a fresh sales pitch since the launch of the Bugatti Veyron in 2005, which set new benchmarks for both power (1,001 horsepower) and speed (faster than 250 miles an hour). Since then, environmental consciousness and a rise in oil prices have blunted the appeal of those attributes.
"Continuing an arms race among car companies to increase speed feels a bit trite," says Luke Mansfield, head of innovation at Landor Associates, a London branding and design agency.
Aston, famous for its association with the James Bond films, has been coy about the particulars of its new car -- it hasn't even named the vehicle yet. It also has yet to reveal the car's acceleration and top speed. Aston says only that the new coupe won't be faster than the Veyron. (Bugatti last week announced that it will launch a limited edition of 150 convertible versions of the Veyron.)
Aston's one-page print ads show a dimly lit silhouette of a car, drawing viewers' eyes to the Aston Martin logo instead. The only performance details available are that the car will be made from carbon fiber and aluminum -- most of Aston's previous cars have been made from steel and aluminum -- and it will have a seven-liter V12 engine. The ads direct readers to a Web site, www.one-77.com. The print campaign will run in 16 publications across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the U.S.
Aston Martin's decision to use scarcity as a main selling point for the car may be partly out of necessity. Smaller companies such as Aston, which makes only 7,000 cars a year, don't have the same resources as Bugatti's parent company, Volkswagen AG, which pumps out 6.2 million cars annually. And building faster cars is expensive: It requires getting approval from the highway authorities in various countries, which in turn requires extensive emissions and crash testing, among other things.
While Aston says it doesn't consider the Veyron a competitor, it does appear eager to play in the same league when it comes to price. The standard-version Veyron has a sticker price of €1.1 million versus £1 million ($1.6 million versus $1.8 million) for the new Aston Martin. Aston's production run of 77 is a fraction of Bugatti's planned run of 300 for standard Veyron vehicles.
That is a radically new price point for Aston Martin, whose most expensive car until now has been the DBS, which costs £160,000. Some analysts question how Aston, if it makes only 77 of the coupes, will be able to generate enough revenue to fund the cost of developing what is essentially an entirely new vehicle. That leads some observers to believe the company may be planning to build more carbon-fiber and aluminum cars down the line. Aston declined to comment on its plans.
Aston, which Ford Motor Co. sold last year to an investor group led by a motor-racing entrepreneur who is backed by a Kuwaiti holding company, said it still hasn't made a final decision on when it will begin production on the new cars, though it could start as early as 2009. The print campaign is a "way of finding out about Aston's potential in this end of the market," the company says.
While Aston Martin is actively pushing extreme exclusivity, rival auto makers haven't bothered to do the same. Italy's Lamborghini, a unit of Germany's Volkswagen, in 2007 launched a limited edition of 20 Reventon vehicles with a design inspired by the stealth fighter. It avoided ads and instead invited a select group of existing clients to put down €1 million for the car, which mechanically is almost identical to the Murcielago LP640, a much cheaper vehicle that starts at about €260,000.
Italy's Pagani Automobili SpA used a similar approach with its "Cinque," a limited edition of five sports cars tailored for the Asian market and costing €1 million each. Ferrari's FXX sports car, which is limited to 20 vehicles costing €1.5 million each, also was offered to existing customers without an ad campaign.
Coupe as Scarce Resource
New Line Will Boast
Only 77 Vehicles;
Yours for $1.8 Million
By EDWARD TAYLOR
August 29, 2008; Page B8
Ads for the new $1.8 million Aston Martin coupe intentionally say nothing about the car's top speed or horsepower. Instead, they play up a different fact: only 77 of the cars will be built.
The British sports-car maker's marketing pitch is a sign of how being fast and powerful is no longer enough for high-end cars -- scarcity and sticker price (the higher the better) are now what provides the car makers with bragging rights.
Aston Martin Aston Martin's sales pitch for its new coupe plays down performance and focuses on ultra-exclusiveness, as the company plans to make only 77 of the vehicles.Upper-end auto makers have struggled to find a fresh sales pitch since the launch of the Bugatti Veyron in 2005, which set new benchmarks for both power (1,001 horsepower) and speed (faster than 250 miles an hour). Since then, environmental consciousness and a rise in oil prices have blunted the appeal of those attributes.
"Continuing an arms race among car companies to increase speed feels a bit trite," says Luke Mansfield, head of innovation at Landor Associates, a London branding and design agency.
Aston, famous for its association with the James Bond films, has been coy about the particulars of its new car -- it hasn't even named the vehicle yet. It also has yet to reveal the car's acceleration and top speed. Aston says only that the new coupe won't be faster than the Veyron. (Bugatti last week announced that it will launch a limited edition of 150 convertible versions of the Veyron.)
Aston's one-page print ads show a dimly lit silhouette of a car, drawing viewers' eyes to the Aston Martin logo instead. The only performance details available are that the car will be made from carbon fiber and aluminum -- most of Aston's previous cars have been made from steel and aluminum -- and it will have a seven-liter V12 engine. The ads direct readers to a Web site, www.one-77.com. The print campaign will run in 16 publications across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the U.S.
Aston Martin's decision to use scarcity as a main selling point for the car may be partly out of necessity. Smaller companies such as Aston, which makes only 7,000 cars a year, don't have the same resources as Bugatti's parent company, Volkswagen AG, which pumps out 6.2 million cars annually. And building faster cars is expensive: It requires getting approval from the highway authorities in various countries, which in turn requires extensive emissions and crash testing, among other things.
While Aston says it doesn't consider the Veyron a competitor, it does appear eager to play in the same league when it comes to price. The standard-version Veyron has a sticker price of €1.1 million versus £1 million ($1.6 million versus $1.8 million) for the new Aston Martin. Aston's production run of 77 is a fraction of Bugatti's planned run of 300 for standard Veyron vehicles.
That is a radically new price point for Aston Martin, whose most expensive car until now has been the DBS, which costs £160,000. Some analysts question how Aston, if it makes only 77 of the coupes, will be able to generate enough revenue to fund the cost of developing what is essentially an entirely new vehicle. That leads some observers to believe the company may be planning to build more carbon-fiber and aluminum cars down the line. Aston declined to comment on its plans.
Aston, which Ford Motor Co. sold last year to an investor group led by a motor-racing entrepreneur who is backed by a Kuwaiti holding company, said it still hasn't made a final decision on when it will begin production on the new cars, though it could start as early as 2009. The print campaign is a "way of finding out about Aston's potential in this end of the market," the company says.
While Aston Martin is actively pushing extreme exclusivity, rival auto makers haven't bothered to do the same. Italy's Lamborghini, a unit of Germany's Volkswagen, in 2007 launched a limited edition of 20 Reventon vehicles with a design inspired by the stealth fighter. It avoided ads and instead invited a select group of existing clients to put down €1 million for the car, which mechanically is almost identical to the Murcielago LP640, a much cheaper vehicle that starts at about €260,000.
Italy's Pagani Automobili SpA used a similar approach with its "Cinque," a limited edition of five sports cars tailored for the Asian market and costing €1 million each. Ferrari's FXX sports car, which is limited to 20 vehicles costing €1.5 million each, also was offered to existing customers without an ad campaign.