Porsche’s unknown gears

The Panamera promises to change the perception of Porsche globally. In fact, buzz is that the high performance luxury saloon will take Porsche within striking distance of well established luxury carmakers like Mercedes-BMW-Audi-Maserati. While the 911 is for the adrenalin crazy speedster; the Panamera is positioned as the traditional four-door luxury-on-wheels with high performance to boot. Its launch is expected to expand Porsche’s consumer base and brand appeal by leaps and bounds.

But the ride may not be as smooth for the Panamera in India. Unlike other markets, luxury brand perception in the country is extremely deep rooted. For niche Indian consumers, brands like Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Mercedes Benz and BMW still form the epitome of luxury saloon ownership and sales figures provide some stark realities. As per SIAM data, the super luxury car market in India is roughly close to 5,000 units (April- November 2008-09, two quarters); and more than 80% of the sales come from Mercedes and BMW alone (even in the A6 segment)! But can Panamera enable Porsche to break into established consumer mindsets? There are no easy answers to that, but given that Porsche has actually ‘been there-done that’ with the Cayenne over the last two years of its India journey; it well has the wherewithal to replicate the positioning success again.

Porsche realised early on that if it wants to expand in developing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa, the 911 would definitely not do the trick. Sports cars, which can barely seat two, still attract a niche audience and may not find many takers here. The Cayenne, a product which offers flexible seating arrangements and scintillating performance can double up as a sports car and family sedan on a need basis. In Cayenne, Porsche found a versatile product which could be marketed as a mass (still niche though) product that the market would readily accept. Porsche was right. The market was receptive of Cayenne and Porsche’s brand appeal acted as the catalyst.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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